Category: Uncategorized

Sheffield United		Middlesbrough
Evans	2′, 40′	Ayala ▮ Leadbitter	48′ 25′
Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	66% 11  3  5  5	Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	34%  7  2  1 20

Lee Evans wipes smile off Boro faces

A massive Play Off decider for both clubs a real “do or die encounter. Lose this and the Blades season was effectively as good as over whereas for Boro they still theoretically had Bristol, Derby and Millwall to garner points from. Chris Wilder had Stearman out injured and ex Boro one game wonder loanee Jamal Blackman missing from between the sticks due to suspension. Kieron Freeman and Paul Coutts like Rudy Gestede is a long term absentee for United. Pulis had Besic with a sore hip and Traore who seemed fatigued on Saturday and possibly Bamford who simply looked cream crackered to worry about. Reserve Keepers would normally be seen as a good omen but for Boro these ring rusty stand ins have a tradition of saving their best shot stopping antics for us.

On form Sheffield had gone five unbeaten at Bramall Lane but only won four, drew three and lost three in their last ten home games. Boro had only lost twice in their last ten games overall but incredibly had the exact same last ten away games stats as the Blades home results having won four, drew three and lost three. If omens were anything to go by Boro’s last trip to Bramall Lane ended in a 2-1 victory courtesy of marvellous Marvin and TP’s last trip was a 3-0 win with Stoke. I would have happily settled for either scoreline pre Kick Off.

Despite fitness questions Boro lined up in gloomy rain sodden Sheffield pretty much as expected with an unchanged starting eleven and an unchanged bench, TP clearly likes a settled side. Surprisingly after their defeat at Barnsley over the weekend Chris Wilder also stuck with an unchanged side. In the early exchanges Ayala gave away the first free kick which led to a side footed volley from Lee Evans which smashed Randolph’s net with barely two minutes on the clock after a sliced Leadbitter clearance.

Downing marked the first serious intent from Boro via a good run down the right flank but Sheffield cleared their lines and broke up field again. The early pace was frenetic to say the least. A Shotton throw in aimed at Ayala had Simon Moore in the Sheffield goal struggling showing an opportunistic air of uncertainty in his handling if only we could clear our heads. Boro were struggling to get an early grip on the game and despite being a goal down we were sitting deep just as we finished off on Saturday with Bamford once again running himself into the ground with little to no support. A good move involving Shotton, Traore, Besic and eventually Bamford saw Paddy unleash our first attempt on target on 15 minutes.

Early indications were that Boro’s set up wasn’t causing the sort of problems we had hoped for as Sheffield stroked the ball about looking the classier side and an opportunity for Clarke after a mess up involving Randolph luckily didn’t see us go two down. A Traore cross resulted in Sheffield clearing their lines quickly and Brooks being man handled and brought down for the obligatory “taking one for the team” from Grant. His second yellow of the night was for a late tackle which was inevitable considering the reckless nature of the first yellow. Unprofessional frustration from the Captain made a very difficult challenge now an almost insurmountable one and with not even thirty minutes ticked over. Just when the side needed organisation and leadership Grant lost his cool letting himself and his team mates down.

Moments later Brooks was unlucky again and Boro were rescued by Randolph’s leg sparing further blushes. The Blades were running Boro ragged and Ayala escaped the attentions of the Referee with the home fans baying for blood with Brooks laid prostrate. During the lull Gibson and Pulis reorganised the white shirted rabble that had started the night with so much hope as we once again had to play with ten men. It appeared that Downing was brought over to the left and Traore went up front with Paddy. Just a shame that TP went with two up front when it was obvious after ten minutes that one up top had handed the initiative to Chris Wilders side. Adama was brought down by Fleck taking a yellow for his troubles as Boro looked to get something back before half time. A corner for the home side was delayed by Leon Clarke who seemingly took a blow off the ball but it was worth it as the eventual short corner was played to the edge of the box to that man Lee Evans again who fired another peach of a volley past the despairing Randolph.

Boro were now well and truly rattled and Ayala was next to go into the Refs book as the Blades were cutting and carving Boro apart who in truth looked deflated and dejected. Chris Wilder went with three at the back who were more than capable of dealing with the isolated Bamford and the extra man meant that our midfield were chasing shadows which resulted in Grant’s dismissal. With only a few minutes to the half time whistle Ben went down injured which was a cause of some concern. A well timed Friend tackle upon the restart prevented United going three up. As we cleared our lines again Traore gave away a silly free kick thirty yards out which fortunately Ayala got a head to but the wave of red and white striped shirts just kept coming back at Boro. To add insult to continued injury Adama had collected a yellow for his misdemeanour. A Chris Basham cross then went behind Randolph’s goal as another attack was quashed as Boro looked longingly for the half time whistle. When a Centre Back is putting crosses in from the wing that just summed up the state of Boro’s first half.

As performances go this was as bad as they got, right up there with Burton away. Tactically from the off it wasn’t working and things just went from bad to worse from going behind so early to Grant’s lack of composure (or pace) and all of it culminating in the inevitable Evans second goal. Sitting deep in the second half against Forest may have protected a lead but the psychology had lingered far longer than Tony Pulis had intended.

Three radical changes at half time saw Clayts on for Besic, Assombalonga on for Bamford and Fabio for Adama who whilst not as poor as Saturday was poor by his own standards. Pulis now went with three at the back with Fabio and George operating as wing backs and Britt up front on his own. Fabio was showing energy, Clayts was getting stuck in. Britt won an early free kick four minutes in which Downing floated over knocked on by Ben and the goal machine that is Dani Ayala put it under Moore to pull one back. What a difference a half time team talk made as the three substitutes totally refreshed things and sparked life and energy into a desolate, tired and empty side. A few minutes later Jonny Howson weaved his way through the Blades defence unleashing a shot that had Moore scrambling across his goal.

As bad as the first half was the opening ten minutes of the second half were totally unrecognisable. A blocked corner led to Boro breaking out via Ben but Assombalonga couldn’t take advantage as Boro now looked to have a spring in their step and for the first time you had the feeling that Boro had finally turned up. Referee Darren Bond hadn’t won any hearts from the travelling army as George looked to be penalised unfairly and then a Fabio foul throw highlighted the pedantic nature of the man in the middle along with his propensity for card flashing.

Since his arrival Fabio was like a breath of fresh air adding zest and a buzz that had been seriously lacking. The positivity he exuded was infectious and had spread through the rest of his team mates. The game gradually settled a little bit with Boro now a little less effervescent and Sheffield clearing their heads. Darren Bond was still having a nightmare and now penalised Britt this time as he was seemingly fouled much to the chagrin of the Boro bench. Despite Bond’s best attempts to destabilise Boro there was renewed fight in them, Clayts lost possession but raced back and cleared up the danger he himself had created as a never say die spirit replaced a “meh” first half from Boro.

Clayts picked up another ball in midfield feeding Assombalonga who hit a thirty yarder well wide but while the accuracy may not have been great the positivity and intent was a welcome relief from the tedium of the first half. Clayton was really influencing things and instrumental in breaking up United attacks and setting up counter attacks. Assombalonga was lively, causing some edgy moments for the Sheffield defence. Lee Evans then ridiculously threw himself to the ground with Fabio nowhere to be seen but the comical Referee Bond incredibly booked the Brazilian presumably because he didn’t get close enough to Evans to anticipate his dive. Having one comedian on the pitch in Lee Evans was bad enough but Darren Bond had upstaged everyone with a performance that truly was mesmerising.

In the first half United pressed and chased everything never allowing Boro to settle but in the second half Boro had reversed the trend with only ten men. Fabio was like a man possessed, chasing everything and anything, a Jack Russell personified in a Boro shirt. With a quarter of an hour remaining the Blades were trying to take the sting out of the game such was Boro’s intensity. Meanwhile Darren Bond was seemingly just itching to hand out another yellow with Fabio and George looking the likely suspects.

Shotton won the ball, broke away and set up Assombalonga or so we thought but the ball was poor, seconds later Howson let fly with another howitzer as we pushed desperately for a deserved equaliser, “deserved” only for the second half performance I must add. With five minutes remaining Brooks was taken off and Donaldson came on for the lively twenty year old who had caused serious damage all night. As sure as night follows day George Friend collected the yellow that was inevitably coming his way. Meanwhile Clayton was still chasing, tackling and closing all over the pitch. A late chance fell to Evans again who should have had his hat trick but somehow fluffed his lines as the fourth official held up four minutes.

A free kick from Downing was over hit but Ayala was adjudged to have fouled in any case allowing Moore to dawdle over taking the resultant kick. A late scrambled clearance went out for a Boro throw in and from then a free for all ensued as Boro desperately threw everything at Moore’s goal but the Blades held firm.

An analysis of the night revealed serious flaws. The first half picked up where Saturday had left off and with it we started on the back foot looking leggy and lethargic. The three injury suspects Besic, Traore and Bamford all went off at half time which raises suspicions about their actual match fitness. Tactically in the first half we were set up wrong and it looked wrong all through the 45 minutes, our midfield was over run and Grant couldn’t keep his head not for the first time with all the intensity going on around him. MOM for me was certainly nobody for the first half but second half take your pick from Fabio or Clayts.

MOM isn’t important, what is was how and why we started a match yet again so badly and our Captain getting sent off when we needed a leader most. Not good enough from TP I’m afraid, not good enough from several players and certainly not good enough from Grant. The Play Offs are still a possibility but beating Bristol and Millwall are now an absolute necessity but I’m not convinced that TP will set us up to win a game. Four Cup Finals left and winning is all that matters now, sitting back and sitting deep won’t cut it. There have been too many unacceptable performances of late both on and off the pitch, Wolves against nine men, Burton all 90 minutes, Forest second 45 and tonight’s first 45. Is it the Manager, the Coaches or the Players at fault?

Boro aiming to make play-off cut
as they try to bury Blades hopes

Boro will need to be on guard this Tuesday evening as they head to Bramall Lane to take on The Blades, who are no doubt still hoping to make the cut in the battle for the play-offs. However, the prospect of back-to-back promotions for Chris Wilder’s team are looking tame with their chances of making the top six now on a knife-edge after just one win in their last six games. The cut and thrust of the Championship is more a season of endurance where teams hope to finally lunge over the winning line rather than attempt to finesse promotion with the cloak and dagger tactics akin to those found in the Premier League.

After looking less than sharp in their previous two outings, Boro finally found their cutting edge in the opening half against a rather blunt Forest side lead by former manager Aitor Karanka, who was making his return to the Riverside since being encouraged to fall on his sword by chairman Steve Gibson just over a year ago after previously backing him to the hilt. The three welcome points gained by chopping down the tricky trees at the weekend have helped Tony Pulis’s team maintain their razor-thin advantage over chasing pack but they’re not out of the woods yet and Boro will need to avoid losing their way in the coming weeks if they don’t want their ambitions foiled.

The good news is that Sheffield United are one of the two top-half teams that Boro have beaten this season, when Garry Monk’s team claimed their first victory of the season with a 1-0 win at the Riverside. Beating teams in the top half of the table is something Boro will need to make a habit of in the coming weeks if they don’t want to work on improving on the task next season. In the battle between Teesside and Sheffield steel, Billy Wilder’s team appear to have melted away in recent weeks, whereas Boro have forged ahead in the last nine games with just one defeat against the leaders following the 1-0 defeat at Cardiff.

Sheffield United		Middlesbrough
Chris Wilder		Tony Pulis
P41 – W18 – D8 – L15 – F55 – A48		P41 – W19 – D9 – L13 – F58 – A39
Position Points Points per game Projected points	9th 62 1.5 70	Position Points Points per game Projected points	6th 66 1.6 74
Last 6 Games Barnsley (A) Cardiff (H) Brentford (A) Nottm Forest (H) Burton (H) Ipswich (A)	F-T (H-T) 2:3 (0:1) L 1:1 (1:0) D 1:1 (0:0) D 0:0 (0.0) D 2:0 (1:0) W 0:0 (0:0) D	Last 6 Games Nottm Forest (H) Burton (A) Wolves (H) Brentford (A) Barnsley (H) Birmingham (A)	F-T (H-T) 2:0 (2:0) W 1:1 (0:1) D 0:2 (1:2) L 1:1 (1:1) D 3:1 (2:0) W 1:0 (1:0) W

Sheffield United are another proud Yorkshire club who have come under foreign ownership and are now 50 per cent owned by Abdullah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud after long-time owner Kevin McCabe sold half his share for just £1 on the grounds of wanting investment in the club. Prince Abdullah’s main claim to fame (other than being a prince) was that his half bother assassinated King Faisal of Saudia Arabia in 1975, which got him much earlier acquainted with the blades in the guise of the executioner’s sword when he was subsequently publicly beheaded – though the new Sheffield United chairman is also known for running a paper manufacturing business and whilst interesting anecdotes in this area are not widely referenced, it’s understood he may have perhaps suffered the odd public paper cut. While at first glance, Saudi names may appear a little long and confusing, you only need to know that ‘bin’ means ‘son of’ and ‘Al’ means ‘The’ and the house of Saud are basically the royal family. It’s a bit like Prince William calling himself ‘William son of Charles son of Philip the Greek’. Anyway, all of which probably explains why you can’t find a Sheffield United replica shirt large enough in the club shop to have all 36 letters of the new co-owner’s name ironed on to the back!

Whilst sometimes a club’s nickname is often a little tenuous, some are steeped in the history of the club or town. ‘The Blades’ is one that has origins as far back as the 14th century when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in The Reeves Tale, from his famous work of the Canterbury Tales “Ther was no man, for peril, dorste hym touche. A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose.” – OK his spelling may have been a little old school but a ‘thwitel’ was a common name for a knife, as in from the word to ‘whittle’. In fact Sheffield already had a reputation back then as a place where knives came from and a census in 1379 listed a quarter of the population in the town as metal workers.

Apparently, everyone wanted a knife back then and it so happened Sheffield had the raw materials, foundries and skills to make them – Chaucer’s tale probably helped to market and identify the Sheffield knife as the brand to be seen with when it came to the concealed weapon of choice carried by men. Although no mention of forks or spoons (concealed or otherwise) by Chaucer as it wasn’t until around 1600 that Sheffield became renowned as a centre for cutlery – however, the earliest official mention of ‘Made in Sheffield’ in this context was first referenced in a tax return filed in 1297 by Robert the Cutler.

Talking of concealed weapons, Adama Traore probably had one of his least conspicuous games in a long while at the weekend and Tony Pulis claimed that maybe he was tired and in need of a rest. I’m presuming this is just a less than subtle psychological kick up the pants for Adama in the hope he gets the message that he can’t expect to stand and wait to be given the ball now that the opposition is double-marking him – though even a tired Adama creates space for others if he’s being attended to by two players. Surely now is not the time to contemplate resting such a key player as Boro embark on a run of season-defining fixtures, which will surely decide whether Traore will actually still be at the club after the summer. OK, he’s probably taken quite a few knocks in the last few months and may be starting to feel the season, but a 90 per cent fit Adama is surely quicker than ninety-nine per cent of all the players in the Championship – though it could also be the mental fatigue of having had to carry the team for the last few months and perhaps others need to show similar urgency on a week-by-week basis to share the load.

Will the super-human speed of our very own cyber-punk give the Blades the runaround and carve open their defence as he leaves many wondering if he is indeed actually human, or could he possibly be the latest Nexus android or ‘replicant’ as they were known in 1982 cult movie Blade Runner. We now already live in the imagined fictional future of the writers of a half century ago – the afore-mentioned film was based on a 1968 novel (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) and was set in a post-apocalyptic future where a nuclear war had left much of the world’s life close to extinction with colonies on Mars serviced by androids who were indistinguishable from humans. That distant year imagined in the future was actually 2019 – so not long to wait now – but perhaps Trump, Putin or Kim Jong-il are working hard on at least part of the story becoming a reality.

Incidentally, for those still struggling with the joys of pessimism the novel also talks of ‘Penfield mood organs’, which is a technology that can induce any desired mood in the people nearby, such as optimism – though reports of recent tests in the Teesside area have so far proved unfounded but it seems the mood settings may still be set to maximum gloom on the prototype installed at the Riverside. Anyway, whether this season still has many sheepish Boro followers dreaming of anything electric or just feeling a little bit meh will depend on what their team deliver in the near future – though if this season ends in disappointment then the memories of the campaign for supporters may be best described by the closing lines spoken in Blade Runner of the dying renegade genius android leader Roy Batty played by Rutger Hauer: “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain”

So will Boro prove to be a cut above a Sheffield United team and stay sharply focused as they look to get a slice of the play-off action? Or will the Blades leave Tony Pulis’s team licking their wounds after our promotion prospects are blunted? As usual your predictions on score, scorers and team selection – plus will Boro followers be having electric dreams after the game or will it be the start of a recurring nightmare?

Middlesbrough		Nottingham Forest
Ayala Downing	7′ 31′
Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	38% 12  7  5  9	Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	62% 14  3  8  7

Aitor’s not so happy return

Today saw the return of AK to the Riverside and with him a side that was perhaps slightly better in Championship ability to when he first arrived at Boro after Mogga’s departure (or Venus for those who are sticklers). The game threw together a few “old boy” connections aside from AK of course Ayala, Bamford and Assombalonga once plied their trade for the Nottingham side, Guedioura and of course who can forget Lee Tomlin, he who divided Teesside opinion almost as much as that vegetable spread gloop!

Neither side were exactly in great form prior to this afternoon. Forest had relatively nothing other than pride and impressing their new Boss at stake whereas Boro had a heck of a lot at stake but had bottled things recently making their relative league placings erroneous as to any potential outcome on the day. With eight out of the last twelve meetings on Teesside between these sides ending in a draw a similar disappointing return for Boro (considering the opportunity) was not unlikely.

TP had said he had a few injury niggles and worries on Friday although how that could be the case was a concern in itself as very few had exactly busted a gut on Monday’s outing at Burton. Forest’s Monday fixture with Barnsley was postponed so perhaps that could provide a slight advantage in terms of fitness. Aitor had David Vaughan and Daryl Murphy out with Kieran McDowell 50/50 to make it. Goal scoring has been somewhat of a problem for Forest which won’t come as a surprise to many of us. Of more value to Boro was the stat that Forest had conceded more goals (10 in total) from corners than any other Championship side this season. The problem there of course was that the standard of Boro corners have been noticeably tripe!

Question marks over the attitude of some of the Boro squad didn’t seem to affect TP’s team selection on Monday bar the one disastrous change by dropping Shotton which in itself probably influenced the outcome of the match more than anything else. Today saw that remedied by Shotton restored in place of Cranie and with everyone else it was a case of as you were.

Early morning results once again went Boro’s way with the Blades losing to Barnsley and Villa falling foul at Carrow Road. Surprisingly Forest started on the front foot and took the game to Boro applying pressure and the cause of some less than composed clearances from the Boro back line with Lolley in particular a threat as Adama stood and watched the world and Osborn and Lolly pass him by. Shotton had his hands full and there was little sign of Aitor’s men sitting back happy to pass sideways. That said it only took a few minutes for Grant to unleash a Thunderbastard signalling some intent and hopefully a change of mentality from Boro. It was a rare treat but a refreshing one, perhaps having AK on the side-lines woke old traits from deep within!

A corner into the Forest box saw a game of head tennis before Ben tee’d up Ayala who brought the ball down, swivelled beating the attention of four Forest defenders to peel the ball into the top left corner to make it 1-0 on seven minutes. A perfect start for Boro and I’m sure one which had extra added satisfaction for Dani. A few minutes later AK strolled out into the technical area for the first time and received a warm round of applause from all around the Riverside with chants of “Oh Aitor Karanka” he even responded with a wave to the South Stand. Prior to the KO when Tomlin’s name was read out he also received a warm applause and likewise responded to the four stands.

On twenty minutes Bamford had a chance but his touch was a little heavy but he managed to find Howson who tried to make space for his shot, delaying meant the chance was gone but the ball spilled to Stewy who shot and as has been his standard of late went well wide of the post. At this stage Forest were having plenty of possession but nothing of note was really happening with it although to be fair Boro were not exactly pulling up any tree stumps themselves. Adama had been quiet offensively, standing; looking lost on the touchline and seemingly disengaged in what was happening around him.

A long throw in from George with his newly discovered skill set saw a familiar tactic as Ayala flicked the ball on from the edge of the six yard box which fell to the feet of Adama who wasn’t alert to it as he hadn’t been all afternoon but it spilled to Stewy on the spot, literally, who this time hit it right footed and found the back of the net to make it 2-0. Despite Forest’s possession it was Boro who were making their chances count as the game petered out in a fairly controlled but uninspiring manner from a Boro perspective. Still you can only beat what’s in front of you and there looked to be more goals in this game as Boro sensed an opportunity to boost their Goal difference.

All through the first half Bamford had battled up front, chased ran and outfought the attentions of the Forest Centre Backs with Figueiredo feeling the after effects of Paddy after hauling him down but left licking his wounds literally as the game had to be halted for what looked like some emergency dental work for the Forest CB. I’m sure that Dani, Stewy and Paddy were not remotely intent on raising their game for the benefit their erstwhile manager although the thought of hell hath no fury like a footballer scorned did enter my mind!

The first half came to a close with a succession of Forest corners which Boro had conspired to dither, dilly and dally in their clearances before Dani eventually lamped the ball 50 yards into the opponents half. Sometimes keeping it simple but brutal betters all that fancy interplay at the back putting yourself under unnecessary pressure which had required Randolph to palm away a Tomlin effort.

The second half started with no changes for either side and was the perfect accompaniment to the backdrop of the dull, damp, wet and miserable weather. The below average fayre being served up was suddenly awoken by an overhead bicycle kick by Dani Ayala who along with Paddy looked hell bent on proving a point (or all three). Again Boro were sitting back, too far back in fact absorbing Forest pressure as Aitor rang the changes astonishingly with 30 minutes to go instead of his usual five or less making a double substitution. The young Striking prospect Brereton came on for the hapless Vellios and McKay for the half fit McDowell.

Four minutes later Clayts came on for Besic who had had a good game including a rousing desperate tackle chasing back to save Boro blushes and inspirationally setting up an attack singlehandedly in the first half. Mo had been hobbling a bit after taking a knock on the hip and with Sheffield coming up on Tuesday it made sense. Meanwhile Adama had been switched between left and right wings all through the game but to no avail and had minimal impact on the match putting in an altogether disappointing afternoon. Forest however hadn’t given up the game and were causing Boro some worries at the back as balls started flying into the box and crosses started to fly across Randolph’s goal area with shots being blocked.

The second half belonged to Forest as we struggled to get out of defence and launch an attack even Adama was back defending corners as pressure was building. The Riverside had gone very quiet with only the away section in fine voice. Clearances were desperately hoofed upfield where battling isolated Bamford was holding up play, having his shirt tugged and pulled yet still stretching the Forest defence all by himself. Grant had tried a rare Boro effort, this time a measured attempt into the top corner which Pantilimon plucked out of the air fairly easily. Britt was warming up and came on for the by now almost anonymous Adama. Paddy moved to the right side playing wide and providing cover for Shotton. Paddy was literally running on empty yet still managed to get back and head another vital clearance as he had done previously at corners. Despite not making the score sheet for me this was perhaps Bamford’s most complete performance in a Boro shirt. TP realising that his in form striker was now well and truly burnt out replaced him Cranie to strengthen our backline, hold on and also perhaps to let Cranie get his Burton car crash out of his system. Paddy received a standing ovation as he went off which was in contrast to the reception Britt had received when he had entered the field of play minutes previously. The away support clearly not appreciating that the money his departure earned had injected their club with much needed cash.

Britt was lively and involved and should have put the game to bed with a one on one with Pantilimon but hit the NE corner instead of the target from ten yards out. Another opportunity to fluff his lines happened again as the away fans started singing the Assombalonga song in ironic support of his ability to need five or six chances to net one. He had a penalty claim turned down as he was hauled back and also worked a brilliant back heel pass to set Paddy up only to skew his fatigued shot wide.

The second half was one to forget for Boro, it certainly won’t feature highly if at all on the season’s highlights video. The first half had shown hope of a goal fest in the second half but after the break we once again underwhelmed. At this stage of the season it’s the points that are of greater importance but with Sheffield, Bristol, Derby and Millwall all coming up it was less than convincing.

MOM was a joint one for me between Paddy and Dani who both put in the sort of performances that we will need more of to make the Play-offs.

Boro face the spectre of missing out
as Karanka returns to his old haunt

After the lacklustre displays against the team propping up the league and the nine-men of Wolves, Boro followers will be somewhat apprehensive at the visit of the tricky trees, which just got trickier with the return of Aitor Karanka to the Riverside in the opposition dugout. The former Boro boss who led the club to their last promotion should receive a good welcome from many of the supporters and players as he returns to his old haunt – though the drop in form following the international break has left the club facing the spectre of missing out on the play-offs as the chasing pack move ever scarily closer. It may be stretching the analogy to wonder if some of the players have given up the ghost with regard to promotion but now is not the time to lose your nerve and play with fear.

Aitor Karanka may no longer be at the club but his spirit is still evident in the current team with the midfield pairing of Clayton and Leadbitter recently restored to sit in front of a back four that still consist of the Gibson-Ayala axis and George Friend – with Bamford now playing up front and being supported by another old favourite Downing, it looks like little has changed – plus even Traore was his touchline project too. In all, eight of the usual starters are Karanka players and it could be argued that the former boss and his methodology is the ghost in the machine that can’t be exorcised.

It may be hard for many of these players, particularly in central midfield and defence, to avoid falling back on the years spent being drilled on moving the ball methodically and patiently – particularly when it becomes a coping mechanism in times of stress. It’s quite incredible to think that after all the turmoil, changes and money spent in the last 12 months, Boro have reverted back to the bulk of what were Karanka-type players. Perhaps what is missing though is the famed intensity (perhaps both his strength and weakness) that he brought to the party – though what we may now have is a group unable to adapt and break out of the shackles ingrained in their heads by the former manager as they attempt to go through the motions on the pitch of trying to change the way they play.

Many may not be surprised to hear that our former manager’s team haven’t found the net in their last four games and indeed his Forest side have only scored in 4 of his 13 games since he took over in early January – though remarkably one of his three victories was against leaders Wolves, with another being a rather out of character 5-2 goal-fest against QPR that was followed-up with a victory over managerless Birmingham just ahead of Garry Monk’s arrival. Conceding three goals in those back-to-back victories perhaps proved to be far too irritating for the former Boro clean-sheet perfectionist as he then drilled his players into delivering a rather self-satisfying run of three successive nil-nil draws and they haven’t scored since. I expect Karanka on his return, with his nil-by-mouth bedside manner, will be hoping to rekindle the passion and appreciation for those clinical clean sheets by those pre-medicated punters, who are patiently waiting in the corridors of uncertainty at the Riverside as they contemplate getting off their trolley if operation play-off is cancelled.

Middlesbrough		Nottingham Forest
Tony Pulis		Aitor Karanka
P40 – W18 – D9 – L13 – F56 – A39		P39 – W13 – D7 – L19 – F43 – A56
Position Points Points per game Projected points	6th 63 1.6 72	Position Points Points per game Projected points	17th 46 1.2 54
Last 6 Games Burton (A) Wolves (H) Brentford (A) Barnsley (H) Birmingham (A) Leeds (H)	F-T (H-T) 1:1 (0:1) D 1:2 (0:2) L 1:1 (1:1) D 3:1 (2:0) W 1:0 (1:0) W 3:0 (2:0) W	Last 6 Games Millwall (A) Sheff Utd (A) Derby (H) Norwich (A) Birmingham (H) QPR (A)	F-T (H-T) 0:2 (0:2) L 0:0 (0:0) D 0:0 (0:0) D 0:0 (0:0) D 2:1 (1:0) W 5:2 (1:0) W

Much has happened at the Hurworth acute admissions ward since Karanka was struck off just over a year ago and locum Steve Agnew received a hospital pass from chairman Steve Gibson as he was put in charge of attempting to nurse a weak and disorientated Boro back to recovery. The hastily assembled care team that comprised consultant therapist Joe Jordan, junior doctor Paul Jenkins and orderly Woodgate proved to be all underwhelmingly too little too late to save the rapidly fading flat-lining Premiership patient who had lost the will to live. In the end we all had to take our medicine, which was the bitterest of pills to swallow after such a long time impatiently spent in the Championship waiting room for our number being called for our regularly cancelled appointment with the English elite clubs.

The post-mortem at the end of the season proved inconclusive as a difference of opinion existed between those who had ignored earlier symptoms of malaise and others who had failed to diagnose a problem of inherent weaknesses at a much earlier stage. Revelations that self-harm had ultimately been the cause of our pain left a bitter taste in the mouth as seemingly divided loyalties between Victor Orta’s privately cared for out-patients and the no frills public sector workers who had been the foundation trusted with promotion the previous year. So the Director of Football, who had transfused the club by bringing in the new blood, was subsequently discharged along with most, if not all, of the new admissions. Boro elected to start again and put their trust in the new regime of Garry Monk with a more progressive model for success as the club threw money at the problem of lacking a cutting edge that was identified last season.

Like all plans on paper, they are subject to being implemented in the reality they were designed for and it’s during this phase where often things don’t go quite as they were supposed to. However, Monk was no stranger to either accidents or the emergence of new problems and he struggled to get to grips with the league as his team failed to smash through the glass ceiling of mediocrity – let alone smash the league that his chairman had hoped for. He was often seen putting on a brave face and limping into casualty to have a sticking plaster applied to the foot that was forever been shot into by a team that was neither one thing or the other in terms of defence or attack. The former Leeds and Swansea manager’s team were consistently inconsistent as players were shuffled in and out as performances were seldom delivered in a convincing manner. With no obvious signs of progress being made, or indeed a shape emerging with the team, chairman Steve Gibson decided further surgery was required at the club as he wielded the knife once more and Garry Monk was excised from his duties shortly before Christmas.

After something of a pregnant pause, the Boro chairman delivered the club’s fourth manager in a little over nine months as a return to the Premier League at the first attempt was proving to be more laborious than anticipated. With Steve Gibson appearing somewhat in breach of his promotion promise, he pulled off something of a coup by landing his most experienced manager since Terry Venables was enlisted to support Bryan Robson. Nevertheless, installing a man famed for avoiding relegation may have been a slight over-reaction to Boro’s upper mid-table position and it was hard to see how a squad assembled for progressive football would easily marry with the preferred tactics of an old-school Tony Pulis.

Those supporters that were expecting a sudden improvement in Boro’s fortunes were going to be disappointed as Pulis only won four of his first ten games – which had basically meant Boro had more or less continued with the same form that had seen Monk dismissed. Furthermore, the team had failed to score a goal in his first three home games, which was not winning over the Riverside faithful as initial prejudices on the style of the manager appeared to be confirmed. Out went previously ever-present Britt Assombalonga in favour of Big Rudy Gestede as the stereotypical Pulis target man. Also out were Christie and Fabio as their wing-back attributes were replaced by the preference for the big solid full-back types of Friend and Shotton – with the latter also being favoured for his tick-box long throwing ability. In addition, Braithwaite opted out of the change and quickly crossed the Channel back to France, while Fletcher crossed the bridge over the more troubled waters of the Wear as he headed to Sunderland in the hope of a game. No doubt magic Johnson would have also exited the club if he hadn’t already played for two clubs this term but he disappeared faster than a white rabbit dropped in a top hat with a super-massive black hole at its core.

There was little business in January to suggest there was an urgency to remould the squad in the image of the manager, with just the short on match-fitness loan signings of Mo Besic and Jack Harrison recruited to fill the void left by departures. What this actually meant was Boro had gone from their pre-season aim of having potentially one of the strongest squads to essentially a First XI plus a few like-for-like changes – albeit players who were either short on game time or low on confidence. This didn’t sound like a club who meant business in the same way they started the season and it began to feel like the start of a re-grouping for the next campaign with just one eye on sneaking through the play-offs. Pulis’s one saving grace was that he had somehow managed to unlock the talent that was Adama Traore as he graduated from occasional bit-part player under Monk to the main attraction under the new regime. Assists and goals duly arrived as the team was suddenly built around the pace and power of a player who was rapidly becoming the talk of the Championship. Also rehabilitated was Patrick Bamford who has now been promoted to his preferred striker role – though it seemed more by accident than design as big Rudy was ruled out for the season and main January target Mitrovic opted to join a Fulham team managed by fellow Serbian Jokanović instead.

It’s perhaps unfair to judge Tony Pulis too harshly on what has been only a third of a season to experiment with what he inherited from the substantial summer dealings and he may indeed feel his options are quite limited for the task of promotion. Whether Boro have developed into a team capable of winning four of their remaining six games to secure a play-off spot is not something many would feel confident in predicting – plus subsequently going on to beat two of the form teams like Fulham, Villa or Millwall in the play-offs is perhaps an even bigger ask. It may well be in the back of quite few players minds that promotion is the end of road for their Boro careers – those who were found wanting last season may believe the club will have already judged them and it would be hard to imagine many supporters feeling confident in doing any better with the same old faces again. After all, they’ve only managed two wins all season against the top half of the Championship.

So one year on from Aitor Karanka’s departure, have those who make the decisions learned what they must do as a club to gain promotion and hopefully stay up? Given what has happened this season, it’s unlikely that they knew what to do but they might at least have known what not to do – Steve Gibson has now handed the project over to Tony Pulis in what looks like a short-term quick fix rather than attempting to build a long-term strategy. The fact that the chairman decided the way forward following relegation was to create an opposite philosophy to Karanka under Monk, in which the club attempted through the mass purchase of attacking players to be more progressive rather than being reliant on a methodology that relied on a head coach orchestrating his players to be primarily hard to beat through defensive drills and driven by the desire to control not nurture.

Whether Monk was ejected purely on his record this season is uncertain but one wonders if Gibson just wanted Tony Pulis more than he wanted to wait and see whether Monk would succeed with his project. It seems Pulis was an unlikely successor to carry the investment in the Monk model forward and the chairman would have hopefully anticipated that he’d want a different type of player to the ones the club had just spent nearly £50m on. The sidelining of Britt and the departure of Braithwaite removed £25m worth of assets from the first team with the exit of Christie and the disappearance of Johnson a further £5m, before the loaning out of Fletcher brought the amount of transfer money not being active on the pitch to £37m – if Howson now also gets benched then we’re talking about well over £40m of the summer spending tasked with promotion becoming unused. So it essentially leaves the first year of parachute payments being squandered and that’s before we add in the wages. There will be no need to have an inquest should Boro fail to gain promotion as the finger of blame may rightly be pointed at the summer recruitment policy but that was exacerbated the moment Tony Pulis was appointed and it left many of the new model signings redundant to the cause.

So will the Boro players be feeling all nostalgic with the return of Karanka to his old haunt and be keen to show him they can still do a job for him next season as they grind out a goalless draw? Or will a few of his former charges be chomping at the bit to prove they have the spirit to leave his petrified Forest less than enchanted? As usual your predictions on score, scorers and team selection – plus will Karanka resist the temptation to start shouting instructions to Adama from the dugout?

Burton Albion		Middlesbrough
Sordell	6′	Assombalonga	90′
Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	44% 13  1  5  9	Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	56% 13  3  5 12

Boro suffer Brewers droop

Wet miserable Easter weather provided the backdrop to this afternoon’s game which complimented the mood on Teesside for many after a not so good Friday. Boro fans had struggled for grip heading through morning sleet and snow to reach the Pirelli Stadium. The Brewers had lost 70% of their home games this season, failing to score in almost half of those and only winning 2 games so nothing could possibly go wrong surely? In the most compact Stadium in the Championship Boro were expected to collect all three points in a no nonsense performance heaping more misery on the son of one of our most famous sons. The only injury concern for Tony Pulis was presumably some bruised egos and the hangover that “frustrated Friday” had left us with and that come 5.00pm we would not be left with egg on our face.

The line-up saw Shotton dropped to the bench along with Adam Clayton with Cranie given a first start and Howson restored in midfield. I was surprised to see Shotton dropped unless he had a slight niggle but if he was fit enough to be on the bench then it begs the question. As poor as Howson was when he came on against Wolves TP perhaps felt he is fitter than what he currently has available another struggler Downing used one of his nine lives yet somehow retained a start. With Derby beating Preston at lunchtime a win by more than two clear goals would see Boro leapfrog Derby into fifth.

Boro were adorned in their white away kit for some reason against the yellow of Burton as Traore started off on fire with a bursting run past three players but the final delivery wasn’t the best. On six minutes a low bobbling cross from Dyer saw Sordell smash the ball in the bottom corner of the net as Adama aside Boro started slow and almost lethargic. Clearly the lessons learnt from Friday night were zero and any fire and intensity after the criticism of many over the weekend had failed to provoke a reaction. What TP’s team talk was heaven knows but it seemed almost as uninspiring as his half time team talk on Friday night. A corner to the Brewers followed up quickly from their goal to keep the pressure still on our defence, a Downing clearance up to Paddy took a last gasp tackle to concede a corner for Boro. A low Traore corner was easily cleared for a throw in by George which when launched in went wide from Ayala.

Fifteen minutes gone and Boro were making hard work of it. Our passing was poor and once again Dyer was causing trouble down the right side of our defence as the inclusion of Cranie wasn’t looking a good call by TP. Boro were looking distinctly average and indeed had the appearance of a mid-table nothing side with little to play for, totally underwhelming. Tactically it wasn’t working, Boro just didn’t seem hungry for it. Considering what was at stake, the failure of TP in taking the axe to those on cruise control now looked to be biting him on the backside as “laboured” would have been a compliment. Something psychologically was wrong; the team looked flat, devoid of leadership and drive. If we thought that our efforts against the nine men of Wolves for twenty five minutes was poor this sunk to a new level. What was being witnessed was a massive question mark against TP’s competence in how he handled the aftermath of Friday, how he set up and selected his side today.

Bamford was isolated again as we sat deep playing a lone striker against the worst side in the division. Another run from Traore in which he was scythed down again led to a corner which was a very rare spark from Boro in an otherwise flat afternoon. Burton understandably were sitting deep protecting their single goal lead picking off Boro’s poor decision making confident in knowing Dyer had the beating of Cranie.

White was a perfect choice of shirt colour as it reflected the spiritless, surrendered performance on show as Boro had fans asking has there been a worse performance all season? Ten minutes to go to half time and the entire thirty five minutes to date were an abject embarrassment. At this point Pulis admitted his first selection faux pas as Howson was hooked for Assombalonga and we went 442. The head scratcher was that Howson was probably the best of a bad lot. Why we started so poor and why we were set up the way we did against the worst side in the division was nothing short of a disgrace. Despite Howson being poor on Friday night as mentioned he was probably the best of a bad lot this afternoon and there were 6 or 7 others whom I would have hooked well before him. Once Britt arrived we picked the tempo up a little (just a little I add) winning a corner shortly after which ended with Ayala putting it out for a Burton Goal Kick.

Dyer had another cross put out by Cranie and shortly afterwards a shot across Randolph’s goal ended up in another corner to the Brewerymen which fortunately Bent fluffed his lines otherwise it would have been 2-0. The half time whistle sounded in what has to go down as one of the most uninspiring, gutless, disgraceful performances in recent Boro history. TP was playing with Adama as the only attacking threat and outlet and tactically that was it, nothing, absolutely nothing at all whatsoever from anyone in a white shirt especially from the “untouchables”. No passion from anyone, no captaincy or leadership in evidence either on the pitch or from the touchlines. An absolutely galling display and I refuse to use the word performance; totally disinterested best described the lot of them!

My hopes were for a rousing half time team talk and a change from TP but on several occasions now he hasn’t shown anything in terms of a half time tactical switcharound or a good rollicking. My personal feeling is that the signs were there on Friday from several who hadn’t brought their “A” game, well today the same old same old didn’t bring their “E-“ game, absolutely disgusted.

We came out for the second half as I suspected with no changes and no inspiration. More insipid, directionless monotony continued. Britt nearly took a kick to the head, The Burton keeper handled outside the box, we had a tame shot which was easily collected and that summed up the opening twenty minutes of the second forty five. There is very little point in detailing anything else because it was poor, very poor fayre indeed. Someone behind me remarked on Friday night “you’d think they don’t want promotion” well after this afternoon it was looking like there was some semblance of truth in that exclamation. Something stinks, and today it was festering.

This was a Burton side that were appalling all season in every statistical aspect you can take to measure them with yet we made them look like Barca and Cranie made Dyer look like Messi. Harrison was readied and came on for Downing but with 15 minutes left another question has to be raised as to why then. I and others had suggested Harrison and Baker (and even Fabio) getting a chance from the start as those who had been highlighted as deficient previously had simply repeated the same level of ineffectiveness. In a memorable moment of “managerial beggared beliefness” TP brought the below par Grant off for the exciting, skilful flair of Clayts to boost our attacking options!

Traore broke free and flew past a flurry of wipe-out tackles to feed Britt who dithered and eventually dispatched a shot that landed in Grimsby. Britt as we know can be a lethal finisher but it’s just unfortunate he needs six chances for every goal he scores. Traore again went on another run in a solo effort (indeed the only player in a white shirt where the word “effort” wasn’t a misrepresentation under the Trades Descriptions Act) to try and remedy the embarrassment. Another late chance came via a cushioned header from Britt with no real power which didn’t really threaten which summed up Boro for the whole afternoon.

Finally after another Traore run into the centre of the pitch he dinks the ball forward from the edge of the “D” to Harrison who controls brilliantly in a similar area to Paddy on Friday, hit the crossbar but Britt was following up to nod it home to draw level on 90 minutes. Four minutes of injury time beckoned but Bent collected the ball to almost bring the Brewerymen back into the game but fortunately was adjudged to be offside. In the dying seconds a Clayts taken free kick was floated into the box in a nothing set piece but from it Dyer broke and Bents eventual effort was tame.

We robbed a point but everything about the day was ill prepared, ill-conceived and not even executed let alone poorly executed. TP selected the wrong underperforming and underwhelming players who repaid his trust and confidence in a footballing equivalent of a two fingered couldn’t care less salute and TP fully deserved it. The inclusion of Cranie over Shotton was baffling. Shotton didn’t have the best of games on Friday night but was by a country mile not the worst player so how he lost his starting place is beyond me. The thirty five year old Dyer tore Cranie apart and caused Boro no end of problems as a consequence. It was never addressed all through the match and that responsibility lay fully with Tony Pulis. At half time the general apathy was never addressed either and the game continued with only a modicum of improvement, simply not good enough, not even remotely acceptable. It was so bad the entire squad and management should donate their wages this week to a charity because to accept payment from Steve Gibson for that is tantamount to daylight robbery.

The flaws from Friday were ignored and just as they were ignored at half time on Friday they again appeared to be brushed aside and weakened by the team selection today and once again at half time there was an inability to ring required changes. That is extremely poor management and not something I would have remotely countenanced from an individual with TP’s experience. If we are treated to that same level of indifference on Saturday don’t expect the fans to stay silent and regardless of how much or how little players get paid or might have cost they will be subject to intense scrutiny. From top to bottom that performance was unacceptable and nothing short of a disgrace. The fact that we are still in the Play Offs after that is incredible but relying on others to be even worse than us isn’t what Tony Pulis was brought in for.

Calls of a dinosaur levelled at TP before his appointment is one thing but to actually play dinosaurs is another story altogether. The only difference I suppose is that dinosaurs moved quicker, had bigger brains than the majority on that pitch today and were leaner and hungrier. There wasn’t a single meat eater in a white shirt today, not one and that includes those in tracksuits with or without caps. That side needed a Nigel Pearson in the changing room on Friday night and again today, if TP isn’t man enough for it and Kemp, Fleming, Gould and Woodgate aren’t then bring some cajones into his coaching staff quick because most of those players today needed more than a collective rocket fired up them. No hunger, no pain, no passion and no desire, contrast that with the celebrations from the Wolves players and coaching staff on Friday. Not very pleasant admittedly but that’s what winners look and smell like. MOM yer jokin arn’t yer, it was a case of Strachan revisited!

Boro hope to get over Friday’s hangover
with a visit to the ailing Brewers

Boro will be looking to silence the doubters after losing to the leaders at the Riverside on Good Friday where they ended up being metaphorically crucified by some poor defending and then failed miserably to make their two-man advantage count after two nailed-on red cards. The Boro faithful will no doubt be looking on the bright side as they hope to see their promotion challenge resurrected on Easter Monday when taking on bottom club Burton, which is managed by the son of that other Brian who was occasionally mistaken for being a messiah.

Whether Clough junior will be inspired by his late father into performing miracles is perhaps expecting too much – though he’s unlikely to attempt a similar feat to the one claimed by his father at Forest on the same local river that also passes through Burton: “The River Trent is lovely, I know because I have walked on it for 18 years”. Being compared to the genius that his father was is inevitable, but it’s perhaps more likely that should Nigel attempt such fancy footwork he will just be regarded instead as “a very naughty boy” – though there is still a risk he’ll soon be drowning, albeit his sorrows once the inevitable relegation of the Brewers is confirmed.

Whilst it wasn’t unusual for some old-school managers back in those days to compare themselves to divine objects of worship, it was occasionally met with disbelief by their players – when former West Brom striker Cyrille Regis came out publicly as having found faith, his ex-manager Ron Atkinson said to him “What’s all this about you finding God? You worked for him at West Brom for four years”, before Regis replied “Actually Ron, there is only one God, and you are not him.” Still, Brian Clough wasn’t planning on playing second fiddle to anyone as he declared: “When I go, God’s going to have to give up his favourite chair” – though that particularly seat in the upper tier may not have offered him an opportunity to witness a decent game if another famous quote of his was also true: “If God had wanted us to play football in the clouds, he’d have put grass up there.”

Tony Pulis may have sometimes unfairly been claimed to be planning to play football in the clouds with his long-ball tactics but the Boro supporters will certainly be looking to the heavens if his team have a bad Monday and fail to see off a club that sit 23 places below Good Friday’s opponents. The contrast between Wolves and Burton is perhaps best described by the slightly tongue-twisting fact that there is a 79 goal difference in their respective goal differences (+37 versus -42). Even if Boro are forced to endure a full 90 minutes against an 11-man Burton, surely they will have enough to see off an opposition that concede two-and-a-half times as many goals as they score. On paper at least, this will be deemed as a great opportunity to bank three precious points and hold onto Boro’s precarious grip on a play-off spot.

Burton Albion		Middlesbrough
Nigel Clough		Tony Pulis
P37 – W7 – D9 – L23 – F28 – A70		P39 – W18 – D8 – L13 – F55 – A38
Position Points Points per game Projected points	24th 30 0.8 35	Position Points Points per game Projected points	6th 62 1.6 73
Last 6 Games Cardiff (A) Wolves (A) Sheff Utd (A) Bristol City (H) Brentford (H) Millwall (H)	F-T (H-T) 1:3 (1:2) L 1:3 (1:2) L 0:2 (0:1) L 0:0 (0:0) D 0:2 (0:0) L 0:1 (0:0) L	Last 6 Games Wolves (H) Brentford (A) Barnsley (H) Birmingham (A) Leeds (H) Sunderland (A)	F-T (H-T) 0:2 (1:2) L 1:1 (1:1) D 3:1 (2:0) W 1:0 (1:0) W 3:0 (2:0) W 3:3 (0:1) D

Indeed, that fight for the last two play-off places has become tighter than the proverbial gnat’s unmentionable place where the sun shines even less than on a bank holiday Monday – though no doubt that the Boro chairman Steve Gibson would be chuffed to bits if his club finish in one of those coveted spots. However, with just two points between the six clubs from fifth to tenth, there is little room for either complacency, error or manoeuvre – a win would certainly help put Boro back in the driving seat of what is shaping up to be another white-knuckle ride on the roller coaster to oblivion that even Alton Towers would deem to scary for the punters to contemplate. Although defeat could even see Boro suddenly down in tenth place should the other results match the betting slips of the more pessimistic Teessiders, who are in a desperate rush to be put out of their professional misery and collect enough winnings to pay for their early-bird season ticket for next year’s fix of gloom.

Rather worryingly, making the play-offs will require Boro to do something that has so far looked beyond them – beating a team that is higher than them in the table. It’s somehow slightly perverse to start contemplating wanting to see Boro test themselves in the Premier League against the best teams in the land, when they’ve only managed 2 wins from the 16 games played against the teams currently in the top half of the Championship (Sheff Utd and Preston). It’s only thanks to the other 16 victories against teams in the bottom half of the league that we are still able to even have the conversation about making the play-offs.

It probably tells us something about the overall quality of the squad and their mentality that this is not a team ready to make the step up to the next level – nearly all of them must surely know that promotion is the end of their dream not the beginning. It would be foolish to believe that without a massive massive investment and some outstanding buys, which has not normally been achieved by the club in recent years, there will be little to suggest 17th place or above is the most likely outcome that will follow the most sheepish singing of “Up the Boro, the Boro’s going up to stay” since Baa Baa Black Sheep had season ticket in the Holgate.

Having said that, it will perhaps be even harder to contemplate promotion next season if our campaign fails once we’ve waved goodbye to our only weapon that hurts the opposition – i.e. Adama Traore, who will not be short of offers from clubs who have seen the addition of an end product to his unbelievable pace. OK, he may raise plenty of cash to offset the other losses that we’ll no doubt incur in offloading the failed buys of last summer – though having money to spend next season means nothing unless it is both spent wisely and the club can attract the best players willing to ply their trade in the second tier. I suspect despite him finally scoring, the prospect of Ashley Fletcher returning to lead the line from relegated Sunderland is not going to get the queues forming at the ticket office in the summer.

So will Boro cure their Friday night hangover with a half-empty glass of under-strength hair of the Wolf clearing their heads as they start downing the points again? Or will the Brewers catch the Teessiders on the hops and have us over a barrel as our promotion campaign hits the dregs? As usual your predictions on score, scorers and team selection – plus will the Burton players start trying to get themselves sent-off if they score first in a cunning attempt to psychologically affect the Boro players?

Middlesbrough		Wolves
Bamford	90′ +4	Costa Cavaleiro ▮ Neves ▮ Doherty	58′ 37′ 56′ 71′
Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	55% 17  3  6 10	Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	45%  7  6  2 13

Pack mentality frustrates Boro

This was the ultimate test for a resurgent Boro with the League Leaders arriving at the Riverside this evening to see if Boro could shake off the hoodoo of being unable to beat teams around them let alone one twenty points ahead of them! TP confirmed in his press conference that there were no injury concerns apart from Rudy Gestede so hopefully that meant Ayala was back to full fitness, Besic had come through his International travels without a recurrence of his earlier Hamstring problems and Paddy was fit and raring to go. The biggest selection dilemma for TP presumably was a straight choice between Grant or Clayts.

Wolves Manager Nuno Espirito Santo would likely be missing Diogo Jota with an ankle problem but that was his only fitness concern with danger man Afobe very much likely to start. Boro have an impressive record against Wolves stretching back to 1951 for the last time the visitors took away all three points from Teesside or two as it was back then. Wolves had never completed a double over Boro and depending on your perspective it would be unlikely that Wolves would break the habit of a lifetime or it was inevitable that tonight was the night that that record would be broken “Typical Boro” fashion with Wolves not losing back to back away games since March last year.

Boro’s team was as expected by many with Grant being recalled but surprisingly Howson left out so we had Clayts and Grant playing alongside Besic in a somewhat unadventurous looking Boro midfield that was to be totally bossed by Neves. The game started with both sides probing and testing their opponents but the wing backs from Wolves were opening up the game and stretching Boro’s backline and causing us problems. Shotton and Traore struggled to cope on the right whilst Friend and Downing had an easier time on the opposite flank with George having one of his better games in a while. In the first half Downing struggled to create anything of real merit whilst Traore seemed a little lost and confused at times apart from three cameo runs which highlighted both his value to the team and the futility of being unable to get him on the ball in dangerous places.

Boro started to gain a bit of control and started playing with some confidence but ironically just when we settled we were hit by a sucker punch clearance out and Grant took one for the team as he scythed into a challenge on Cavaleiro for which he was lucky to receive just a yellow. Despite that Boro still exerted their influence in the game although it has to be said it petered out in the final third due to a lack of a cutting edge pass, momentum, continuity, pace and bodies supporting Bamford who battled very well considering it was often 3 to 1 in the favour of those in gold.

Wolves took the lead against the run of play after some scrappy last ditch defending which had a hint of a hand ball in the build up to the goal but neither the Ref or his Assistant had the same view as the North Stand. Cavaleiro managed to get to a Randolph saved ball first and managing to keep it in play it fell to boo boy Douglas whose chipped effort was volleyed past Randolph by Costa. One-nil against the run of play or not it was a warning or it should have been but minutes later Wolves doubled their lead with an awkward ball floated in from a corner that forced another brilliant tipped save from Randolph but nobody in Red was covering the right hand post and a simple knock in from Cavaleiro was the price paid for our defence going awol.

Frustrating in the extreme at the manner in which we failed to clear our lines and also that we just couldn’t get Adama firing and Paddy supported at the other end. For all our “dominance” at that point which fate was tempted by choruses previously of “Top of the league you’re having a laugh” our persistent passing was a throwback to former times of windscreen wiper vintage. Half time came with a small amount of boo’s ringing round more out of that word “frustration” again than bile at the players efforts.

Thankfully the half time break would give Pulis the opportunity to shuffle his pack and inject some pace and drive centrally. To the surprise of most we came out with the same eleven lining up and almost instantly were on the back foot as Wolves looked to put the game to bed early on. Boro steadied themselves but couldn’t break open the men from Molineux. Things were becoming a bit feisty with a few choice challenges from Boro in the first half now being matched but the ante now upped from Wolves and Stuart Attwell started dishing out yellow cards to those in Gold in addition to the one he had issued in the first half to Ruddy for timewasting.

TP had switched Adama over to the left at half time to continue to keep him in earshot and as George continued his forays but now feeding Adama his magic drew the unwanted attention of Wolves as they entered a period of serial fouling and increasing their card count on the way. Paddy had a great chance set up by Adama that he worked well but slipped at the vital time when he was one on one with Ruddy. Adama had also slipped previously as questions were impolitely muttered around me about stud selection and pitch watering activity.

Most annoying on the night was that Boly looked like an accident waiting to happen and Ruddy was less than confident in his handling and distribution yet we never tested him, instead continuing to play this slow predictable passing retention game without any end product. Grant as great as he is and Clayts just didn’t possess the magic to match Neves and Stewy seems to getting worse with his decision making and shooting which was highlighted when he had the chance to pull things level in the dying seconds but again missed the big white target while earlier scooping a shot well over the crossbar by several feet.

As envious as our glances were towards Neves he managed to get himself booked for arguing with Attwell and then went flying into George in a ridiculous lunge which had the North Stand screaming for him to be sent off which was duly obliged when he received his second Yellow and then Red. Down to ten men Boro now surely would go for it and bombard Wolves to try and pull back the deficit. The sending off was controversial from an away perspective as seconds earlier George looked to have brought Costa down from behind when clean through on Randolph but Attwell had adjudged the fall to be theatrical or the coming together accidental which seemed very fortuitous to those in the South East Corner and therefore George had remained on the pitch.

George again was linking up well with Adama to have a terrifying effect on the ten men of Wolves and a high ball that looked to be going out for a Goal Kick was contested by George and Doherty who already booked looked to have led with an elbow to pick up another Yellow and Wolves second Red of the evening. By this time Wolves were now in total disarray, down to nine men yet Boro were still content to pass the ball around the edge of the box instead of driving shots at force from a distance looking to take advantage from ricochets’. No quick unlocking pass and play movements from Boro and despite having a two man advantage we still made hard work of it and tactically things weren’t improved by introducing Crainey for Shotton when the opposition had their backs to the wall.

Shotton had just picked up a Yellow and had been fortunate to avoid one earlier so there was some methodology behind the decision. Assombalonga had also been introduced and he battled well inside the box fending off defenders but the build up to him was slow predictable and ponderous and therefore easily read and defended against. Six minutes of added time seemed scant reward for the amount of stoppages and time wasting but Paddy managed to cleverly toe poke an effort in with two of the six minutes remaining to provide false hope, too little too late.

Wolves are not top of the League by luck and showed their unity, undoubted skills and understanding but three shots on target was a very poor return especially against nine men for a large chunk of the second half. Downing looks to have lost creativity out wide and slowed things down on too many occasions, Clayts and Grant likewise struggled to inject any va va voom and as a consequence we just ground things out by passing out wide or back centrally again when we needed a Ramirez to unlock the defence or in his absence some power pressing with pace and passing instead of slow Chess moves. Howson was brought on to try and remedy that one dimensional aspect but he had the touch of a baby elephant unfortunately and failed to make any impact.

Besic had been quiet in the first half but had a lot more influence on things in the second as did Adama who was also incidentally our best ball boy as he vaulted the advertising hoardings like a hurdler on several occasions to retrieve the ball. Randolph was great in goal and wasn’t to blame for either goal and indeed kept the scoreline down but MOM for me was George, whilst Adama caught the eye in the second 45 George was consistent for the full 90 minutes.

To end on a positive despite numerous sections of the ground emptying before the final whistle those remaining stayed loyal and gave a generous round of applause at the final whistle which despite the disappointments and frustrations echoed the wider sentiment of this still isn’t over and the fans are still believing that a Play Off place is there for the taking.

Boro hoping to have another
good Friday in front of the cameras

After a two-week break in proceedings so that Gareth Southgate’s England team can practice some essential phrases in Russian like “Sorry, I’ve never heard of Boris Johnson” and “No thanks, I don’t want a McMafia Unhappy Meal” – it’s time once again to stop pretending you’re remotely interested that some unknown Australian secretly stuck a yellow piece of plastic into some round piece of leather because he was so bored of standing around and wanted an early tea. Yes, football is back and it’s still winter even though the clocks are all wrong and the lambs are refusing to frolic until they see written proof that it’s officially spring.

Boro welcome table-topping Wolves to the Riverside, who continue to lead the promotion pack and show the hunger needed to properly smash the league. Tony Pulis will be hoping to uphold the unusual but good Friday agreement that they are normally allowed to win when they play in front of the cameras as they attempt to at least temporarily halt the team in orange from their inevitable march towards the Premier League. Though rather appropriately for Good Friday, the Holy Spirit will be present at the Riverside – but before Boro followers start to anticipate having a religious experience (other than the usual raptures in time added on) it should made clear that this unearthly presence is merely the Wolves manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, whose surname literally translates as ‘Holy Spirit’. Just to add to the Easter symbolism, the Wolves manager was also born on the Portuguese island of São Tomé, which translates as Saint Thomas, who was according to the famous book, the doubting disciple of Jesus after his resurrection following the crucifixion.

On the subject of doubters, Boro opened their season as the bookies promotion favourites with a visit to Molineux and suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat in game of few clear-cut chances as the teams shared possession. There was little to suggest back then that there would be the massive gulf in points accumulated by both teams and with just 8 games left to play Wolves are an unassailable 20 points ahead of Boro. The Defensive record of both teams is pretty similar but it is at the sharp end where Nuno Espirito Santo’s team have out-performed the Teessiders with 15 extra goals. Nevertheless, Boro have out-performed the leaders in that department during the last six games with an impressive 14 goals to their 12 – which has left many wondering what might have been this season. For all the talk of Wolves having an unfair advantage over other clubs in the league, Boro can’t really point their finger, as let’s face it, the club squandered their massive budgetary advantage on too many attacking players that just weren’t fit for purpose. It may prove to be the most costly of mistakes if Boro miss out this season but the team have scored three goals in their last three Riverside outings and Wolves may still be mindful that their last trip away to Villa ended in a 4-1 defeat.

Middlesbrough		Wolves
Tony Pulis		Nuno Espirito Santo
P38 – W18 – D8 – L12 – F54 – A36		P38 – W25 – D7 – L6 – F69 – A33
Position Points Points per game Projected points	6th 62 1.6 75	Position Points Points per game Projected points	1st 82 2.2 99
Last 6 Games Brentford (A) Barnsley (H) Birmingham (A) Leeds (H) Sunderland (A) Hull (H)	F-T (H-T) 1:1 (1:1) D 3:1 (2:0) W 1:0 (1:0) W 3:0 (2:0) W 3:3 (0:1) D 3:1 (2:1) W	Last 6 Games Burton (H) Reading (H) Aston Villa (A) Leeds (A) Fulham (A) Norwich (H)	F-T (H-T) 3:1 (2:1) W 3:0 (1:0) W 1:4 (1:1) L 3:0 (2:0) W 0:2 (0:1) L 2:2 (2:1) D

The big bad Wolves have been facing howls of protest from some quarters, mainly in West Yorkshire area, over claims that they’ve blown the house down when it comes to fair competition. Following their 3-0 home defeat to the leaders at the beginning of March, Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani sent a frustrated post-match Donald-style Tweet that questioned the legality of the link-up between Wolves and so-called super-agent Jorge Mendes. He complained: “Not legal and fair to let one team owned by a fund whom has shares in the biggest players’ agency with evident benefits (top European clubs giving players with options to buy… why the other 23 teams can’t have the same treatment?)”.

The Leeds owner has not been alone in raising the issue of the complex arrangement between the Wolves owners, Jorge Mendes, their manager and some of the players. In the summer of 2016, Chinese investment group Fosun International acquired Wolves via a British Virgin Islands-registered holding company for an estimated £45m, with Fosun’s chairman Guo Guangchang having an estimated personal fortune of over $6bn. It was reported in The Independent newspaper that a few months earlier Mendes had sold a 20 per cent stake in his world-famous Gestifute agency, through which he operates, to a company called Foyo Culture and Entertainment – which is in fact a subsidiary of Fosun and this deal was announced as part of a major partnership between Mendes and Fosun.

After Wolves was acquired, Mendes was brought in as an “adviser on transfer dealings” and the subsequent view on the deal by the FA was that the formal ties between Fosun and Gestifute were considered to be so minor that they were not enough to represent a ‘conflict of interest’ under their rules. Incidentally, those FA regulations in the section relating to conflicts of interest state that intermediary organisations “shall not have an interest in a club”, and that a club “shall not have any interest in the business or affairs of an intermediary’s organisation.” – so hard to make much sense of that ruling.

In addition, current Wolves head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has been represented by Mendes for over 20 years since his playing days, as too were many of the players signed, including £15.8m record signing Ruben Neves and on-loan Atletico Madrid forward Diogo Jota. David Conn wrote in the Guardian about the transfer dealings last season after the takeover by Fosun that Mendes influence was clearly evident in some of those signings, including a then club record £7m paid to Monaco, for the Portugal midfielder Ivan Cavaleiro. He also observed that the FA now publish an annual list of ‘intermediaries’ involved in transfer deals and it stated Carlos Osório de Castro, a lawyer based in Portugal acted for the player, with Valdir Cardoso, a Portuguese agent understood to work for Gestifute, representing the club. In January, Wolves then paid Monaco £13m for the Portuguese midfield player Helder Costa, which listed the same two intermediaries Osório de Castro and Costa on the deal.

David Conn added that Carlos Osório de Castro is believed to have acted as Gestifute’s lawyer for many years, though the Guardian were told by them that they don’t comment on business undertaken for their clients. The subsequent arrival of fellow Portuguese player, João Teixeira was listed as having no agent but Wolves had Andy Quinn, a director of Gestifute International based in Ireland, acting for them. However, the Portuguese defender Silvio, who signed from Atlético Madrid, was not listed in the FA document so the agents on that deal have not been publicly disclosed. In all 12 players were brought in 2016-17 and Wolves finished in 15th place under Paul Lambert, who subsequently left the club. Wolves stated that they only paid £1.25m in agents fees last season and that was below the average. They also claimed Mendes was an adviser to the owners, in the same way as many other agents and influential figures within football are – the club have signed players within his portfolio as well as players from other intermediaries.

Of course there is a danger that people can get drawn into the hype that if you want to be successful then you need to enlist the services of the likes of Jorge Mendes. Perhaps the Leeds United owner was simply trying to deflect criticism from his club’s own short-comings, which have seen Leeds season take a nose-dive after looking like possible promotion contenders. Granted Wolves may have some good players that are only at the club thanks to their spending power and contacts to Mendes, but let’s not build them up into some kind of ‘Invincibles’. Having good players is certainly not a hindrance, but they got where they are by also playing as a team and forming a winning mentality – this is also the task of Tony Pulis and he has 8 games left to prove Boro can have a shot at the play-offs. After that it will be down to who performs on the day and Boro’s cause will be greatly improved if they manage to see off the current leaders to continue the recent momentum with their six-game unbeaten run.

So will Boro silence the doubting Thomases who are still unsure that their season has been resurrected by new saviour Tony Pulis? Or will the presence of the ‘Espirito Santo’ and his team of actual league smashers prove to be a heavy cross to bear as Boro are left feeling stigmatised by their own failure? As usual your predictions on score, scorers and team selection – plus will Boro continue their three-game record of scoring three goals at the Riverside?

So who is Jorge Mendes?

Mendes was a budding professional footballer who had to abandon his dream in his early twenties after being rejected by several Portuguese clubs. He was looking for a new career and after the less than glamorous job of running a video rental shop, tried his hand at being a DJ before opening a nightclub in the small town of Caminha on the north-west border of Portugal, which was famous for hosting one of the country’s oldest rock festivals. Then in 1996 Mendes apparently had a chance meeting at a bar in the historic town of Guimarães with a goalkeeper who played for the local club Vitória and he agreed to let Mendes become his agent.

That player was none other than current Wolves manager Nuno Espírito Santo and Mendes brokered his first deal in football as Nuno joined Spanish side Deportivo de La Coruña on a five-year contract, although he only actually made 4 appearances and spent much of his time out on loan. Incidentally, the town of Guimarães where they met was known as the birthplace of the Portuguese nationality as it is believed that Portugal’s first King, Afonso Henriques, was born there in the beginning of the 12th century – rather appropriate for a man who was to become king of all agents.

Perhaps the key to Mendes success was that he quite early made the decision to target young promising players and has been hailed as someone with a brilliant eye for talented players, who scouts players and is quick to sign up those who catch his eye. He was a frequent visitor to the soccer schools and youth teams and spotted a young Cristiano Ronaldo and quickly signed him up. Mendes also reportedly learned the importance of being straight-forward and loyal to his clients when he witnessed the fall of the number one agent in Portugal, Jose Veiga, who’s influence waned after he fell out with Porto over the sale of midfielder Sergio Conceicao to Lazio, leaving him out in the cold with the most lucrative Portuguese club to do business with.

The decline of Veiga left Mendes as the go-to agent in Portugal and seemingly nobody left the country without Mendes having a hand in the deal. Mendes’s first major international deal was Hugo Viana’s move from Sporting Lisbon to Newcastle for around £8.5m in 2002 and a year later he brokered the £12m move of the teenage Ronaldo to Man Utd. His next big deal came in 2004, when he stepped in and negotiated José Mourinho’s move from Porto to manage Chelsea – Mourinho’s agent had lined up a move Liverpool but Mendes cut a deal with the Israeli super-agent Pini Zahavi, who was acting for Chelsea to try and bring the Special One to Stamford Bridge instead. This deal established Mendes’s importance and every Portuguese player that followed Mourinho to Chelsea became a client of Mendes – including Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, Tiago and Maniche. with Mendes being paid by Chelsea to act for the player and for the club.

Those who are represented by Mendes argue that he offers a very personalised service and goes that extra mile to take care of their needs – though no doubt what they are also getting is his leverage in being able to squeeze out the maximum return on deals. When Mourinho left Chelsea for Inter Milan in 2008 it made him the highest paid coach in the world and his subsequent move to Real Madrid netted Jose a four-year contract worth £40m. Mendes also secured the deal that saw Scolari to move to Chelsea on a three-year contract worth around £6m – which was also rewarded by Scolari by allowing Mendes privileged access to the Portugal national team’s hotel during the Euro 2008 tournament so he could plot his players next moves.

In 2009, Mendes handled the £80m record transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Man Utd to Real Madrid and then in 2011 brokered three deals to Monaco worth £120m for James Rodríguez, Falcao and Moutinho. Mendes then ‘earned’ himself around £30m in 2014 when he saw through four big money deals for James Rodríguez again who went to Real Madrid, Ángel Di María who left Madrid for Man Utd, Diego Costa from Atlético Madrid to Chelsea and Porto defender Mangala who joined Man City. The figures involved in those 8 deals add up to around £400m and those are just but a few – in addition, it’s been assessed that Mendes was responsible for nearly 70 per cent of all players transferred from Portugal over a ten year period between 2001-2010 with deals from the big three of Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon amounting to nearly €550m alone.

It seems if you want to get ahead then it helps to have Jorge Mendes behind you and it’s probably no coincidence that England has seen a recent influx of Portuguese managers with contacts to the super-agent. Marco Silva, who recently managed both Hull and Watford is represented by Mendes, with fellow Portuguese manager Carlos Carvalhal also enlisting the help of Mendes in the January transfer window to bolster his squad, though despite agreeing fees for some Mendes’s clients it appears the players themselves weren’t too keen on joining the relegation threatened club.

Third-Party Ownership

Getting paid for doing transfers was just one aspect of the business but Mendes had set up a company, GestiFute, that was also involved in part-owning the economic rights of many of his players. The name GestiFute is the short version of Gestão de Carreiras de Profissionais Desportivos, which translates as Management of Careers of Professional Sportsman – and basically did what it says on the tin. Though when we talk about ‘economic rights’ we essentially mean third-party ownership and although the FA made this illegal in 2008 following the less than transparent ownership that surrounded the Tevez and Mascherano deals to West Ham, though it was still allowed by the Portuguese Football Association, as well as in South America and some other countries.

GestiFute was also involved in part-owning the economic rights of a number of their players and part of these were sometimes sold on. For example, Porto bought 20 per cent of Brazilian-born Portuguese professional footballer Deco’s rights from GestiFute in exchange for €2.25m million, plus 5 per cent of the economic rights for Ricardo Carvalho, 10 per cent of Benni McCarthy’s rights and then a further 15 per cent of Deco’s economic rights €1.25m. It meant that Mendes could generate cash from his players without even selling them, which is especially useful if clubs had players that were on long contracts.

In addition, Mendes also bought the economic rights off his clients too and this proved particularly lucrative in the case of Bebé in a move to Man Utd Mendes received in addition to his nearly €1m agent’s fee, €2.7m from the €9m deal as part of the economic rights. Again, David Conn had also investigated this deal and discovered Bebé was playing in the Portugues third tier until his agent got him a free transfer move to Primeira Liga club Vitória de Guimarães. Before the season has even began, Bebé sacked his agent and joined Mendes, who also puchased 30 per cent of his economic rights for just €100,000 and reportedly inserted a €9m release clause in his contract.

Stories appeared in the Spanish press that Mourinho was keen on buying Bebé, which then apparently forced Ferguson into a quick decision to buy – just two days after Bebé had joined Mendes. In fact Bebé only actually made two league appearances for Man Utd before being sent out on loan and Alex Ferguson admitted he had never seen him play but reportedly bought him on the recommendation of his former Portuguese assistant Carlos Queiroz, who was also a client of Mendes and at that time was coach of the Portugal national team. Incidentally, Queiroz’s relationship with United had been important in the transfers of Anderson and Nani in 2007. Indeed, unspecified aspects of the deal were investigated by the Lisbon anti-corruption unit but ultimately nothing ever came from it.

Nevertheless, third-party ownership allows investors to receive part or all of the financial rights owed to the player from transfer fees or contract negotiation fees. These investors can be anyone from a football agent, company or even hedge-fund. We’ve seen in the past that clubs often don’t receive the lion’s share of big transfers as others get their slice of the action. The concept was often used in countries like Brazil and Argentina to encourage investors to pay for the training and accommodation of young players on the promise of getting a return in future transfer deals. However the problem then becomes that players are moved around or parked until their value increases so that the ‘investors’ get a bigger return on their investment and often the player becomes just a commodity, who is encouraged move around and doesn’t personally financially benefit from the moves.

Our man David Conn also did an investigative piece in 2014 for the Guardian on plans by Mendes and Peter Kenyon to raise €85m to buy stakes in footballers via a Gibraltar tax haven for a fund registered in the tax haven of Jersey. The Guardian were shown a prospectus in which Mendes’s Gestifute agency and Kenyon’s company, Opto, are described as advisers to the fund, helping to identify players and make “partnerships” with “development clubs” in Spain and Portugal, and using their “relationships” with clubs in the “Big 10”. All sounds none specific, but it suggests the fund will do substantial business with them, buying stakes in players who will then be sold on, at a substantial profit to the investors. The plan is for the fund to advance the money to an Irish-registered company, which will buy the stakes in players.

The document says of Mendes and Kenyon that they have “developed many relationships throughout the football community. By leveraging these relationships, Peter Kenyon and Jorge Mendes have demonstrated a proven track record in brokering football Transfers” – Conn was unsure what ‘leveraging’ meant but it seemed to imply they would be able exert some kind of influence on which players were bought and sold. In addition, the article claims the document lists four other funds investing in third-party ownership of players which it says Kenyon and Mendes have advised – the Guardian claimed these were Jersey-listed partnerships and that Chelsea strongly appear to be involved in one of these funds. The document also claimed that Mendes may act as the player’s agent and may be remunerated independently in that capacity.

Conn argued that was likely in breach of FIFA regulations on agents, which stated: “Players’ agents shall avoid all conflicts of interest in the course of their activity.” and that FIFA “…imposes an obligation on clubs not to pay any part of a transfer fee to a player’s agent, and specifically prohibits the agent “owning any interest in any transfer compensation or future transfer value of a player”. The Guardian raised their concerns with FIFA but a spokeswoman only said: “We cannot provide comments based on a hypothetical situation. The disciplinary committee decides on a matter after analysis of all the specific circumstances pertaining to a case.” David Conn noted that FIFA has never brought any proceedings against any club or person in relation to third-party ownership funds.

In May 2015, FIFA banned third-party ownership, and specifically prohibited either clubs or players from entering into economic rights agreements with third-party investors. The European Parliament also announced a similar ban in sports, after raising concerns over the integrity of competitions as there was a risk players could be encouraged into criminal activities such as match fixing by unscrupulous third-party owners.

So is this the end of investors and third-party ownership? You would think so, but cast your mind back to England’s most successful manager (on paper) with a 100 per cent record. Yes, Big Sam Allardyce, who after one game and one win was shown the door by the FA after he was caught on camera by undercover reporters boasting to a bogus Far East business consortium how they could circumvent FA rules which prohibit third parties “owning” players. Over the course of two meetings Allardyce told the fictitious businessmen that it was “not a problem” to bypass the rules introduced by his employers. Big Sam added he knew of certain agents who were “doing it all the time” and claimed “You can still get around it. I mean obviously the big money’s here.”

So is it common knowledge in the game that players are still owned by third-parties? Perhaps the regulators are just not able to follow the money in a world where clubs, agents and players are often paid and operate through offshore holding companies – though like most things finding the proof is another matter and anyone making unsubstantiated claims will no doubt receive a letter from the expensive lawyers acting on behalf of their clients. It seems from what has happened in the past there is little will on behalf of the various footballing regulators, or perhaps even expertise, to investigate such matters.

An Agent for Owners too?

As well as representing an ever-growing list of the best players and top managers, Mendes has been also been involved in finding new super-rich owners for clubs too. In 2014, Mendes was instrumental in the takeover by Singapore businessman Peter Lim of a Valencia club struggling with €350m debts. Lim was the son of a fishmonger who grew up in a cramped two-bedroom apartment with six siblings, who went on to study accountancy at the University of Western Australia. He made his money after investing in an Indonesian Palm Oil start-up company that he eventually ended up taking over with a $10m loan before selling his stake for a staggering $1.5bn after the demand for palm oil in US food products rocketed. Lim had previously tried to buy Liverpool but failed and his preference was to invest in English football but was brought instead to Valencia by Mendes.

Mendes then brought in his old client Nuno Espirito Santo as manager, which had apparently been a condition of the takeover and the club were soon signing players from Mendes’s portfolio. Interestingly, Lim also acquired the image rights for Cristiano Ronaldo and then bought a 50 per cent stake in Salford City, which is co-owned by Giggs, Scholes, Butt and the Neville brothers. After a poor start to the 2015-16 season Nuno was dismissed and Lim’s co-owner of Salford, Gary Neville, was surprisingly installed as manager but was sacked just four months later after recording the lowest ever number of wins for a Valencia manager with 3 from 16 games. Valencia under Lim initially struggled and even flirted with relegation amid rumours that the new owner wished to sell the club – though six managers appointed in a little over two years with unrest behind the scenes can’t have helped the club.

It was claimed in Spanish newspaper El Pais that it used to be that “shambolic Valencia were regarded by some as a clearing house for players on the books of agent Jorge Mendes” – with one journalist, Aitor Lagunas, who writes for a Spanish football magazine saying “Valencia was seen as one of the showrooms for Jorge Mendes in European football. The way of Valencia used to be accept any kind of player with a Jorge Mendes profile.” He added that last summer was the other way around with new manager Marcelino sending the club’s owner Peter Lim to PSG and telling him: “Don’t come back without Goncalo Guedes. From all the players of Jorge Mendes, I want him.” And that is what happened – Guedes has been regarded by many as the player of the season in Spain and now Valencia are currently in fourth place, just one point behind Real Madrid.

Mendes also has had a long-standing influence at Monaco, where one of his clients the Portuguese coach Leonardo Jardim has been the manager since 2014. Monaco were taken over by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev in late 2011, who appointed Jose Mourinho’s former technical scout at Real Madrid, Luis Campos, as Sporting Director in 2013. Campos was also a client of Mendes and it was he who appointed Jardim and Monaco were soon signing players from Mendes’s portfolio too – including James Rodríguez, Falcao and Moutinho. Another club where Mendes has influence is Zenit St Petersburg through his relationship with another Russian, Suleiman Kerimov, who was a major stakeholder in Gazprom, which bought Zenit in 2005 and both had good links with Roman Abramovich at Chelsea. In 2014, one of Mendes’s clients and a Mourinho former technical scout at Chelsea, Andre Villas-Boas, was installed as manager at Zenit – with more players from his Gestifute agency soon following such as Bruno Alves.

Opening Doors

Clearly Mendes now has influence at many clubs and he has many of his clients either operating as managers or directors of football, who are subsequently signing players from the portfolio of his Gestifute agency. Indeed, he now even has business links with the billionaire owners of some clubs, with Wolves being the obvious example who are quite open in having invested in his agency. When an individual is involved all the way down the chain from owner, manager and player you would think that the footballing regulators would see that as a conflict of interest but they seemingly have little interest in pursuing the matter. It’s quite possible that Mendes may in the future or already has been involved in a deal where both clubs and both managers, along with the player are all his clients. In such a case, what is the point in any of them being represented by someone who is supposed to act in the best interests of them as a client?

Perhaps it’s a case of nobody complaining because in the end everybody wins, one club gets the player they sought, the manager strengthens his team and the player gets a good contract – the other side offload a player and get paid a good return. Even when Mel Stein, chairman of the Association of Football Agents in England, who argued that agents can represent a player and be a broker in his transfer if efforts are made to avoid a conflict, he also declared “What is not acceptable is seeking to earn money from both ends of a transfer without ensuring that there is no conflict” – though Just how you can ensure there is no conflict of interest in such deals is hard to imagine. Of course the main winner is probably the man in the middle who gets another slice of the action for simply moving one of his assets from one of his clients to another and often banks a seven figure sum for ‘brokering’ the deal. In the end it’s not clear who is representing who – do the ‘clients’ represent the agency or does the agent still represent his clients?

The other issue that the Leeds owner alluded to was that it was not a level playing field because Wolves had access to an agency that controlled some of the top players at bigger clubs that were perhaps available at ‘mates rates’ and were out of reach for clubs who were not in the exclusive circle. It’s perhaps possible that if such agencies control a large group of players then for others to gain access to them may depend on accepting conditions dictated on the terms of these powerful operators. We shouldn’t forget that Steve Gibson also forged a relationship with Peter Kenyon in 2013 and gave the reason that “I’ve known Peter for almost 20 years… It’s of huge benefit that everyone in football takes Peter Kenyon’s call.” before adding “His contact book is extensive and he has given us a route to the most powerful agent in world football in Jorge Mendes”.

It was through those contacts that Boro appointed Aitor Karanka, who was one of Mendes’s clients and Gibson also announced “We’ve got two Academy teams in Madrid as we speak and we’ve built up other links that we’re not able to announce. We see ourselves being part of a three or four-club group that will help each other.” There has been little to suggest Boro’s relationship with Mendes proved to be of major benefit in terms of transfer deals and perhaps the most notable deal signed from his portfolio was goalkeeper Victor Valdes. Negredo was a player who arrived from Valencia, where Mendes had a strong influence, but was not represented by him and had subsequently fallen out of favour at the Spanish club after questioning Nuno’s tactics – his £28m signing from Man City was triggered before Mendes’s time and the club were keen to offload his hefty wage packet.

Perhaps Boro are not big enough fish for the likes of Mendes who seems more keen on keeping company with the billionaires of Asia and Russia, along with their deep-pocketed clubs. Having asked Peter Kenyon as a “very successful man” to give his “outsider’s view” and “come and look at everything and say where he thought we could improve”, Gibson seems to have now asked a similar question of Tony Pulis, who will no doubt have given his no-nonsense opinion on what Boro need to do if they want to compete in a football world where money now talks in much louder numbers than Steve Gibson’s northern dulcet tones.

Money is Power

In conclusion, Jorge Mendes has been at the centre of many of the big money deals in football for over 15 years and has an ever-growing list of clients that either own, manage, sanction transfers or play for some of the biggest clubs in Europe. Football has long since become a big-money industry where transfer deals are now being measured in the hundred million pound bracket and new owners and investors are frequently billionaires. Indeed, many of those involved in football ownership often appear to let their hearts rule their heads and regularly make poor, sometimes foolish decisions in the fear of missing out or possibly let their vanity get the better of them. It’s probably easy to exploit such people and it may be no surprise that FIFA have not shown much interest in ensuring that everything is seen to operate as transparently as we may expect, after all their record in matters such as integrity is not exactly setting an example.

We’ve also seen in recent years that those who regulate the game are also busy trying to extract large amounts of cash from very rich people – The Football League have themselves been courting the same billionaires businessmen of Asia in search of investors, such as Mr Caraboa and the subsequent bizarre EFL Cup draws aimed at courting rich Asian businessmen. The FA have also deemed that billionaire owners of clubs, such as Wolves, have no conflict of interest by investing in a football agency that controls the players they are buying. Even the PFA Chief Executive, Gordon Taylor, awarded himself a £2.2m pay rise last year to reflect the belief that you’re nobody in football unless you can demonstrate your credentials through the size of your wedge. Football is probably just a more public face of what is happening in the wider world of business – very rich and powerful people now control all aspects of our lives with governments and regulators appearing either unable or unwilling to intervene.

Mendes is probably just the equivalent of a multinational company like Google or Facebook, which gradually become more powerful by giving everyone what they want until eventually they control a huge chunk of the market. So we shouldn’t be surprised that men like Jorge Mendes exist, it’s just the inevitable consequence of a super-heated market that only has light-touch regulation where ultimately the powerful just become richer and more powerful as they operate on the edge of the rules. Mendes may even be a nice guy, as many of his clients profess, who is just able to do things better than others in the same way Mark Zuckerberg apparently is. The problems come when others start to see opportunities to go a step too far as we have seen with Cambridge Analytica – by which time it’s too late for the regulators as the consequences have already happened.

Anglo-Portuguese relations: the story
of the oldest alliance in the world

As an added bonus this week after some tangential research – here is a short historical meandering look at how the start of Anglo-Portuguese relations helped to ensure that Portugal is not just a region of Spain and whether there are any tenuous parallels to be scribbled between that and the UK’s exit from the European Union.

While you’ve already heard that the surname of Nuno Espirito Santa translates as ‘Holy Spirit’, his first name Nuno is quite a popular name given to boys in Portugal as it is likely derived from the important historical figure of General Nuno Álvares Pereira, who played a pivotal role in the country’s history. General Nuno was instrumental in seeing off the Kingdom of Castile (the precursor to what is now Spain) who invaded in 1385 during the battle between the rival camps for the contested Portuguese throne. It was a struggle that divided a country between those who wanted to join the wider alliance of an Iberian Kingdom and those who wanted to remain an independent country – unfortunately there were no referendums back then and sword was mightier than the pen when it came to making decisions.

The Portuguese struggle for independence is a somewhat complicated story that almost makes Brexit sound civilised. It involved a battle between the southern regions who wanted to remain independent of Castile and those to the north that sought to have Portugal annexed into a greater Iberian power. The situation arose after King Fernando heard the drums calling him to leave this mortal coil and left Portugal without a male heir – he’d earlier married off his only daughter Beatrice to King John I of Castile, which was viewed as an attempt to make Portugal a protectorate and deter the English from invading the Iberian peninsula. However, the prospect of being swallowed up into a greater Castile lead to an uprising in Lisbon, who backed Fernando’s step-brother John for the throne instead.

To add to the confusion both pretenders to the throne were called John – John, Duke of Valencia (who we are also confusingly told should not be confused with John of Castile, Lord of Valencia) and Fernando’s step-brother John, Great Master of Aviz (not an early horse rental organisation but a monastic military order that emulated the Knights Templar). Aviz John was the great hope for those who wanted to remain independent and is often referred to in Portugal as ‘the Good’, ‘the Great’ or even by the rather unforgettable catchy title ‘of Happy Memory’ – though to add balance he’s sometimes also referred to as ‘the Bastard’ instead, especially in Spain. I suspect that latter title is where similarities with Nigel Farage end, who I presume has been called far worse both in Europe and the UK, but nevertheless John was someone who was definitely in the ‘We want our country back’ tradition.

The story took another twist with the arrival of another John – this time it was John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and father of the future King Henry IV – who landed in Galicia to stake his claim to crown of Castile (his second wife Constance was heir apparent) with help from Portugual but failed to get the backing of Castilian nobility and instead returned to England after being paid off by a rival claimant. Although he did leave his daughter behind, not in the absent-minded David Cameron sense after a decent Sunday lunchtime session, but in order to seal the Anglo-Portuguese alliance with a marriage to the newly crowned John I of Portugal and the Algarve (who was formerly known as the Great Master of Aviz).

It’s probably worth noting that John of Gaunt (or Ghent as it’s now known) is perhaps responsible for many of the Royal houses in Europe through the descendants of his children. Although he was the third son of the Plantagenet King Edward III and never became king himself his children led to the three houses of Lancaster, York and Tudor and all subsequent monarchs of England since 1603. In addition his daughter Catherine married into the Castile Royal House, from which all monarchs of Castile and Spain are descended, plus all subsequent monarchs of Portugal are descended through his daughter Philippa – in addition, so too is the House of Habsburg descended from his children.

This union between John of Gaunt’s daughter and King John I spawned a generation of highly educated princes known as the “Illustrious Generation”, who led Portugal into its golden era of great explorers and the ‘Age of Discovery’ as the lands from Africa, South America, India and China were successfully navigated by a succession of great sailors such as Vasco da Gama who circumnavigated Africa and reached India. Incidentally, this Anglo-Portuguese Alliance that was ratified as the Treaty of Windsor in 1386 is the oldest alliance in the World and still exists today with neither country ever fighting on opposing sides – even when Portugal was absorbed into the Iberian Union in the late 16th century many of the deposed Portuguese Royal House fought with the UK in the Anglo-Spanish war.

Although, it’s mainly thanks to Nuno Álvares Pereira that Portugal remains a separate country and is not just a western province of Spain – for his efforts, Nuno was bestowed many titles and had great wealth but went on to build numerous churches and monasteries before giving his wealth away and joining the Carmelite order of monks following the death of his wife. He actually died on Easter Sunday in 1431 and was later beatified in 1918 by Pope Benedict XV.

Whether any parallels can be drawn between the quest for Portuguese independence and Brexit is another matter entirely. Whilst Lisbon survived a siege early in the conflict thanks to England sending four ships laden with food (though only one got through), the current British Government appears to have been under siege since it triggered Article 50. The country is still divided on the issue and neither side on the Brexit argument has subsequently been convinced by the other that they made the right decision.

It seems the argument will continue to be conducted by attempting to scare the other side into submission or just hoping it will go away in order to return to a quiet life. The latest surreal stunt of throwing dead fish into the Thames by the Ukipper who shall not be named as proof that the final deal will ultimately be a stitch-up is just one in long line of Red Herrings. Perhaps the parting words of the EU in the yet to be written ‘A Hitchhikers Guide to Brexit‘ will just be unerringly similar to the Douglas Adams classic ‘So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish’ as the UK is cast adrift towards Trump’s America to make way for a European bypass…

Beneath the sustained communal triumphs and disasters of football lies something else entirely. Simon Fallaha explores the inherent individualism and egotism in “The Beautiful Game”

Let’s start with a roleplay.

You’re a centre-forward who has become accustomed to starting under a certain manager. But, most recently, things have gone awry for you.

At a time when the manager, and fans, really needed you to deliver the goods, you missed some “gilt-edged” chances in a 0-0 draw.

Despite this, you believe, quite rightly, that the dropped points weren’t entirely your fault.

You think you played as well as everyone else, and deserve a chance to put it right in the next game.

Unfortunately, you have “one of those days” at the next training session.

You miss chance after chance in training. The manager, visibly unhappy, switches you for your understudy.

The understudy, delighted to be given a chance himself, scores goal after goal, putting you to shame.

It goes without saying that the understudy and first-choice roles, as far as forwards are concerned, have been reversed by the time the next match comes around.

This is too much for you. You emotionally confront the manager about your omission.

The manager does not take kindly to being challenged. And you pay the price, remaining second choice under the manager as long as your former understudy is available for selection.

❈ ❈ ❈

How do we react to this, as fans?

Some, even most, are not inclined to be sympathetic. Especially if the manager is a hugely popular figure and the team are enjoying success as a unit, as was the case in this situation, adapted from real-life.

They will think that the centre-forward would have been better off to man up, keep schtum and deal with being benched. But how would we feel if suddenly demoted in our jobs?

Imagine your whole life having a point leading up to a certain time because a manager, or if you’re freelance, a client, depends on you, and then circumstance unexpectedly intervenes to reduce your privileges or remove them from you entirely.

The reality of football is that a player is expected to put on the appropriate face for the sake of public unity. It is common for a dropped footballer, for example, to appear as sad as everyone else after a defeat while smiling on the inside because his own chances of a recall are enhanced.

Here, the frequently promoted and celebrated myth of the team ethic trumping everything else is thoroughly debunked – it is the pursuit of personal success and greatness that drives football. That’s football’s beauty and its beast – passionate entertainment and painful egotism at once.

What we see, or what we choose to see, is all there is. If a player can’t make the transition from a small club, where he felt loved, to a better-paid but more demanding role at a bigger club, we tend not to see his personal struggles. We only see a player not succeeding like we hoped he would.

Or, in the case of Albert Adomah, not succeeding in the manner in which we wanted him to succeed. How often has an individual surrendered, or curtailed, his individuality for what, we are told, is the good of the team? Because he is not considered a big enough name or suitable enough player to lead or inspire the attack himself, he is given a clearly defined role which can be upgraded when the right time and the right player comes along.

Some would have advised him to be “professional”, to grin and bear it while Adama Traore gradually found his touch. But he had other ideas. Many will not settle for being a “commodity” just because “it is what it is” at bigger clubs, such is the value of a player enjoying his craft as well as admiring his graft. With that in mind, Adomah’s departure may have been messy, but it is understandable.

How easy it was, and I’m entirely guilty of this, for the long-distance analyst to laud the aspects of Adomah’s improving team play under Aitor Karanka, hailing the intelligent off-the-ball movement, all around commitment, organisational skills and accuracy of the passing.

How much more difficult it was for the paying fan and the player himself to have the entertainment siphoned away for the sake of professionalism.

It’s like, to another degree, comparing Romario to Andres Iniesta for their national teams. You may admire the latter’s dedication and subtly intuitive passing, but you’d have willingly paid to watch more of the former, despite his renowned laziness in training.

That is what separates the admiration of the analyst from the desires of the fan – head versus heart, rational objectivity versus emotional subjectivity. It’s what makes many a fan forum, or comments section, so interesting – multiple points of view from a series of individuals divided by opinion but united by wanting the best for their team.

The ugly side of individualism is something else entirely. Thanks to The Secret Footballer, I’ve read of instances where a manager was so much of a control freak that he wouldn’t even let the club chef cook with salt anymore. Or of a selfish captain who betrayed the rest of the squad when the club didn’t want to negotiate their bonuses, getting fully kitted out for the team photo while every other player boycotted it.

It seemed that his big moment was more important than the well being of the squad itself. They never forgave him, and as TSF said, “this lack of leadership contributed to a very tough time for the team on the pitch”.

In football, we may all want the same thing. That is to say, the best for our club and country. But we all want them in different ways. For managers regarded as cult heroes, selfishness is a common trait. If said manager resigns, or changes tactics during a game or a season, he is, in a way, admitting a weakness, because if the team’s fortunes improve, questions about why he didn’t quit or change earlier arise. It may well make him happier to stand by methods that work most of the time, so that he can be proved right and hailed as the architect of triumph. This, of course, is damaging for him. It raises insecurity and neediness. The desire to be reassured of his greatness is more important than anything. Not good.

Most seek self-assurance, not critical dissections or self-examination. And that rings true for players also. We all know that the dressing room wasn’t really a happy place to be even after the wins began to flow again at the end of 2015-16. But we needed to make it out to be, so as not to create a public veil of a mutiny not quite quelled.

❈ ❈ ❈

I started with a roleplay, so I’ll finish with one, adapted from a real-life situation and the writings of The Secret Footballer. It’s an example of how toxic the consequences of selfishness in football can be.

You are the manager. A successful manager, at that.

Not everyone agrees with your methods. Not everyone likes your manner. But, in bringing consistent success to a club starved of it for years, you have rightly earned something representing cult status in the area.

Things, however, have fallen off the rails in recent weeks. After being in control of your destiny for so long, a combination of rigid tactics and executive meddling, including the arrival of a player who doesn’t fit in with your plans, has broken the momentum of the collective you created.

Where you once seemed invincible, you are now vulnerable, and this has affected the confidence of yourself and the team. Nonetheless, you do enough to stay in touch with your end-of-season goal.

At least until it all comes to a head in an away match you are favoured to win, and dominate, but end up undeservedly losing.

An achievement that once looked a mere formality is now out of your hands.

On the surface, your lips are sealed. But inside, petulant anger is bubbling and boiling, waiting to explode in the dressing room.

There, you lay into forward-thinking players who failed to convert their chances and defenders whose positional play let you down.

You’re giving them one of the worst messages imaginable: it’s not my fault. It can’t be. If all of you had done the jobs that your huge wage packets paid you to do, we’d still be in control of our destiny.

One player is brave enough to pipe up and suggest that the strategy ought to be a bit more flexible.

Except you’re too proud to admit that you’re wrong.

So you spit your dummy out. You throw a giant wobbly. And you give the players another awful message: if that’s how you all feel, and none of you want to stand by the man who worked so hard to build the foundations for the success you’re enjoying, then I’m out of here. If all of you think managing a team is so easy, why don’t you try it?

Everyone can see you ranting childishly. But that’s what you want them to see. What you’re implying, as TSF puts it, is that “you care so much that you don’t care anymore”.

You storm out of the dressing room and find a hotel room for the night while the shell-shocked players travel back on the team coach, without you.

This wasn’t what you had in mind. You wanted the player who spoke to come running after you and tell you that he’s sorry. That it wasn’t really your fault, and that he shouldn’t have undermined your authority.

But it didn’t happen. And, as a result, you get more than a little paranoid. Your thoughts are no longer about the club, but about what the players, the staff and most importantly the chairman must now be thinking about you. The nature of the event ensures a sleepless night.

The next morning you return to the wife and kids. But the devastation, confusion and betrayal that everyone at the club who isn’t you must be feeling still isn’t a priority. Instead, you desperately wait for someone to call or text with an apology, telling you that they understood the pressure you were under. It doesn’t come.

Not for a few days anyway. By that stage, the panic, depression and frustration subside and the chairman chooses to pay a visit.

He convinces you that you must return to the training ground, and lead the team again, as we’ve all still got an important goal to reach. It doesn’t take a minute for you to shake his hand enthusiastically and tell him you’ll be right there, first thing in the morning.

Tellingly, he hasn’t apologised to you, nor has he said anything about the players feeling remorseful. All he’s said is that he wants you back.

But back at the training ground, that’s the last thing on your mind as you set out on your new mission: to remind everyone at the club of how important you are and to lead the team to their ultimate goal.

It doesn’t matter if the players are still talking about your temper tantrum, because you’re too focused on proving that if they’d kept quiet, rode the storm of your critique and accepted that wobbles happen at all clubs anyway, or something like that, all would be well.

Except things are still not well.

The team are ignoring you when they should be listening to you.

And why is this? Because, rightly, they still feel very hurt by the manner in which you deserted them after the unjust defeat. You expected apologies from them, but they’ve never heard an apology from you. Now, suddenly, you need them again? They won’t be your lackeys.

That’s their message. That becoming part of the club again must be earned. Before the previous game, for all the ups and downs, they had come to accept you as one of them. Now they can’t rely on you anymore. Your selfishness has been painfully exposed. Not understood as the momentary overreaction of a troubled soul under pressure, but as the explosive rant of someone who found that he wasn’t going to have things all his own way after all. A guy who wanted respect from everyone but respected no one.

In the direct aftermath, you do absolutely everything to make amends. The team start winning games again, you work extra hard in the office and when training, and you’re ultra nice to people and staff. You and the team achieve your ultimate goal for the season – but no one congratulates you or applauds your “recovery”, because what you’ve done since the dreaded dummy spit is everything that was expected of you as a professional anyway.

That is arguably the boundary and the price of the selfishness inherent in football.

The latest in a series of profiles and interviews, Orginal Fat Bob gives his personal view on the life and career of a footballing guest, before sitting down for a chat and asking a few questions. Our Diasboro special guest this week is Gary Pallister.

1. The Overview – the man and his career

Gary was born in Ramsgate, Kent although he has always been considered by most of us a local lad. He is one of those football players who began and ended his professional career with the Boro. When you see him strolling down Yarm High Street, or still patrolling the corridors of Middlesbrough and Manchester United, where he usually acts as a match host at their grounds, he is welcomed and greeted with smiles at every turn. Tall, greying at the temples and still handsome and athletic looking, he has the appearance, now in his early fifties, of being self-assured and a man comfortable with life. This can be evidenced when seen on Television, when he appears as a guest football summarizer on Sky Sports and other Televised Sports Channels.

He says “I didn’t come into the game until late. I was 19 when I turned pro and I hadn’t done an apprenticeship or anything like that, so I was privileged to end up having such a good career. You take it for granted at the time but, looking back now, I realise how lucky I was.”

He is always ready to laugh, and joke and he obviously loves still being in the football environment, where he can enjoy the craic with his fellow former team mates, as they playfully make digs at one another. Just like the young lads they once were and how we all remember them.

Pally was signed as a youth player from Billingham Town when spotted by the late great Willie Maddren and his management team. A fee was agreed and paid to them of a new football strip (a bargain signing OFB). I remember seeing him as a tall gangly youth and he was quickly packed off to Darlington on loan, to get used to the rough and tumble of lower league football. He came back determined to make his mark and he was helped in that, because he was to have alongside him another Boro legend, in the form of Tony Mowbray. He played as a centre-half and made the rare achievement of representing the English national side in 1988 before appearing in the top flight. He did this whilst playing in the Second Division for the Boro. I remember listening to that game on the radio, in my Managing Director’s office at work. We were surrounded by another ten keen Boro fans, eager to hear how he was doing. Well the boy done well; he was capped 22 times by England between 1988 and 1996 and I tried to see every one of them, proud that we had one of our own, playing for our Country.

Partnered by Mogga, the defensive partnership went from strength to strength and is still considered by many (including me – OFB) as one of the best that the Boro have ever had. Later that year Pally helped ‘Boro win our second successive promotion and reach the First Division, just two years after we almost went out of business. However we were relegated on the final day of the 1988–89 season. As one of the highest regarded defenders in England, his days at Ayresome Park were looking numbered as soon as Boro were relegated, but he did begin the 1989–90 season. He was still at the club in the Second Division, before his move to Manchester United was completed.

He played for Manchester United from 1989-1998, for which was then a club-record of £2.3 million for a Second Division defender. It was also the highest fee between British clubs, and the second highest fee to be paid by a British club (second only to Ian Rush’s return to Liverpool, from Juventus a year earlier).

A few eyebrows were raised when Alex Ferguson paid such an amount of money for him, but Fergie needed a centre-back to partner Steve Bruce. Pally was the only man to feature in the first 10 major trophy successes for the manager at United where he won four Premier League titles and three FA Cups.

Following a blazing row with the Manchester United boss, Gary tells how he feared his career under Sir Alex Ferguson would last just 12 months, though as we now know he survived the dressing room confrontation with Fergie as an Old Trafford novice. Speaking in a documentary to celebrate Ferguson’s 25 years at United, he reminisces about that incident and it reveals a different side of Fergie to that we think we know.

“I’ve certainly witnessed the good cop, bad cop versions of Sir Alex Ferguson. I could take you through a whole file of them! There are far too many to mention. But he does have a public persona and a private one. We all see the fiery Scotsman on TV, at loggerheads with the press, and referees, but I can tell you he is a well-balanced individual. Yes, he put the fear of God into players, but you wouldn’t last 25 years at United if that was all you were about. There is so much more to him than the facade the public get to see. His man-management is great. He’ll rip into you if you deserve it, but publicly he’ll protect his players.”

“I recall once at Anfield, when I was having a shocker and he took me off at half-time, but when I read the papers, I discovered I had an injury. He’d told the press that was why he’d substituted me.”

“But one incident that really stands out for me happened after about a season at the club. I’d joined in 1989 from Middlesbrough, for a British club record of £2.3m and it is no secret that the first few months were difficult for me.”

“In that first year it always seemed to be me, Lee Sharpe and Steve Bruce who copped for the hairdryer. But in one match he really laid into me at half-time in the dressing room. I thought he had over-stepped the mark with what he came out with and I’d had enough. He pushed me too far and I responded.”

“I had an almighty bust-up with him. I thought my United career was going to be over as a result of that. A couple of days later I was called to his office. I went there expecting to get my P45 and be told I was on my way. I entered his room and I was still full of anger and adamant I had been right. I was readying myself for another argument and to be told I was being put on the transfer list.”

“But he really took the wind out of my sails. He deflated my balloon by apologising. He said he had crossed the mark and was wrong for what he had said. I was so taken aback, I forgot to say sorry myself.”

“It was a pivotal moment in my United career, because my respect for the manager grew enormously. He was man enough to admit he was wrong. More than ever before I knew from that day on that this was a manager I could work for.”

“He has dealt with so many different personalities and nationalities and has managed to adapt from pre-Premier League days when the job was so different, to the modern-day game and how the power of the player has changed. He was an old-school style boss, but has managed to adjust. He embraced everything and took new styles on board.”

It seems unfair to point to Pally’s lack of goals, when his main job was keeping out the opposition at the other end. The two headers at Liverpool to virtually clinch the 1996/97 title for Manchester United were truly special but there was something magical about his free-kick in the final home game of the 1992/93 campaign against Blackburn, when Old Trafford celebrated ending the 26-year wait for the championship. Everybody was willing him to get off the mark for the season and his perfectly-placed set-piece proved he was no ordinary centre-half and that he had skill in abundance.

By the time of his departure from Old Trafford after nine years, he was the only player to have collected winner’s medals in all of the club’s successes under Alex Ferguson’s management, and second only to Brian McClair (who left United at the same time) he was the club’s longest serving player.

Pally came back to the Boro for £2.5million, signed by Bryan Robson who had played alongside him until 1994. The fee was actually more than the money Manchester United had paid for him nine years earlier in July 1998. He scored once against Southampton in 55 League appearances, as well as appearing in two FA Cup matches and four League Cup matches.

His final playing season, in which we finished 14th in the table, was season 2000–01. He retired from playing due to a succession of injuries on 4 July 2001, at the age of 36. This was just three weeks after the appointment of Steve McClaren as our new manager. I was always grateful that I saw him play and he talks to us now.

2. The Interview – a quick chat

OFB: What year did you join Boro as a professional footballer?

GP: I joined the boro in 1984.

OFB: Where did you stay? Did you rent, or did you live in digs?

GP: I was living with my parents in Norton, so I didn’t have to live in digs.

OFB: Who was your favourite Boro player and others that you have played with?

GP: The best Boro players I played with were Alan Boksic and Gazza.

OFB: Who were the best and worst trainers in the team?

GP: The best trainers in the Boro team were Curtis Fleming and Gary Hamilton.

OFB: When did the team travel for away games, how did they get there, by bus or by train?

GP: It was usually the day before and nearly always by bus.

OFB: How many players usually travelled and did the Directors travel with you?

GP: In my first spell it would be a squad of 15 then about 18 in my 2nd spell, no Directors came with us.

OFB: Did you have nice hotels or was it just bed and breakfast?

GP: It was always a decent hotel that we stayed in.

OFB: Who did you room with for away matches?

GP: During my first spell with the club it was Bernie Slaven, then Colin Cooper in my 2nd spell.

OFB: Who was the joker in the team?

GP: First it was probably Slav, then it was Gazza.

OFB: Can you tell us any amusing anecdotes or pranks that were played?

GP: None that I could tell publicly!

OFB: Whose boots did you clean as an apprentice and who cleaned yours?

GP: I was never an apprentice, so I never had to clean any boots.

OFB: Did you try and emulate your style of play, on any individual player who played in your position?

GP: Alan Hansen

OFB: What was your most memorable game, your own individual performance and best experience with the fans?

GP: The Chelsea play-off game in 1988 at Stamford Bridge

OFB: What was your worst game or experience and why?

GP: I suppose it has to be the Leicester game, the last game of the season in 1988 when we failed to win the game and get automatic promotion.

OFB: Is there a game that you wished you had played in, either for Boro or another team?

GP: The 1999 European cup final for United.

OFB: Who was in your opinion the best manager that Boro have ever had?

GP: Jack Charlton.

OFB: Who was the manager that had the greatest influence on your career and why?

GP: Willie Madren, he took me under his wing and pushed me to be a success.

OFB: Which opposing team and which player did you fear playing against?

GP: I used to hate playing at Plough Lane, home of Wimbledon and never really feared playing against anyone.

OFB: Which opposing team and which player did you like playing against?

GP: I liked playing at Anfield, it was always the biggest test for me.

OFB: Who is your favourite Boro player of all time and why?

GP: Willie Maddren, because he believed in me.

OFB: Who is your current favourite Boro player and why?

GP: Ben Gibson, I like the way he’s developing as a leader of the team.

OFB: How do you think the match day has changed from the time that you played professional football to the present day?

GP: I Think the pitches have changed dramatically, it’s so much better to play good football on now.

OFB: If you could be a fly on the wall, is there any dressing room you would wish to eavesdrop on?

GP: Pep Guardiola at Man City.

OFB: Do you have any regrets in your career, or missed opportunities?

GP: It’s hard to have any regrets, when I was so fortunate to have the career that I did have.

OFB: Do you still follow the Boro and their results

GP: Yeh, I go to most of the home games.

OFB: Whereabouts in the Country do you live these days and what do you do?

GP: I still live on Teesside in Yarm (He is also a TV Pundit – OFB)

OFB: Whom have you made a lifelong friend through football?

GP: Slav, Mogga, Brucey.

OFB: Finally, if you hadn’t had a professional career as a footballer, what do you think you would have done as a career?

GP: Ha Ha, not got a clue, probably something involving sport.

OFB: A huge thank you Gary, for taking the time to talk to Diasboro and our readers.

Brentford		Middlesbrough
Macleod ▮ Sawyers	34′ 90′ + 1	Adama	21′
Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	68% 24  6  9 10	Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	32%  9  4  4 19

Randolph the red nosed Saviour!

The Bees have been swarming around the periphery of the play off places for a while now and despite some recent setbacks with two consecutive losses are more than capable of gate crashing the party despite being eight points adrift before this afternoon’s game. A defeat for them would just about finish their hopes for another season but a win would catapult them back into the mix so there was a huge amount at stake for both sides with no quarter expected and given.

Injuries had left the West Londoners a little depleted of late as squad depth starts to play a major part in the run up to the season’s finale. Bee’s Defenders were a scarce commodity in midweek when they lost to Cardiff with none at all spare on their bench. Hopefully Boro would be able to take advantage especially with the scintillating form of Paddy and Adama of late. Dean Smith was without four of his squad on Tuesday night with Andreas Bjelland, Florian Jozefzoon and Rico Henry all missing through injury. The fourth, Henrik Dalsgaard was in attendance at the local maternity ward awaiting the birth of his child. The Bee’s Boss however expected that both Jozefzoon and Dalsgaard would be back today to boost things against Boro but that Bjelland and Henry would still be absent. Alan Judge and Lewis Macleod were both easing their way back from long term layoffs and if available their fitness levels might be questionable.

For TP Dani Ayala had picked up a groin strain and had missed training all week but Grant was back giving him a conundrum as to who to pick centrally as Clayts has filled in well in his absence. Besic and Bamford were both carrying niggles last weekend but hopefully not having a Tuesday night fixture may have sorted them. Fabio appears to be fit again so apart from Ayala only long termer Gestede was definitely unavailable. The team news at Griffin Park revealed that Dalsgaard and Jozefzoon both made the Bees starting line-up as expected along with MacLeod and Judge making the bench. Boro were unchanged from Barnsley with Ayala passing a late fitness test and the only change being Grant in for Marvin Johnson on the bench.

The sides tentatively entered the Griffin Park pitch initially looking more concerned about the blustery icy cold than their opponent’s abilities. The game perhaps dictated by the meteorological influences rather than game plans started like two boxers dancing around the ring, weighing up their opponent before trying to land and serious blows. The first real action occurred in the 10th minute when Ben saved our blushes followed by another attempt into the box a moment later which was cleared by a half fit Ayala.

Brentford should have taken the lead from close range as a free kick was delivered into the Boro box but fortunately Neal Maupay sliced his shot over from just outside the 6 yard box. Boro then broke away down the other end with Adama sprinting clear before being cynically chopped down by Woods receiving a yellow for his troubles. On twenty minutes Stewy got a great ball in for Howson who couldn’t quite get the ball under control and Bentley managed to push the effort out for a Boro Corner. From that Corner it was Brentford’s turn and broke down the opposite end only for the ball to come straight back up to Stewy who grappled past two defenders feeding Adama who tracked across the 18 yard box losing his marker and smashing the ball home from the “D” to put Boro1-0 up against the run of play. That’s what Adama gives us away from home, that ability to break and turn defence into attack but now under Tony Pulis the lad now has an end product.

Not long after Adama unleashed another effort causing Bentley to pull off a good save. Brentford needing to get a result from this game now pushed up with even greater gusto. A Besic intervention conceded the Bee’s first corner of the game but the poor execution never troubled our defence. Clayts clattered awkwardly into Mokotjo to pick up a yellow as Brentford were trying to get their heads clear and take the game to Boro who were now characteristically sitting deep.

After a Bamford effort Brentford again then quickly turned taking the game back to Boro resulting in Macleod putting the ball past Randolph into the bottom right hand corner after some suspect defending. A few harsh words were exchanged between those in white shirts mainly Gibson, Clayton and Besic. Mo Besic may only be here on loan but he clearly takes his football very seriously and was particularly unhappy at the manner at which his side was undone and with very good reason.

The warning signs had been there as only five minutes previously Randolph had to tip an effort over the bar from the same player. Boro were now being pulled all over and Pulis was extremely animated at what he was witnessing in the coaching area. Brentford were moving the ball around quickly with TP yelling instructions onto the pitch to get closer, anticipate and cut out the slick build ups from the wide areas.

At this stage Boro needed the half time whistle to go as they were on the ropes. Everything cleared up the pitch was being picked off with the Bees getting straight back at Boro, clearly now feeling they were capable of taking the lead before the half time whistle. An Adama run had Maupay desperately chasing his vapour trail and Bentley closing his angles resulted in the ball going out for a Boro throw in. A Clayton headed clearance from a Macleod corner ended the first half keeping the scores level and TP an opportunity to reorganise his troops and provide better service to Bamford and Adama.

Both sides restarted the second forty five minutes unchanged with Boro now kicking towards the freezing travelling army. The second half started pretty much the same as the first half had panned out with Brentford putting pressure on the Boro defence and Adama the sole outlet for Boro. We intermittently flickered to life with a penalty claim for a foul on Howson and then Downing left two Brentford players for dead with Dalsgaard taking a yellow for the Bees. Adama sent the resulting free kick into the Brentford box but the Ref blew for a foul on Bentley the Brentford Keeper. Boro now enjoyed a little more influence in the game and just as they looked to be asserting themselves Brentford went down the Boro end and created another opportunity of their own which defined this game. A great game for the neutral but a bit nervy for both sets of fans and as Dael Fry was warming up a great chance fell to Paddy who missed his chance. Brentford then appropriately and predictably flew up the other end with the ball cannoning off Ryan Shotton for a Bees corner.

Randolph comfortably gathered the Corner kick into the box as Dael Fry continued his long wait to replace Dani Ayala eventually entering the field on 60 minutes in a like for like swap. Besic went in hard on Dalsgaard to pick up a yellow with the home fans screaming for his dismissal. Maupay then had another chance immediately after the Besic booking only to repeat his previous high and wild effort thankfully for Randolph. Traore then duplicated the feat at the other end sending a Boro chance well over as the game was opening up a little. Chances were occurring at both ends with Brentford pressing, Boro looking to break and neither side settling for the draw.

Grant was brought on for Howson as TP was keen to try and break up the Brentford attacks which resulted almost immediately in a dangerous free kick on the edge of the Boro 18 yard box. The kick from Jozefzoon hit off the White wall and quick clearance up field resulted in a Boro throw in allowing Dean Smith to make his fist sub of the day with Canos coming on for Watkins. Upon the restart Randolph almost immediately had to get down to his left to prevent the Bees taking the lead. Tactically Besic had moved further up the pitch when Grant was introduced with Clayts and Grant now shielding the defence.

The game see-sawed up and down Griffin Park with Boro still content to set up breaks from deep and Brentford continuing their passing with movement and pace. Smith then brought off goal scoring returnee Macleod whilst TP brought off Besic and put Assombalonga on in a more determined 442 formation for the remaining quarter of an hour. Boro then had Ben to thank for another block with Clayts making a pigs ear of trying to clear the ball (giving away a corner in the process) followed up immediately with a second corner which was finally cleared up to Britt releasing Traore who lost possession and the ball came straight back at us again and another effort flew past Randolph’s far post.

Ten minutes remaining and Brentford were still pushing despite Boro’s tactical switch and Randolph once again pulled off a brilliant save to concede a corner which he gathered safely. The clearance up the pitch saw Bamford lose out but Clayts pick up the loose ball and ended with a Traore effort going out for a corner which was eventually delivered badly with the ball going out for a goal kick along with the snow flurries building temporary momentum.

The last throw of the Brentford dice saw Mokotjo go off and Northern Irishman Judge come on and immediately launch an attack after robbing Assombalonga. Some sloppy play from Grant kept us on the back foot. Brentford kept peppering the Boro box pushing for the winner as a cleared ball once again failed to be held up by Britt and Boro were rocking. In a Boro break out Traore charged out of his own box heading towards the half way line but Sawyers took his turn to cynically fell Adama and break the attack up. From the free kick Adama was once again ridiculously brought down for another free kick allowing Boro’s big units from the back to go up to the opposition 18 yard box. Stewy deftly dropped the free kick onto Britt whose header looped up but was adjudged off side and once again Brentford stormed out taking the free kick quickly.

In the last minute Traore lost the ball as his attempt to break Brentford came straight back at us with George this time taking a yellow for the team. As the ball was eventually cleared the fourth official signalled five minutes of added time with Sawyers clattering into breaking Britt for his second yellow and sent off. At this stage the 11 Boro men versus the 10 of Brentford mattered for little as any semblance of tactics and organisation was diminished along with Clayton hobbling off injured temporarily restoring the sides to 10 v 10. Clayts manfully limped back onto the pitch as Brentford kept the pressure up winning a corner off a Grant deflection. Bamford met the corner with Randolph collecting it setting up Britt who back heeled to the now advancing Bamford who was wiped out as yet another yellow was issued.

Boro took their chance from the free kick and won a corner which Paddy then connected with but was blocked for another Boro corner in the dying seconds which was cleared at the Ref blew signalling the end of the game. An away draw against a decent side, keen to preserve their own play-off hopes and in very difficult conditions was a good result from a rear-guard Boro perspective.

MOM for Boro on St. Patrick’s Day unfortunately wasn’t Paddy as we had all hoped for but perhaps more appropriately was Darren Randolph who pulled off several saves to keep the very busy Bees at bay and Boro still in the top six over the International bore fest. My main observation from this afternoon was that teams are deciding to take Traore out rather than try and play him. If we are to keep the fair advantage he gives us some equally cynical gamesmanship needs introducing and soon. Some ridiculous over the top faux reactions from Boro players charging over to the fouling defender early on should focus Officials attention.

Boro begin to spy a play-off place
as season comes in from the cold

As the world increasingly takes on the tone of a John le Carré novel, Boro followers are more focussed with the intrigue surrounding the cloak-and-dagger world of trying to make the Championship play-offs. The recent run of good results have meant everything is a bit more smiley on Teesside as Boro’s less than clandestine promotion plans have come in from the cold. Many had been rushin’ to write off the season after agent Monk was finally exposed and then expelled for being careless in the field as operation ‘Smash the League’ was seemingly sabotaged beyond repair. However, Tony Pulis has not been one to tinker much with his first XI since he arrived as he much prefers to tailor his players to his needs rather than soldier on with those who have been defective, which has left the Boro manager beginning to spy a place in the play-offs.

Despite Sheffield United winning in midweek to close the gap on Boro to just two points, the Teessiders will be determined to prevent the Blades slicing further into their lead as they hope to avoid being stung by the Bees. Tony Pulis heads to Griffin Park in search of that rare mythical beast of four wins in a row, the likes of which have not been witnessed for quite a long while. Indeed the Boro faithful were beginning to doubt they would ever see such a winning run, though help may be a hand as it was once believed that a feather from the griffin could restore sight to the blind. Other key fixtures this weekend see both Sheff Utd and Bristol at home to Forest and Ipswich respectively, with Preston off for a day out at the Stadium of Light, so our promotion rivals may be hoping to gain ground. However, Boro have a good record at Brentford and have won their last three encounters there, including the one in the play-offs, which may be a good omen and Tony Pulis’s team will be buzzing if they return with all three points.

Psychologically it will be important for Boro to ensure they remain in the top six, especially with the two-week snooze-fest coming up and any dropping off the pace on Saturday will leave plenty of time to lie awake at night worrying about the Good Friday visit by top of the table Wolves and the nightmare of missing out on the play-offs. Though one player who may soon be looking forward to international breaks is in-form striker Patrick Bamford – who has been courted by Martin O’Neill to play for the Republic of Ireland. Bamford seemingly qualifies to play for Ireland by virtue of being called Patrick, which apparently is written into the Irish FA constitution as you are then deemed to be a grandson of the emerald isle. Admittedly he’s still working on the accent and is still unsure (to be sure) that he’s up for the crack as he hasn’t yet given up on being the next Harry Kane instead – incidentally, I think being called Harry also probably qualifies you to play for England, though is possibly a bar to managing them.

Tony Pulis now finds himself in the somewhat strange territory of being involved in a battle at the top of the table where the name of the game is winning rather than avoiding defeat. It perhaps requires a different mindset of developing a winning mentality and one he needs to instil into the players if Boro are to remain in the top six. The Boro manager may have allowed himself a nostalgic glance towards the foot of the Premier League table, where he will have no doubt noticed that his three former clubs (West Brom, Crystal Palace and Stoke) currently occupy the three relegation slots. Indeed, if Pulis fails in his mission to take his new team up this term it may well be at these old stomping grounds where Boro will need to stamp their promotion credentials next season.

Brentford		Middlesbrough
Dean Smith		Tony Pulis
P37 – W14 – D11 – L12 – F53 – A45		P37 – W18 – D7 – L12 – F53 – A35
Position Points Points per game Projected points	11th 53 1.4 66	Position Points Points per game Projected points	6th 61 1.6 76
Last 6 Games Cardiff (H) Millwall (A) Burton (A) Leeds (A) Birmingham (H) Sunderland (A)	F-T (H-T) 1:3 (1:2) L 0:1 (0:1) L 2:0 (0:0) W 0:1 (0:1) L 5:0 (2:0) W 2:0 (2:0) W	Last 6 Games Barnsley (H) Birmingham (A) Leeds (H) Sunderland (A) Hull (H) Cardiff (A)	F-T (H-T) 3:1 (2:0) W 1:0 (1:0) W 3:0 (2:0) W 3:3 (0:1) D 3:1 (2:1) W 0:1 (0:1) L

International breaks at the best of times have become an unwelcome interruption to those who are mainly absorbed by the main event of following their club. Meaningless international friendlies are like an eternal ad-break of PPI ambulance chasers tempting you with the money to buy a cheap DFS beige leather sofa to make your simple life sophisticated, as you only wish that the fast-forward button worked so that you could skip to the crucial stage in the thriller you were intensely watching. Although, the merits of having such an ill-timed distracting pause is now even more dubious with the sudden semi-return to cold war politics, which may yet prove to be a final curtain call for Putin’s now seemingly pointless big state PR event on the world stage that was supposed to cement his ‘re-election’ after quite literally seeing off the opposition.

Mother Russia’s apparent unwelcome recent gift of a box Novichocs (other more military strength spellings are available) to a former intelligence colonel has had them labelled a rogue state, which were seemingly anonymously delivered with barely a glimpse of the man dressed in black with a Moloko Tray calling card – replacing the usual Polonium tea and deepest sympathy that is reserved for those who have fallen deeply out of Kremlin favour. Whilst the UK’s response of not deploying the likes of Boris Johnson or Prince William at the tournament may not be overly concerning to Mr Putin, it seems the political manoeuvring and increased tensions ahead of the forthcoming World Cup will probably end up overshadowing events on the pitch – even placing in doubt whether it actually takes place at all.

At the very least, it will perhaps leave Gareth Southgate and his players feeling that they’re unlikely to receive favours from any Russian linesmen in their bid to emulate their 1966 predecessors in lifting the trophy. Indeed, one can only imagine the fate that awaits any fueled-up English supporter who foolishly places an unwise toenail out of line before barely getting the chance to finish the chant of ‘Ingerland’. Though Russia’s treatment of those elements among the English supporters, who in their delusions believe they’re acting as pseudo-ambassadors for a fallen empire as they spoil for more than just a Ferrero Rocher, may prove to be beneficial to some. I suspect West Ham owner David Sullivan, whose penchant for wearing the Russian ushanka hat with a similarly themed Politburo overcoat, will be more than happy if a huge swathe of his less-than happy Hammers spend much of next season in a Siberian Gulag.

The ugly protests at the Olympic Stadium last weekend had Sullivan eventually being escorted from his seat for his own safety, plus some young children caught up in the bile were kindly given refuge on the Burnley bench. Perhaps the under fire owner may be inspired for the next home game by the Russian owner of Greek side PAOK Salonika in terms of giving off a message that he’s not to be messed with. The Russian oligarch Ivan Savvidis came onto the pitch to protest at the referee about a disallowed goal in the top of the table game against AEK Athens whilst nonchalantly packing a pistol in a hip holster – better still perhaps Sullivan could accessorise his Soviet chic with a rather fetching Kalashnikov and then we’ll see how many of the seemingly derailed ‘Inter City Firm’ feel lucky. Incidentally the Greek league was subsequently suspended following the incident and will only resume once the issue of crowd violence has been resolved – with a recent game between PAOK and Olympiakos also being suspended after opposition manager and former Watford boss Oscar Garcia was hit in head with toilet roll and ‘taken to hospital’ – whilst it doesn’t sound like weaponised Andrex is an obvious danger to health, it’s not clear if the Labrador puppy was still attached.

Talking of lethal weapons, the Russian president only last week boasted that they now possess a advanced hypersonic missile, which travels so fast and can change direction that it cannot be stopped by any existing defences. The fear spread by launching an Advanced Defence Avoidance Missile Attack (ADAMA) has lead to many strategists wondering just how to stop something so fast – doubling or trebling up defensive resources has been tried but usually by the time it has been spotted it’s usually too late to do anything as it accelerates past them. Earlier launches of this ground-hugging missile initially proved to be a little wayward but with the introduction of the Pulse guidance system it has turned it into a much more effective weapon and has now frequently started hitting the target. Whilst in the developing stages it proved to be a little temperamental it has also been further refined to avoid the earlier risk of self destructing. We are now perhaps only beginning to understand the potential of such an offensive weapon and many fully expect to see its deployment on the world stage in the near future.

So will Boro hold their nerve and apply the pressure on their opponents as they continue to expunge their rivals from the promotion party? Or will Brentford lure Tony Pulis’s men into a honey trap before swarming our defence and stealing all the nectar points? As ususal your predictions on score, scorers and team selection – plus will Paddy prove he’s got the luck of the Irish and continue his run of scoring on St Bamford day?

The latest in a series of profiles and interviews, Orginal Fat Bob gives his personal view on the life and career of a footballing guest, before sitting down for a chat and asking a few questions. Our Diasboro special guest this week is Doug Weatherall.

1. The Overview – the man and his career

I met up with Seaham born Doug Weatherall down at the Riverside on a match day, where he was still indulging in his favourite pastime of watching football. He is still looking good and as sharp as a tack at the ripe old age of 85. Now well retired, he was an award-winning journalist, who reported all sports coverage in the North East of England for most of his career. I used to read his match reports and see him on Television when he was a broadcaster for the BBC. Mike Neville, the well-known host on the Look North programme, once asked him on air if he was a Sunderland supporter and he said vaguely “they WERE my original team!”

Don’t say it too loudly on a Boro blog site, but he is a self-confessed Sunderland fan. He obviously has better memories of the club in their past than can be enjoyed by him today. Doug edited the Army newspaper in Austria whilst on National Service before returning to the Sunderland Echo where he’d joined as a 16-year-old. He moved onwards and upwards to the Daily Herald and then to the Daily Mail, where his work was read by all those who loved football.

I remember travelling down to London many years ago and by chance we sat opposite each other on the train and I recognised him from his TV appearances. We spent the next two and a half hours talking about football non-stop. Having a chat with Doug now in the present day, he thinks that all those years ago that he was going down to Wembley to report on an England game. Like most things, it’s all lost in the sands of time now.

A generous man and an admirer of all North East football legends, irrespective of which team they played for. He loved Jackie Milburn and when these great footballers played many years ago they didn’t earn a lot of money. Milburn’s last game for Newcastle was in 1957. But, 10 years later, a testimonial for the “people’s gentleman” drew a crowd of 46,000, earning him £7,000. To Doug who had initiated the event, Jackie Milburn gratefully said: “You’ve just paid for my house.” A house that he could say was his and had never owned one in his life before.

One of Doug’s most treasured possessions is a silver salver (pictured above) with the inscription: “To Doug with everlasting gratitude for Your Journalistic Approach in Starting my Testimonial Match”. There, too, in gold lettering, is Jackie Milburn’s signature.

Today Doug says quite emphatically that he is not a fan of midfield players, who play the ball sideways or backwards. He also doesn’t like the way that some free kicks are taken, which results in a back pass to the goalkeeper, as he strongly feels that the game is to attack. I think most of us on this blog would agree with him as we all like to see goals and that is what we pay to see.

2. The Interview – a quick chat

OFB: Did you play football before going to watch it as a spectator and what position did you play?

DW: At Deneside Junior School I organised many matches and around that time I, being right-footed, taught myself to be far more proficient with my left foot. When I passed the 11-plus to attend Ryhope Grammar School, I hoped to make my mark as a scoring forward. The mistake I made was to play in goal for Seaham House juniors. I meant it to be a one-off until the house captain found a regular keeper. It was with amazement that after that first house match I, a first-former, was included as a keeper in a trial game for the whole junior years. Third-former Kenny Allen, another Seaham lad, was the other keeper and he was to be preferred. In any event, when I told the sports master I wasn’t a goalie, he ruled with emphasis I’d play where he picked me!

I never missed an appearance, as a keeper, in any of our matches whilst I was in second and third years at school. In that third year, I played for Sunderland and District under-14s and I was proud to turn out at Roker and Goodison parks. In that year, too, our school established a Northumberland and Durham record which still stands. We won seven of the eight competitions we entered, and I was an ever-present, our photo is still on the wall at Durham F.A. headquarters.

The next year I won another trophy as the keeper for Silksworth Independent Order of Good Templars. Yes this ale drinker admits that was a temperance outfit and the following season, for Dawdon Colliery Juniors, I picked up another trophy

OFB: What was the first football match you remember going to see?

DW: I’ve been wrapped up in sport, particularly football and cricket, for almost as long as I can remember. Football boots and a size one ball, were gifts from Santa for my fifth Christmas. My first viewing of a football game was at Seaham Colliery Welfare.

My memory of my first visit to a “big” ground was going to see Sunderland v Leeds United at Roker Park. I was aged nine and went with lads I played with on the Deneside estate where I lived. It was a memorable October day for me during World War II, since Raich Carter who was my idol was home and I’d heard so much about him from my Dad. Raich was on leave from the RAF and starred that day. He struck a hat-trick in a 7-2 win and even to this day I can still see one of his goals. It was a left-foot drive from the angle of the Fulwell End penalty area which thudded inside the far post. This was recalled years later when he was managing Middlesbrough and I was earning a living as a sports writer and we talked about it.

By coincidence, for the first Football League game at Roker after the war, Derby County were the visitors and again I was thrilled to see my hero in action. Raich Carter was playing for Derby by then, but I wasn’t too upset as Sunderland won 3-2. What did Boro do that day? Oh, they won 1-0 at Aston Villa.

OFB: Why did you decide to be a journalist?

DW: On the afternoon of the night my club Dawdon won that Cup I’d learned what l’d be doing when I left school. Via a prefect I was summoned to the headmaster’s office. I wondered what I’d done wrong, but Mr. S.B. Graham wanted to know my post-school intentions. Only three weeks earlier my Dad had read a Daily Herald article about how to become a cub reporter and he reckoned my English and interest in current affairs made me a candidate. Mr. Graham explained that Mr. Browne, the Seaham office reporter for The Sunderland Echo, wanted his first junior. I met Mr. Browne that night, the Echo’s editor the next day. I knew then what I’d be doing on leaving school: journalism.

I have so loved my life as a journalist from the age of 16 that if I’d had private means, I’d have done the job for nowt. Most lads of my age were called up for National Service. My two years were served in the Army (pictured above as the centre-forward with his army football team). After basic infantry training with the Highland Brigade, I somehow passed a three-month Royal Army Educational Corps course. I thought I’d be teaching as I headed for Austria; I’d have been hopeless, but, good fortune again, my task for 18 months was to produce the BTA Weekly Journal. My most glamorous assignment was to report Austria 2, England 3 from the Prater Stadium, the game in which Bolton’s Nat Lofthouse, though valiantly scoring the winner, earned his “Lion of Vienna” nickname.

Back in Civvy Street, I returned to The Sunderland Echo but soon developed itchy feet. I wanted to cover bigger stories, so I travelled to Manchester, which was known as the Fleet Street of the North, in the hope of landing a national paper job. The first and only office I visited was the Daily Herald’s, I then became, two months after my 22nd birthday, the country’s youngest national newspaper reporter.

I revelled in the variety of work, murders, train crashes, human interest stories, but bosses knew of my sporting interests. I scored goals and hit runs for the Herald football and Cricket Teams. I talked with great sports writers like George Follows (a victim of the Munich air crash). I was asked to be the paper’s first full-time sports reporter back in my native North East. I said I’d give the job a six-month try and the try lasted all those years until my retirement.

I still played football and cricket with clubs in Seaham, Ryhope, Murton and Spennymoor until I was too old to play anymore.

OFB: Who was your favourite player then and others that you have watched over the years?

DW: My work has naturally meant my getting to know well some wonderful sportsmen. It was a joy for the North-East branch of the Football Writers’ Association to honour at our first dinner, three all-time greats. I was the chairman, and the celebrated guests that we had were; Jackie Milburn, of Newcastle and England, Raich Carter, of Sunderland and England, and Wilf Mannion, of Boro, England and Great Britain.

My favourite Boro player of all time has to be Brian Clough (Doug and Brian pictured above in Majorca). My first viewing of him was at a midweek game at Ayresome Park against Grimsby in 1956. I wrote in the Herald the next day that he was the most exciting player to enter a penalty area I’d seen in years, yet Doug Cooper had been Boro’s No. 9 at the start of the season.

I still think the Boro attacking forward line Brian led is one of the best I’ve known. I have difficulty these days remembering forwards I saw a fortnight ago, but I have no bother with remembering Billy Day, Derek McLean, Brian Clough, Alan Pecock and Eddie Holliday even though they never played together in the top division. It’s one of the best forward lines I ever saw.

OFB: What has been your most memorable games and your best experiences with the clubs?

DW: My happiest football occasions? Certainly, Newcastle’s Inter-Cities Fairs Cup win in 1969 and Sunderland’s 1973 FA Cup triumph over Leeds. The parties afterwards couldn’t have been better. How could I ever forget the hug manager Joe Harvey gave me in the Budapest dressing-room.

I will also always remember the smiles of Bob Stokoe, as we downed champagne from the trophy in Wembley’s dressing room.

Middlesbrough’s League Cup win and European campaign came after my retirement from full-time work. But I was so delighted for them – and particularly for Boro John who drinks in my local club.

OFB: Was your job as a sports reporter as glamorous as it sounds?

DW: I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t enjoy the glamour of my work. To this day it’s heart-warming when readers, television viewers and radio listeners recall my observations and writing. I was so pleased when my close friend, Charlie Summerbell of the Daily Mirror, told a gathering of journalists I was “a born reporter.”

DW: Did you travel to within Europe and the rest of the world during your career.

DW: I travelled abroad to see Newcastle win the Fairs Cup and also to watch England Youths play. I regret that I was retired by the time when the Boro went on their great runs playing in Europe.

OFB: What was your worst football game or experience and why?

DW: I never had any worst football experiences.

OFB: Who was in your opinion the best manager that North East Football has ever had and why?

DW: Bob Stokoe, was the most successful North-East-based manager I have known. He won the Division II championship as well as winning the F.A.Cup in that memorable Wembley final against Leeds United.

The most consistently happy five years of my career were those of Kevin Keegan’s reign at Newcastle. The Geordies’ fabulous football brought back all my boyish enthusiasm. Let me tell you, I couldn’t wait for the next game to come around, it was great to see them in action.

OFB: Who was in your opinion the best manager that North East Football should have had and why?

DW: Brian Clough. He was only 20 when I first met him, but I believe he could have managed a team even then. His views never changed all through his managerial career. As he told me after his first few months when he had taken over as the manager, at Hartlepool,

“Management is about judgement of players; those that you have, also know those you want.”

He and his assistant, Peter Taylor (the former Boro keeper), were brilliant judges of footballers.

By the way, I think I’m a good one! (brilliant judge of a footballer OFB)

OFB: Who was the greatest influence on your career and why?

DW: Charlie Summerbell, of the Daily Mirror he was the greatest sports writer of them all.

OFB: How do you think the match day has changed, from the time that you started watching and being involved with it and how it is played in the present day?

DW: Current football writers tell me I still get worked up at matches even though football has changed so much from when I used to watch it and write about it for a living. Today football can be very boring and uninteresting to watch, with all its square and sideways passing and free kicks back to the goalkeeper. When I watched football, it was exciting, now it isn’t as entertaining as it used to be.

OFB: Do you have any regrets in your career, or missed opportunities?

DW: My greatest footballing regret is that Brian Clough never managed one of the North-East’s three main clubs. Three times I set it up for Sunderland to appoint him as the manager; three times they turned him down. By the time they wanted him to take over the club as their manager it was too late. Early in his trophy-winning years the chairmen of Newcastle, Sunderland and Boro told me they wouldn’t appoint him. The word prejudice occurs…

OFB: Whom have you made a lifelong friend through football?

DW: Bobby Mitchell, Newcastle’s brilliant Scottish International left-winger, was my closest friend in football. My late wife, Edna, and I holidayed with Mitch and his lovely wife, Belle.  I later delivered the eulogy of my late friend at his funeral. I also did the eulogies at the ceremonies for Jackie Milburn Bob Stokoe, Bobby Cowell, Billy Elliott and Ian Porterfield.

Brian Clough was also my treasured friend and I was very moved when I attended his memorial service at Derby’s Pride Park, as well as at the later unveiling of Brian’s statues at Albert Park in Middlesbrough and the one near Nottingham’ s city centre.

OFB: Whereabouts do you live these days, what are you doing in your retirement?

DW: I live in Northumberland and these days in my retirement I still go and watch football. It was great, to come to Middlesbrough Riverside Stadium and meet up with Peach Peacock this season and talk about old times. I thank him for sending me a photo of him and Brian when they were dashing young men.

OFB: Is it nice for you to think that you acted as an ambassador for the North East area and its people?

DW: Yes, I was very proud of my roots and where I came from and remember it was always said that North East football was the hotbed of soccer.

OFB: Finally, if you hadn’t had the career that you have had, what do you think you would have done as a profession?

DW: I couldn’t imagine what I’d have done if I hadn’t been a reporter, it was the only thing I wanted to do.

OFB: A huge thank you Doug for taking the time to talk to Diasboro and all our readers, posters and bloggers.

Middlesbrough		Barnsley
Ayala Adama Bamford	1′ 18′ 53′	Moore	58′
Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	46%  9  5  3  7	Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	54%  9  3  5  9

Game of two halves

Having finally achieved a Play Off position the pressure was now on Tony Pulis to maintain that spot this afternoon against a struggling Barnsley outfit who have never kept a clean sheet at the Riverside. In fact their last recorded victory on Boro soil was back in April 1992 with a 1-0 win. Barnsley hadn’t won any of their matches against sides in the top 10 in the Championship having drawn five and lost 10 of the fifteen games played. On paper at least games didn’t fall much kinder than this one but of course this is the Championship and Boro we are talking about!

Boro were having a few injury concerns before the game as apart from Fabio’s thigh, Gestede’s ankle and the injured/suspended Leadbitter Tony Pulis was sweating over the fitness of new midfield maestro Muhamed Besic and stalwart George Friend. On Tuesday night we saw Adama take a knock and Paddy Bamford limping adding to the worry list!

A positive for Pulis was that after today’s game Captain Grant’s ban was up although whether his Hamstring knows that is another matter. For Barnsley another protégé from the Mourinho stable was in charge after Paul Heckingbottom departed for Leeds. Jose Morais could call upon the services of returning ex Boro trainee defender Adam Jackson after missing Tuesday night’s 2-1 defeat at Cardiff as a result of being stretchered off with concussion at the end of February against Hull.

Matt Mills has missed the last three games with an ankle problem for the Tykes but was close to returning to action although it was 50/50 if he would make the squad for this afternoons clash. Club Captain Andy Yiadom started against Cardiff mid-week after only being a sub against Hull previously so there were indications that the Barnsley back line didn’t exactly pick itself and knocks and niggles were in abundance. All encouraging signs for Adama Traore and marksman extraordinaire Paddy if fit.

The real area of interest was the duel of the Championship’s two in-form Strikers. Since his loan debut from Swansea in February, Oli McBurnie has scored five Championship goals and only Bamford has scored more in that time with seven goals to his name. Boro took to the field with our current “preferred” line up with Clayts in for Grant. Besic was declared fit enough to start as was George, Adama and Paddy. Barnsley had made five changes from their last outing in an effort to rescue their faltering season.

The game kicked off with Boro repeating their Leeds Kick Off only this time getting it right and Adama immediately had the men from South Yorkshire under the cosh. An ensuing throw in for Boro saw Shotton launch one of his long throws and Townsend in the Barnsley goal seemed to flap and slip simultaneously in a farcical fashion allowing Dani to stick out a leg to deflect the ball into the Barnsley net past the hapless keeper. It was one nil to Boro and a minute hadn’t even ticked over on the clock. As starts go this was as good as they get.

The expectation was that Barnsley now knew they had to come out and attack Boro having gone behind so early on but such was Boro’s dominance and stranglehold on the game that resistance from the Tykes was futile. As Adama started another foray ripping into the Barnsley midfield en route to their back line Gardner unceremoniously upended him to go into the book with less than five minutes gone. A couple of minutes later Paddy was clattered in the 18 yard box which looked a nailed on Penalty but the Ref waved claims away. Boro were strutting their stuff, passing the ball around with aplomb and ease as the Tykes looked to be in for a very difficult afternoon.

As organised the whole of the Riverside stood up on the 17th minute to pay respects to the two young Boro fans George Turner and Mason Pearson who tragically lost their lives this week. As if rehearsed Adama picked up a loose ball on the left side of the Barnsley box, cut back inside with gusto and unleashed a shot which went well past the once again despairing Townsend to make it 2-0 in the middle of the one minute applause which the Barnsley fans joined in, a poignant moment with a fitting tribute from the wing wizard the timing of which was impeccable.

The game was all but over and thoughts around the Riverside were being focussed now on how many goals we could score in an effort to leap frog Derby rather than if we could win this one. The passing between Red shirts was sublime and Barnsley looked a spent force, depleted with nervy clearances and passes that at times were pure comedy gold. The only anxiety for Boro was the sight of George limping after taking a clattering on his right thigh; perhaps TP’s press conference concerns were genuine after all. Just before the half time whistle a screaming cross came in from Adama down the right flank but Downing fluffed his lines as he tried to spectacularly connect and the golden opportunity was gone to make it a deserved 3-0 and the scoreline remained 2-0.

The whistle went to end the first half and the home fans stood up to give a standing ovation whilst the despondent away fans dismayed at what they had just witnessed roundly booed their team whose dark navy/grey shirts matched the mood of those who had travelled North. The half time team talk for TP would have been simple, just more of the same whilst in the opposite changies the talk would have been more about saving face and do or die.

Morais made a sub at half time with the more creative Thiam coming on for the largely ineffective Hedges. TP unsurprisingly kept things the same and just after the restart Stewy came close with a daisy cutter which went past Townsends right hand post which was just as well as the Barnsley shot stopper must have had industrial strength thread holding those “neat” shorts together and getting down could have proved both uncomfortable and embarrassing. It didn’t take long for the inevitable third to happen albeit in the most sublime and embarrassing manner.

Stewy looped a corner in which Townsend once again flapped at and whilst the big lads had been jostling and pushing to try an gain a height advantage the ball sailed over all of them with Townsend once again flailing and with Paddy instinctively on the far post the ball hit him on the knee and hit the back of the net. Paddy’s expression was priceless, a momentary look of surprise and embarrassment quickly replaced by oh well I’ll take it anyway who cares and sailed around to salute his 8th goal in five games, 3-0 and the floodgates were surely likely to open. In stark contrast the Tykes equivalent in Oli McBurnie had been well marshalled and kept out of the game by Shotton up until this point.

At this point the game swivelled on its axis and either Boro sat too deep or Barnsley figured they had nothing to lose. Either way what ensued was fairly remarkable as Barnsley who up until this point had been by far the worst side to grace the Riverside all season suddenly looked like Brazil as they tore into Boro and within 5 minutes they had remarkably pulled one back as Randolph pushed a fierce long range shot straight back at Moore instead of pushing it upwards and out of danger. 3-1 and the very nerve of the Tykes to upset the status quo was clearly overwhelming for the rest of the afternoon as Boro quickly switched form dominant superiority to scrambling, panicking and clinging on for dear life.

Such was the shock of the Barnsley goal with their first effort on target the away fans indulged in a verse of self-deprecating “We’ve scored a goal” to which the Boro fans responded with a round of applause. The only problem was that a goal is all it was but now the Tykes clearly had ideas above their station and felt that a second could be on the cards. Sensing the same Morais sent Isgrove on for Knasmuller to bolster their offensive options and TP decided to withdraw the up until then Boro MOM Besic who really had been carrying a knock all week but had left an impression on Townsend seconds earlier with a decent drive.

Lewis Baker came on for Besic and whilst clearly a little game rusty did get stuck in and escaped in a burst up field with Traore played in by Bamford on the half way line who should have put the game beyond reach but unfortunately Adama didn’t see the Chelsea loanee and instead saw Townsend clear his solo effort with his head taking the impact as Baker remonstrated in a not so subtle manner and I have to say with good reason. Morais made his final switch between Williams and Mallan as the pressure was building considerably on Randolph’s goal with scorer Moore now hitting the post.

TP brought Stewy off for Cranie in an effort to shut up shop with seven minutes remaining. Since action man Besic came off Boro looked susceptible and dropping far too deep which has been a regular feature lately. In the final minute a penalty appeal this time it was McBurnie going down fortunately like the previous claim the Ref dismissed it. A second Barnsley goal then would have made for a very uncomfortable four minutes of added time especially as Moore had just headed on to the upright moments before. TP replaced Paddy with Britt to run the clock down and gave the crowd the opportunity to show their appreciation for their new goal machine. The few remaining minutes ticked away anxiously in a bizarre about turn in what had started off as a footballing masterclass from Boro ended up clinging on for dear life.

The result was three points which is the important message to take away from today along with the pleasure that other results by and large went Boro’s way as they drew level on points with Derby for tonight at least and put more daylight between themselves and the chasing pack. Overall Bamford and Clayts were my men of the match for totally opposite reasons. Clayts was effective and efficient in cleaning and tidying up in front of his defenders (who had a few squeaky moments in the last half hour whilst Paddy led the line brilliantly. Paddy had chased and harried, got back defending at set pieces and also putting a few telling tackles in, never giving up the cause. His goal was fortuitous to put it mildly but you make your own luck in this game and Paddy made his.

There was a moment of note in the first half when Ben made a mess of a clearance with George pushing up anticipating launching an attack but the ball ended up being gifted to Barnsley with three players chasing into the Boro box. Shotton came across behind Ben to cover, Besic ran in between the pair of them closing down the danger and Stewy had chased back and harried the Barnsley attacker with the ball going out of play. George and Stewy high fived with Besic who fist pumped Shotton who then gave Ben a consolatory hug in a moment of togetherness. I recall being told and it being reported ad nausea about “Team Spirit” in the Boro dressing room over the last few years but never really bought it. Those few seconds showed more genuine team spirit than any spin I have heard for a long time at the Riverside.

Will Boro capitalise on improved form
as business end of the season arrives

With just ten games left to play, Boro have officially arrived at the business end of the season and they will look to capitalise on the visit of Barnsley to the Riverside in order to bank another three precious points. The long-awaited back-to-back victories against Leeds and Birmingham have decrypted the mental block chain of fixtures under Tony Pulis that saw their currency as promotion contenders fluctuate just below the much valued sixth spot. To his credit, the Boro manager has finally started to appreciate some of the assets in his squad with the stock of Patrick Bamford soaring after seven goals in his last four outings.

It’s taken some time to find the right combination for Tony Pulis and perhaps everyone shouldn’t be surprised that a new manager can’t walk through the door and fix long-standing problems without set-backs and false starts. Though one thing he can take pride in is the that Adama was named as Championship player of the month – perhaps the award should be shared between player and manager for while many have tried to unlock the explosive enigma that is Adama Traore only Pulis has succeeded. Indeed, regardless of what happens this season the investment by Pulis on this project will be almost equivalent to an extra parachute payment if the anticipated value of the player is realised in the summer – though hopefully if he is playing Premier League football next season it will be with Boro.

After Paul Heckingbottom was poached by Yorkshire rivals Leeds, Barnsley have appointed Jose Mourinho’s former assistant, José Manuel Ferreira de Morais, who has worked alongside the Special One at Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Chelsea – though it’s not quite the Karanka model where Boro gave him his first head coach job in football as the 52-year old has already had spells as a number one in Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Greece. After a year out of the game he’s signed up to the Tykes for 18 months and declared “I’m a coach with vision about not only a way to play, but a way to live and a way to believe and a way to make things greater, bigger, better. That’s the coach I am” – though I’m not sure if they found a way to believe in him at his last club, AEK Athens, where after taking the hot seat in October 2016 he was soon looking for a different way to live after he was dismissed following only 3 wins from 14 league games.

Middlesbrough		Barnsley
Tony Pulis		José Morais
P36 – W17 – D7 – L12 – F50 – A34		P35 – W7 – D11 – L17 – F35 – A50
Position Points Points per game Projected points	6th 58 1.6 74	Position Points Points per game Projected points	21st 32 0.9 42
Last 6 Games Birmingham (A) Leeds (H) Sunderland (A) Hull (H) Cardiff (A) Reading (H)	F-T (H-T) 1:0 (1:0) W 3:0 (2:0) W 3:3 (0:1) D 3:1 (2:1) W 0:1 (0:1) L 2:1 (1:0) W	Last 6 Games Cardiff (A) Hull (A) Birmingham (A) Burton (H) Sheff Wed (H) QPR (A)	F-T (H-T) 1:2 (0:1) L 1:1 (1:0) D 2:0 (2:0) W 1:2 (0:2) L 1:1 (1:1) D 0:1 (0:0) L

Whilst at first glance, some viewing the Barnsley club crest may be wondering why it depicts two members of the Village People holding a shield, it actually on closer inspection shows a coal miner rather than a hard-hatted construction worker and incidentally the chap on the left is not in fact drinking his beer through an incredibly long straw (perhaps soon to be the latest trend among the vaping hipsters in the laid-back South Yorkshire pub scene) but he is in fact a glass-blower. Although aficionados of the 80s American disco scene, or indeed observers of ill-conceived military recruitment campaigns, may have been struggling to place the glass-blower in the Village People – no doubt the idea failed to make the final cut in the auditions due to concerns it may be deemed too suggestive and he was instead overlooked in favour of the less controversial ‘leatherman’.

Nevertheless, these once proud working class traditions of the Barnsley folk have been gradually eroded as it’s now over 20 years since the last mine in the area closed. For many, the name of the town was synonymous with coal and it was from where dogmatic class warrior King Arthur Scargill ruled the NUM, with many a night around the table spent plotting his battles before his downfall was eventually secured by his nemesis Mordred Thatcher. Faced with a future without its traditional industrial heritage, the local council launched a consultation in 2002 entitled ‘Rethinking Barnsley’ – perhaps more an admission that the past wasn’t returning than an existential question – though the great British decline in manufacturing is probably represented by the fact the town now provides the energy for the masses by instead boasting the largest cake bakery in Europe – which has no doubt attracted the displaced northern workers from as far afield as Pontefract to Eccles.

Football has long since lost its identity as primarily the quintessential sport of working class men with the gentrified all-seater stadiums creating a high ticket priced repackaged product that was marketed at the expanding middle classes who could easily afford the several hundred pound season-ticket membership to join the club. The arrival of the executive boxes to lure the so-called prawn cocktail brigade of businessmen keen to entertain clients in the hope of persuading them to make the deal was a further signal that football was now a wider socially acceptable entertainment ‘event’. Furthermore, it has almost become mandatory in public life that coming out as a football fan is now a prerequisite to demonstrate you are in touch with the public.

Even privileged Eton-educated Prime Ministers now felt the urge, or were indeed urged by their spin doctors, to ‘pick’ a soccer team in an attempt to flag-up their man of the people credentials on the mast of convenience that football offered. Although the credibility of their random fandom sometimes unravelled in spectacular fashion as the carefully constructed fabrication collapsed as they fluffed their lines by instead becoming the accidental supporter of a team with similar colours. When long-time Villan David Cameron was giving a speech on the multicultural identities of the British, he’d just argued it was possible to be both a Man Utd fan and West Indies cricket supporter before joking that he rather wished people would support West Ham instead.

A few days later he apologise to his fellow Villa faithful for confusing them with the Hammers by explaining “I went past the West Ham stadium the day before and I had just said the word West Indies in my speech and I was making a point about the cricket Test and all the rest of it – I meant to say Aston Villa and I am profoundly embarrassed.” Pretty feeble for a genuine football fan to imagine forgetting which team they supported and the prosecution may cite a speech Cameron gave in 2001 during a debate in the Commons about banning orders for English football hooligans: “Many of those who have spoken in the debate or have written about the subject are either lawyers or football fans, but I have to confess I am neither.” – no further questions your honour!

Though its no surprise that football lost its working class identity as indeed workers have also lost their greater sense of collective identity as a class of people whose labour directly related to the wealth of the nation. The cultural norm that the working week was punctuated by the Saturday afternoon pilgrimage to cheer on their local heroes who represented their proud communities has all but become the preserve of a bygone era. Not only have many of their own jobs been lost to the market forces of globalisation, so too has the notion of a local team being represented as primarily a locally-owned entity.

In the modern world almost everything tangible becomes viewed as an asset, in the same way a house is no longer just deemed a place to live, neither is a club just about playing a game of football but is often viewed as a potential brand waiting to be exploited beyond its geographical boundaries. Football clubs are now commodities, available to be purchased by a random oligarch or traded as a disposable asset to the investors, who all play by the same market forces rules as the ones who facilitated the removal of the traditional industries from the towns where the clubs were originally founded by the workers.

However, this redefining of identity between supporters and their football club is simply a reflection of how society has become less interested in who brings the money just as long as it arrives. The individualisation of cultural experiences and geographic displacement have been combined through the explosion of technological innovation to create the virtual worlds that most now inhabit without a second thought of whether it is still real. What football still offers is that collective experience of everyone simultaneously witnessing an event that unfolds in real time with the added benefit of them still having a genuine emotional attachment to the outcome instead of being the dispassionate observer of someone else’s narrative.

Although many of the gathered masses still struggle to resist the urge to live in the moment as they collectively raise their smart phones to record the mandatory selfie to post on their social media as proof that they were there. The predilection to record life with an individual time-line has meant an event didn’t happen unless ‘I was there’ – however, how this sits in the world of typical Boro, where many are conditioned to the experience that it’s probably not going to happen if they are indeed there, is uncertain. Whilst much of our cultural identity may have been formed by our actual shared experiences of the past, it’s not clear if what we will relate to in the future as disconnected individuals will prove to be as deeply ingrained without that shared reference point of physically being there – for instance what will technology find to replace the smell of Bovril in triggering those memories to transport you back to the terraces of Ayresome Park…

So will Tony Pulis manufacture a third successive victory with an industrious display from his team at the Riverside? or will Boro make it hard work as they struggle to show their class as their promotion charge is undermined by Barnsley? As usual your predictions on score, scorers and team selection – plus will José Morais be ‘rethinking’ Barnsley if they drop into the bottom three?

Birmingham City		Middlesbrough
		Bamford	39′
Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	55%  9  2  5  7	Possession Shots On target Corners Fouls	45%  8  3  5 12

Bamford banishes
Monk’s birthday Blues

Tonight’s game went from a run of the mill Championship Tuesday night away fixture in winter to one with added spice and significance with the appointment of GM. Boro have a dismal record at St. Andrews at the best of times and Tony Pulis himself didn’t have a good record there either (three draws and one defeat) so historically the stats didn’t make good reading for Boro but the Blues are dire this Season and looked very poor earlier in the season up at the Riverside. They are down in the mire for a reason and I couldn’t see anything other than one of the easiest away fixtures for Boro since Bolton. A professional demolition job was surely in the making to spoil Garry Monk’s birthday and his Brummie baptism.

TP had the usual suspects crocked in Gestede and Fabio along with Leadbitter who was suspended for tonight’s game and Saturday’s at home to Barnsley in any case. Garry Monk had serial card collector Maikel Kieftenbeld available in midfield but Davis, Vassell and Grounds would all be sitting this one out. It remained to be seen if ex Boro Striker Juke would start or be on the bench but whichever way I looked at the squads and permutations I still just couldn’t see anything but a convincing Boro win despite only winning once in our last 19 visits there (the last win coming in August 2005).

Birmingham sat bottom of the form table having lost six consecutive games in a row and seven of their last ten home games having only won six at home all season. Apparently the last time they lost seven consecutive games was in 1986 which is a year we are all too familiar with. Boro’s side was pretty much as predicted with apart from Clayts in for Grant TP deciding to carry on with where you left off lads. Birmingham’s eleven was pretty much best described as best of a bad lot with Jota recalled from the cold and the Juke in the line-up.

Birmingham had a lively start with Jota earning a free kick from which Randolph punched clear simultaneously complaining that Ben should be carded for his attention in the build-up to it. Seconds later Downing was taking a free kick at the opposite end then with Birmingham breaking away and Friend needing to clear things as Jutkiewicz was making his presence felt. Not by any means classy but typical Championship fayre. The best Boro action of the opening moments came when Besic set up an attack with Howson linking up with Bamford whose effort went out for a corner.

With fifteen minutes ticked over the only thing of real note was Dani Ayala having to change his tattered shirt. Bamford picked out Besic on a break but unfortunately Stockdale was alert to the danger from which Birmingham broke down the other end with a Gardner attempt on the Boro goal as the game seemed to go in fits and starts and waves. Jota was next to test Randolph but hit the side netting instead as the Blues had started a little head of steam. You had the feeling that despite their endeavours like Leeds on Friday if they went a goal behind they would sink without trace or perhaps that was more my hope.

The game overall had become very scrappy which probably suited the Blues more than Boro with twenty minutes lapsed. Maghoma, Jota and Juke were creating all the problems for Boro especially Maghoma up against former Blue Shotton. A corner led to claims for a hand ball in the Boro box which were ignored by the Ref awarding another quickly taken Birmingham corner instead.

The period of Birmingham pressure was building almost as quickly as the corner count for the home side, Shotton was still struggling to deal with Maghoma and Juke was keeping Ben and Dani very busy. Boro balls out from defence were coming straight back at us as Traore was being starved of possession and with it little outlet. As the Birmingham possession and pressure started to subside more down to energy levels than anything Boro construed we came back into things and started to finally string some passes together showing intent as the game neared the final ten minutes of the first half.

TP had swapped Adama and Stewy over to try and get a better grip of the game and offer some threat by freeing up the shackled Adama. Bamford put an enticing cross into the box fizzing along the ground reaching Stewy but like he did on Friday he misjudged the ball and sliced it well over. News meanwhile was filtering in that Derby, Cardiff, Villa, Fulham and Preston were all winning, upping the stakes as Bristol and Sheffield United were also trailing.

A George Friend headed attempt went out for a corner then from that poorly taken corner by Traore in which the ball was headed straight back at him it provided an immediate opportunity to make amends. Juke glanced a defensive header backwards from Traore’s arcing cross and found Hatrick instinctively at the far post to hook the ball down and slot it home from two yards out. Despairing off side claims from those in blue shirts were ignored as Paddy once again tested the off side laws. One nil it remained until half time and whilst it wasn’t anywhere near as fluid as Friday night the scoreline was favouring Boro who had started to impose themselves a little more.

The second half would mean Birmingham had to have go at Boro to try and get something from the game which we hoped should suit Traore, Downing, Howson, Besic and Bamford all perfectly. The game recommenced after the break with a sloppy Shotton tackle on Maghoma handing Birmingham the initiative and a much needed early opportunity. In the opening stages Boro looked as though they had dropped down a gear with Shotton looking nervy on his return to St. Andrews. Birmingham were applying pressure with Boro now desperately focussed on clearing their lines as the Blues had clearly had a flea in their ears from either Monk or Clotet during the interval.

A long range opportunistic effort from Bamford was as much as Boro could muster in a hugely disappointing second half. Downing then tried another similar effort from outside the box but Stewy hasn’t had his shooting boots on for most of this season and the effort like most of the rest of them was woeful.

An off side Juke effort ramped up the pressure on Boro just before he was hooked for Sam Gallagher with GM now going for it. Boro were back to looking scrappy, Traore now back on the right seeking a half chance to run at the Birmingham defence rather than the virtual spectator he had become. With 20 minutes left Adama was switched over again to the left presumably within ear shot of TP as Cranie was readied to enter the fray to tighten things up in place of the struggling Shotton. As is his want an errant back flick from Traore put us back under pressure unable to wrestle a grasp on the game. We were sitting deeper and deeper, looking susceptible and really needed an outlet somehow to try and break the by now Birmingham onslaught only momentarily relieved by a Gardner free kick sailing wastefully over Randolph’s bar to give us some respite.

As the ex-Birmingham Keeper readied his goal kick the Boro bench decided to bring Paddy off and throw Britt into the fray to create a fresh outlet and try and sneak a second goal to break the Birmingham defiance. Adama was then clattered and hobbling badly as Ayala was required to slide in to rescue Boro blushes once more meanwhile Baker was being readied to replace Adama. Stewy then went back over to the left and Baker wide right. Cranie got down the flank and crossing into Britt with the ball eventually ending up with Downing who passed to Besic who frustratingly lost possession and put us on the back foot again.

Nerves were jangling as the game entered the last five minutes with George now guilty of poor decision making resulting in a free kick and then a corner to the home side. Boro once again were sitting too deep and “inviting” (if that’s the right word) far too much pressure onto themselves as they had in many previous games losing out to a late sucker punch which at this stage was just going to be inevitable especially with results going our way at that point.

Digging deep and holding on best described a very poor and underwhelming second half Boro performance with Britt left lonely and isolated as so often has been the case for Boro Strikers of late. Another silly free kick this time given away by Cranie thankfully went out for a goal kick yet again as the board went up displaying four long angst ridden minutes. In fairness to Birmingham they put up a spirited performance which belied their lowly position but Boro were far too deep giving away stupid free kicks and with them set piece opportunities. As the last one went out for yet another goal kick Randolph’s final action of the night heralded the end. Boro had survived by digging deep and winning ugly, really ugly!

Phew was the only way of describing the moment when the Ref blew the final whistle. My MOM was Ayala for his heroics and never say die spirit alongside Gibson. Results elsewhere on the night in the end went pretty well for us. Bristol lost, Derby dropping two points as they look to be possibly replicating another end of season implosion, the Blades had lost to Fulham stuffing their game in hand advantage in the process with Boro now firmly in the Play-off positions in sixth place albeit by a solitary point. Strangely it was an awful experience to witness but joyous at the same time. I just wish we didn’t sit so deep desperately defending slender leads; it does nothing for thousands of collective Teesside blood pressures and mine in particular.

Boro plan to give the birthday boy
an unhappy return to management

Boro head to St Andrews on Tuesday after the Chinese stage whispers that started to emerge last week from Birmingham were eventually proved to be unmistakably loud as Garry Monk was unsurprisingly unveiled as the new king of the Blues by owner Paul Suen Cho Hung. Whether he can strike a chord with his new group of players and quickly get them back in the rhythm will depend on whether he’s still in tune with his former assistant at Leeds and Swansea, Pep Clotet, who he is now reunited with after his sacking as manager of Oxford in January. However, the Teessider’s trip to Small Heath will be lead by a man in a baseball cap with a red right hand as Boro are also under new management by order of the Peaky Blinder Tony Pulis!

After easily seeing off Leeds on Friday night with the best performance of the campaign, the renewed optimism that just maybe Boro were back in the promotion game sent a shiver down the spine of Riverside faithful – though many were perhaps too numb from the biting cold to distinguish it from the shivers that they had been experiencing since arriving at the ground in the -10 degree wind chill conditions. Though the warm glow that came from the knowledge that some winnable games were to follow, starting with a trip to struggling Birmingham, which offered Boro another chance to turn up the heat on the play-off pack.

This previously unremarkable fixture appeared just a good opportunity to bank three points against a struggling club – however, it has been elevated after Birmingham played their typical Boro joker by dismissing Steve Cotterill following defeat to Aitor Karanka’s Forest on Saturday and replacing him with Garry Monk. The risk of invoking the wrath of the footballing gods with this ex-Boro manager tag team has got quite a few of the faithful fearing the worst from such coincidences – especially after discovering it’s also Monk’s birthday on Tuesday. Many don’t believe in happy returns from ex-managers, surely Monk won’t be left with just a few crumbs of comfort and no icing on his birthday cake after Steve Gibson previously knocked the stuffing out of his turkey by sacking him two days before Christmas. While others feel there’s no room for sentiment in football,  many of his former players who were frequently left out of the party will probably be all too keen to give him the bumpiest of birthday bumps as he begins with a Brummie baptism of fire.

It’s hard to imagine now, but Adama Traore wasn’t even in the squad for Monk’s last game in charge and was perhaps beginning to be peripheral to the ex-managers plans after only appearing for ten minutes of his last three games in charge – though Bamford was actually back in favour and had started all three of those games instead. While Tony Pulis has been instrumental in creating Adama as Boro’s most influential player, the emergence of Patrick ‘Hattrick’ Bamford was an accident that few believed was waiting to happen – sometimes a manager just gets lucky and things fall into place in spite of his plans and not because of them. Though Pulis appears to have adapted his tactics and formation to allow for a different type of centre-forward in Bamford and there was more urgency from the midfield with Besic and Howson looking to find the forwards rather than improve their Opta stats by completing endless sideways and backwards passing.

Birmingham City		Middlesbrough
Garry Monk		Tony Pulis
P35 – W8 – D6 – L21 – F23 – A53		P35 – W16 – D7 – L12 – F49 – A34
Position Points Points per game Projected points	22nd 30 0.9 39	Position Points Points per game Projected points	7th 55 1.6 72
Last 6 Games Nottm Forest (A) Barnsley (H) Brentford (A) Millwall (H) Aston Villa (A) Sheff Wed (A)	F-T (H-T) 1:2 (0:1) L 0:2 (0:2) L 0:5 (0:2) L 0:1 (0:0) L 0:2 (0:0) L 3:1 (3:0) W	Last 6 Games Leeds (H) Sunderland (A) Hull (H) Cardiff (A) Reading (H) Norwich (A)	F-T (H-T) 3:0 (2:0) W 3:3 (0:1) D 3:1 (2:1) W 0:1 (0:1) L 2:1 (1:0) W 0:1 (0:1) L

Paul Suen Cho Hung is just one of a growing trend of overseas club owners who have dominion over an English club from afar and are expecting quick results from their investments both on and off the pitch.  Monk is Birmingham’s fourth permanent manager since he appointed Gianfranco Zola 15 months ago as the club try to avoid the real prospect of relegation into League One. For a man who in his business life specialises in buying distressed stocks or failing companies and restructuring them in order to turn them around, it appears Mr Suen has so far seemingly only caused more distress to the Blues. Owning a football club has almost becoming something of PR exercise to raise the profile of the rich and powerful, or even states in the case of Qatar, to help add legitimacy to their business portfolios.

Autocratic owners are nothing new in football, particularly in England, where it is perhaps one of the last bastions where ruling as a dictator is still regarded as the acceptable modus operandi. Normally, the best supporters can hope for is that they have a benign dictator running their club and that they find themselves on the same blank page. However, it’s not unusual in the modern high financial stakes environment that fans suddenly find themselves as more like supporting serfs subject to the whims of those lording it over their local club. Rich men who are used to getting what they want often don’t take kindly to supporters questioning their diktats, with for example Hull owner Assem Allam once telling the fans that sung “City till we die” in protest against his proposal to change the club’s name that they can “die as soon as they want”.

Investment hungry fans who eye the billionaire owners of Chelsea and Manchester City with envy often forget that they are handing over their clubs to let them do whatever they wish in a pact that is born out of the sentiment that anything must be better than what we have now. Call it desperation but it is what every charlatan, demagogue or dictator has fed off since time immemorial and when things go wrong it’s usually too late to have second thoughts. We now live in a world where events are more likely to be shaped by such people as being held to account becomes increasingly less fashionable as just simply saying what people want to hear has replaced having a plan. Football fans are in some ways just following the trend of allowing powerful people to increase their power over us in return for an irrational hope it will bring a better future.

Of course there has been a long tradition in football of absolute power, whether it be the club owner who seeks to be the benign dictator that wants to be loved and respected by his adoring public or indeed the football manager who demands his authority is unquestioned and dissent is rarely tolerated from within their court of staff or players. There is little room for democracy and the only vote allowed is the vote of confidence that the chairman alone casts, often before casting out the beleaguered manager shortly afterwards who carries the can of failure out of the door. Though the increasing desire for instant results has meant leadership has instead become about finding quick fixes, taking gambles and purging the old ideas of the previous regime rather than planning for a future that rarely exists beyond immediate success.

Though even a modern dictator must first dress up as a democrat to gain the pretence of legitimacy before redefining the inconvenient elective process to fit into the wider aims of not being accountable to anyone. Often a dictator will rise on the promise that only they and them alone have the answers to improve the lot of the people. President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 promising to make China great again (I’m sure I’ve heard that before somewhere) and vowed to restore the Middle Kingdom to its rightful place at the centre of world affairs. China was traditionally referred to as the ‘Middle Kingdom’ or Zhongguo, who believed that they were the centre of all civilization. Perhaps this is similar to how the ‘Middle Borough’ came to get its name too, with this cradle of civilisation on the mighty River Tees lying between the marauding Geordies to the north ruled by the Whey Ay dynasty and the stubborn hoarding Tykes to the south under the ruling Wazzocks – though it’s possible other more etymological accurate scholarly interpretations may also be available.

News that China’s strongman President Xi (pronounced She) has recently chosen to bring forward plans to abolish the Communist Party rule that no leader can serve more than two terms in order to help secure his lifetime grip on power has come as no surprise – some are already calling him the Chinese Arsene Wenger with this blatant attempt to cling on in the belief that nobody else can do the job as well as him. Whilst Xi’s argument is that it may risk China’s reforms if he were no longer president, Wenger just shrugs his shoulders in typically Gallic manner and bemoans the lack of patience from the supporters. Whilst the notorious Qincheng prison is reportedly ‘packed to the rafters’ with Xi’s political opponents who are waiting to settle scores once he loses power – Wenger seemingly only has the ramblings of Paul Merson to worry about and the ‘Wenger Out’ sign holders randomly scattered at the Emirates. Though President Xi did gain support from one of Twitters most prolific tweeters who lives in a large white house in Washington who declared “He’s now president for life. President for life. And he’s great, really great” before adding “Maybe we’ll give that a shot some day”.

Following the announcement by Xi who must be obeyed, China last week took the bizarre step of banning the use of the letter ‘N’ in its own version of Twitter (called Weibo incidentally) – although nobody has quite worked out why that particular letter was deemed subversive, its use was quickly restored after it was probably pointed out to the paranoid genius who came up with the idea that nobody could now type the word China. Though imagine if football club owners or indeed managers could start banning letters then I’m sure expunging ‘L’ would make the recent form appear far healthier reading for many – though other than the benefit of not seeing the overuse of LOL in social media, no doubt we’d still hear from one local newspaper “These are the questions we would have asked if the letter ‘L’ hadn’t have been banned”

Also blocked on Chinese Twitter last week were a whole series of words too, including Lifelong, Shameless and Disagree – which may have proved problematic for any lifelong Birmingham City fans who wanted to Tweet that they disagree with the shameless decision of their Chinese owner to sack Steve Cotterill just a few days after making a rare visit to show him support. Cotterill himself seemed quite lifted by the owner’s visit to the club and said “Being the distance he is away from the football club, and the time zones, he now has more of an idea of what’s gone on. He’s incredibly supportive and also came in the following day and spoke to the players collectively and a few individually. As a manager, you’re not sure if you’d want that but I was quite happy as I had a pretty good idea what would come out of the players’ mouths.” Well it seems whatever did come out of their mouths the owner promptly lined up Garry Monk and sacked his manager a few days later. All of which has added spice to the otherwise expected mundane task of Boro picking up their usual three points from a team struggling at the bottom of the table.

So will Tony Pulis’s side be at their peak and play a blinder as they turn into  party poopers on Garry Monk’s birthday and blow out his candles? Or will the Boro players come on to the pitch bearing gifts to give their old manager a reminder of why he lost his job? As usual your predictions on score, scorers and team selection – plus will Boro supporters by asking Garry Monk to give them a wave once the team are 3-0 up!