@malcolm I wonder if he will all of a sudden, recover from his mysterious injury?.
Is there some mysterious in the injuries to Akpom and Howson,, for example? And some others.
I understand that Akpom is discussing a new contract with Boro and might be asking for a salary increase based on the interest in him and being Champioship's Player of the Year and his goal-scoring sensation last term.
But I cannot see him wanting to miss pre-season training after the season he had last year. I am more worried about him missing the pre-season which means he is not up to the demanding season ahead in the Championship or the EPL. A good pre-season is very, very important to have a decent season.
Up the Boro!
Who was Ryan Giles everybody seems to be talking about at the momnet?
I am happy that so far we have not signed any loan players. I am sure a couple will follow but the terrible thing is that they must always return. If they are successful, the parent company want to have them or - as in Ryan's case - their market value has increased and they opt for the EPL.
We lost Tavanier last season but I think McGree has more than replaced him. I hope we will buy someone to replace Giles, too. And not jus a loan signing.
Also, we will have a fully fit Isaiah Jones next season. So perhaps our right side could contribute even more than last season. Last season we were very throng from the left with both Giles and McGree being excellent.
I admit we still need two player minimum. A left back and a striker. Up the Boro!
Team news for the match agaisnt Auxerre:
Starting XI: Dieng, McNair, Fry, Lenihan, Coulson, Hackney, Barlaser, Forss, Crooks, McGree, Rogers
Subs: Glover, J. Jones, Bilongo, Van den Berg, Agyemang, Cartwright, Payero, Jones, Gilbert, Silvera Hoppe, Nkrumah
Craig Johns' thoughts:
"A strong Boro team
That XI is, as things stand, the XI you'd expect to start next week against Millwall.
Nothing, that we know of at least, is close to being completed transfer-wise. That can change quickly, but then you're asking someone to come in having had no pre-season with this team, and start. So even if there were to be an unexpected signing through the week, you'd think bench at best.
Similarly with the injured players. We know, Tommy Smith, Anfernee Dijksteel and Matt Clarke will miss the start of the season. Chuba Akpom, Jonny Howson and Josh Coburn will now also go into the new season having not played a single minute of pre-season. So even if they were to return to training before Millwall, they won't be starting.
The only thing, you'd expect to change today's XI next weekend, is any kind of injury that rules one of today's starters out. Fingers crossed we don't have anything like that though."
The Auxerrois lead 1-0 thanks to a penalty in the 40th minute conceded by HH, who had been booked five minutes earlier! 🙁
BTW, the Boro has updated the players profiles and pictures online. A good guide as we have had some young but new players added to the squad:
Up the Boro!
Craig Johns' assessment of the first half:
Disappointment from Boro that, in truth. Maybe I expected too much given it's a friendly, but it's the last of the summer and what you were expecting to be the starting line-up next weekend.
Cheap goal to give away, but beyond that, they'd looked solid enough in their own half and had been playing some decent stuff in that area to that point. But beyond that and beyond the half way line, there was so little of note. No tempo or intensity to the play. No real guile or craft to make something happen. And that's disappointing. With the season a week away, Boro look very short of goals.
45 still to play and you would imagine Carrick will be asking for more second half. They just lacked what I would call ooomph in attack.
@stircrazy Yes, Boro not really showing much in the final third. Whilst I know McNair tries his best and is giving it a go at RB, we are light there, even before our injuries. LB, well Coulson will never be the answer. So that needs to be a priority.
Then probably, a number 10 and a number 9. Not a good start to the season.
I did read, Stoke had signed 9 players. I wonder of what quality?? I do not believe many of the other teams have made significant signings though.
The Auxerrois make it 2-0 in the 80th minute...
HH pulls one back for Boro in the first minute of injury time!
The Johns verdict:
It's a somewhat fortunate result in the end with the two late goals. Not exactly a confidence-inducing performance for the last of pre-season. Can the late goals give them some confidence to take into next weekend? You'll have to hope so. While enjoying more of the possession and defending well enough, there was little attacking spark until the two late goals.
Improvements most certainly needed next weekend.
The events preceding the two Boro goals, as witnessed by Craig Johns:
Hackney takes charge after Barlaser sells him short with a poor pass. Hackney shows tenacity to win it back and then hit it from 25 yards. It loops up off a defender's leg and over the keeper and in.
Boro level! Silvera sends McGree in behind on the left. He cuts in and fires at goal. Leon saves, but Rogers follows up to tap in a late equaliser.
There may be a number of paradoxes around Akpom's situation.
Whilst Carrick and his coaching staff will certainly wish to keep him, the club's hierarchy will be considering the upside of receiving possibly £10m plus for a player whose stock has never been higher, and who will be a free agent anyway next Summer.
For Akpom, does he double his earnings by going to the highest bidder? Or leave it a year by staying, tripling his earnings, negotiating a bumper signing on fee, and going to a club of his own choosing?
It's an open question. What would you do Diasporians in Akpom's enviable situation?
From his point of view the big downside to staying is the ever present possibility of serious injury, and being denied the opportunity ever to play in the Premiership and earn that big pay deal.
If I were him I would probably conclude that a bird in the hand is the best option, and take the best deal I could get over the next few weeks.
From the Boro's perspective that may also be the best option. Keeping a player coming towards the end of his contract whose main eye is on his future has not necessarily served them well in the recent past.
Given my sentimental attachment to both the Boro and the player I would love him to stay. The common interest of both the club's hierarchy and the player himself suggest to me however that this may be wishful thinking.
As ever I have no inside information. Just trying to read the tea leaves.
Don't know what to think after todays game. Seasonal opener againds Millwall next Saturday which will be a tough match.
@malcolm Best you can say probably, is that the played until the final whistle.
OK, a slice of luck for HH, and even a tap-in, will hopefully give Rogers a lift.
Still lots to do. I am not convinced Akpom is injured, however, if we want him to go, or he wants to go, then he needs to be playing and not sat in the treatment room.
Listened to most of the match on BBC Tees. It does feel as though we have continued where we left off at the end of last season. There's a certain amount of nothingness about how we're playing.
To be fair, when you look at the starting 11 versus our peak last season against Norwich we're missing Giles, Archer, Ramsey, Howson and Akpom. No team in the Championship can lose that much quality without suffering a huge impact. We have replaced Steffen with Dieng and that is looking like, if anything, a slight upgrade.
Still a way to go yet but I do feel as if this is a real test for Carrick and the coaching team now. Last season Carrick had a bit of a free ride for a while. Now though, expectations have grown while, possibly, he may be starting the season with a weaker squad than he ended with last season.
There is also the uncertainty over Akpom. I'm pretty sure this is a real injury because Akpom gives no indication of being the type of player who would fake an injury for this long. Doesn't mean he isn't also negotiating a transfer but I tend to think that there won't be a serious bid from the Premier league for him.
It was good to hear that Rogers got a goal but I'm pretty sure he's not a striker and never will be. Also interesting that McGree switched to left back. I think he may be a bit of a revelation there. It would be a good way to get him and Silvera in the same time. Silvera has impressed me with his pace and directness.
Anyway, roll on Millwall and real football.
@deleriad Not sure how we go from here. Had dinner tonight with a friend who attended the game. His verdict on Rogers, maybe unfair, was that he was out of his depth at the front end with poor ball control. Crooks tried his best running off the ball, but did not get the passes.
We may have scored two, but it looks daunting up front.
@forever-dormo I have used Excel to generate a random set of predictions and entered them on your behalf... as follows:
Top 6 SheffieldW, Sunderland, Leicester, Birmingham, Preston, BristolC
Bottom 3 Plymouth, Hull, Stoke
Auto Prom SheffieldW, Birmingham
Champions SheffieldW
Over achiever Cardiff
Under achiever Millwall
Boro to finish 14th
Some of these look quite plausible... others a little optimistic. All the same lets see what happens.
Good luck
I agree with you, Len. If I were Chuba I would definitely be looking at all offers from Premier League sides. He owes us one after Boro resurrected his career last season, but I’m afraid loyalty cuts no ice in football these days. He has admitted to being very happy with us, but I imagine that, like anybody with ambition, he would want to improve his salary for the benefit of himself and his family, even if that means uprooting them all. As you say, he’ll probably also want to test himself in the Premier League as his age clocks ticks on. I would hope that he won’t be tempted like Tav was by the likes of Luton or Sheffield United as newly-promoted teams with every chance of coming straight back down, but if anyone does offer it will almost certainly be one of the lesser sides.
Having said all that, I really want him to stay, as I’m quite worried now about our lack of fire-power. The squad is already much weaker than last season’s and I fear we’d struggle to replace him. I hope Boro have slapped a really large price tag on his head to discourage all but the most determined team. Is it perhaps significant that no-one so far has come in for him?
At the moment, I would say Sunderland are better equipped than Boro. Carrick in his statements so far, doesn't appear to be happy.
I'm not sure that it is entirely fair to say that the current situation is a real test for Carrick and the coaching team. They have already proven their worth to the satisfaction of most Boro supporters.
I suppose you could say that the test of a good card player lies in an ability to play a poor hand well. But if you are dealt no aces or picture cards you probably won't make many tricks however talented you are.
That is closer to the situation at the Boro at the moment. There is a conspicuous lack of aces and picture cards amongst the current crop of recruits.
If anyone is on trial here it is surely Scott and his recruitment team.
They are now liberated from the shackles of old-style managers who knew what was required to succeed in one of the hardest and most competitive leagues in the world.
No one now to jib at being given "projects" when they needed strikers. No one to rage when an archetypal Championship enforcer (Sam Morsy) is sold to make way for a player with a European pedigree (James Siliki). No need to see players in the flesh when you have every statistic and video clip at your fingertips.
That was the whole point of replacing the position of Manager by the more subordinate position of Coach.
In truth the current crop of recruits look promising with good technique and quality on the ball. But they also appear distinctly lightweight, both physically and in terms of their ability to meet the rigours and demands of a marathon season in the Championship.
Any financial adviser would point to the risk involved in having so many assets which fall into the same category.
Van den Berg, Silvera and Rogers could well make telling contributions this term, but hardened Championship pros will be smacking their lips at the prospect of testing their mettle.
At the very least we need now precisely what we needed and failed to acquire twelve months ago: a proven Championship striker and a solid defensive left back.
Since which time we have moved on by dispensing with an experienced Championship striker (Watmore) and a defensive left back (Bola), both of whom would walk into our current first team for the Millwall match.
It is true that Archer and Ramsey were both great coups, but Danks and Carrick can take most of the credit for getting them through the door.
The recruitment failures of the past two Summers led to the irreparable rifts and the string of poor results which ultimately cost two experienced managers their jobs.
If there is a third failure to deliver, and a third hesitant start to the season it should emphatically not be the coaching staff who are, yet again, made the fall guys.
For me it is Mr Scott who still has it all to prove.
I can’t help thinking we’ve got our recruitment strategy wrong this summer. Clearly we got in all the youngsters and the keepers early, which looked very positive, but the outfield players are mainly ones for the future, even if they’ve featured heavily in pre-season. Other than that, we seem to have held on until Wolves and Villa made decisions on the futures of Giles and Archer (and Ramsay); but only in the last week have we had definitive (and bad) news on those loanees. Yet for weeks the EG has been reassuring us that Boro had identified other targets in case the loanees weren’t to return. Surely Aaron Danks could have given the team an earlier heads-up on the mood around the Villa camp? And once it became clear that Giles and Archer weren’t returning, surely plan B should have kicked in immediately to get replacements, and surely Boro would already have made enquiries of those players they’d identified?
But so far, with a week to go, not a dicky bird. Nichts, nada.We were told that Steve Gibson would make available as much funding as he was able to, but again, nothing much appears to have materialised. We’re now having to wait till Prem sides finalise their squads. Now, with a string of injuries, we find ourselves very short of numbers and lacking in certain key areas as Millwall appear. The squad at present is markedly weaker than last year’s. And once again, it looks like we will be relying on loans from elsewhere, which is far from ideal. We have until the end of August to bolster our squad. In the meantime, we seem to be heavily reliant on MC’s ability to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
Very good, Len. You sent your post while I was still writing mine. I think the tenor of both our pieces is very much the same. I agree with your prognosis.
I'm not sure that it is entirely fair to say that the current situation is a real test for Carrick and the coaching team. They have already proven their worth to the satisfaction of most Boro supporters.
I suppose you could say that the test of a good card player lies in an ability to play a poor hand well. But if you are dealt no aces or picture cards you probably won't make many tricks however talented you are.
That is closer to the situation at the Boro at the moment. There is a conspicuous lack of aces and picture cards amongst the current crop of recruits.
If anyone is on trial here it is surely Scott and his recruitment team.
They are now liberated from the shackles of old-style managers who knew what was required to succeed in one of the hardest and most competitive leagues in the world.
No one now to jib at being given "projects" when they needed strikers. No one to rage when an archetypal Championship enforcer (Sam Morsy) is sold to make way for a player with a European pedigree (James Siliki). No need to see players in the flesh when you have every statistic and video clip at your fingertips.
That was the whole point of replacing the position of Manager by the more subordinate position of Coach.
In truth the current crop of recruits look promising with good technique and quality on the ball. But they also appear distinctly lightweight, both physically and in terms of their ability to meet the rigours and demands of a marathon season in the Championship.
Any financial adviser would point to the risk involved in having so many assets which fall into the same category.
Van den Berg, Silvera and Rogers could well make telling contributions this term, but hardened Championship pros will be smacking their lips at the prospect of testing their mettle.
At the very least we need now precisely what we needed and failed to acquire twelve months ago: a proven Championship striker and a solid defensive left back.
Since which time we have moved on by dispensing with an experienced Championship striker (Watmore) and a defensive left back (Bola), both of whom would walk into our current first team for the Millwall match.
It is true that Archer and Ramsey were both great coups, but Danks and Carrick can take most of the credit for getting them through the door.
The recruitment failures of the past two Summers led to the irreparable rifts and the string of poor results which ultimately cost two experienced managers their jobs.
If there is a third failure to deliver, and a third hesitant start to the season it should emphatically not be the coaching staff who are, yet again, made the fall guys.
For me it is Mr Scott who still has it all to prove.
I have said this many times I don't like Scott at all. I wasn't impressed with the interviews he did. Looks like to me he is a bit up himself.
On another note....
Grateful for the opportunity to launch Teesside’s newest commercial radio station The Red today 
A few signs of disappointment creeping in already and we haven’t kicked a ball yet in a meaningful game.
I’m still of the opinion that last season may yet prove to be an anomaly and our best chance to leave the Championship was squandered by the failure to score goals in the play off games - we may not get that opportunity again for a few seasons.
If we perform well this year, play entertaining football and win more than we lose, I’d probably be a happy Boro supporter.
I just don’t see the Premier League as the Holy Grail that most others do - a season losing almost all our games because we can’t compete money wise doesn’t appeal at all.
I am of the same mindset regarding the PL and have been since our last appearance. I also have a sneaking suspicion that Mr Gibson hasn’t the funds available and/or style willingness to invest to the level required for promotion and to then stay in the top flight.
Thus far our transfer activity hasn’t been what is really required although in the longer term, it may pay off. We lost the quality loanees which was always going to be an issue in my mind.
You can call me a defeatist but like you i would rather see a good season where we are pushing for promotion to give us all hope but fail at the last hurdle ( I wasn’t too disappointed at our defeat to Coventry would have preferred it to have been on pens though!)
I would always prefer to be a team financed by SG rather than do a Man City or Chelsea and buy success with foreign money.
I'm of the mind that it is too early to cast judgement on the success or otherwise of our transfer window. There is still just over a month to go until it closes. It is the same every season in the modern game - much that I wish it wasn't. But every club is in the same boat in this league. Most landmark signings, especially if they are loans, don't happen till near the end of the window.
The issue is less with Boro and the recruitment team but much more with the stupidity of a transfer window schedule that does not align with the start of the competitive season.
As things stand it appears to me we have done some good business with a mix of "development " potential for the longer term, but also giving this season's squad some cover and a real expectation that some of the new blood will come good during this season.
Ideal? No. Worrying? Well, not really given the realities. Let's decide if we need to be worried or not when the buying and loaning windows shut, not a whole month before.