@pedro. “Let’s hope Woodgate has been teaching the defenders how to defend”. He hasn’t so far so don’t hold your breath. 🤣😎
I forgot to ask. Has anybody else had their ST Renewal demand from MFC.
I received mine yesterday, 31 January 2025. Early Bird renewals from Tuesday 18 February.
At this rate, they will be asking before 24 December, as a nice Christmas present.
I just hope we are still in the top six by then.
Just catching up Appreciated the great posts from Boroexile on the unsettled nature of the Boro side, and from Werder on salaries with the usual well-informed discussion on both topics. Enjoyable reading
Watching Wolves v Villa ,I have to say the gap in class between the Premiership and Championship is scary, the speed of movement with and without the ball is so obvious, I don't know how the likes of Boro , today not five or ten years ago, can bridge that gap, it's telling Championship players can't keep up on a consistent basis, you might get the odd one individual,I'm talking team.
I would love to see us get promoted, but we struggle now, Gibson hasn't got the hundreds of millions we would need just to have a chance to compete, but we live in hope.
On players Salaries I'm not interested, it's up to the club what they pay, and they can live or die by their decisions.
Win on Monday and all our Anxieties will leave till the next time .
By the way teams in the Champ are having a real go in this window by the looks of it , Sunday should be interesting.
COB
Middlesbrough leading chase for Iheanacho
Latest from Sky Sports News' Anthony Joseph:
Middlesbrough are believed to be leading the race to sign Sevilla striker Kelechi Iheanacho.
It’s understood Celtic held talks with the LaLiga side over a possible loan with option-to-deal for the 28-year-old, but there was no agreement – and discussions have not developed further today.
Both Middlesbrough and Celtic are on the hunt for a striker in this window.
Celtic sold Kyogo Furuhashi to Rennes for £10m and Boro’s Emmaneul Latte Lath is close to joining Atlanta United in a deal worth £22m. 😎
@k-p-in-spain Not a transfer that raises my spirits. Certainly if It was a buy.
2023–24 seasonIheanacho scored six goals in 26 matches in all competitions, as his club managed to achieve the EFL Championship, securing promotion back to the Premier League. On 7 June, Leicester City confirmed that he would be released and not sign a new contract with the club.
Too old, expensive wages and no sell on value. No thank you.
@k-p-in-spain Not a transfer that raises my spirits. Certainly if It was a buy.
2023–24 seasonIheanacho scored six goals in 26 matches in all competitions, as his club managed to achieve the EFL Championship, securing promotion back to the Premier League. On 7 June, Leicester City confirmed that he would be released and not sign a new contract with the club.
Too old, expensive wages and no sell on value. No thank you.
it strikes me that we have two options in replacing Latte Lath. One is to stick with our longer term plan and go for an up and coming forward that we have identified who might score the goals but should also give us a long term profit - Strelec would be an example of this. The other option is to blow a big loan fee and salary on someone older or an up and coming EPL star of guaranteed quality who can be expected to score 10 goals in the rest of this season. Not an easy call. It might also depend on how Carrick sees Whittaker fitting into the team.
Utb
Another player we are being linked with:
@pedro I believe it's a loan isn't it, I just wonder when an experienced player who maybe in the past had some success then drops away, is he carrying a long term injury that's curtailing his performance, if he got ten goals between now and the end of the season it would help
Just going back to a previous post of mine, when I wrote about the pack of 9/10 teams chasing the last two play off spots.
Here are the form tables of the last 4/6/8/10/12 games. Boro’s highest position is tenth in the 12 game table. After that it is all downhill. We certainly need something to give us hope.
@pedro. Thanks for that Pedro. It confirms what I have said in the past that our league position flatters to deceive; it’s predicated on a three match purple patch when we won three in a row and scored 15 goals.
We are really only averaging just over a goal a game and conceding about the same but losing too many to be really considered promotion candidates.
There needs to be a significant improvement in the latter part of this season if we are to make it into the top six otherwise it will be another nearly season. 😎
EG now reporting on the two loan deals previously reported elsewhere:
🚨 | BREAKING: Kelechi Iheanacho is currently in England finalising his loan move to Middlesbrough.
OFB
I have to admit that I am underwhelmed at this news. If it is true and he does join us, then I hope that MC can resurrect his career and that he goes on to impress us. However, his track record is not good and I am concerned he has not been able to cement his place in the plans of the several different clubs he has been with these last several years. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, so it will only be fair for us to get behind him, but time will tell.🚨 | BREAKING: Kelechi Iheanacho is currently in England finalising his loan move to Middlesbrough.
OFB
@powmillnaemore I'm with you on that one, totally underwhelming. Boro have to resurrect his career and get him scoring basically for someone else? How much will it all cost? We'll never know. Strange decision and who is pushing it?
As mother used to say 'it will all come out in the wash'. Or not.
UTB,
John
A number of people underwhelmed by the possible signing of Iheanacho before he has completed his medical, I wonder if they were the same people that were underwhelmed with Akpom before he had that one brilliant season with Carrick, I prefer to give a player at least a few games before being disappointed with the signing, after all from what I understand he is a loan signing until the end of the season. As far as improving him to sign for somebody else at the end of the loan, that would mean he turned out a decent short term purchase.
Come on BORO.
As others have now said, both incoming players appear to be possibly just be top up players for the squad, probably at some cost to the club.
Would it not of been financially better to have permanently signed a decent player, say in the RB position.
Kelechi Iheanacho does not appear to have any form and will not even be match fit for the bench. The other lad, lling-junior must have at least looked good when playing for Juventus. But this season, he also, will not be match fit. And according to the Gazette, he is a winger/wing back. Where will he fit in?
I know it was supposed to be a joke when I said, it looks as though we are going to try and out-score the opposition team. Yes, the goals appear to have dried up, but conceding is as bad as ever.
To get one of the last two play off spots we are certainly going to have to storm up the form tables. I really just do not seeing it happening. I just hope I am wrong once more.
@exmil like I said. I may be underwhelmed, but it it is only fair to get behind him. Then, who knows, we can be convinced or otherwise. Time will tell.
@exmil I agree with your point of view but it seems to be short term strategy rather than the long term. I suppose part of the logic is that if the loan players get us past the post and we were to be promoted then it would be a rebuild anyway just to try and stay in the Premiership, but still a pay day. It's just the madness of football now I suppose.
Meanwhile when they arrive I'll be right behind them hoping they are a success. I just hope they are running to Rockcliffe to sharpen their fitness a little!
UTB,
John
Is Boro’s number of attacking players becoming too big giving Carrick too many options and trying to accommodate all of them even it that means some get as little as 5 to 10 minutes as a sub ?
In goal, Boro have 2 options with hopefully the new guy being better than Glover and so the regular choice..
For 2 full back positions we have 4 players. On the left both are unimpressive. On the right Dikjsteel who has played well and Ayling who is starting to show his age .
For 2 centre backs we have 3 options. Fry is good, Van den Berg is fairly reliable but doesn’t seem to have pushed on this year after an impressive first season. Edmondson is a reliable third choice and a good acquisition particularly for the fee paid.
All in all , the defence is not good as games and results consistently show.
For 2 midfielders we have the best pairing of Morris and Hackney whilst Barlaser can be good and at other times go missing. Howson , the captain has struggled with injuries this season and surely at his age all good things come to an end. Hopefully he can regain enough fitness to be available for most of the remaining games if needed although mainly as a sub.
Midfielders do a better job than the defence.
For the most part these 7 positions tend to be a settled group of players.
And so to the attacking 4 forwards where there’s a lot of choice. If we assume Doak is nailed on for 1 of them to at least start games, then for the remaining 3 positions the choices include Asaz, Conway, Whittaker, Giles, Burgzong, McGree and possibly a new striker. When Giles is chosen as a winger then the choice becomes 6 players for the remaining 2 positions. This is where I see things as difficult.
I can see how Carrick’s job is difficult of just choosing the 11 to start the game, irrespective of tactics and who we are playing and their style of play.
I’ve not included the young players who are in the match day squad but rarely get time on the pitch. (I’d get them out on loan.)
The counter view is “ we need a big squad and there’s always injuries etc” but I favour a settled team rather than chopped and changing.
Just a few thoughts as we await “ the big one “ tomorrow.
Philip of Huddersfield
👋👍🤗
@philip-of-huddersfield just a small note Philip, but Barlasser is now a Derby County player!
I must have missed something, I know Clarke has gone to Derby but thought Barlaser was just speculation at this stage? 🤔😎@philip-of-huddersfield just a small note Philip, but Barlasser is now a Derby County player!
@k-p-in-spain and @philip-of-huddersfield .
My bad. I thought that had gone through. There is still another day to go, so maybe, or maybe not
I am slightly concerned that with the two incoming loan players we will have five in the squad when I thought the new operating model was to move away from reliance on loanees; yet another rebuild next season whatever happens. 🤔😎
In some ways I agree but on the other hand, regarding the mention two having medicals today, I am quite happy for them to stake their claim over the rest of the season, than us committing to 2/3 contract and ending up with egg on our face. Either one, or both, could turn out to be an Akpom for 4 months, it is reported that Boro, regarding Iheancho, are committed to be paying a high proportion of his wages, reported to £77k per week and let’s say we are paying £60k which would equate to around £840k outlay, as opposed to £6-8m for David Strelec, who then could be tied to us for 3/4 years.I am slightly concerned that with the two incoming loan players we will have five in the squad when I thought the new operating model was to move away from reliance on loanees; yet another rebuild next season whatever happens. 🤔😎
There could be a lot of Boro activity over the next two days, both in and out (Barlaser, Dijksteel, Engel and loans) it will be interesting to see the new listed squad next week.
Come on BORO.
Agree 100%.
@exmil. I cannot see any more loans coming in, assuming these two sign, with a maximum 5 in the match day squad.
Travers, Giles, Doak plus these two.
Also as said in my last post. I would rather have had invested than loan in when you look at wages and possible loan fees.
Two players valued at £ 45m at one time , Doak £ 30m? , Giles £6m?, Travers £10m, Whittiker £8m, plus Hackney and Morris,
Can we expect Carrick to get his finger out, and get this lot at it every game, can he have any excuses now, I'm not advocating change ,but Gibson as given him the tools , he must of asked for.