I do think there might be a player in MW - let’s hope our new manager can find him.
The International Breaks - one of the changes to football that I'd like to reverse. Or you could say: "Well, if your club is rich enough to be able to employ international footballers, you'll no doubt have the sort of squad that can cope whilst they slope off for a couple of weeks."
I know it was a long time ago, but I can remember on my way to Eindhoven for "just another Boro game". A conversation was had. People were asked whether they'd want Boro to win THAT game, or their international team (for the majority it was England) to win the World Cup which was being held that summer. Boro was the UNANIMOUS choice, so enthusiastic was the assembled multitude for international football.
Just received a link from a friend. Aaron Danks now leading favourite with some betting sites
Not sure where that came from . Are sites just making lists up to make ore money, when on ly one name gets picked.
@pedro ....well, we were given a nudge that Boro was looking at two un-named candidates who were based in Europe. He'd fit that description. No idea about the second name. Gulp!
But I'd keep my money in my pocket rather than allow it to take a trip to the Bookmakers...
inheard Aaron Danks a few days ago and not sure if it’s just the betting odds ramping it up
He would be my favourite for the post of head coach for Boro
OFB
@powmillnaemore I assume like Rohl, there would be compensation required?
@pedro Maybe, but as he is not the head coach at Bayern, that may not be as severe as to take Rohl. Plus, who knows, the arrangement when he left us for them may have aspects to it that might make it easy for him to come back to us.
Darren Moore did very well at Sheffield Wednesday then a little mysteriously resigned ( behind the scenes problems?), was welcomed at Huddersfield and was a big disappointment. Then , from memory, went to port Vale and couldn’t avoid them being relegated and then last season didn’t do anything special.
i can’t get excited about Edwards who , to his credit, achieved a promotion but then his last 2 seasons has had 2 relegations. “ You are only as good as your last game “ phrase goes through my mind.
i wouldn’t say NO to a relatively unknown foreign number 2 coach at a biggish club, or, a number 2 coach at a Premiership club who is looking for his first top job. Perhaps, at the back of my mind I’m wondering if there’s a Karanka coach out there who can bring success to the club. I’d always swop his success and style of play instead of Carrick’s unsuccessful possession style.
Whoever gets the job will have a massive rebuilding job especially if a couple of the better players are sold as the remaining players are individually and collectively not as good as those of a year or two ago.
We all await the announcement of Carrick’s successor.
Philip of Huddersfield 🤔🤔🤔
@philip-of-huddersfield “I’m wondering if there’s a Karanka coach out there who can bring success to the club. I’d always swop his success and style of play instead of Carrick’s unsuccessful possession style.”
I wouldn’t. Some of the football was dire - I’d much rather have the best of Carrick than the best of Karanka. I’d rather enjoy the football than chase the (very) brief success. Before you say it, I know I’m swimming against the tide.
I would not be filled with apprehension if it DID turn out to be Aaron Danks but I suspect it may be Edwards.
Hi Martin,
all supporters would love their team to play attacking football, score lots of goals and win their League. For the vast majority of us it doesn’t happen unless last season you were eg a Liverpool supporter, a Leeds supporter or a Birmingham supporter. I’m not sure Burnley would qualify but maybe I’m being a bit harsh on them.
So we all have a preference. For me it’s about winning probably in the hope that the longer the season goes on the team would gain in confidence and may start to play more attractive football. I’d say Burnley did that by conceding very few goals and scoring very few but in the last few weeks managed to score more goals.
I fully accept your preference of the best of Carrick. It’s just a pity he couldn’t find a way of winning more games to be more successful and then we would both be happy.
Philip of Huddersfield 👍🤔
@philip-of-huddersfield I completely understand where you’re coming from. I think maybe I’ve changed a bit from wanting to win at everything and I suspect it happened when my business partner and I bought the business we’d both worked in for 11 years.
From day one of our ownership (completed on 1st March 2004 - a day after a special trip to Cardiff), we decided that making a profit was obviously essential, but that we wanted our employees to enjoy their working environment and to have fun during their working day.
I’d like to think we largely achieved our aims, certainly judging by the respect we earned up to and including when we sold up in 2018. The fact that we’d brought two employees through over 5 years to take over and buy the business at no personal cost to them was well received, as it secured the 30 employees’ jobs for the future. We could have achieved a higher sale price by selling to a consolidator but jobs would have gone and the local community would have suffered.
I can look back with pride that we did the right thing. although the pleasure is tainted by the fact that my partner and best friend contracted MND just before completion and died 6 months after the sale (on my 63rd birthday, as it happens). I still miss him 7 years later.
I guess what I’m saying is that winning is no longer everything to me, particularly as far as the Boro are concerned - for me being entertained and the club being owned by a local fan is more important.
Yes, a massive building job indeed for any new manager and so I hope the appointment is made sooner rather than later so that the rebuilding can begin well before the start of the season. Leave it too late and there will be little time for the manager to assemble his squad which must negatively impact the team’s effectiveness in what I believe will be a very tough season.
Lovely post, Martin, and a measure of you as a man. My favourite quote on football was Bobby Robson's, "If the result is more important than the game, then the game isn't worth a candle".
As you show that sentiment applies to life as much as to sport. Engaging in activities that are satisfying ends in themselves rather than means to other ends is one of the secrets of a good life.
Pursuing happiness as a goal is a wild goose chase that can lead to all kinds of destructive and self-destructive behaviour. But absorb yourself in activities that you think are worthwhile in themselves, and you suddenly realise you are happy. Happiness in other words is best seen not as an end but as a by product of something else.
@martin-bellamy Read a link to a Marco Rose. Lots of success in Europe. Not with big clubs, but maybe worth a look
Aaron Danks
Being heavily bet on this past hour apparently
OFB
New Boro kit, apparently
https://www.thekitman.co.uk/middlesbrough-2025-26-castore-shirts-leaked/
Marco Rose (born 11 September 1976) is a German professional football managerwho was most recently the manager of RB Leipzig, and a former player who was a defender for Lokomotive Leipzig, Hannover 96 and Mainz 05.
.jpg)
Rose as manager of RB Leipzig in 2023
|
|||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 11 September 1976 | ||
| Place of birth | Leipzig, East Germany | ||
| Height | 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Defender | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Rotation Leipzig | |||
| 1987–1995 | VfB Leipzig | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1995–2000 | VfB Leipzig | 57 | (5) |
| 2000–2002 | Hannover 96 | 24 | (0) |
| 2002–2010 | Mainz 05 | 150 | (6) |
| 2010–2011 | Mainz 05 II | 41 | (1) |
| Total | 272 | (12) | |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2012–2013 | Lokomotive Leipzig | ||
| 2017–2019 | Red Bull Salzburg | ||
| 2019–2021 | Borussia Mönchengladbach | ||
| 2021–2022 | Borussia Dortmund | ||
| 2022–2025 | RB Leipzig | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
He coached Mainz 05's second team, then Lokomotive Leipzig, before going through the ranks at Red Bull Salzburg.[1][2] After winning the UEFA Youth League, he became the first-team manager in 2017, winning the Austrian Bundesliga in both of his seasons and the Austrian Cup for a double in 2019. He then managed in the German Bundesliga at Borussia Mönchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig, where he won the DFB Pokal in 2023.
OFB
@original-fat-bob That's much more like it, a serious upgrade on all other names discussed to-date.
But AI says Marco Rose's salary at RB Leipzig was 4.5 million euros per year...
@martin-bellamy - A heat-warming story and one you should be proud of. It's not all about the money, so long as you have enough to get by.
In my view these things are all a bit of a compromise (in life and in sport). Obviously it would be great to support a team that plays wonderful football and wins good matches and ends up with lots of trophies. That's the gold standard. That's Real Madrid, Manchester City, Liverpool, Barcelona and PSG at their best and in their winning steaks, but unfortunately dreamland for a poor Boro supporter. If you can't do that, then winning ugly (often 1-0, like Burnley did for much of the season, though I accept the leash was loosened towards the end of the season), has its compensations. Burnley, after all, has been promoted and will, next season, play in football cathedrals whose access roads are paved with gold. The other side of the coin is that poor football in boring games, which then lead to many defeats and few victories, is both unsuccessful and dispiriting and NOBODY wants that. Trudging to the stadium in the cold and damp of a February evening fearing another defeat and hardly daring to dream of scintillating football and three points! I suspect that is the fate facing Bunley supporters as the reward for their team's 2024/25 success.
I think most football supporters want their team to be competitive. It's great to win games and do well in the league (maybe once every 139 years or so it would be great to win some real silverwear, too), but the vast majority of teams can't win every week. So the most you can hope for is to play well most weeks, win some games and know that, when you do come up against a better team, at least your lads put up a good show. Then you have some hope for next week's game.
@rich-llewelyn-evans - That's a ridiculous amount. Even more than the successful football colossus Iheanacho was being paid (estimated by Capology at £3.9M a year or £75K a week!).
@rich-llewelyn-evans Ah well, that did not last long. next dream
We are well through the weekend having passed Friday 13th, and how much longer can Mr Gibson delay announcing the next Head Coach.
I guess the delay is making sure we have the right man in Rob Edwards. Convincing the majority of the fans will be a difficult task, if the Internet is anything to go by.
Whilst the new man has to be given a chance, I don't think a start like last season would go down too well.
I just hope we get a favourable first ten games to go at.
Surely if it was Edward's, he'd be in now ,
I'm not surprised at those odds given that Rob Edwards is the only one on that list who has reportedly been interviewed. The fact that Steven Gerrard is second favourite despite local media reporting that Boro have no interest in appointing him makes me think of straws and clutching. I suspect anyone outside Edwards is on that list to make money for the bookies and thus Edwards odds are so short because he's the only one they don't want people to bet on!
In the Gazette survey only 10% only respondents wanted Edwards as manager - about the same as Steven Gerrard. I'm guessing there won't be much cheering after the appointment unless it excites the fanbase - everyone will be waiting to see how the new man performs before buying in to the choice. It's going to be another gamble whoever gets appointed unless they pull out a surprise but it won't be a tried and tested head coach on the up on our budget!
@werdermouth. Bristol Live, are saying the job of new Coach is between Edwards and Struber, late of Barnsley. One would assume Edwards would be the favourite there.
Who knows the truth and Mr Gibson's MFC have never been inclined to give any information to ongoing issues.
I guess we will just have to sit tight until our Owner is finished reading the Tarot Cards.
If Mr Gibson does not get this decision somewhere near correct, then even he will come in for criticism.
In my opinion, for what it is worth.
We have already thrown X mil down the drain in January. Add to that, probably 2mil getting rid of Carrick.
So we we need a new Coach. Knowing we will probably sell Hackney and VDB, possibly Azaz, why not think about a proper Coach will a decent CV.
Pay the extra money from out of the potential sales, and plan another two year attempt at the EPL.
There should be still sufficient cash for purchases to improve the squad and more importantly, get the fans behind this new step.
Mr Gibson really needs to come up trumps with this. We don't need another failure.