@philip-of-huddersfield I see your point there. I ofter wonder thes ame.
But the optimist in me says, that it was quite recently when Notm Forest and Brighton were competing with Boro in the Championship. Or Bournemouth,, who beat Man City a week ago.
So it can be done. There are traditionally smaller clubs than Boro doing OK in the EPL. Up the Boro!
What a great way to end the week. Very unexpected scoreline and some very good goals. Doak, Azaz, Burgzog and Latte Lath all made the Whoscored team of the week. We have lost our place as the team with most shots per game as we only had 10 shots but 6 were on target. With the international break the travel for the Boro players is not too bad. The worst travel is for Jones and Dijksteel who don't play until the equivalent of late on Wednesday so unlikely to be back until Friday. The USA game is on Monday so Morris should be OK to get back from St.Louis. Australia play in Bahrein on Tuesday evening so McGree should be OK. Azaz, Doak and Conway are not leaving the UK.
Don't want to be picky, but I will after a great win, but didn't like the way Fry defended their goal, turning his back instead of trying to block, I've felt he's a little soft for a CB, Edmondson would have been straight at it,maybe that's why Fry hasn't progressed.
On another note is this one of those International breaks, were your best players get tapped up, hate them.
COB
@gt The one disappointment from the Luton game, was not keeping a clean sheet.
Having now seen the replays a couple of times, it was a poor pass from Clarke that lost us the ball played out from the back. One of many from him during the game. He does not look quite tuned in yet.
As for Fry, he has never really progressed from looking as though he may become better than Ben Gibson. It is unfortunate trait of his, that he generally turns his ack on a shot. If the VDB rumour comes to pass, we may need him.
Morgan Rogers called up to the England squad.
Kerching again, perhaps.
Morgan Rogers called up to the England squad.
Kerching again, perhaps.
Should be money in the bank. Does anyone know the deal terms? I wonder if all conditions have now been met or does he have to actually play an international.
I also wonder where we are on the Tavernier and Spence deals. With Tav established as a first team regular in the Premiership, we must be close to qualifying for any extra money and now Spence is back in the Spurs first team group, so there may even be some more money coming in from that deal.
UTB
I've always thought Clarke was limited, gives every effort and will stick is head in to defend, but is too stiff with the ball,
On another note watched the under 21 game v the German team, they struggled for sixty minutes, looked like they didn't know their jobs, picked it up the last half hour, but couldn't see a player that made me think was ready for the first team,
Looking back to players who made the team at seventeen years old and stuck around, you can go back to the Mannions etc but through the sixties , the Maddrens, Mills, Willey , Cummins, Proctor, Johnston, others I forget , it would be nice to see this generation break in.
@original-fat-bob Spike was mine, too. Later David Hodgson, Mark Proctor and Graig Johnston.
Remember that Jack Charlton said Johnston was the worst player he has seen. He then practised alone in the car park - and rest is history! He also invented the Adidas boots with rubber grip for spin. Later photographer in Autralia and a surfer (traditional, not internet). And left Liverpool at the age of 27 or similar to take care of his ill sister in Autralia.
Up the Boro!
@original-fat-bob. I will second that. One of the best and very much an unsung hero. Taken far too early. RIP 😎
@original-fat-bob I briefly lived next door but one to his ex-wife and daughter in the 80s - it’s safe to say that they didn’t get on (as his autobiography confirms).
The goal Latte Latte scored against Luton , explains why we turned down the Ipswich offer, he scored out of nothing
His last two goals showed great skill and belief in his own ability. They were the type of goals Mark Viduka was scoring when he was with us. If Ipswich had paid the reported 20 million it would have taken their spending to 120 million plus and so far they have one win! Sunday's win was their first Premier League win since 2002 against us. So would we spend that amount if we got promoted and does Steve Gibson have that amount of available cash?
@original-fat-bob - I'd be amazed if there was anyone who uses this site who (1) doesn't greaatly respect Mogga as a Human Being (2) doesn't respect Mogga as a Football man who has made a contribution to several clubs, but who will always be a true Legend* at Boro and (3) who would pass up the chance of any sort of discussion/lecture/QAs with Mogga.
* Legend is a phrase much over-used in football. However you define the word, however tight the definition and however few qualify to be included, there is no doubt Tony Mowbray would be first name written down.
@jarkko and @philip-of-huddersfield - I think it is difficult for teams of a Championship level to "make it" and become established regulars in the Top Tier, but it is not impossible. As Jarkko has said, Brighton, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth are "Exhibit No 1". Brentford and Wolves (although the latter currently lays toiling in a relegation position but with time to resolve the situation) are others. Villa, too, has been in The Championship and is clearly now firmly established in the upper reaches of the Premier League, where Forest has recently been placing its flag. Fulham was a Championship club. So, ignoring last year's promoted trio of Leicester, Southampton and Ipswich (the first two of which were only in The Championship for a season), there are plenty of former Championship clubs apparently now fully at home in the Premier League. Why shouldn't Boro aim for, and be able to achieve, similar success?
Of course Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton, Fulham and Wolves have billionaire backers, and Forest has been spending a LOT of money recently. So basically access to significant tranfer funds is very important IF used sensibly, but so is stabililty and the good fortune to have good management. Access to a decent stream of good young players also helps if a team is to hold on to its Premier League status once promotion there is achieved. And Luck, certainly in the first season or two. On which point, my son-and-heir mentioned to me yesterday that the Owner/Chairman of Brighton has served notice on his scouting/acquisition team that he intends to dispense with the service of most of them because he believes in a statistically-generated model of assessing value in players. For a club much admired for its success in the scouting world, that seems to me like playing a dangerous game which could go very wrong!
And I haven't mentioned Boro 5-1 Luton Town. I'll keep it short. After the team settled down, and particularly after the first goal, Boro looked in charge. We all thought "we need a second goal, though" and later, "we need a third goal - remember Watford and Norwich..". But some really excellent goals and, at the end, a commanding performance. The feeling at the end of the Luton game simply cannot be compared to the feeling after the Coventry game. Almost from a different universe. A good game after which to start YET ANOTHER international break. The sun is even shining outside! Optimism is making an appearance.
£££££ for Boro as Rogers makes his debut
👍👍😉😉
Philip of Huddersfield
Bad news: Aiden Morris suffered a knee strain in the USA team training and won’t play in their two games against Jamaica who, incidentally are managed by Steve McLaren
@mw-in-darwin Bad news. Let's hope he will be back at Boro soon and it is not long term. A chance for Jonny Howson to play, though.
I watched the match between Ireland and Finland on TV yesterday. Eire won by 1-0 but Finland was much better side in the first half with two shots against the bar. In the second half we missed a penalty and a sitter to equalize.
Finn Azaz started on the bench and played only about 15 min.I have seen him play for Ireland twice now. He gets the ball far more seldomly from his team mates that at Boro. So he does not look as good as at Boro. The current Irish team have a lot of injuries and their performances are not very good.
There was one nasty tackle on Azaz but I think he will be OK to play against England on Sunday, though. Up the Boro!
Apparently Morris is travelling back to Boro for a full assessment of the injury 🤞.Bad news: Aiden Morris suffered a knee strain in the USA team training and won’t play in their two games against Jamaica who, incidentally are managed by Steve McLaren
Come on BORO.
Sounds like Ben Doak has beaten Croatia pretty well single handedly (with a bit of help from a Croatian red card).
Seems to me that Boro’s position in the league will depend heavily on keeping Doak for the season. The impact made so far is like when Jones first came on the scene - but better.
Philip of Huddersfield
Just great!, appears Morris and Hackney injured on international duty, while training not playing a match
@paulinboro there are too many of these 'breaks', for me they are starting to dominate the season. The change of kick-offs for TV are bad enough but do players from other teams get injured in these breaks or is it just my Boro paranoia? I think I answered my own question there!
The breaks do seem to reduce the momentum and rhythm of the season though. I dislike them.
I hope our injured are progressing nicely and best wishes to everyone too.
UTB,
John
@paulinboro
plus Van Den BERG - no update to reported injury over a week ago.
Any more. ?
Philip of Huddersfield
@philip-of-huddersfield. Sadly, the rumour for VDB is up to three months.
It is looking like last season is repeating itself.
Could somebody please explain how all three players can get injured in training.
One maybe, but 3.
With regards to the injuries to Morris, Hackney and VDB, I would rather wait until I hear from the horses mouth (Carrick) possibly on this weeks pre match presser, than some keyboard warrior estimate based on nothing. If a person goes on the unreliable message boards they can find “experts” who will say “I have heard” never quoting the source, if 10 people guess the length of time out for each player, at least one will be correct and some close enough to say “I told you so”.
I know in these international breaks there is very little (if any) things to report so things are regurgitated or made up to fill space.
Talking of injured players, let’s see at the weekend how many of the players who pulled out of the England squad, due to injuries, play at the weekend such as Saka, Foden, Grealish, Rice, TAA, Palmer etc 🤔.
Come on BORO.
Is Ben Doak the best loan player Boro have had ?
I remember Traore making a similar impression with his outstanding pace but I think he was bought not loaned. More recently Boro have had 2 or 3 good ones - and a few duds!!
It set me thinking- has anyone got a decent memory of loan players ( it doesn’t have to be exactly perfect) and to list them for us, so then we can respond by putting them into our personnel top 6 to allow us to have an overall best loan player. Just a bit of fun
( If this is acceptable we could have something similar with the worst loan player )
Philip of Huddersfield
@philip-of-huddersfield Great idea
That got me thinking of what would qualify as a successful loan signing and perhaps that would be someone who then was signed on a permanent basis and made a success of that. So, it had to be Stephen Pears for me. Coming in on loan from ManU if I recall, but making the goalkeeper's shirt his very own over many many years.
So much for the Scotland manager looking after Ben Doak and managing his minutes, he starts tonight.
Come on BORO.