So for our next games are
we going to change Boro3 or are we going to use
BORO3x2 🤪
OFB
How about 3 squared?
A significant watershed was the appointment of Chris Jones as Head of Recruitment.love that thinking WerderSuch was Boro's display yesterday that people will soon be saying that Argentina play in a Boro away kit...
Good question. I keep seeing people wearing Boro shirts with Messi on the back. Why is that, I wonder. It should be Azaz but he's 20, not 10. Does that make him twice as good.
It really does say something for our recruitment drive. With the possible exception of Hoppe, it's hard to find any negatives.
UTB
Before that it was difficult to find anything other than negatives in one disastrous signing after another.
Hoppe, even though he cost £3million and didn't play in the Championship, wasn't even the worst.
You would be hard put in the entire history of the club to find a worse deal than the ditching of Sam Morsy for a derisory fee in order to accommodate the signing of James Siliki. Everything that Ipswich have achieved over the past few seasons has been funnelled through their captain as it was in today's Premier League game against Man U.
Both Warnock and Wilder went public on their dissatisfaction with Scott's repeated failures to deliver the players, or even the kind of players, that they deemed necessary, with Wilder publicly dismissing Scott's multi-million pound signings as 'projects'.
Things have changed dramatically post-Jones. Aidan Morris was already on Jones's watch list as a likely prospect when he worked at Crystal Palace. It was a key contact that he brought with him to our advantage.
Similarly it was the special relationship that Jones had forged with Van den Berg's agent that gave us the opportunity to sign the outstanding young defender. Thereafter it was a meeting with Carrick and Woodgate that sealed the deal.
The loan signings of Archer and Ramsey owed everything to the influence of Danks, and provoked an angry response from Warnock who berated the Club's failure to sign Archer, pre-Danks, when the manager had targeted him two years earlier when he eventually went on loan to Preston.
It seems unlikely that Danks had no influence over the signing of Azez, given their history at Villa. Yet Scott went out of his way to say that he was solely and entirely responsible and it had nothing to do with the coaching team. Even if true it was a claim that seemed disrespectful and simply highlighted Scott's own insecurities.
Of the other signing that Scott was keen to take particular credit for, Sam Greenwood, the less said the better.
Ayling was secured as a result of Carrick's initiative as was Edmunson and Ben Doakes
And of course as many Diasborians have pointed out it's hard to find anything other than negatives in Boro's continuing search to find an adequate left back.
So I would conclude that there have been two distinct phases in Boro's recent recruitment that tie in neatly with the appointments of Chris Jones and Michael Carrick. Pre-Jones, recruitment was pretty much a disaster area. Post-Jones we have had great success. I don't put all of our successes down to the work of one man plus our coaching team, but they do seem to have been important factors
@selwynoz I think there will always be some mishits in the transfer business.
Matthew Hoppe joined us on Aug 10, 2022. And his contract expires on Jun 30, 2026. I hop(p)e he will find another club in January 2025, though.
Up the Boro!
@lenmasterman I take it you have no time for Scott, but not only is he part of the recruitment team, he is the head of it and who brought Jones in 🤔. As you say Jones is the main/ head scout but the biggest part of recruitment is the negotiations to bring players in and I would suggest that Scott has a big part to play in that, so to me he is a very good addition to the club.
Come on BORO.
@lenmasterman - Very thoughtful piece, Len. Acquisition of players is a vital area that must succeed if a club is to succeed.
@exmil - I understand that, too, exmil.