..and she changed things around at half time in Norway's opening game against the hosts Switzerland to put Norway in with a great chance to progress in their group. Finland up next...Good to see someone from our town doing well.
Well I have egg all over my face. According to this article attached, MFC have sold a similar amount of ST’s as last season. Hard to believe.
@Pedro If you had a Jack Russell it wouldn't be a problem! He, or she, would give you a quick Pitman's or Miners' wash and it would all be gone. You'd even get your ears done!
ATB and Utb,
John
Yes apparently just over 17,000 sold, which is claimed to be similar to last season at this stage (i.e. after early bird offer closed) - though it was reported that Boro eventually sold 21,000 season tickets last season.
@pedro Excellent. It is not as bad as you would have thought by reading this blog.😆
I think the comments on Teesside Live have not been so bad, for example.
I supported Carrick to continue, but many fans seemed to prefer a new chap in charge.
I hope we hear a new signing before they departure to Portugal next weekend. Howson, anyone?
Up the Boro!
If the rumours are true that the internal review recommended keeping Carrick in place but replacing his backroom staff - but Carrick refused - then I support the decision to let Carrick go. Of course, Woodgate was not Carrick's choice (If I recall, he wanted Mike Phelan) so the club are culpable here and it seems entirely on brand for Carrick to have been loyal to his assistants.
However, this should not mask the decline in the quality of squad that Carrick had to deal with. Tactics go a long way but the quality of the squad is paramount,
You have to remember that Dom and Scott at the Echo are, like Craig Johns at the Gazette, effectively part of the Boro's PR team. So the figures will be simply those given to them by the club. There is no suggestion that the Echo has independently verified those numbers. They may or may not be accurate. Who knows?
I watched with increasing disbelief a recent Scott and Dom podcast in which they expressed their incredulity at the 'moaners 'who were critical of the club's appointment process. What's wrong with appointing your mate if you know he can do the job, it's what happens everywhere, etc etc. Like Scott's hard-hitting, fearless criticism of Carrick, the podcast could have been scripted word for word by the club's director of football
Unfortunately, local media is completely beholden to their local football clubs and they essentially service them as one of, if not the, main client. They've become part of the club's PR machine and can't afford to ruffle their feathers.
Indeed, it was reported over 12 years ago that there was a trend where several football clubs had started banning local media for reporting something that they didn't like - you may also remember MFC banning the Gazette a few years back too.
So there's little independence in what you read in local media about your football club - they're just an extension of the club's PR and seemingly also a back channel to some in the club who want to build a narrative.
SHOCK NEWS:
Diago Jota killed in a car crash in Spain 😱 along with his brother. Diago only got married to his long time girlfriend three weeks ago and have 3 children.
Puts football into perspective!
Come on BORO.
Yes an unimaginable tragedy for the family absolutely awful news
Just another point on the 17,000 season tickets already sold being the same as last year and is being regarded as a vote of confidence for next season. In reality, these were the early bird sales that took place before last season had ended, Boro still had realistic chance of making the play-offs and Michael Carrick was still in charge.
Those sales do not measure the arrival of Rob Edwards and their confidence for next season - selling another 4,000 between now and the start of the season would indicate the fan-base is unaffected - selling more would show greater enthusiasm.
I think we’ve made a turning point. The new model of finding new young players and selling them is what clubs like Crystal Palace Bournemouth Brighton are doing and we have to match them.
Do we really want to be owned by foreigners who have no affinity to the area ?
I liked Carrick but he was stubborn wouldn’t change his team and couldn’t change his game plan. He had to go unfortunately. Let’s see what the new coaches bring to the party.
OFB
I mentioned in a previous post that we needed a coach to work on set pieces. I think we may have signed one. Read the link from the Gazette on our new coach.
OFB
4 of Boro’s first 6 fixtures have been selected by Sky:
Swansea (H) still 3pm on Sat on Sky+
Shef Utd (H) now 12:30 kick off on Sky football
Preston (A) now 12:30 kick off on Sky Sports+
WBA (H) now Friday now 8pm on Sky Sports football.
Come on BORO.
It’s quite quiet on here at the moment so maybe you’ll humour me with details of a strange incident in Sherburn this week.
North Yorkshire Council installed a much publicised fixed speed camera on a lamp post at the entrance to our small Close, to catch speeding motorists on the busy A64.
It’s NY’s first fixed camera and the police and council held a press conference in our car park spaces area on Monday, ahead of it going live on Tuesday.
Fast forward to 2.17am on Tuesday morning when we were awakened by an almighty crashing sound. I looked out of the window to see my neighbours out in their nightwear and the lamppost demolished.
Next thing the police are out in force and knocking on doors at 4am trying to get dash cam or CCTV footage as apparently a car had reversed into the post twice to deliberately knock it over.
It’s been all over the socials with most comments seeming to think the vandals are heroes, in the mistaken belief that speeding fines go to the police for their Xmas party!
The one good thing to come out of the disturbed night was that we took Ralf out for his morning walk at 4.45 on a beautiful morning with the paths to ourselves. He was surprised to be out at that time, but delighted with the opportunity! 🐕🦺
@exmil That won’t help would be, new ST sales.
I think we need a couple of rather decent signings to encourage hope for the coming season. Then decent performances in the pre season friendlies that matter the most. Rangers and La Coruña.
Not heard anything about Howson being offered a new contract. Usually if a player is going to be released it is announced quickly and often before the end of the contract. So, I’m assuming he is being retained and therefore discussions are ongoing. Could moves behind the scenes about Hackney have a bearing on any delay ?
philip of Huddersfield
I would assume that he has left the club, in the sense his contract ended on the 30 June?
However, whether RE wants him in his squad, what his agent wants as a salary/signing on fee, or as has been mooted, we need another MF player, irrespective of Hackney leaving.
Sadly as much as I like Howson, would his legs and lack of pack preclude him from RE's thoughts.
All good things come to an end. Howson has been a good and loyal servant but regrettably it’s time to move on. He was on high wages and so hopefully Boro can get a suitable replacement.
philip of Huddersfield
Just been looking at the BBC, Transfer Section. Plenty going on in our league. Watford busy with five new players, including Boro ex, Marc Bola. Birmingham also busy with five and, surprisingly Stoke also active with three.
Hopefully, we will see some movement at MFC soon.
In spite of seven attempts we never did adequately replace Bola (or Sam Morsy, Isiah Jones, and, I fear, the same may apply to Josh Coburn)
Reference Howson, on various sites I have seen some pictures from pre season training in the first week but Howson has never featured, what is more telling is when I looked on the Boro website of Boro players, Howson’s photo is no longer there 😱.
Come on BORO.
Martin, I thought you might be interested in a report based on an interview with Morsy in which he spoke about the circumstances of his leaving the Boro:
"The midfielder says he will miss the environment which was generated by Neil Warnock and his coaching staff, which provided some great memories and friendships on Teesside.
When asked if he spoke to Warnock about leaving, Morsy replies: “Basically it was a decision from upstairs really, a decision over him.
“There is a lot of transition going on at the club at the minute, a new director of football and lots of change really.
“I was the first casualty of the regime really.
“I spoke to all the coaching staff and had a really good relationship and really enjoyed working with them, good honest guys.
“Obviously I was only at the club for a year and had some really good bonds and loved my time there.”
On his relationship with Boro’s staff, the midfielder adds: “I pretty much spoke to everyone at the club really and will stay in touch but it’s quite sad to be going to be honest.
"There had been nothing to suggest I would be leaving, it was just so out of the blue and I was just purely in a place of enjoying my football and enjoying coming to work everyday.
“It was sad really but this is football and it’s a cutthroat industry."
The above quotation is from the Hartlepool Mail, the only local newspaper to report it. Morsy gave the interview the season after he had left the club. It was conspicuously ignored by both the Gazette and the Echo.
Perhaps the biggest eye-opener of the original interview, which I have mentioned before, but which was never reported anywhere, was that Morsy revealed that he was sold in order to make room for the signing of James Siliki.
The dismissal, inexplicable to most Boro fans at the time, of a popular and key figure in Warnock's side in order to accommodate a player who was clearly out of his depth in the Championship and made absolutely no impression after he arrived at the club must rank as one of the worst pieces of business in the club's history.
A massive mistake, then but one never reported by our two main local media outlets, and therefore one of which almost all Boro fans are blissfully unaware.
@
@lenmasterman To be fair, whilst Sam Morty leaving MFC was not probably dealt with in the correct manner, if I remember right, there was another story to his leaving.
Boro signed him from Wigan after they were relegated and went into administration, so for nothing I believe. He was handed a three year contract and was the highest paid player on our staff.
Next season, I think we had money issues, and along came money bags Ipswich, who offered MFC a fee for him and got his wages off our books. He was Ipswich’s 19th signing that summer for Paul Cook, who he had played for before, and whom would make his team Captain.
The only money issues that we had arose from the 12 signings we made ourselves during that window. In order to make way for the likes of Payero (Bauser's signing rather than Scott's), Sporar, Siliki and Hernandez, we moved on players such as Morsy and Spence, which in retrospect doesn't look particularly shrewd. But the Morsy deal executed by Scott from under Warnock at the 11th hour of deadline day specifically in order to accommodate Siliki was a particularly underhand piece of work that spectacularly misfired. And as I have shown, the connexion between the two deals was never made by the local press, even after Morsy specifically spoke about it.
The Northern Echo has listed the 27 players that have travelled to Portugal for the training camp, again Howson is not listed.
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/25293629.27-man-middlesbrough-squad-portugal-training-camp/
Come on BORO.
If Howson stays, he needs a proper pre-season. Does not look good for him if he wants to play next season.
Perhaps he is injured or quitting football? Up the Boro!