I won’t dwell on Southampton - the less said the better although it will indeed be an interesting game next season!
Coming back to all the points made about the summer transfer window, I concur with what has been said, especially from Simon, who as always hits the mark (unlike our strikers that we keep on signing).
Hopefully KH will be able to exert his influence to obtain that players that he wants and for me, top of the list is an established goal scorer at our level. If that means spending a decent amount, then so be it - £26m for Rashford anybody? I know his wage demands would be too rich for us though and therein lies the issue in trying to balance the books. Not even if he thought coming to Boro was a good move for him.
Sadly, the game has moved on from the days when we could have the players we bought in the past - hell I would probably take Yakubu now! I would even take a punt on Vardy if he were to be persuaded!
i really don’t see the merit in buying players on the cheap in the hope that they will come good, especially if we are serious in getting promoted.
I do think our signings will give a good idea of the intent that SG really has to get PL football back - another average spend on average players will tell its own story in my opinion.
We also need another keeper and a right back plus a replacement for HH on the basis that he does go and who can blame him, providing we get a good fee and maybe a bonus from Rogers who apparently Arsenal are considering.
As always, we shall have to wait and see what happens although as Mr Mowbray was fond of saying, it is what it is and it will be what it will be!
UTB
According to the Telegraph there are three clubs after HH - Everton, Palace and Spurs. According to the newspaper the fee for him “is expected to be in the region of £10 million”. They must be joking!!
Thanks for the new thread on the impending summer transfer window Andy - I admit I've not yet got my head into next season after a break from football since the play-off final. There's definitely a lot of work needed this summer if the club are to be able to move on the failed signings in attack and replace them with more consistent and confident players.
Then there's the Hackney issue - apparently according to the Guardian he's available for £10-15m as he's only got one year left on his contract - that would be give-away price!
Unfortunately, we're obliged to sign Sarmiento on a permanent deal but hard to see him changing into the player he thinks he is. If we learned anything last season is that quality of delivery, finishing ability and pace were all absent in most cases!
OK, that was just off the top of my head as haven't thought much about what is to come this summer - plus I'll try to catch up on what others have posted later in the week.
@boro-beckys-dad I do think it’s a little harsh to doubt SG’s commitment. As far as I’m concerned he’s done enough already to be criticism free for the rest of his tenure. The alternative is for him to sell - but to who?
I wouldn’t blame him for having doubts about promotion - how much money do we want him to put in to the club for no return? The money received from promotion is all well and good but the outgoings to finance a team in the EPL are enormous. How many of the players from the season that’s just ended are up to the standard of the Premier League? Many people are already saying that they’re not good enough to earn promotion next year so how would they cope if we’d been promoted?
I’ll take another season like this one, thank you very much. I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed the games as much, even during the glory years of TLF, et al.
@martin-bellamy - Martin - I have never doubted SG’s commitment to Boro and we will be forever grateful for what he has done over the years and there is no criticism from me. So many fantastic memories that I never thought I would see when I first started watching Boro 60 years ago.
I have had a view for a number of years that, for whatever reason, he is restricting how much money he is making available to the club. I do not blame him for that in any shape or form as I suspect that he he come to the realization that the funds required to make us truly competitive in the Premier League is far far more than he has or is willing to risk putting in.
i accept that the rewards in the EPL are significant although as many clubs have found, success is not guaranteed. Thus, if I were in SGs position, then I think I would be inclined to be somewhat cautious to be honest! After all he has had his fingers burnt over the years with some of the managers (Garry Monk anybody?!)
As for selling, I would much rather we be as Championship club that is always competitive and pushing for promotion each year - better to be at the top rather than the bottom. I take pride in the fact that we are are owned by a local supporter and not a foreign owned club who have bought success by dubious means.
I will also take another season like this one, without the trip to Wembley perhaps!
As for £10m for HH, - joking arn ya?
As I said, we shall see what happens and I reserve the right to moan about our signings in due course………or to admit that I was wrong!
I wonder if we might look up the road to the SOL for recruits. They have released Dennis Cirkin, left back in their promotion season, as well as Dan Neil. However Dan Neil had a rather underwhelming loan at Ipswich so probably not on our radar. They are likely to make Anthony Paterson available for sale. He was on loan at Millwall last season. Rumours say they want 8-10 million for him, so probably out of our price range,and apparently Wolves and Wrexham are interested.
I think we may struggle to get, what we believe is a fair price for Hackney.
Only having one year left on his contract will not help, plus I believe that only the lesser clubs will be willing to take a punt on him.
Everton, Palace and I wonder if someone like Bournemouth would be interested, with Tavernier doing so well for them. We probably will get a sell on clause inserted, but I will be surprised if we top more than 20 mil.
Our biggest issue as I keep repeating myself, and werder mentioning Sarmiento, is the “unwanted” They and the money from HH, probably needs to happen first before we can invest further in better players.
I just don’t see how we can afford a “proven” striker along with filling in the other gaps and most importantly, getting some serious back up on the bench.
MW. I saw Sunderland’s retained list and wondered about Dennis Cirkin myself.
@boro-beckys-dad If I understand correctly, Steve Gibson puts as much money to the club EVERY year as the rules allow him to put. About a million a month or 13 million a year.
So he is doing all he can tp get us up. And he follows all the financial rules as well as sporting ones. Unlike some clubs (Leicester, Southampton, etc.).
Up the Boro!
@jarkko. I am sure that I read a little while back, when promotion was still being talked about via the autos, the possibility of renaming the Riverside Stadium.
Now because of the new restrictions against turnover and the 3 year allowance, maxed at 15 mil I think in one year, whether SG would actually reconsider outside investment through the naming rights for a number of years?
People are getting excited about Rogers being sold by Villa and the expected sell on clause (20% ?) but I wonder if they have taken into account the sell on clause of Man City (reported to be 25%). We sold Rogers to Villa for £7m with a further £8m in add ons, how many have been initiated is unknown, for arguments sake let’s say we have had the further £8m so we sold him for £15m, if Villa sell him for £100m that’s a profit of £85m which City would be entitled to 25% and Boro 20%, unless there was a time limit included in the contract, otherwise City would get £21.25m and Boro £17m and Villa would make a profit of £46.75m. This is just basic maths by myself but I am sure there are more complications in the contracts 😱. City could also negotiate to but Rogers for a lesser fee by relinquishing their 25%, say £75m therefore Boro would only get £11.8m.
Come on BORO.
@exmil It would really surprise me that MC would be still entitled to a “sell on” fee from their sale to MFC.
I too would be surprised if MC’s sell on clause extended to more than one sale ie MFC to Villa but not beyond; there would then be a sell on clause between Villa and MFC. 😎
@k-p-in-spain - who really knows in the murky waters of football finance and contracts!
I was once looking at financing future income for a football agent and some of the things I came across surprised me. For example that an agent will be entitled to fees on a new contract even if he has done nothing in the proceedings!
But i suppose it depends on how you look at what is the sale price. The sale price is the up front payment that is a known value at the time plus an undetermined (at the time) value to be added subject to certain thresholds being achieved. So, I could well imagine Man City will be due from us a 25% slice of whatever Villa have to pay to us, although not a 25% slice of whatever Villa receive from Arsenal (other potential buyers are available).
A very good article on spygate in the iPaper with which I totally concur:
https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/southamptons-defence-spygate-astonishing-4453612 😎
@powmillnaemore Of course, Villa have to sell him yet, saying that there is no intent to do so.
I guess they would day that. However I think to do well in the Champions League and gain the bigger amounts to be had, they probably need to improve their squad.
Somewhat like Newcastle having to sell first to buy. Forget who I was, maybe MW, but it was posted that UEFA have placed some kind of restrictions on Villa.
I cannot find anything other than they MAY fall foul of UEFA rules, which are stricter the the EPL. Both clubs sold their Women’s Team to themselves to avoid EPL sanctions.
🚨Manchester City have the advantage of a 25% sell on clause that could allow them to re-sign Morgan Rogers this summer.
Aston Villa are determined to keep Rogers although any deal is expected to require a fee of between £80M to £100M.
As further to my observation earlier, it appears to various other reports that their sell on clause last for his full career, unless it was specifically put in the contract to last 1 sale only or for a number of years but going by the report above that doesn’t seem likely.
Come on BORO.
I’m sceptical that such a clause could exist when City are no longer involved in the transfer. I’ve never heard of that in any deal before.
If it is true then it is the most exceptional piece of business by Man City and we should be inserting such a clause wherever possible in all sales.
Reports of Hackney being available for circa £10m certainly don’t seem too bad if we can have 25% of future sales!
I don’t believe it.
Going back to our transfer dealings, I see the EG has published the complete list of Championship clubs’ released players. Unsurprisingly, given that these are players their clubs want to lose, it’s a pretty uninspiring bunch! I have to say that there is only one player on that entire list who might tempt me to take a punt: Ricardo Pereira at Leicester, who always seemed to me to be a decent attacking full-back. But we already have Callum Brittain in that position, with Luke Ayling as emergency back-up, so Pereira is probably not on Boro’s radar.
I note, however, that Sheffield Wednesday are in talks with Bruno Fernandes. I wasn’t aware that his loan from the Owls to Man United had come to an end! Perhaps Boro should make a preemptive offer?
Always subject to fitness, I would have thought that Will Smallbone could be worth a punt as midfield cover. He's a quality player and only 26.
UTB
@boro-beckys-dad. “entitled to fees on a new contract even if he has done nothing in the proceedings!”
Nice work if you can get it!
Like most people I had to work for a living. 😎
@boro-beckys-dad. “entitled to fees on a new contract even if he has done nothing in the proceedings!”
Nice work if you can get it!
Like most people I had to work for a living. 😎
I try hard not to work for a living, but I struggle to get away with it !!
@powmillnaemore. You are obviously in the wrong job and should become a football agent; money for old rope I am led to believe! 😎
Championship Player of the Season, voted for by all Championship players, with two nominations each.
Award ceremony in August.
Hackney is nominated for the award alongside Matt Grimes (Coventry City), Jack Rudoni (Coventry City), Carl Rushworth (Coventry City), Zan Vipotnik (Swansea City) and Haji Wright (Coventry City).
What it does tell you is the outstanding depth of the Championship winners Coventry.
Looking at the Premier League retained list there are a number of experienced keepers being released: John Ruddy ( Newcastle) Fraser Forster (Bournemouth) Martin Dubravka Vaclav Hladky (both Burnley) Illan Meslier Karl Darlow (both Leeds) Freddie Woodman (Liverpool) Angus Gunn (Forest) Lukasz Fabianski ( West Ham). The question is do we need an experienced keeper or are we happy with Sol Brynn to be the number one. Of those on the list I think that Woodman might not be a bad option. He has recent Championship experience at Preston, and started his career at Newcastle and spent time on loan at Hartlepool, so knows the North East. With all players who are coming from the Premier League, are they willing to take a pay cut to come to the Boro.
@mw-in-darwin Woodman has a connection with former Boro captain and manager Gareth Southgate.
He is the son of former Brentford, Northampton Town, Oxford United and Colchester United goalkeeper and current Bromley manager, Andy Woodman and his godfather is former England international defender and former England manager Gareth Southgate.
Up the Boro!
Just received a notification as follows:
Boro To Host Espanyol In Riverside Friendly
Boro will welcome La Liga side Espanyol to the Riverside for a pre-season friendly on Saturday 1 August (3pm). 😎
@pedro. Yes it would be good to see him back albeit MFC have a habit of not streaming their friendly games.
I have emailed the club requesting that they do stream the match and said I would be happy to pay for a “match pass” if required but do not anticipate a favourable response.
I will be extremely annoyed if when they do stream the first league match there are technical issues, which has happened previously! 😎
Slovakia had a friendly on Friday night and Strelec was not in their squad. Also Tony Mowbray back as head coach at Blackburn.