@plato, What I actually said was:
Do people really think Warnock would agree to a parting of the waves based on the next couple of results, when he has only two recognised fit/available defenders (Hall/Bola) and before you mention McNair, he has to return fit from international duty first.
The point I was trying to make was why would any manager (in this case Warnock) agree to leave a club based on two matches with possibly half his first choice team missing, especially his defence, I would have thought, if any agreement was talked about, it would be something on the lines of “ if we are not in the top half of the table by December”.
Come on BORO.
@martin-bellamy to a degree Rioch and Charlton were both admired from afar at the time.
If Warnock can agree with the guy upstairs to a parting of the waves in order to lead Boro into the promised land then he's got an even more impressive contact book than I thought...
Ken,
Thanks for the sad news about Eddie Holliday. He was the best winger in the country on his day. A skinny young lad, but so fast and elusive that no full back could live with him. He came to national prominence in the late 50s playing for Young England against England in a traditional fixture played on the eve of the Cup Final.
It was a televised game and Eddie gave the great England full back Jimmy Armfield the absolute run-around, putting himself right in line for a full international cap. I saw his first two England games in both of which he was outstanding, some achievement for a young lad who, like Cloughie, had played only at Second Division level.
Eddie was a teddy boy with a DA haircut, long jacket, drainpipe trousers and winkle- picker shoes. He always managed to look scruffy, especially in his football gear. One day he was out training with Clougie- running round the local streets- when they came across two young lads who were clearly up to no good. Cloughie stopped and asked them why they weren't in school. The kids said that they didn't like school and were nicking off for the afternoon.
"Do you know what'll happen to you if you keep on nicking off school?" Cloughie asked them.
"No, what?"
Brian jerked a finger at Eddie, " You'll end up being like him".
Two young men, still teenagers themselves, who were to become genuine Boro legends.
Like you local football has played a major part in my life and still does.
As well as being a referee I also took my coaching badges and was qualified to coach up to 16 year olds
I was assistant coach to a local team and also helped develop teams and players.
Both my lads played to a good standard, one was a Hartlepool Junior and the other. Boro junior and I enjoyed helping with training and coaching the teams.
Both my grandsons play football, the eldest turning down a Sunderland Academy place to become a trainee Electrical Engineer who is currently doing his degree. He now plays for Billingham Town part time in the Northern League. The youngest grandson plays in the TJFA U16 League first division and recently won the Redcar Tournament. Unfortunately due to COVID they have had 3 games cancelled this season.
Again due to Covid I have missed most TJFA games and Northern League games for the past 18 months and have desperately felt that something was missing from my life.
The IN2VIEW I did with Harry Pearson some time ago showed his love of local football and he now lives in Hexham and only watches non league football but still supports the Boro.
So I and others on this blog perfectly understand your love of local football and local teams. It’s a shame really that local teams now have mercenary players who only play for the money and not for the badge.
Keep supporting Ken.
OFB
I am not sure Boro paid £6m for Payero.
Boro were also looking at Muniz at that time as a potential signing and a report from South America suggested the quoted "fee" included salary for the length of his contract.
If the same formula was applied to the Payero deal then the calculation would be something like:
Three year deal @ say £15,000 per week = £2,250,000.
This would leave the transfer fee plus add ons as £3,750,000 which seems a lot more realistic.
@ OFB
In the 50s particularly Northern League clubs were dominant in the FA Amateur Cup especially Bishop Auckland with great players such as goalkeeper Harry Sharratt, Seamus O’Connell who even played a few games for Boro as an amateur when we had an injury crisis, Jimmy Nimmins and Bob Hardisty who captained the England Amateur team and actually played a few games as an amateur for Manchester United to help them out following the Munich Air Disaster; that’s how much he was held in esteem by his professional peers. Before my time just before the Second World War Bob Paisley who succeeded Bill Shankly as Liverpool manager, also played for Bishop Auckland.
As well as winning the FA Amateur Cup a record 10 times Bishop Auckland won it 3 times in successive years in the late 50s. They we’re also runners up 8 times as well. Did you know that the FA Amateur Cup Final has been staged 8 times at Ayresome Park before Wembley became the established venue, plus several Semifinals because Ayresome Park had established itself as having the best playing surface of Westmorland turf in the country?
The FA Amateur Cup existed from 1894 until 1974 with a total of 71years and was won 24 times by Northern League clubs. That’s a proud record of once every 3 years. Apart from Bishop Auckland’s record 10 wins, Crook Town have won it 5 times, Stockton thrice, Boro twice, and once each by North Shields, South Bank, West Hartlepool and Willington. Defunct clubs like Eston United have been beaten finalists twice, and current clubs such as Cockfield, West Auckland Town and Whitby Town once. Such a proud record for the North East and particularly the Northern League. That’s why I’ve always supported what the late journalist Arthur Appleton described as the ‘Hotbed of Soccer’.
I'd certainly be in favour of reporting the true cost of all deals by including wages and transfer fees of players - though I've not usually seen transfers reported in this way. The problem is that it's all guesswork based on reports in the media and judging how reliable a source is. As I mentioned, The Gazette mention a £5.8m transfer fee for Payero with others quoting around £6m - whether any of these are actually in the know or simply copy each others homework is hard to say.
As for Muniz, he reportedly went to Fulham for a fee of £6.8m on a five-year deal with Flamengo getting anything between 20-25% in a future sell-on clause. Just how much a Championship player is paid these days is another mystery - £15k a week sounds a decent enough guesstimate. Though Boro appear to have paid high wages when doing Monk deals with reports of Britt getting £35k a week and currently Howson on £25k and Paddy £20k.
We shouldn't forget Saville was signed for £7m with reported wages of £17k a week - Fletcher cost us £6.5m, though weekly wages were modest at £12.5k - especially if you consider Gestede was also on nearly three times that.
Pinning down players wages is hard - even the Boro accounts only show the total wage bill for all staff, including players, coaches, backroom (e.g. physios, recruitment etc) and non-playing staff (e.g. groundsmen, matchday with no doubt many part-time). The last figure was for June 2020 and was just over £27m, which included 74 playing staff and 140 other staff.
This was down from £35.5m the previous year, which was no doubt due to sales of players on higher wages. If the average weekly wage for a 25-man first-team squad was £15k a week then that would equate to £19.5m per year - likewise an average wage of £10k would give you £13m. So playing staff are probably costing at the higher end of those two figures.
Why the football authorities can't demand everything is more transparent is not clear - I'd much rather see two simple figures in yearly accounts: cost of wages for players and amortised transfer fees - OK, I'm no accountant but I think the latter is shown and was £18.4m for the June 2020 Boro accounts.
We could then at least know how much clubs are spending on player transfer and wages each season instead of it all being undisclosed and speculated upon. Real Financial Fair play would be when the cost of running the first team of a club are within a much tighter range within each league and not down to seemingly dodgy stadium sales and over-inflated marketing deals and increased debts.
Here's the link for MFC Accounts if any one wants to peruse them
@ Werdermouth
And what about some of our BBC pundits and broadcasters which come out of our licence money?
Whether individuals should have the amount they earn publicised is possibly not fair on them - though perhaps those who award those wages should be more accountable in terms of giving value for money. OK, there are pay scales in most public sector jobs that ensure employees don't secure more than their fair share but this is not something people in the private sector generally have to adhere to.
There's also commercially sensitive information when it comes to high-profile individuals but in general I guess most people wouldn't want the world to know their financial affairs. So while people are interested in what players are being paid, it's probably only the total cost of wages that is of legitimate interest. Likewise, often the salaries of Gary Lineker or David Dimbleby are used as a stick to beat the BBC for wasting money.
Though can any salary above a certain amount be justified? The market rate is apparently what it takes to secure an individual, whether it be a football player or a TV presenter - the question is whether that individual is making the difference they are being paid handsomely for or if it is based on hype or fear of missing out. Does anyone watch MotD for who the pundits are or is it the football they want to see? Would I feel cheated if Alan Shearer wasn't giving his analysis on "what a strike that was" - maybe the cosy chat keeps us watching until Burnley v Watford has got its 5 minutes but I could probably skip a dull game at that point anyway.
Could Spence have sold himself by playing in our team? Just a thought. The big problem with our managers is that they give the wif of incompetence, and that is what costs points, and confidence, and when that goes it is followed by the manager shortly after. Why we are watching our manager struggling like a stranded whale, speaking rubbish to whoever will listen, when his actions are without logic, unexplainable on any level, then we are entitled to ask our chairman the Great question? When are we to be free of this deadweight at our club. To end up with a collection of rubbish which cannot be sorted into Good and bad because they are injured, permanantly! To then leave out our most useful Young player, in addition to loaning out a few other equally useful Young players, with, of course, no call back in an emergency, was careless, to put it mildly.
Werdermouth, thank you for the link to MFC accounts which are up to June 20, it will be interesting to see the accounts after the release of Assombalonga etc but that won’t be available until March 2023, hope I am around to compare them.
Come on BORO.
The mistakes our manager makes can be likened to James Bond
Once is happenstance
Twice is coincidence
Thrice is enemy action !!!
Boom and away…….
OFB
@ Werdermouth
And what about some of our BBC pundits and broadcasters which come out of our licence money?
Have you got any specific people in mind, Ken?
As I understand it, Gary Lineker took a fairly large pay cut relatively recently (although he’s on enough to survive, I guess 😉). I happen to think he’s an outstanding broadcaster but, despite that I rarely watch MOTD. Tbh, he seems like a fairly decent human being too, one who’s worked hard at his footballing and broadcasting careers.
I don’t begrudge the BBC using my licence fee to attract top quality broadcasters - the alternative may well be ITV and I rarely seem to watch that channel these days. Still, if our new Culture Secretary has her way there may not be a BBC at all in 10 years and I, for one, would miss it.
I mentioned Forest Green Rovers in a post the other day, so was interested in this article (the bit at the end about throw-ins seemed prescient).