@selwynoz McGree joined Boro in January 2022 so we should get about 48% which is better than nothing, he was on loan to Birmingham City, for 18 months previous, from his parent club Charlotte FC, so it would be interesting to see who gets the rest 🤔.
Come on BORO.
Aaron Danks has joined the club's first team coaching staff.
The 39-year-old brings a wealth of experience, having worked with Anderlecht, the English national team and, most recently, Aston Villa where he was assistant to both Dean Smith and Steven Gerrard.
Aaron started his coaching career with West Bromwich Albion's Academy where he worked with current Boro striker Marcus Forss as a youngster.
He moved to the FA where he worked with the national team at various levels including England U20s when they won the World Cup in 2017 and the U21s in 2020/21.
Aaron will work alongside Jonathan Woodgate while Grant Leadbitter will continue his hybrid role between working with the first team and the Academy, and providing a link between the two.
OFB
🔴 Former Middlesbrough midfielder Stewart Downing has revealed to BBC Radio Tees that he's currently coaching Boro's under 16s: https://bbc.in/3OM5QTE
OFB
I’ve written most of my comments about cricket on the cricket site and for obvious reasons have not only not watched any of the football World Football nor read any of the comments, but as for this year Football has fallen way back into oblivion compared to rugby league and certainly to cricket in my opinion. Just peruse the statistics of today’s cricket from Rawalpindi. Yesterday it was doubtful whether England could even select a side to play cricket with at least 7 members of the playing staff in bed all day with stomach cramps and diarrhoea. I know about diarrhoea and incontinence pretty much in the last year, that I don’t even need to refer to a dictionary to remember how to spell it.
Anyway England were able to select eleven players to start on time at 4.30 am local time this morning. Luckily Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bat and England set the tempo in scoring 13 in the first over before going on to start with a double century opening stand at over a run a ball. At the close of play in only 75 overs due to bad light they had scored 504 runs, yes I repeat 504 runs for 4 wickets with four centurions one of which, Harry Brook is still not out. Bear in mind that this was no one day slog but a TEST match where there were only 3 maiden overs bowled and ONLY three sixes scored but a total of 73 other boundaries, this is remarkable, so remarkable that it is even possible that England could be the first Test side to reach I,OOO runs in one innings. Irrespective of this, surely cricket has now become England’s top sport again which it so rightly deserves and I’m genuinely surprised that so many sports fans think that football is called the beautiful game any more, but then I haven’t watched any lately.
t the close of play in only 75 overs due to bad light they had scored 504 runs, yes I repeat 504 runs for 4 wickets with four centurions one of which, Harry Brook is still not out.
What a phenomenal performance. It does feel like cricket is going through one of its periodic revolutions. There has been a general trend to fewer balls bowled per hour but more runs scored per ball but this feels like a change of gear.
Makes sense; if the pitch is reliable there's possibly no point in hanging around defending for 40 balls and getting out after scoring 15 if you can score 20 off half the number before you get out. Obviously match and pitch conditions change the reasoning but in general it is a significant change of style: one which dates back possibly to the WI sides of the 70's. If you can score a boundary, score one. It's not just the runs it's the domination.
Aaron Danks has joined the club's first team coaching staff.
I am starting to wonder if we will actually not bother with an official "assistant" coach or else that Woodgate might get the role. I get the impression that Carrick and Woodgate are enjoying working together. If we bought in an experienced coach as a #2 (which has been my preference) it might affect the current working structure negatively.
I've also been thinking about the appointment of Downing and Friend's recent interview. It can be seen as a jobs for the boys, Little Britain (local club for local people) type of thing. Then again, I think many of us have had to assemble small teams to work together in various parts of life and when you do that you know you look for a blend of skills, personalities that will work together and people you have confidence/trust in. To an extent, you often look to promote people you already work with who have done well for you. It's not "attitude over ability" but sometimes the person with the best skills is not the best choice for a team.
When it comes to people like Woodgate, Leadbitter, Cattermole and so on, you already know about their character and you feel that although they might move on for a better offer, you feel that they would give their best for their job while they are here. You also have an idea of their personality and skills. So it seems reasonable enough to appoint them to a junior role in the coaching staff and see if they can earn promotion from within. Presumably this is also part of why we have a Head of Football. It seems to me that part of Scott's role has to be judging the performance of the coaching staff and assessing when we can appoint from within and when we an external candidate is a better option.
A lot depends on the Head of Football because he now has to make the right decisions and, in life, he will never get all the decisions right.
It seems a little churlish to be disappointed that England were all out for ONLY 657 this morning but I did expect a score of at least 800 with even Jimmy Anderson fancying himself to score a century on this wicket. However England took more risks this morning scoring twice as many sixes his morning as they did in the whole of yesterday and Pakistan even scoring at a sedentary 3 runs an over will fancy themselves to avoid the follow-on target of 458 sometime tomorrow. Nevertheless Ben Stokes has always maintained that there will be no recriminations if England fail to win this match as seems likely now.
@deleriad - Agreed. There is a risk in the "Jobs for the Boys" route but, at the present, we appear to be on the right side of the road. Hopefully the coaching team can use this fallow period to improve the players still further from the progress that had already become obvious before the start of the World Cup "break".
It seems a little churlish to be disappointed that England were all out for ONLY 657 this morning but I did expect a score of at least 800 with even Jimmy Anderson fancying himself to score a century on this wicket. However England took more risks this morning scoring twice as many sixes this morning as they did in the whole of yesterday and Pakistan even scoring at a sedentary 3 runs an over will fancy themselves to avoid the follow-on target of 458 sometime tomorrow. Nevertheless Ben Stokes has always maintained that there will be no recriminations if England fail to win this match as seems likely now.
Now back to football, I’ve decided not to review the 1966 World Cup Final as there are plenty of video highlights on YouTube, etc of the match far better than I can review so after the best night’s sleep I’ve had in weeks I was up early this morning and whilst having breakfast watched a video recording of The Riverside Revolution covering the first two months matches at the Riverside Stadium and including the signing of Juninho. Despite how we all loved the little fellow, did we really need him at the time because I’ve come to the conclusion that Nick Barmby was so underrated? Some of the interplay between him, Fjortoft and Hignett especially at Highbury and at home to Chelsea and Blackburn was so scintillating at the time that perhaps we needn’t need Juninho at all. When one considers the eventual signings of Souness, Emerson, Ravanelli, Boksic, Hasselbank and Viduka were any of them better than Nick Bamby at the time? Also was there a better midfield player than Robbie Mustoe or a better goalkeeper than Gary Walsh. At the time it made the football played under Michael Carrick look almost pedestrian, although there’s plenty of time for Carrick to catch up.
I’m now going to surprise you all in stating that Nick Barmby in my humble opinion was second best only to Wilf Mannion in the players I’ve seen play for Boro in my lifetime, but he really was that good! Also that Ludwig von Beethoven was the greatest German that ever drew breath, but I don’t expect that anyone could dispute that fact, could they?
It seems a little churlish to be disappointed that England were all out for ONLY 657 this morning but I did expect a score of at least 800 with even Jimmy Anderson fancying himself to score a century on this wicket. However England took more risks this morning scoring twice as many sixes this morning as they did in the whole of yesterday and Pakistan even scoring at a sedentary 3 runs an over will fancy themselves to avoid the follow-on target of 458 sometime tomorrow. Nevertheless Ben Stokes has always maintained that there will be no recriminations if England fail to win this match as seems likely now.
Now back to football, I’ve decided not to review the 1966 World Cup Final as there are plenty of video highlights on YouTube, etc of the match far better than I can review so after the best night’s sleep I’ve had in weeks I was up early this morning and whilst having breakfast watched a video recording of The Riverside Revolution covering the first two months matches at the Riverside Stadium and including the signing of Juninho. Despite how we all loved the little fellow, did we really need him at the time because I’ve come to the conclusion that Nick Barmby was so underrated? Some of the interplay between him, Fjortoft and Hignett especially at Highbury and at home to Chelsea and Blackburn was so scintillating at the time that perhaps we needn’t need Juninho at all. When one considers the eventual signings of Souness, Emerson, Ravanelli, Boksic, Hasselbank and Viduka were any of them better than Nick Bamby at the time? Also was there a better midfield player than Robbie Mustoe or a better goalkeeper than Gary Walsh. At the time it made the football played under Michael Carrick look almost pedestrian, although there’s plenty of time for Carrick to catch up.
I’m now going to surprise you all in stating that Nick Barmby in my humble opinion was second best only to Wilf Mannion in the players I’ve seen play for Boro in my lifetime, because he really was that good, just as Ludwig van Beethoven was the greatest ever German to draw breath.
... after the best night’s sleep I’ve had in weeks I was up early this morning and whilst having breakfast watched a video recording of The Riverside Revolution covering the first two months matches at the Riverside Stadium and including the signing of Juninho. Despite how we all loved the little fellow, did we really need him at the time because I’ve come to the conclusion that Nick Barmby was so underrated? Some of the interplay between him, Fjortoft and Hignett especially at Highbury and at home to Chelsea and Blackburn was so scintillating at the time that perhaps we needn’t need Juninho at all.
This is actually one of my unpopular opinions though I have recently started to reconsider it. I remember at the time, we were calling them "the midget gems". Juninho's signing disrupted their early brilliance and Barmby quickly became disaffected. It felt as though trying to incorporate Juninho into the team led to the long slow slide. I seem to recall that we went something like 3 months without winning after Christmas.
I think in retrospect though that this was just the typical trajectory of a promoted team that starts like a house on fire then burns out quickly. I think Juninho's signing simply coincided with our inevitable dip. This was made worse by Robbo's complete inability to manage a team at that level. I've often thought that Robbo was one of our best and worst ever managers. Best because even with Gibson's chequebook we couldn't have attracted the players we did without his charisma. Worst because, frankly, he spaffed Gibson's millions up the side of a wall and left us with nothing to show for it. Possibly only Monk did worse, relatively, than Robbo in terms of wasting money. Can't help thinking that if someone like Lennie Lawrence had even half of the funds that Robbo did that he would have built a successful if boring middle of the table Premier league team.
@ken - It's all a question of personal opinion, of course, and I agree Barmby was underrated.
Souness however came much earlier than the Robson revolution, if we are calling it that. I think Hignett is also very much underestimated and he was able to play well with Juninho and with Fjortoft and Mustoe. He also took pay cut to stay at the club. Commitment is a vital component. But when talking about underrated players, Mustoe has to be up front - bought relatively cheaply yet, whoever came into the side, Mustoe was always there in the team and, whichever division we played in, he was always worth his place. Mustoe did the stuff that needed to be done but which often gets overlooked - putting in the tackles, putting in the blocks, doing the hard yards. Juninho EXCITED with his runs, his touch, his swerves and turns and some of the goals he scored were great to watch - he was like the jewel in the gold band, but you need the gold band to keep those jewels secure.
But Beethoven the greatest German to draw breath? Bold statement. It would bold even to say he is Germany's greatest MUSICIAN (though he's obviously in the short list). Obviously Germany suffers from an embarassment of riches in the musical department. But even if Britain claims German-born Handel (he spent most of his life and created much of his music here), Germany still has a number of all-time greats like Schumann, JS Bach, Richard Wagner and Brahms to thrown into the hat. Mozart, of course, was born in Salzburg, Austria. But apart from musicians, there are plenty of other Great Germans down the centuries - how about Albert Einstein (OK, he did a "Handel" and much of his work was done in the USA), Marlene Dietrich (ditto), Otto von Bismark or, for influence over the wider world, how about Gutenburg (moving type printing), Karl Marx (or maybe the UK can claim him, too?) or Karl Benz (since the combustion engined vehicle has changed peoples' lives) but before I could put forward Martin Luther I'd prefer to eat a diet of worms.
(OK, I'll get my coat....)
I'd agree that the signing of Juninho disrupted a fantastic partnership between Hignett and Barmby but I have to say, I think Juninho was on a completely different level as an individual to both of the "midget gems". Whilst I do think that Barmby was an underrated player, I can't agree with Ken's assessment on his standing in Boro history (even in my comparatively limited knowledge). I very much doubt that Nick Barmby would have made a Brazilian World Cup squad, nevermind being a key component in winning it. Like Hignett, however, he was a technically gifted player and very intelligent in his movement and link-up with others.
Of course, Boro's problems at the time were rarely at that end of the pitch. I think the problems we ultimately had were the same ones we often repeated since of trying to do too much, too soon, rather than to develop and evolve the squad over time.
As FD says, though, it's all opinions.
Of course I do agree that it’s all about personal opinions, but in those early Riverside matches Boro were so dominant and played with such pace from defence to attack and also had a case for a penalty several times over and kept the ball on the grass most of the time.
I’ve only visited Barcelona once but in La Rambla there are several Messi lookalikes doing keep uppy tricks but also a shop devoted to Beethoven memorabilia. I’d always had several small black silhouettes of Beethoven, Wagner, Chopin, Johann Strauss and Tchaikovsky on the wall of my staircase plus a couple of small marble busts of Beethoven on my bedside table and vinyl box sets of Beethoven’s 9 symphonies and 5 piano concertos so I ventured inside to see what else was available before spying this large pencil drawing of the great man which I decided to purchase. It was just outside one of the Messi lookalikes performing his tricks and pointing to Messi outside said to the proprietor that I considered that Beethoven was better than Messi and received a knowing smile as he rolled up the drawing inserting it into a strong cardboard tube for transporting it home.
I have twice since visited Beethoven’s birth place in Bonn which is now a museum. I have always considered that Beethoven was to music what Oscar Wilde was to wit and also possess a complete book of Wilde’s works too including stage directions of all of his plays.
@forever-dormo & Ken. On the subject of music, I have to agree that the names you mention are some of our greatest classical composers of yesteryear.
On a more current theme, I would just like to add that this week we have lost one of our greatest modern musicians/composers and performers in Christine McVie, who spent many years composing and performing with Fleetwood Mac.
For me, sadly, we have lost one of the very best musical artists but comforted in the knowledge, in my view, that her music will survive the years as much as the classical composers of times gone bye.
RIP Christine and thank you for some amazing music/memories. 😎
On the subject of music, I heard Jackie Thomas on Saturday Live on R4 this morning. She is a founder member of the Brodsky Quartet and a Boro lass. She was talking about her memoir based on her childhood diaries and mentioned that the content flipped from her musical endeavours, to John Hickton scoring goals for the Boro
I was surprised to learn that Teesside was a hotbed of young musical talent in the 70s and that opportunities were available for many to develop their skills.
@k-p-in-spain - Christine McVie - what a singer and a great songwriter. Rumours must be one of the greatest albums ever issued. I am now at the stage when I go to the pub and my mate will say "Did you hear that X died today...?" And I am getting more conscious that some of them (not CMcV) are my age.
As ever, you read a blog for the second time, and there it is, that few words that chill the soul. Nothing that concerns the field of play and all who sail on it, (and that includes all the players, including the academy) is the concern of the head of football. There is no more chance of him telling the head Coach that player A Is being sold, or that player B is arriving tomorrow from god knows where, than I have of flying to the moon, helped by a few feathers stuck to my arms.
Did anyone notice, but we dropped down to 15th in the table during the weekend?
I was surpriced to see that there was one game in the Championship on Friday when Sunderland's rousing second-half display secured a convincing victory against an in-form Millwall to move them within a point of the Championship top six.
Mogga's men had one game in hand - so they are just a point off the top six now.
Our next game will be on Saturday December 10th when Luton will be on Teesside. Up the Boro!
Of course Boro vs. Luton will be played at 15:00 GMT on Saturday, 10th December.
in Qatar, the FIFA WORLD CUP will continue the same day with the QUARTER-FINAL of England vs. France at 19:00 GMT.
Looking forward to seeing Boro play again. Up the Boro!