... Football fans are a funny bunch sometimes.
Ain't that the truth 🙄
The latest rumour (Football Insider) is that Burnley want Kieran Scott, our Head of Football. That they have not had a Head of Football since August!
What's next? Perhaps the next rumour is that they want Steve Gibson as a chairman.
I won't give a thought about these rumours. Unbelievable, Jeff.
Up the Boro!
It's fair to say there's no short supply of rumours these days, it's just a matter of deciding how credible they are. I watched Ian Hislop's programme called 'Fake News' a few weeks ago and his take on assessing if something is credible was - "Who is telling me this? Why are they telling me this? and are they well informed about the subject?"
Now with regard to Simon Jordan - as Deleriad has pointed out - he seems to have a grudge against Chris Wilder and has slagged him off quite a lot in recent times. He slagged him off for "quitting" Sheff Utd at the first sign of trouble and instead praised owner Prince Abdullah. He said Wilder likes to take all the credit for things that went well and blame others when it doesn't.
Although, Jordan has a penchant for slagging of other managers, he called Steve Cooper a "perennial loser" for losing in the play-offs with Swansea. He defended his statement by saying: "It does. You show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser. You're not paid to get somebody into the play-offs, especially a club that's been established in the Premier League for eight or nine years, and is trying to get back there, and be a bridesmaid all the time."
He subsequently slagged off Cooper when linked with the Forest job: "You have got to ask yourself a question if you are Steve Cooper, why would you want to go from Swansea, who have been in play-offs in recent years, to Nottingham Forest?"
I think Cooper has adequately answered that question this season! Jordan it appears is just the usual 'rent-a-gob' who seems to be given a platform to spout his opinions dressed up as knowledge.
Meanwhile the Gazette has posted an article No contact from Burnley and Middlesbrough confidence that Chris Wilder is going nowhere where it also dismisses the rumours of Burnley links to Keiron Scott.
There are Good grounds for questioning the manager on tactics, any team that use a (very good) defensive model of play, that is two, well separated, lines of defenders, the front line defends, the second line stays out of the mayhem, watching for any panic situations, and dealing with them instantly and brutally if necessary. They also watch carefully for any chance of putting a long ball up field, on the ground of course,( far to difficult to control a High ball) this means that every ball up field is a very good attack, being simply a fast run and a shot. They got two, could have been 3-4, they will finish second I think. They will have been beaten every time the victims scored First, probably by several goals. The only way to handle them is to set up the same way, which means no breakaway's, which in turn means that we could and should have had at least three or four more points over the season, but we regard it as a challenge and go storming up field passing madly (no shots, of course). I notice the calls for the kid to play, a well built and fast, good in the air, glad to challenge anywhere on the pitch, not good management, in my opinion, what are we holding him back for, some non existent future? playing Connelly is not good, he is not going to be signed, (not Good enough.). I keep hearing that we own a very Good player, who is coming back next season, strange that no one believes that he will grace our own team. Do we own him or not? Are we frightened of him? Answers on a postcard please.
MW raised the point about the need for a successful recruitment campaign for new players this summer. The track record recently has been less than stellar and so we all hope that it will be better this time around.
There is an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph today entitled “Ralf Rangnick: Manchester United facing years in the wilderness unless recruitment improves”. There are a number of interesting points made in the piece that I reckon may apply to MFC so worth a look.
Steve Gibson needs to make a statement to all the supporters that Chris Wilder is staying at the club. If not, the rumours and speculation will just continue. Which isn't good for anyone!
I think Chris Wilder will probably remain at Boro. I also think Boro played poorly against Huddersfield, though I accept the point made earleir in this thread that the last three games have been against the top three teams in the league (Fulham, Bournemouth and Huddersfield) and since we aim merely to finish in the top 6, those 3 results will not determine how we end the season: what WILL determine that issue is how we perform from here on. We have no time to muck about now, we must get back to winning ways from now until the end of the season.
As to the players... Coburn shows a lot of promise and most of us on here would probably have given him more game time in recent weeks than he has been afforded. He can improve only with experience and game time, not by watching Connolly, Balogun and Sporar playing instead. Our most potent front partnership is clearly Whatmore and Coburn. I expect Connolly, Sprorar and Balogun will return to their parent clubs at the end of this season. But I do worry that this is my view and that someone who knows a lot more about football than I do, Chris Wilder, takes a different view. I don't know WHY he does, but he clearly sees something in those three players that I don't. I can perhaps see a glimmer in Balogun but far below anything I see in Coburn and Whatmore.
We need more creativity in midfield than we have been showing. We need Jones to rediscover the ability or motivation to run at,and past, players before putting the ball into danger areas. We need another good centre-half. We need Crooks to return to the form he showed earlier in the season and, generally, to avoid "earning" the bookings which have caused him to be banned from playing 1 game (for the first 5), 2 games (for the next 5) and 3 games (for the most recent five bookings). And, from what I have said above, we need at least a couple of real contenders up front as strikers. Maybe we have a keeper now that Lumley has paid the price for recent failings, but it might be a little early to judge his understudy only on the last two games.
It is easy for me: I don't have to write the cheques for the players we need to come in. But I am sure nobody will have been more disappointed in the last four games than Steve Gibson. I don't suppose Chris Wilder will have been too pleased either, but at least he doesn't have to pay to watch the games.
I’m perplexed by Balogun’s recent omission. We seemed to play him into form to where he scored something like 6 in 7 between club and country, then dropped him. Very strange.
Wow, quite a lot of diverse opinions about Chris Wilder particularly. His post match comments about tactics suggest that he and his staff spend time informing his players of how he wants them to play against differing oppositions, but that the players don’t always adhere to his instructions, either because either they haven’t the talent to do so, or that they think they know better. This might account for the surprise performances against Hull home and away, and the matches at the the three B’s - Blackburn, Bristol City and Barnsley. Maybe the match against Huddersfield was the final straw, thinking Wilder can’t get through to some of his players.
Before his appointment I wrote that Wilder wasn’t the type of manager to suffer fools gladly, but hoped that fans wouldn’t turn against him if things didn’t turn out as they perceived. Generally that hasn’t been the case up till now, but he always stated that the next two transfer windows would determine the future of the club.
For some reason Teesside seems unattractive to some footballers and their families, but until they’ve explored and experienced the delights of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors like our good friend Jarkko and his wife have done, and the endless number of Dutch registered cars I used to see on my days out in the countryside, it shows a lack of knowledge what we up north have to offer. It was easier to recruit top based southern and foreign players when Bryan Robson was manager because of his reputation alone. Not so easy nowadays.
Very few of us expected Boro to finish much more than mid-table before Chris Wilder arrived, but maybe the FA Cup run has counted against us. Just imagine though Boro might have been playing Pools at Wembley this Easter weekend - no that would have been too fanciful, but it was Palace who beat Pools after their amazing Cup runs in the FA Cup and the FL Trophy, and if Boro had taken Chelsea to a penalty shoot out, well no that’s too ridiculous, or was it? Probably Boro’s FA Cup run and the eight successive home league wins had raised our expectations beyond reality.
Boro now require 4 wins in 4 matches to reach the playoffs and a possible couple of matches against the Terriers to reach the Wembley shootout. So will we have a couple of local derbies against Newcastle, Sunderland or neither next season? Before anyone asks, as recently as 2019 Boro lost 5 successive matches going into April but then won 5 of their final 6 matches to reach 73 points, not quite the scenario I was looking for as Boro finished 7th, but as near as I can find to the present situation. It would appear that winning the next match COULD give Boro an outside chance of reaching the playoffs, but only if they replicate the instructions given by Wilder and his coaches, but it’s a tall order.
Once again play heed Charles Wesley’s words and BE BOLD, would be my advice!
Just realised I forgot to include a link to the article I mentioned in my earlier post. So here it is:-
As an aside skysports are reporting Man City have agreed personal terms with Haaland of approx 500k a week absolutely bonkers, should encouraged my son to keep playing football. With respect to CW what will be will be
Well nothing is straightforward in present day football. A living to be earned and make the most of your time in it whilst you can is the motto.
I like Mr Wilder, I have liked how he has conducted himself during his time at MFC.
However whilst the rumours and comments abound over whether he will join Burnley, remember, MFC approached him whilst Mr Warnock was still Manager. Like it or not, the dark side of football. He committed to joining MFC.
MFC for there part treated NW shabbily. Sacking him, we are told, by Mr Gibson on the morning of our match with WBA.
I posted the week before, that I had been told at the Birmingham game, that Chris Wilder was to be the new Manager.
And it came to pass. There is very little honesty in todays Football Business.
EXMIL CHALLENGE 2022 - part 3
The fixture list is now available on the dedicated challenge blog, closing date is 1900 hrs Friday 22 April 22, please don’t be late.
Come on BORO.
I’m perplexed by Balogun’s recent omission. We seemed to play him into form to where he scored something like 6 in 7 between club and country, then dropped him. Very strange.
I was wondering the same a few days ago, Andy. Balogun was looking like a good 'purchase' finally.
And the same happened with Šporar a few month ago, too. He was really playing well but he got ill and the new loanees took his place.
Anyway, in the past four games we have not really created many real changes. The collective team play hasn't been there. So we cannot point to the strikers. Getting balls into the penalty area has been difficult.
Up the Boro!