Truly dreadful today, as has it been for so much of this calendar year.
Former pros often say that it’s the senior players who run the dressing room as much if not more than the manager. I thought the senior pros in our side were amongst the worst performers today.
in the end the season has had shades of Mowbray: saved from relegation, low key signings, highly encouraging start and then falling away badly. Mogga did the same again in the following season and it would come as no surprise if we reprised it all again.
Mowbray, however, did sign a group of players who could play and that group became the nucleus of Karanka’s promotion team. Sadly, I’m not convinced that Warnock will leave us ready to go forwards like Mowbray did.
in the end, we finished four places higher than I predicted we would so I can’t lambast the manager. He inherited a mess and got more out of it than I expected overall.
However, after second half of the season like that (and a final game like that), whilst knowing a rebuild is coming from a manager who most likely has just one season left, it’s difficult to look ahead with much optimism.
The sensible thing to do would be to start afresh immediately. It won’t happen.
In my 33 years as a season ticket holder I have seen some poor performances but that must be up there. No shots on target and no spirit or effort says it all in my opinion. I agree with RR in what is the point if continuing with this manager given our record since january and he brought in the loans who the wanted and they have contributed very little.
Have very little confidence for next season....
So it looks like it was Deckchair Boys nil - Chair Boys three as the season only ended on a high in terms of the blood pressure for those watching.
As with the previous six, I opted out of subjecting myself to watching a meaningless Warnock game as I have zero expectations of seeing anything but a frustrating poor performance on what has been delivered since the start of the year.
Still what an embarrassment to suffer a 3-0 home defeat to essentially the already relegated bottom club - a clear sign that many of the players are not playing for their manager.
The club are showing all the signs that they've run out of ideas and basically Neil Warnock will get another go next season out of gratitude for saving Boro from the Woodgate Powerpoint punt.
I hope Steve Gibson opens his eyes in the next few days and has a serious talk to himself in the mirror because if he reflects on what has come to pass since the start of the year then he will surely see the Emperor Warnock's new clothes are going to leave Boro well and truly stitched up when he leaves the kitty even more bare.
I see no evidence that the arrival of three budget strikers will solve the ongoing problems that even failed to deliver when Gibson sanctioned £50m on trying to smash the league four years ago.
Gibson's next purchase should be a drawing board so he can first go back to it!
@werdermouth. A great read and so spot on.
Pity the local journalists can't see through the smoke and mirrors and start telling it like it is and stop delivering the party line. 😎
What a way to end the season! What a way to inspire the fans to return next season! Absolute rubbish today.
Gareth Ainsworth’s reverse psychology worked a treat, didn’t it? He told us you always face a real challenge from a Warnock team, they fight for every ball, never give up, etc. I’m sure he must have seen the ominous signs of decline over the last few months - less so in the last 3 games, perhaps - and therefore probably told his players today just to turn up and give it a go, regardless of his public pronouncements. ‘Just get stuck in. This lot won’t fancy it,’ is what he probably told them.
And lo! This was a Boro team lacking all heart, desire and motivation. Some - Akpom, Saville, Spence - could have played in their slippers for all the effort they put in. Yet Warnock comes out and says he doesn’t want to criticise the lads today. He admits we were poor, but reels out a string of the usual excuses - missing key players, we haven’t had a striker, we’ll need to recruit, looking forward to next season. Blah, blah. If this is what the famous never-say-die, up-and-at’em Warnock style has come to - a humiliation at the hands of the bottom club - then I have serious misgivings about next season. It looks to me as if he has just run out of energy and ideas. He’s let the last few weeks of the season drift, apart from getting shot of BA and AF, and a sense of malaise has crept in. And some of the players, nay all of them today, have obviously been infected by that. It’s almost as if they thought, ‘Well, if he can’t be bothered, why should I?’ That’s not a good image. He’d better rediscover his mojo by the start of next season. And after ten-twelve games he’d better have us playing better football, scoring more goals and in a promising position high up the table, or there’ll be hell on.
I’m only thankful none of us were there today to wave goodbye to Boro with the traditional ‘lap of honour’. After a miserable pasting, very few of us would have been left in the ground at the end, and if there were any, we wouldn’t have been terribly complimentary or terribly supportive.
For any Boro Manager to actually say he is looking for three million pound players fills me with horror. He will be bombarded with worn out players with a bit of a name in the game. This the usual ploy of ' go out and buy four players for a total of 16 million', we have been here before, many times, and it didn't work then and it will not work now. If this man can serve up trash whilst parking Wing on the bench, then loaning him out whilst we can't buy a goal, meanwhile making Britt Captain, and allowing him to take penalties, Pluss any free kicks from dangerous positions. Sorry, does not compute, and never did. Today I watched a team perform disgracefully, did not try an inch, he should have taken another look at the Young striker, it was Good to see us with a very tall striker, nothing was at stake, several of the kids should have started today. Now he will say he cannot play them in the opening games next season. By the way, loved the subs, three minutes to go, superb, he should be explaining just what he was up to, it's always nice to hear strange ideas explained to us idiots.
@werdermouth. A great read and so spot on.
Pity the local journalists can't see through the smoke and mirrors and start telling it like it is and stop delivering the party line. 😎
The local journos will be the last people to turn against Warnock because he does their job for them. Pressers that go on for more than half an hour, gossip, indiscretions, quotable lines by the barrowload, there's enough material every week to fill any amount of space between the adverts. All the lads have to do is write it down and space it out over the week. They will be the very last people to strangle their golden goose.
@werdermouth. A great read and so spot on.
Pity the local journalists can't see through the smoke and mirrors and start telling it like it is and stop delivering the party line. 😎
The local journos will be the last people to turn against Warnock because he does their job for them. Pressers that go on for more than half an hour, gossip, indiscretions, quotable lines by the barrowload, there's enough material every week to fill any amount of space between the adverts. All the lads have to do is write it down and space it out over the week. They will be the very last people to strangle their golden goose.
I think that there is another issue in terms of what purpose would it serve? By that I mean it's often better the devil you know.
If SG had a plan for the long term development of the Club then moving Warnock out would maybe make sense to a sports writer but as it stands we have just knee jerked from one Manager to another. If Warnock went then who would come in and would they be any more likely to be successful given the short term nature of a Football Managers life?
The lack of a strategy other than giving it another go next season means that Warnock or any new appointment will need to hit the ground running. With the scarcity of both talent and numbers in the squad there will be a (misplaced?) belief that it's probably better sticking with Warnock in the hope that he can cobble together a bunch of cast offs and renegades capable of mounting a challenge. Then of course there is the undeniable fact that NW is a Journalists dream ticket.
I’ve waited until Sunday morning to post as I’m still shell shocked and hurt by what I watched yesterday.
it was a rout, a compete laying down of arms and surrendering in all the key positions with no clear tactics by our old clueless general away from the front line.
No firepower, abject defence and no close encounters or battling to win. Not one of our army looked to be capable of turning the tide and our captain sadly looks like he should be retired.
We need a new leader, someone with ideas and a history of achievement either as a second in command or proven in the field.
New recruits need to be inducted into the tactics required to act as a cohesive unit and the youngest members of the squad given responsibility. Make Tavernier the Captain and get rid of the old guard. Raise war funds by selling McNair and Saville. Have Wood and Fry as the first choice central defence with someone behind them between the sticks who will stop anything thrown at them.
Don’t renew Johnson’s contract, let Howson go on a free and use the savings in wages to recruit from other teams like Sheffield Wednesday who have 3 available.
So it’s war from now on and as a member of Dads Army I will be vociferous in my comments.
Lets face it lads
”They don’t like it up em!”
OFB
I was just browsing through the Northern Echo this morning as since taking a break from commenting on Boro, I haven't really been reading any stories in the local press this year.
Len makes a good point in that most of the headlines and stories derive from direct quotes from Warnock so it has made their job easier to produce copy. I just read Scott Wilson's review of the season published last Thursday and it's safe to say it was written as a Warnock fan. Here are a few quotes from the article...
"The fact that Neil Warnock’s team are heading into this weekend’s final game with Wycombe Wanderers sitting in tenth position, a whopping 23 points clear of the bottom three, means the season has to be judged as a qualified success."
I noted the use of "whopping" and "qualified success" - though the next quote perhaps over-eggs the role of that massive loss Big Rudy and a few others who rarely got a kick in their last season...
"A host of experienced players left last summer – Daniel Ayala, George Friend, Adam Clayton, Rudy Gestede – but Warnock honed in on a core he wanted to retain."
I don't think any of those four mentioned had any plans to stay at Boro from what I could recollect! Still, Wilson went on to explain the reasons for progress this season...
"That core, starting with Dael Fry and Paddy McNair at the back and encompassing Jonny Howson, George Saville and Marcus Tavernier in midfield, has provided the bedrock for this season’s progress.
It has been supplemented by some unexpected success stories, most of which owe much to Warnock’s superb man management and some inspired work on the training ground, overseen by the 72-year-old and his trusty lieutenants, Kevin Blackwell and Ronnie Jepson."
That sounds like one local journalist who is still fully onboard with Warnock but he does at least explain the reason for Boro's slump in form since January...
"Boro’s best moments tended to come before Christmas, when they twice briefly climbed into a play-off position. January’s controversial home defeat to Blackburn, when Jarrad Branthwaite went unpunished despite kicking Fry in the head, proved a pivotal moment, sparking a five-game winless run that effectively ended hopes of a top-six finish."
So there we have it, it was that accidental kick to Fry that scuppered our promotion hopes - I guess we can only dream of what could have been if only that boot had missed by a centimetre. Small margins indeed. As for next season, well Wilson accepts that a similar showing next term would be viewed as failure but it's a welcome improvement this season and believes Boro are at least heading in the right direction...
"If Boro finish in tenth position next season, Warnock already accepts the campaign will have been a failure. For now though, while a mid-table finish does not represent a stellar achievement, it is nevertheless a significant and welcome step in the right direction."
I suspect many may well agree with this view but it's not the kind of critical analysis that you would be looking for from an independent voice having just witnessed over four months of aimless unwatchable football that look from where I'm sitting as quite a few steps in the wrong direction.
As far as the experienced players who left are concerned, to the best of my knowledge the likes of Friend, Ayala and Clayton have not had much game time either through injury or non selection. I know Gestede went down under but have not heard anything about how he has faired and I am not aware that Shotton has found a EFL side to play for - so no loss at all.
"Boro’s best moments tended to come before Christmas, when they twice briefly climbed into a play-off position. January’s controversial home defeat to Blackburn, when Jarrad Branthwaite went unpunished despite kicking Fry in the head, proved a pivotal moment, sparking a five-game winless run that effectively ended hopes of a top-six finish."
That also is virtually a direct quote from NW who commented exactly that in his recent post match interview. So little if any in depth analysis of the season and no comment/criticism of what has been served up as so called football since the turn of the year.
I predict now, that if what we have seen in the second half of the season is reproduced next season, then NW will be gone before the Christmas lights have come down as he will hear a noise from the Riverside which I suspect SG has not mentioned to him! 😎
It reads like Mr Wilson has been taking tips from this blog! Very similar comments to one paragraph in particular of this weeks opener, though I noted those points as being possible opinions of a “casual observer”.
Perhaps Scott Wilson is that casual observer and of Diasboro too 🙂
I guess it can't be easy to produce copy on a daily basis as Boro have certainly not been anything to write at home about - OK, you may get away with borderline gaslighting while the blame-jelly that was Boro's wobbly second-half of the season is not fully pinned to the wall but I doubt if the stance of everything progressing nicely can be maintained if such progress is only a subjective opinion from those onboard.
I'd not heard that line about the kick to Fry's head was the fatal blow to our promotion hopes before but if that's Neil Warnock's main excuse then no surprise to see it being wheeled out again. That's the problem of getting sucked into this matey clique at press conferences as it's very hard to remain objective and inside the tent. Look what happened to the Gazette and their ban when they tried to think they were not at the club's behest to write the party line. I suspect fans in the stadium may come as a rude awakening after 12 months of a relative easy ride for the level of performances consistently being served up. Surely Steve Gibson is expecting more from his investment and not this barely a goal-a-game non-football that has prevailed for nearly three seasons now!
Has this season been "a step in the right direction"?
Whenever I see that argument my mind goes back to a newspaper report I saw back in the 1950s.
A lawyer defended a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman by saying, " My client has been guilty of previous offences. However they were all of a homosexual nature. This recent incident is at least indicative of a step in the right direction".
It's up there with a News of the World story of the same period in which it was reported that "the body, which was found in three different suitcases had not been interfered with".
I think there is an argument that we’ve improved on and off the field. We’ve stayed clear of any relegation battle, been more organised, scored more goals and reduced the wage bill in the process. As the owner, you can imagine Steve Gibson being satisfied to some degree.
However, the baseline was set very low after an horrendous 2019/20 season.
More concerning to me is not what has just passed but what is to come. The current strategy only makes any sense if we’re promoted next season and we look a long way short of that.
Despite the second half of this season, I wouldn’t write off our chances of getting into next season’s playoffs but winning them is another story and makes the short term plan flimsy at best.
NW and his backroom staff plus the players were very lucky yesterday that there were no fans in the ground.
If there had been then NW and the players would have suffered such a backlash that they would have been quaking in their boots and would have asked for protection as they came off the pitch. NW would have told SG I'm not coming back here to face that lot again.
Because of no fans Boro got off ever so lightly. I hope they realised that, if they didn't then they soon will find out next season.
@andy-r. "More concerning to me is not what has just passed but what is to come. The current strategy only makes any sense if we’re promoted next season and we look a long way short of that."
What exactly is the current strategy? I have not seen anything in the last four seasons to suggest that there are any clear targets/milestones as either a club or a team. We seem to stagger from one problem to another and I have not seen anything to suggest that next season will be any different.
We need yet another rebuild from back to front, incorporating the need for a tighter defence (our mantle of the best defence in the league is long gone, GD is only marginally positive) the longstanding problems of creativity in midfield remains ever present, as does our ability to score enough to guarantee a top six spot.
We are going to need at least six new faces with the right skill set and hope that they can be integrated into the team all whilst seeking to make a top six push; to me this is a very tall order and having witnessed what has gone before under NW I am far from convinced he can achieve it. 😎
The fact is, a case can be made that, over the season, a group of battered veterans managed to avoid their private nightmare (and that would be promotion). When you know your talents are limited (as is your earning capacity) then the warning lights flash when you win a few on the trot, and teams you thought you could trust start slipping down the league. And this happened three times, and action was taken, against trash opposition we steadied the ship (and how)by going on a trot of five or six results which meant that the days at the training centre returned to something like peace and quiet.
KP
This explains how effective Rudy Getstede has been down in Melbourne.
Sounds like he has been far better than he was at Boro!
Scott Wilson's article seems to run parallel with Craig Johns in the Gazette.
It's good to see the free press in action and not afraid to tackle the Elephant in the room.
At least Scott Wilson seemed to give a more accurate rating of the performances of each Boro player, only 5s for Watmore and Malley, 3s for Coulson, Hall and Bolasie, 4s for everyone else. It’s a pity he didn’t give a mark for Warnock as well, 2 might have been appropriate. As soon as I saw the team sheet I just knew Boro wouldn’t score and at best suggested a 0-1 defeat, but Boro seemed to have been flattered that it was only 0-3. I have to say though that the performance nor the score line surprised me as I predicted it earlier. What concerned me more though was that Pools should lose 2-4 at home to a mid table side who played with ten men for half the match after their 16 match unbeaten run was ended mid week at Bromley. At least Cas won despite an under par display, but were extremely lucky to do so.
Strategy is a generous word but I do believe that the thinking is now a one year attempt to get promoted.
Otherwise known as s**t or bust.
@andy-r. Whilst previous performance is no guarantee of future returns, I think I know where I would put my money! 😎
While I suspect some may think those not convinced with the club's apparent steady progress towards promotion are just being negative but it's hard to be positive after three years of failure attempting to achieve that goal. Especially, while on the subject of that elusive goal, you sadly do the calculations to show no team has scored fewer goals in the Championship in the last three seasons than Boro.
It's not a figment of our imagination that watching the team has become a hard watch in which for some reason it's been decided that Boro supporters aren't too bothered about that trivial excitement from seeing the ball hit the back of the net. A stat made even worse by the millions upon millions that were seemingly squandered on numerous strikers and apparently attack-minded players that have come and gone during those three goal-shy seasons as stopping the opposition is deemed the way forward.
Message to MFC: Progress would be having some football worth watching?
I think there is an argument that we’ve improved on and off the field. We’ve stayed clear of any relegation battle, been more organised, scored more goals and reduced the wage bill in the process. As the owner, you can imagine Steve Gibson being satisfied to some degree.
However, the baseline was set very low after an horrendous 2019/20 season.
More concerning to me is not what has just passed but what is to come. The current strategy only makes any sense if we’re promoted next season and we look a long way short of that.
Despite the second half of this season, I wouldn’t write off our chances of getting into next season’s playoffs but winning them is another story and makes the short term plan flimsy at best.
Well, I was expecting us to improve after a reasonably successfull transfer window in January - at leat it looked like one on paper - and I liked Bolasie and Kebano is certain matches. So how the season ended was a huge disappointment for me.
But I think Andy summed up my thoughts quite well above. Some things did improve over the previous season.
I also think that a Warnock team needs a crowd to be successful. I think we would have done better all season if there would have been fans on the stands and he and his players would ned the noise and support. I am sure of that.
Secondly we had a thin squad and when we lost Tav, Fry, Morsy and Dijksteel we were like Liverpool this season. Both teams missed some very important players. In our case we also missed some reserves like Fisher and Marcus Browne. Mind, the latter will be back in September at the earliest.
Boro did improve as mentioned by Andy above. But the last few months still left a sour taste in our mouths. The ship was stabilized but in the end we run out of gas. Let's hope we can improve a bit next season and the play-offs will be a possibility.
Up the Boro!
I suppose you can only call this season progression if you're prepared to ignore the second half - any improvement on the results (let alone the performances) that Woodgate delivered in his 37 games in comparison to our last 23 games is negligible. Woodgate's record was 1.1 points per game, whereas 2021 has seen Warnock's team average 1.2 points per game - that only accounts for a gain of 2.5 points over those 23 games on Woodgate's form, which is probably just a margin of a defensive error, missed shot or bad decision.
That doesn't sound like the kind of progress that demonstrates the kind of confidence that is being placed in the manager by his friends in the media and that everything is on track to lead somewhere nice.
Basically, it's all down to having faith that Warnock will make those 8 or 9 decent budget signings in the summer, while retaining key players and getting a massive improvement from those who remain - plus having luck with injuries and all those endless refereeing decisions that apparently cost Boro the points they deserved.
Of course anything is possible but it it likely? I think I've made my view clear on the matter but I don't expect the man that matters, Steve Gibson, will be having a change of mind in the summer. Therefore, it better be a good few months off the pitch so the returning crowd at the Riverside have something to make their return worth the wait!
As I wrote on the Cas forum website, it’s better to play badly and be lucky as Cas were on Saturday than to play well and lose. In fairness I have to concede that Boro haven’t had much luck this season, but sometimes you have to make your own luck. All teams might have cause for bad luck, Rotherham spring to mind with Covid being responsible for their falling four games behind everyone else. The reverse might be said of Torquay United who went three successive matches recently scoring a goal after 97 minutes in each match to twice turn draws into wins and one match a defeat into a draw, that’s 5 extra points in ‘Fergie’ time. But what I do know is that ranting and raving, or still referring to incorrect referees’ decisions is counter productive. A team can’t drop points only gain them, so perhaps turning negatively into positivity is the way forward. Mogga was known for coining the phrase “it is what it is”. “If only” are the most negative words in life and are best forgotten as nobody can turn the clock back.