Ken, I have a vague memory of him chasing an official with a corner flag. It was over a legal but disallowed penalty I think. I wish I could remember Aster's comment!

Look after yourself,

UTB,

John

As Boro have had a problem of scoring goals since relegation, I thought I’d start with a list of Boro’s foreign strikers to see if they were any better than recent acquisitions. I think this is the complete list, but if I’ve omitted someone I’d be obliged if you’ll let me know. I don’t intend to write pen pictures of all these strikers, probably only those that have scored 20 goals or more for Boro and that will be only the top 16 as that is the list one can see from the following with each strikers career goals and appearances following the / mark. Technically Juninho wasn’t really a striker, and neither were Stuani, Alliadiere, Ramirez, Kink or Killen in my opinion, but this is how the list appears as follows:-

1. LINDY DELAPENHA——- 93 goals,270 apps/118 goals,383 apps
2. BRITT ASSOMBALONGA-47 goals,161 apps/142 goals,362 apps 
3. HAMILTON RICARD———44 goals,115 apps/106 goals,324 apps
4. MARK VIDUKA —————42 goals,103 apps/258 goals,507 apps
5. SCOTT McDONALD———-40 goals,124 apps/210 goals,613 apps      
6. AYEGBENI YAKUBU———35 goals,103 apps/206 goals,513 apps       
7. JUNINHO PAULISTA———34 goals,152 apps/ 68 goals,330 apps     
8. JERREL HASSELBAINK —-33 goals, 89 apps/249 goals,591 apps    
9. FABRIZIO RAVANELLI ——32 goals, 50 apps/247 goals,626 apps     
10.MIKKEL BECK——————31 goals,117 apps/ 83 goals,297 apps      
11.MARVIN EMNES—————31 goals,161 apps/ 50 goals,292 apps     
12.SZILARD NEMETH———-29 goals,130 apps/136 goals,370 apps    
13.MASSIMO MACCARONE—25 goals, 99 apps/228 goals,693 apps    
14.JOSEPH DESIRE JOB—— 24 goals,111 apps/ 76 goals,298 apps   
15.ALEN BOKSIC——————22 goals, 73 apps/133 goals,429 apps     
16.LEROY LITA———————20 goals, 80 apps/127 goals,457 apps    
17.BOSKO JANKOVIC————18 goals,62 apps/116 goals,334 apps    
18.KIKE GARCIA——————-18 goals,68 apps/109 goals,399 apps    
19.TUNCAY SANLI—————  18 goals,78 apps/152 goals,515 apps     
20.KRISTHIAN STUANI———-16 goals,78 apps/210 goals,501 apps   
21.AFONSO ALVES—————-13 goals,49 apps/147 goals,259 apps    
22.JAN AGE FJORTOFT———-13 goals,50 apps/249 goals,548 apps    
23.JEREMIE ALLIADERE———12 goals,86 apps/ 65 goals,299 apps    
24.AVARO NEGREDO————-10 goals,40 apps/276 goals,673 apps   
25.UWE FUCHS———————-9 goals,15 apps/ 87 goals, 273 apps    
26.MARCO BRANCA—————-9 goals,15 apps/102 goals,351 apps     
27.MARTIN BRAITHWAITE ——9 goals,40 apps/ 93 goals,401 apps    
28.GASTON RAMIREZ————-9 goals,44 apps/ 56 goals,336 apps    
29.AHMED HUSSEIN MIDO——7 goals,32 apps/ 86 goals,280 apps     
30.TARMO KINK———————-4 goals,22 apps/156 goals,316 apps     
31.CHRIS KILLEN——————- 3 goals,17 apps/ 87 goals,255 apps

As an addendum to the list, of course some of the players scored all their Boro goals in the Premier League whilst others scored all theirs in the Championship. I’ve already discovered one omission, HEINE OTTO who scored 28 goals in 188 appearances which would place him at number 13, so at the moment that makes 17 for me to research in the future when I feel fit to continue.

@ken smith

one other that you can add to the list - even if it feels wrong - is Bernie Slaven who had international caps for Ireland. That's foreign.

UTB

Posted by: @selwynoz

@ken smith

one other that you can add to the list - even if it feels wrong - is Bernie Slaven who had international caps for Ireland. That's foreign.

UTB

I’ve previously written about Bernie Slaven as one of Boro’s all-time leading strikers so I won’t be writing about him again. Also I’m using the criterion of a player’s nationality not which country he chose to play for. Although it’s irrelevant Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank would gualify anyway, though he wasn’t born in Holland (or the Netherlands as it is known as today), he was actually born in Paramaribo, Surinam with the Christian name of Jerrel. 

Another foreigner which I should have included is Benito Carbone, but as he only scored once in 13 League appearances I won’t be recalling his career either, nor Jelle Vossen who only scored 9 times for Boro , Lee Dong Gook and Jamie Moreno.

@ken

I guess that rules out Lee Dong Gook as well!

BERNARD SLAVEN 1985/93 382 Appearances 147 goals 

As I’m becoming more forgetful and falling asleep during the daytime perhaps I need to get a move on in case I lose my memory altogether and to keep me sane I’ve decided to bring my writing about Boro’s strikers earlier than I had intended, so although I’d written about Bernie Slaven before and despite his having 7 international caps for the Republic of Ireland he was born in Paisley which in my opinion makes him Scottish.

Bernie Slaven arrived at Ayresome Park from Albion Rovers in October 1985. It would see the start of an eight year career with Boro which would see him eventually depart as Boro’s sixth all-time leading goalscorer. As a youth he played for Partick Thistle Amateurs and Eastercraigs before joining Johnstone Burgh as an 18 year old. Two years later he was transferred to Greenock Morton as a part timer, before moving on to Airdrieonians, Queen of the South, and Albion Rovers all within a year. It was at the Coatbridge club that he found his shooting boots ending as the top league scorer in the whole of Scotland, albeit in the Second Division. Slaven was still however only a part-timer also being employed as a gardener for Glasgow Corporation. In 1985 he fell out with the club and was banned from the training ground. It was then that a local reporter suggested that he should write to all the Scottish top flights clubs and all the clubs in England’s top two divisions asking for a trial.

Boro were the first club to reply, offering him a month’s trial but after his first game, a goalless draw against Grimsby he didn’t think that the trial was worthwhile and returned home fearful that he might lose his job. However Boro persuaded him to attend one more trial against Bradford, and he scored twice and assisted in another two in a 4-2 win. He was then delighted to be offered a two year contract with an option of a further two years. Bernie made his debut at Leeds in a 0-1 defeat in October, but a week later scored his first goal in a 1-1 home draw against Bradford City. That was the season that Boro went into liquidation and Slaven scored 8 league goals in 32 consecutive league appearances. In the following two seasons Boro were promoted twice and Bernie was the leading goalscorer on both occasions with 23 and 24 respectively. Back in the First Division Bernie scored a total of 18 goals in all competitions despite Boro’s relegation. In fact he was Boro’s top scorer in six consecutive seasons.

Bernie’s final match for Boro was on the 13th March 1993 when he came on as a substitute in the 1-2 home defeat to Liverpool. At a fee of only £25,000 he must surely be regarded as Boro’s best value for money transfer since the Second World War. He later played'k for Port Vale, Darlington and Billingham Synthonia before retiring having scored a career total of 223 goals in 567 appearances.

LINDBERG DELAPENHA 1950/58 270 Appearances 93 Goals 

Lindy Delapenha was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica in May 1927 and was not only the first Jamaican player to play professional football in England, but Boro’s first foreign player but also its first black player. He was christened Lindberg by his parents because he was born on the same day that Charles LIndberg successfully flew solo across the Atlantic, but was always known as Lindy. His education was at Munro College in Jamaica and he did his National Service with the Royal Air Force in the Middle East after the Second World War and after having had a trial with Arsenal he signed for Portsmouth in April 1948. In spite of featuring in only eight matches he was a member of the successful Pompey side that won the First Division Championship in the 1948/49 season. He signed for Boro in April 1950 for £6,000 and made his debut in the final match of the 1949/50 season at Fulham which Boro won 2-1. His first goal for Boro was at home to Arsenal in a 2-1 win on the 9th of September 1950 as Boro stormed to the top of the First Division by Christmas. Lindy was Boro’s top goalscorer in three of the next four seasons even when they were relegated in 1954.

Sturdy and powerful he was famed for his rocket-like shot earning a place in the hearts of the Boro faithful for almost a decade for his speed and physical presence. He moved on to Mansfield Town in 1958 for three seasons and then played a few matches for non-league Hereford United and  Burton Albion, but eventually was forced to retire from the game due to damage caused by an untreated groin injury. His final number of career appearances totalled 383 during which he scored 118 goals. He later returned to Jamaica to play cricket but also took up a senior position with the Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation.

Lindy Delapenha died in Kingston on the 26th January 2017 aged 89 following a stroke.

Thanks, Ken.  Lindy was indeed a memorable character. He had the hardest shot of any Boro player since the war and his average of a goal every three games was remarkable since he was a winger rather than a mainline striker and few of his goals were tap-ins. Indeed his speciality was the rocket shot from way outside of the area and many of them remain in the memory to this day. Lindy had a special relationship with Astor, whom anyone following the Boro in the 40s and 50s will remember with great affection. He must have been this country's first black comedian, preceding Charlie Williams by some years.  Indeed when Williams played against the Boro for Doncaster, Astor's voice, which could be heard from any part of Ayresome Park, yelled out,"This town isn't big enough for the two of us". 

You could always tell where Astor was standing (generally close to the players' tunnel) because he used to attract his own crowd of fans who hung upon and roared at his every comment. He had a special affinity with Dela , whom he used to refer to as "Our kid".

I once saw Astor perform at the Empire. The stage was empty, there was a 10 or 15 second silence, and then this enormous stentorian roar of "Up the Boro". It won the audience over before he had even appeared. Astor's voice was so famous that one of his many soubriquets was "The Mouth of the Tees".

Incidentally at about the same time, around 1954, Dela and Cloughie also appeared as a "turn" on the Empire, playing a game of head tennis. It would be unremarkable by today's standards, the kind of thing that players might do as part of their pre-match warm-up, but it went down well at the time, and I believe that it was the idea of top-of-the-bill comedian Jimmy James, an avid Boro fan, to include it in his own road show.

This indicates just how popular and marketable Dela was at the time.  He and Clough were Boro's two biggest draws, one coming to the end of his career, the other just beginning his.

As Ken says, Dela was also a very good cricketer.  I saw him play a lot for Middlesbrough and I assume he was taken up to Acklam Park by Harry Bell who was an accomplished Minor Counties opening bat.  Dela was a hard-hitting middle-order batsman, who one week was thrown the ball when the other bowlers were under the cosh.  It was the first time that anyone had seen him bowl, and he proceeded to weigh in with a hat-trick bowling medium-fast with a noticeable swing. He was, thereafter, an established all-rounder.

Thanks again, Ken, for provoking some very happy memories of not just one, but two notable Boro characters from the past.

@lenmasterman

Thanks to you also, Len. I well remember Astor and of course Charlie Williams, but didn’t know, or had forgotten that the former was a professional comedian. Great memories also of Jimmy James and Our Eli, the stuttering buffoon Eli Woods, also Dave Morris Club Night, another Teesside comedian on the Northern Home Service radio on Saturday evenings. Can’t beat nostalgia at our age.

Dave Morris's Club Night was on the radio for years, and at the end of every programme, over the sound of the closing music, Dave could be heard yelling, "Up the Boro". Ironically, he never came back to live in the Boro but stayed in Blackpool, where his show held an almost permanent residency on the South Pier throughout the 1950s.

BRITT ASSOMBALONGA 2017/21 161 Appearances 47 Goals

Britt Curtis Assombalonga was born in Kinshasa, Zaire in December 1992 but with his parents moved to London when only 8 months old and grew up in Swiss Cottage, Camden and went to school at Whitefield. He started his career at Watford but only played in 4 matches spending some of his time on loan at Wealdstone, Braintree and Southend where he scored 10 goals in 49 appearances. He signed for Peterborough United in 2013 and scored on his debut against Swindon Town. It was at Posh that Britt showed his potential scoring 33 goals in 58 appearances. In 2014 he signed a 5 year contract with Nottingham Forest at a purported fee of £5M, and the goals kept on coming with another 30 in 69 appearances at the City Ground.

Meanwhile Boro had just been relegated after only one season in the Premier League and had just appointed Gary Monk to replace Aitor Karanka, and Steve Gibson was determined to ‘smash’ the league for an immediate return to the Premier League and set his sights on Assombalonga. Burnley were keen on taking Britt to Turf Moor and just as a bidding war seemed likely, Gibson suddenly upped the ante by about £3M to make sure Boro got their man. Karanka had already set the mood by signing Paul Bamford on a permanent contract towards the end of the relegation season, and Boro became the bookies favourites to regain their top tier status.

Boro started the season moderately though Assombalonga scored 11 goals in his first 20 appearances but Steve Gibson sacked Garry Monk just before Christmas and suddenly Assombalonga’s goalscoring dipped with only 4 more scored in the rest of the season. Although Britt finished top scorer in his first two seasons and joint top scorer in his third season, last season for Britt was a disaster with a meagre 5 goals. Whereas the signing of Bernie Slaven had been Boro’s best bargain since the Second World War, it’s safe to say that for a £15M transfer fee plus his extortionate wages makes Britt Assombalonga the most expensive of Boro’s foreign strlkers with a total of 47 goals (including 4 penalties) in his 161 appearances. Nevertheless discounting Bernie Slaven as a foreigner, only Lindy Delapenha amongst Boro’s foreign strikers has scored more goals. Britt’s overall career statistics  are 142 goals in 362 appearances (39%), but before Boro signed him his scoring ratio was 47% and for Boro only 29%.

Thanks, Ken. A very telling stat in your last sentence. In spite of Britt's miserable final season, he wasn't as bad as that when we first signed him. It suggests that it's what we do with our strikers rather than their innate abilities which is the problem. And that doesn't only apply to our strikers, as the latest tragi-comedy episode with Wing illustrates, to say nothing of the subsequent flourishing of Harrison and Bamford as outstanding Premier League players under Bielsa.

Can anybody come up with any examples of players who have actually improved under our recent managers and coaching staff. (And please don't cite Traore under Pulis.  I could write a doctoral thesis on how his talent was abused and under-appreciated by a whole raft of successive managers, including, incidentally, Nuno  at Wolves.)

Maybe have to go back as far as Jack Charlton.

MARK VIDUKA 2004/07 102 Appearances 42 Goals 

Discounting Fabrizio Ravanelli who only played one season plus two matches and scored many of his goals against lower ranked clubs which I’ll write about later, Mark Anthony Viduka who was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in October 1975 was the most prolific foreign striker for Boro with a strike rate of 41%. His father was Croatian and his mother partly Ukrainian so he had a choice of at least 3 countries to play for. The fact that he chose Australia for whom he ‘only’ scored 11 goals in 43 matches might have on reflection been a mistake, but that’s open to conjecture and not for me to judge. However his 47 goals in only 53 matches for Melbourne Knights might have swayed his decision, although the Victorian capital club was born of Croatian roots. Nevertheless after 3 seasons playing for Melbourne, Mark then signed a 4 year contract with the Croatian First Division club Dinamo Zagreb in August 1995 for whom he scored another 55 goals in 99 appearances and helped them to 3 League and Cup doubles.

He then settled in Britain with Glasgow Celtic for a transfer fee of £3M and his phenomenal scoring record continued with 35 goals in 48 appearances which earned him a big move to big-spending Premier League club Leeds United in the summer of 2000 where he remained for 4 years but found goalscoring slightly more difficult. Nevertheless 72 goals in 166 matches wasn’t too shabby considering that 4 years later Leeds hit big financial troubles and were relegated. However he was still only 28 years old when Steve McLaren sensationally signed him for Boro in the following summer for a fee of £4.5M. Viduka scored on his debut in a 2-0 away win against Fulham, but injuries hindered his first season with his only making 21 appearances and scoring only 5 goals in the Premier League. The next season he scored only 7 goals in the Premier League, but finished the season as top scorer overall with 16 goals as he scored 3 in the domestic Cup competitions but 6 in his 9 EUFA Cup appearances. The usual quiet  laid-back Aussie was a colossus not only on the field but also in the dressing room especially in the Second Legs of the Quarter and Semi Final comebacks. In his final season he was again top scorer with 19 goals in 37 appearances boosting his strike rate to the aforementioned 41%.

Despite being offered a new contract in the summer of 2007 Mark Viduka swapped Teesside for Tyneside on a free transfer where an Achilles heel injury laid him low for 6 months. However he made his comeback in the Magpies penultimate home match of the season against Boro having only scored 5 goals in 37 appearances at that point. Typically he scored a brace in a 3-1 win sending Boro down, but the Magpies followed Boro down two weeks later. Mark Viduka then returned to Melbourne with overall career statistics of 258 goals in 507 appearances, a scoring ratio of almost 51%.

Viduka was a top class striker, but, like so many of that era (Ravanelli springs immediately to mind), someone who looked after No 1 rather than even pretending to be a decent club man.   I heard from a reliable source that after an injury spell that lasted from early January until the end of the season, Viduka, on eye-watering wages, was asked by McLaren to catch up by coming in a bit earlier than the others to prepare for the new season. The Aussie had the brass neck to throw a hissy fit and claim that this would be interfering with his holidays.

I seem to remember a couple of disputes when Viduka was at Celtic also. In the month of Celtic signing him Celtic announced that he had left the club giving stress as a reason. Then in a Scottish Cup match against Inverness with Celtic losing at half time he had an altercation with one of the coaching staff and refused to turn out for the second half after throwing his boots into a rubbish bin and left the club later in the season without fulfilling his contract. I’m not sure, but wasn’t there some dispute between Dinamo Zagreb and Celtic over his transfer anyway? And yet one source I’ve read maintained he was a laid back character. The report of a motivational team talk during the half time interval against Steau Bucharest now sounds like it may have been a full-blooded argument. Wasn’t Gareth Southgate replaced at half time by Massimo Maccarone, possibly at Viduka’s intervention rather than Steve McLarens then? Anyway it worked, but I’d liked to have been a fly on the wall.

And here’s me thinking that Maria Callas was a prima donna!

Viduka was one of a long list of hugely talented footballers who just didn’t want it enough to be truly top class. Boro had a few of those in that era. Boksic certainly springs to mind.

When he fancied it though, what a player.

SCOTT McDONALD 2010/13 124 Appearances 40 Goals 

Another Australian born in Victoria in a suburb of Melbourne called Dandenong who also played for Celtic after starting his career at Doveton before joining Gippsland Falcons where he became the youngest ever player to play in the National Soccer League (NSL) the top soccer league in Australia at the age of 15 having been born in August 1983. His English career started at Southampton in 2001 but only made two first team appearances before moving on to Huddersfield Town and AFC Bournemouth before signing on at AFC Wimbledon two years later where he also only made a couple of appearances. In the 2003/04 close season he decided to try his luck in Scotland playing for Motherwell where he spent four more fruitful years with the Lanarkshire club. From there in 2007 he got his dream transfer to Celtic for a transfer fee of £700,000 and made his debut against Spartak Moscow in a First Leg Champions League qualifying match. He scored his first goal for the Hoops in the Second Leg, though his first league goal was away to St Mirren. In January 2010 Celtic turned down a bid from Premier League club Wigan Athletic, but on transfer deadline Day Gordon Strachan successfully signed him for Boro for a reported transfer fee of £3.5M.

After missing a penalty in a 0-2 defeat at Wigan he scored his first league goal for Boro in March 2011 at home to Newcastle in a 2-2 draw finishing the season with 5 goals in 10 appearances as Boro finished 11th in Strachan’s first season as Boro manager. Following the appointment of Tony Mowbray as manager McDonald finished top goalscorer with 14 goals including a hat trick away to Hull City in April 2011. The beginning of the 2012/13 season saw McDonald dropped for some disciplinary offence, but he scored on his recall in a 2-1 win at Watford in early October. By then though his high wages had become a problem for cash-strapped Boro, but eventually after playing out his contract he signed for Millwall on a free transfer. 

His 40 goals had come at a high price, but he didn’t stay long at Millwall, initially returning to Motherwell and subsequently via Dundee United and Partick Thistle returning to Australia and plying his trade with Western Sydney at 38 years of age. His final career statistics show his having scored a total of 210 goals in 613 matches, though he failed to score in any of his 26 international appearances for his country.

AYEGBENI YAKUBU 2005/07 103 Appearances 35 Goals 

Yakuku was born in Benin City, Nigeria in November 1982 and started his career with Julius Berger FC as a teenager in the Nigerian Premier League. After a loan spell with the Portuguese Primera Liga club Gil Vicente FC, he spent five years with the Israeli club Maccabi Haifa scoring 43 goals in only 54 appearances before spending some time on loan to Hapoel Kfar Saba FC. His first English club was Harry Rednapp’s Portsmouth where he spent three years making 92 appearances and scored 43 goals, 4 of which were against Boro in a 5-1 win in the final game of the 2003/04 season.

Chief Executive Keith Lamb had revealed that the ‘Yak’ was in Boro’s sights  and a year later Steve McClaren signed him up for a record fee of £7.5M for a 22 year old, and he quickly made his mark scoring a dozen goals by the middle of January. He finished leading goalscorer with 19 goals by the end of the season, and although the goals somewhat dried up towards the season’s end he was voted ‘Player of the Year’. The powerful, pacy, bustling frontman scored a further 16 times in the following season which however finished on a sour note as the ‘Yak’ asked for a transfer suggesting that the club had no ambition - strange remarks at the time as Boro had just enjoyed two seasons playing in the UEFA Cup. Whether of not being able to attract a famous manager following McClaren leaving to become the England manager was in his thoughts, one can only speculate, but Yakubu certainly looked disinterested in the second match of the 2007/08 season as Boro lost 0-1 at Wigan. Nevertheless he got his wish and signed for Everton on a 5 year contract and Boro at least made a profit on his sale as the transfer cost the Toffees £11.25M.

Following a bright start at Goodison with 21 goals in 39 matches, his performances tailed off and the final year of his contract was spent at Leicester City on loan during which typically included a hat trick against Boro in a 3-3 draw at the Riverside. He was eventually sold to Blackburn where he stayed for only one year after which he played for a procession of clubs in China, Qatar, Turkey as well as Reading and Coventry City before retiring in 2017 with final career statistics of a total of 227 goals in 570 appearances including his 21 goals in his 57 appearances for Nigeria.

JUNINHO 1995/97, 1999/2000 & 2002/04 155 Appearances 34 Goals

Christened as Osvaldo Giroldo but known as Juninho Paulista he was born in São Paulo, Brazil in February 1973. He came to Boro’s attention in June 1995 whilst playing for Brazil and scoring a goal against England at Wembley in the Umbro Cup. By October he had signed for Boro for £4.75M and made a huge impact in the Premier League that season. He went on to have three separate spells on Teesside and though not really a striker he still managed to score 34 goals in 155 appearances. He had started his youth career with Ituano FC before signing for São Paulo three years later. His debut for Brazil came on his 22nd birthday by which time he was already attracting interest from many scouts across Europe despite being only 5 feet 5 inches tall. Luckily it was Bryan Robson’s and Chief Executive Keith Lamb’s persistence that secured his signature for Boro by outlining the exciting vision they had for the club.

He made his debut for Boro on the 4th November 1995 in a 1-1 draw at the Riverside Stadium. Mesmerising opponents with his skills and trickery in an attacking role he scored his first goal in early December as Boro beat Manchester City at home 4-1. The following season he scored 15 goals, the highlight of which occurred in March at home to Chelsea in a 1-0 win. Despite the season ending in contraversial circumstances as Boro had been deducted 3 points for not fulfilling a game at Blackburn, Boro reached both domestic Cup Finals. Although he was announced as runner-up to Gianfranco Zola for the Football Writers ‘Footballer of the Year’ award it was little consolation for the tears shed after relegation was confirmed.

With the prospect of second tier football in England and the 1998 World Cup Finals on the horizon it was hardly surprising when TLF was sold to Atletico Madrid for £12M in the summer of 1997. Unfortunately his time in Spain was hampered by injuries and in 1998 he suffered a career-threatening broken ankle resulting in his missing the World Cup tournament. However he returned to the Riverside in September 1999 when signing a season-long loan deal from Atletico making 24 starts and 4 substitute appearances helping Boro to finish mid-table before returning to Atletico and being promptly sent out on loan again to Vasco da Gama and then Flamengo.

Then in August 2002 Steve McClaren secured a permanent transfer for TLF for a fee of £6M as Atletico Madrid were relegated. He at last got what he had come back to the Riverside for, a Cup Winners medal, but truth to tell was not as effective as he was in his first two spells, but still became a legend to Boro fans despite only making 155 appearances. The supporters voted him the greatest player ever to play for Boro, possibly at the Riverside yes, but a slight exaggeration from those who had never seen Camsell, Hardwick, Mannion, Fenton, Clough or Souness, but for trickery and style surely not quite as good as Wilf Mannion in my humble opinion.

At the end of the 2003/04 season Juninho moved to Celtic on a free transfer, but following spells in Brazil with Palmeiras and again with Vasco da Gama, and in Australia with Sydney FC Juninho announced his retirement from football in late July 2011. Nevertheless he made one final trip to the Riverside Stadium in Boro’s pre-season friendly with PSV Eindhoven. His final career statistics were 68 goals in 330 appearances.

@ken

Great stuff, Ken.

Yakuba was one of a long line of players who were signed because they played very well against us, form which they were never quite able to replicate when they played for us.  The most dramatic example was Don Ratcliffe, who ran us ragged on a number of occasions when he played for Stoke, but was never more than average in our own colours. Ikpeazu is the latest example, and one can only hope that he fulfils his early promise rather than following in such a long and inglorious tradition.

To be fair to Yakuba he proved to be a decent enough signing, whose reputation amongst Boro supporters will unfortunately be forever associated with his final shameful display in front of the TV cameras at Wigan.

Having witnessed Juninho's destruction of England, and David Batty in particular, at Wembley, I was both amazed and excited beyond measure when we managed to sign someone whom I believed was probably the best player in the world at the time. It was a move that alone justified the appointment of Brian Robson, whom Juninho described as being his main attraction in joining the club. I would rate TLF as the best player to grace the Boro shirt since the war, an honour he shares with Wilf Mannion. I cannot separate the two, nor would I wish to.  Gold medallists both. The fact that 27,00 Teessiders turned out to watch the Boro Reserves in order to witness Juninho's return from injury tells its own story about a player that almost everyone took to their hearts.

HASSELBAINK JERREL 2004/06 89 Appearances 33 Goals  

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was born in Parabarimo, Suriname in March 1972 but at the age of 5 emigrated with his mother to Holland where he played football at youth level and signed professional papers in 1990 with the Second Division Dutch side Telstar and a year later signed for AZ Alkmaar. However it was his move to Portugal in 1995 with Campomairense and then with Boavista where we was given the nickname of Jimmy-Floyd. He scored 36 goals in 72 appearances for the Portuguese clubs but it was David O’Leary that signed him for Leeds United for £2M. He soon became one of the Premier Leagues leading strikers with the Yorkshire club for two seasons and earned the first of his 23 Dutch international caps whilst there. However when Atletico Madrid came calling he signed for the Spanish club for £12M.

However following Athletico’s relegation he returned to the Premier League with Chelsea for a record transfer fee of £15M. He spent 4 seasons with the Pensioners for whom he scored 87 goals, but in the summer of 2004 he became a surprise free transfer signing for Boro. His debut was in the first match of the season and he scored a late equaliser at the Riverside as Boro drew at home to Newcastle 2-2. He also scored on his UEFA Cup debut as Boro won their first European victory by beating the Czech club Banik Ostrava 3-0. In the following month he scored a second-half hat-trick at Blackburn as Boro won 4-0, their biggest away win in the top tier since December 1946. Jimmy-Floyd was Boro’s top scorer in his first season with 16 goals and scored a further 17 goals in the following season, but after the UEFA Final defeat Boro decided not to renew his contract.

He then joined  Charlton Athletic and ended his career with Cardiff City having scored a total number of 249 goals in 591 appearances in his career. After taking his UEFA coaching licences he became manager of Royal Antwerp, then Burton Albion, Northampton Town and Queen’s Park Rangers, but after being sacked by the London club has returned to Burton.

@ken Yes, I saw Hasselbaink on the bench at Burton yesterday as I watched their game on TV. He looked as before so he is fit and still looks young. Burton earned a hard-earned fought 1-1 draw with Cheltenham.

We had some good strikers in the PL era I think. Hasselbaink was one of the best we had with Viduka.

Up the Boro!

HAMILTON RICARD HUESTA 133 Appearances 44 Goals

Just known as Hamilton Ricard he was born in January 1974 in Quibdo Choco, Colombia and after making 61 appearances for Deportivo Cali for whom he scored 58 goals, almost a goal per game, he signed for Bryan Robson for £2M in 1998 reputably signing his name on a napkin as Boro had no official documents at hand. He made his debut in April 1997 and scored his first goal for Boro a week later in a 4-0 home win against Bury which was the start of a 6 match unbeaten run which took Boro to second place and eventual promotion back to the Premier League. He became Boro’s top scorer in two of his 5 seasons although it took him a while to settle down as he missed a plethora of goal chances initially. Afterwards he settled down in the Premier League as he scored 8 times at the start of the 1998/99 season in 8 matches when the ground attendance record was twice broken at home to Leeds United in the first match of the season and again against Everton when Boro let a half time 2-0 lead slip through their grasp in a 2-2 draw. Nevertheless Boro were riding high in 3rd place after their first 9 matches. The ground record was broken 3 times more as 34,687 attended the goalless draw against Tottenham in February despite Boro having dropped to 11th by that time. Ricard meanwhile finished as top scorer with 18 goals as Boro finished the season in 9th place despite a humiliating 1-6 home defeat to Arsenal in April. Ham the man was again top scorer in the following season with 12 league goals but Alen Boksic then took over as Boro’s leading goalscorer in league matches, though Ricard did score a hat trick albeit away to Macclesfield Town in a League Cup match in September 2000. However once Steve McLaren took over as Boro manager,  Ricard became surplus to requirements as he played for clubs in 10 different countries including a free transfer to CSKA Sofia and became a controversial character both on and off the field of play thereafter.

He later played for clubs in Japan, Ecuador, Cyprus, Spain, Uruguay, China and Chile before ending his playing career in his native Colombia in 2013. But whilst in Ecuador he was involved in a car accident that resulted in the death of a passenger and was later banned for 12 months after attacking a referee in a match for Guayaquil in Ecuador although the sentence was reduced on appeal. He then was sentenced to 3 years in prison for the car accident but as far as I’m aware has not served his sentence subject to an impending appeal. He was capped 27 times for Colombia scoring 5 times, but seemingly his erratic behaviour only started after he left Boro.

FABRIZIO RAVANELLI 50 Appearances 32 Goals

Ravanelli was born in Perugia in December 1968 and started his career and indeed ended his career with the town of his birth. He helped Perugia by scoring 41 goals in 90 appearances in his initial 3 seasons to promotion from Serie C to Serie B before signing for Avellino, but  then Casertana and Reggiana all three outside Serie A scoring a further 36 goals in 100 appearances before Juventus gave him his first chance of Serie A football paying £3M in 1992 for his services and where because of his prematurely grey  hair he attained the name of the ‘White Feather’. He spent 4 seasons with Juve where the club from Turin won the Italian Scudetto twice during his stay. Not only that but Juve had just won the Champions League in his final season albeit in a penalty shoot out over Ajax Amsterdam 4-2 in Rome. Therefore it sent shockwaves around Europe, let alone on Teesside when Bryan Robson attained his transfer for a Boro club record fee of £7M. His debut for Boro in the opening match of the 1996/97 was sensational as Fabrizio scored a hat trick before another ground record attendance of 30,039 were mesmerised by the 3-3 draw against Liverpool. Although Liverpool took an early lead Ravanelli equalised from the penalty spot. The scoucers regained the lead but Ravanelli again equalised before half-time. Again Liverpool regained the lead through Robbie Fowler only but Rav equalised once more with only 9 minutes remaining in what at the time was arguably the finest match seen at the Riverside Stadium. During the game the Boro faithful were treated to the trademark ‘shirt-over- the-head celebration’ indicative of Rav’s performances at that time. Ravanelli not only  continued to score Premier League goals but also scored 9 goals in 8 League Cup matches including 4 as Hereford United were swept away 7-0, and 6 more in 7 FA Cup matches. 

However, despite being an intelligent footballer with great movement and possessing a devastating left foot, Boro found themselves in a relegation battle as Ravanelli began to alienate himself from teammates and fans with his alleged complaints and criticisms of the club’s training regime in the Italian press. Although he scored an astonishing 32 goals in only 50 appearances he only scored twice away from home in League matches at Sunderland and Derby, and only 4 times in cup matches at Derby and against Chesterfield in the FA Cup and at Stockport and at Wembley in the League Cup Final. He did though score another hat trick at home in a 6-1 demolition of Derby County in a League match in February 1997. Of course that all came about in the relegation season and the 3 points deduction for not fulfilling a fixture against Blackburn Rovers. He did score a last match winner at home to Charlton Athletic in the first match of the following season but after failing to score in the second match against Stoke City he was gone to Olympique Marseille for two and a half seasons before spending time at Lazio Roma, Derby County and Dundee before turning full circle and back to Perugia.

Six years after retiring with a career record of 247 goals in 626 matches he coached the Juventus youth side and in 2011 and two years later in June 2013 he was appointed head coach to the Corsican club of AC Ajaccio who participated in the French Championet but was sacked after only 6 months in the post. He played 22 times for his country scoring 8 goals, and the last I’ve heard about him he was working as a pundit in the Italian media. Sadly there were rumours of fisticuffs in the hotel prior to the FA Cup Final and a suggestion that he wasn’t fit to play. But by then he had lost his popularity amongst some of the Boro fans, yet a few years ago had the temerity to state that he wanted to become a future Boro manager/coach. I sincerely hope to God that never happens. From Hero to zero in less than 12 months would be a fitting obituary of his Boro career in my eyes.

MIKKEL VENGE BECK 117 Appearances 31 Goals 

Mikkel Beck was born in Aarhus, Denmark in May 1973 and started his career as a youth with Bramdrupdam and then Kolding FC before playing a single season as a professional with Boldklubben 1909. However his big break came when signing for the German second tier club Fortuna Cologne where he stayed for 3 seasons although a back injury sidelined him from August 1994 until February 1995. Nevertheless after his recovery he scored 5 times in his first 5 matches finishing with 26 goals in 79 appearances. During that time he also received his first international cap scoring 3 times in his first 6 matches, although failing to score again in his remaining 13 international appearances before losing his place.

Mikkel then signed for Boro during Bryan Robson’s management and made his debut in a goalless home draw against Wimbledon, and scoring his first goal for Boro at Newcastle in a 1-3 defeat in the following month. After Boro were relegated he and Paul Merson proved to be a formidable partnership in the Championship as the latter scored 17 goals whilst Beck chipped in with 15 allowing Boro to regain their Premier League status after  only one season. However the goals dried up in the next season with Beck only managing to score 5 times as Hamilton Ricard took centre stage.

Mikkel was then transferred to Derby County although his spell with the Rams wasn’t particularly fruitful as he spent loan spells with Nottingham Forest, Queen’s Park Rangers and the French club Lille. However the goals dried up again and he was sent back to Aalborg on loan, yet they became the first Danish club to qualify for the Champions League in 2008. He finally trained with Crystal Palace hoping to earn a contract but after his injuries returned he decided to retire without making an appearance for the Eagles and is now a players agent. His final career statistics show that he scored 76 goals in 272 appearances.

MARVIN RENATO EMNES 161 Appearances 31 goals 

Marvin Emnes was born in Rotterdam, Holland in May 1988 and started as a sprinter in his youth but played football as an amateur for Rotterdam Xerxes before signing professional forms  for Sparta Rotterdam’s Youth Academy in 1997 before progressing to the first team in 2005 where he scored 9 goals in his 55 appearances. The first of his goals was against RBC Roosendaal in a 5-0 win in April 2006 and followed that by being the fans player of the season in 2007/08. In July at the end of that season he signed a 4 year contract with Boro for a fee of £3.2M. He made his debut in the League Cup in August scoring his first goal on his debut in a 5-1 home win  against Yeovil Town. However it wasn’t until October that he made khis first league appearance coming on as a substitute in a 1-1 draw at Blackburn. In January he scored the winning goal in an FA Cup match against Wolves at Molineux as Boro reached at least the Quarter Final for the fourth successive season. In fact whoever beat Boro in those four seasons went on to reach the Final although each of them failed to win the Cup. However Marvin’s first Premier League debut wasn’t until the penultimate away game of the season at Newcastle which confirmed Boro’s relegation. In August 2011 Emnes scored a hat trick as Boro won 3-0 at Walsall in a League Cup match and was top scorer with 18 goals that season but only scored 6 goals in the following season as Scott McDonald scored 13. He then spent two loan spells at Swansea before signing a permanent deal with the Welsh club in 2014.

His final career statistics didn’t look all that impressive with 50 goals in 292 appearances, but he did reach my cut off point of 30 goals (in fact 31) in his 161 Boro appearances (19.25%.) That was 2 more than Szilard Nemeth (22.3%), 6 more than Massimo Maccarone (25.25%), 7 more than Joseph-Desire Job (21.62 %),  9 more than Allen Boksic (22.78%) and 11 more than Leroy Lita (25%). However I had to make a cut-off point somewhere and I felt that a minimum of 30 goals should be that cut-off point whilst accepting that some players under the 30 mark had a higher ratio percentage and are probably renowned for scoring more important goals than Marvin Emnes. However I’m struggling with shingles at the moment and writing any more  extensive blogs and the research involved are not helping my recovery so I need to relax more.

I’d almost forgotten about Project Emnes, Ken. Thanks for reminding me. 
I saw him play against Carlisle in a pre-season away friendly whilst Danny Graham played for the Cumbrian Blues. I’m not sure the project was ever finished. 😉