Argentina out of the Olympics, so we will see what happens with Payero.
Come on BORO.
Finally, some good news - hopefully!
Bettinelli has gone from being on loan at Middlesbrough last season to becoming a Chelsea player after signing a two-year contract today. Up the Boro!
Reports from Brazilian media that Fulham have submitted a permanent transfer bid for Muniz that claims to be €6m up front with another installment of €2m later - Also says Muniz prefers a move to Fulham under Silva rather than Boro.
Let’s wait and see if Boro actually get work permits. Neil Bauser is confident, let’s not jump the gun.
As things currently stand, Boro are struggling to be ready for the start of the season with quite a few players also struggling to be fit for the opener. With Darnell Fisher and Marcus Browne already on the long-term injury list, Marc Bola it seems is not yet fit after his hernia operation and Sammy Ameobi has missed all of pre-season with a "niggle" of some sorts - we also don't quite know if Ikpeazu's injury against York is something that will keep him off the the pitch for any significant time.
With the Martin Payero deal still not signed, he's unlikely to feature in the opening games even if it goes through as he'll be only just back from Tokyo with no pre-season integration or training. That just leaves utility defender Lee Peltier, who's not expected to be a starter, plus Matt Crooks as the new outfield players currently available. Also missing is of course Lewis Wing after his loan to the Owls and increasing speculation linking Djed Spence with a move to one of three PL teams.
Not sure what kind of team that leaves but as things stand it will be heavily supplemented by academy graduates with perhaps only 7-8 of last season's first-teamers looking to be ready to start at Fulham. Perhaps we'll see what's a likely team in tomorrow's game at Rotherham but right now it will be a weaker team than the one that finished last season looking well short of being promotion contenders.
OK, a lot can change in the next four weeks with players returning to fitness and possibly some new arrivals too - however, bad starts to the season have a nasty habit of shaping the rest of it. Neil Warnock is going to need to decide who can do a job in the next few weeks, whether that be some youngsters or otherwise - he really needs to select a team that can start against Fulham and give them a good hour to try and gel together on Friday. I hope Ikpeazu is not too bad and he can play with Tavernier and Watmore but not sure what Plan B is if he isn't - perhaps Josh Coburn needs to be integrated as Akpom isn't going to fill that role.
We shall hopefully see tomorrow what Boro team is going to get is up and running!
i must confess that this pre season, the squad, the games and the management does not excite me at all.
I received the invitation today from the Boro to renew my seats in the hospitality area but quite frankly: one I still don’t feel safe and two: The football or players as I’ve already said don’t make me feel like watching.
Am I the only one who thinks the hyped up performance and ability of DJed Spence will result in a multi million pound transfer fee to a Premiership club. He always seems to play with a disinterest and unwillingness to be involved. The lad has undoubted ability but lacks commitment in my opinion.
I see all the Fulham seats allocated to Boro have been sold so a lot of fans still believe.
So is it just me? Am I being a wet blanket? A typical Boro fan where nothing seems to go right and hope has shot out of the window?
Or do any other bloggers feel that this season is going to be another basket case ?
OFB
@original-fat-bob. No it's not just you. Like you, we still do not feel safe and are going out for an evening meal tomorrow with friends for the first time in 16 months; Mrs P having had her second jab two weeks ago. We still do not feel like getting on a plane despite the fact we have two grandchildren we have not yet met.
I agree entirely about Spence. When he started he was like a breath of fresh air and I enjoyed watching him but instead of improving he seems to have gone backwards; I think he has listened too much to the hype surrounding him. No one in this climate is going to pay c.£5M for him.
Our slippery slope started in January and I have seen nothing since in terms of recruitment or in the way we play that says this is a team who will be challenging for the top; pre season performances have been underwhelming and the other evening at York was embarrassing to watch.
I shall probably renew my Riverside Live season ticket but am not expecting anything other than another season of very average football with limited excitement. At least I can be safe watching from home and if it gets as bad as Tuesday, turn it off. CoB prove me wrong. 😎
Your comments Werdermouth make me less optimistic for the coming season - or should that be, I’m more pessimistic ?
Your assessment is spot on.
No immediate signs of new players coming and Payero deal still needs to get over the line.
Philip of Huddersfield
I personally would be apprehensive about returning to any football ground, especially given 1% of the Cleveland population are currently infected with Covid even if it has nearly halved in the last few weeks. This last spike was essential down to people watching the European Championships, so there's a bit of a clue in the risk of attending a football ground.
As for taking that risk to then risk being disappointed by the the football on offer - well the latter risk is possibly considerably higher than the former based on recent trends - to paraphrase Chris Whitty, watching Boro's position in the table could end up as 'next slide please' if Neil Warnock can't get the players up and running asap.
I find my sense of realism tends to temper both my optimism and pessimism - my modus operandi is that things can always be done better and while I believe everyone at the club try to do their best under difficult circumstances, I don't always think the choices made were let's say optimal. For example, there surely should be a limit introduced on recruiting players who have played for Cardiff as it must be down to skewed decision-making rather than any statistical probability that they're better than other options.
Reading the posts on here, I think we are down to about a dozen “Pte Frazier’s” as we are “all doomed”.
Come on BORO.
Too early to be doomed as we've yet to start the season but there are evidently problems - still no problem is insurmountable but you first have to accept there is a problem before you can fix it. the decisions made in the next few weeks could well shape the season - I hope Neil Warnock makes the correct calls.
Akpom has reportedly agreed personal terms with Besiktas - though the turkish side have made an offer to Boro of €2m but the club apparently want €3-4m.
@exmil. Perhaps you would like to put forward what you see as the positives so far and perhaps alleviate some of the problems many of us are fearing. 😎
its now saying in the media he can’t agree personal terms so Akpom may be staying !
Johnson appears to be joining Wing at Sheffield Wednesday
OFB
I already have my season card as I had renewed it for last season so it has been rolled over to 21/22. I have decided not to go to the first 2 matches as I want to see how Covid cases are progressing with the restrictions removed. If Covid has not run out of control I may go to the 28 August match but as well as wondering about being in the crowded Riverside I have my 4 trains and the stations to look forward to (?) plus the hotel.
As happened to Karanka, at the end, and Pulis, knowing the positions that need to be filled and the players they would like to bring in doesn't mean we will be able to sign them all, for whatever reason, and it looks like the same is happening with some of Warnock's choices. (I am concerned that he seems to want players he has managed in the past, though football has moved on since then, but I accept his judgement until I see the team in league action.) The York game certainly showed up our lack of cover in some positions and it looked as if Warnock had given up and just brought on the 2nd half substitutes to give them a few minutes run out rather than thinking they could get us a draw or win. (I wasn't expecting to need a 1/2 bottle of wine to get through a friendly match, though it was a white rather than my preferred red.) I will decide after the Rotherham match whether to join the we're "all doomed" group.
I am disappointed with Lewis Wing going out on loan for the season but I suspect he was right in thinking Warnock wouldn't play him in his attacking midfield position.
So I wonder what number ball SW will have in the Fa cup draw.
I will be looking out for it!
The question for me is whether Warnock will be planning to play with a back three against Fulham given his wing-back options - especially in a defensive capacity in terms of cutting out crosses.
Dijksteel is not a wing-back and with Bola not fit it looks like it would have to be Jones on the left and Spence on the right (if he's still here). Therefore, I wonder if he'll revert to a back four with maybe Peltier as left-back and Dijksteel as right-back. McNair would then likely move into midfield to leave Fry and Hall as the centre-back pairing.
On that basis I'd go for 4-3-3 as we don't really have any fit wide players at the moment - Morsy and Crooks joining McNair with Watmore (left) and Tavernier (right) playing either side of either Ikpeazu if he's not injured or Josh Coburn if he's missing.
Maybe we'll get an idea tonight but hopefully he doesn't waste time trying to see if Paterson can still 'do a job' as I don't think he's the solution.
It is an incomplete jigsaw. You could argue that the only difference between 4 at the back and 3 at the back is that McNair moves forward when playing in a 4. I thought we looked really good with him playing on the right of a 3 and acting almost like an attacking right back; it's what Kyle Walker was doing for England. He was nowhere near as effective on the left of a 3 at York though he did ping a few long diagonals for Spence to run onto.
At the moment the only viable wingbacks we have are Coulson and Spence. If we play 4 at the back we currently don't have anyone who can play left back outside of Peltier "doing a job." Dijksteel is probably the best right back we have presuming he gets back to his former level.
Funny thing is, 4-3-3 or 5-3-2 looks rather similar except for full/wing backs. I'm pretty sure that Warnock will go with what he feels is his defensively strongest team for the Fulham game which probably means 4-3-3, something like. Then again we haven't played 4-3-3 since the start of pre-season when he said that the players didn't know where they were meant to be playing.
Lumley
Dijksteel Hall Fry Peltier
McNair Morsy Crooks
Watmore Ikpeazu Tav
I may be wrong, but did we not start last season with a back four and then go on a 14/15 match unbeaten run?
It really is poor management when you are a week before the season is due to start and do not have a capable/acceptable replacement at left back/wing back. It's a position where we have been short of cover for a number of season and have still not addressed it! 😎
Oh for a Gordon Jones, Mick McNeil or even Geoff Butler!
@ken. Or a George Friend who I believe could still do a job for us as a "traditional" full back.
I was fortunate to watch both Gordon and Geoff but Mick was before my time. All very good fullbacks. 😎
Even though Muniz has other offers from the likes of Al Nasr and Middlesbrough, it’s said that after the conversation with Silva, he became convinced that the best thing for his career would be the move to Fulham.
In that chat, it’s claimed that the player even asked Silva if he’d make his debut against Middlesbrough, since that’s their second fixture in the Championship season, and said he wants to be at the club as soon as possible.
Boro’s bid is better for Flamengo, since they offer €5m for only 50% of the player’s rights. However, Muniz’s representatives have already told the Brazilian club that they’re not taking that offer, as they want the move to Fulham.
Venê Casagrande says it’s a matter of time until a transfer is done, and right now, it looks like it’s Fulham who’ll win the race.
OFB
It's almost an incomplete jigsaw without a picture at the moment - though in the current circumstance I'm also expecting Warnock will err on the side of caution defensively when the season starts as we currently don't have enough fire-power to out-gun Championship teams and he'll probably keep it tight. So that doesn't sound like inexperienced wing-back territory. Hopefully we'll get another striker in in the next week as we will be quite exposed if Ikpeazu is unable to play.
Perhaps the name of the Brazilian media source for the Muniz story says it all really - O Dia...
We were bereft of numbers at the end of last season compounded by more departing in the intervening period. We haven't filled the gaps left by those gone let alone the known shortages beforehand. It looks like Ameobi has taken Gestede's parking space in the Rehab clinic and Bola seems to be a bit of a mystery. I've known Players to have keyhole hernia ops and be back playing in a matter of a few weeks at most. Clearly something didn't go well. Fisher's injury leaves us with injury prone Dijksteel and Peltier can't play three or four positions all at once.
I think we could regret letting Marvin go, he always done a job and so far I haven't seen anything or anyone connected that makes me feel not renewing his contract made any sense especially considering he wasn't one of the highest earners. Time will tell.
Spence has something but his attitude or being kind maybe it's just his reading of the game when out of possession leaves a lot to be desired. With Dijksteel behind him in a four and under instructions not to get caught out we may get away with it. On the subject of getting caught out Howson was caught out more times than Wayne Rooney in the latter half of last season. If his legs have gone the way Friend and Leadbitter's went then we will be carrying a passenger. Hopefully he was just struggling with a niggle and will be back to full fitness but mentally he looked very slow and off the pace in those last few games and I'm not sure gym work will rectify that.
Lumley can't be any worse than Bettinelli but from what I have seen I'm not entirely convinced. It's a crucial appointment and a flappy inconsistent Keeper will destabilise the back line which is under par already before a ball has even been kicked. At least we have plenty of midfielders, something Boro obviously can't get enough of.
Up front we have one big unit and a departing Akpom leaving just Coburn. Out wide we have nobody apart from the aforementioned Spence and Coulson. The kids once again in Sivi and Jones seem to have shown more threat and potential than those ahead in the pecking order which could be a good thing or a disaster.
Whichever way you look at it if promotion was/is a serious aim then trying to make up for dropped points by the time we get reinforcements in is not conducive to a play off place or selling Season Cards. A hitherto unknown Argentinian kid (if he arrives) to compete for another midfield berth isn't going to change much anytime soon.
As it stands Wing Backs is something we just are not equipped to remotely consider or risk. Four at the back leaves us a body short on the left but its probably better than two non effective Wing Back alternatives. All in all I suspect that there may be a few proven journeymen coming in if our "transfer targets" don't arrive soon.
@redcarred. An excellent if somewhat sobering summary of the current state of play.
We can but hope that some positive recruitment takes place very quickly and that our injured players emerge Lazarus like from the treatment couches! 😎
@redcarred based on that summation I'm not looking forward to the post Christmas period... I know that's a long way ahead but we're still looking for key positions to be filled to no avail. So far anyway. It's all bit a bit like Tony Hancock searching for the last four missing pages of his book so he knows what the climax was.
Redcar Red, one thing important thing, please do not mention the 'G' word ever again, I was so unnerved by the mention of it that I've had to open a stabilising San Miguel at 4.15. Even the Boss was worried remarking how pale I had turned.
Maybe the packing of the midfield is a new Neil Warnock tactic, no keeper and an eleven man midfield confusing the opposition. On the other hand perhaps not.
UTB,
John
PS Jarkko, the Boss and I are hooked on a 'Finnish Detective Noir' namely Deadwind, it's excellent.
It was the 'G' word that started a steady decline in my affections for Boro, followed by the "caretaker" Agnew appointment then Pulis and the Woodgate farce almost done for me.