There are some very good Scottish players around at the moment, here are some currently playing in the Premier League. Gordon Strachan admitted he made mistakes while at Boro including some of the players he brought down from Scotland. In his favour he left Boro without taking a penny.
Good post, Malcolm.
It's interesting that you still recall the manner of Strachan's leaving, which was indeed to his credit. It will have done him no harm in going on to manage his country, whereas his actual record in managing the Boro was atrocious, and many would have thought a prelude to lesser posts.
It's worth remembering that the real reason for a manager's dismissal may be very different from the official version, which is often a cover story fed to the press and the public. It keeps problems, difficulties and scandals within the walls of the club and allows the manager to go forward with some credit if he accepts the club's decision.
I have not a single shred of evidence that this may have happened in Strachan's case. But I remember thinking at the time that a football manager accepting the termination of his contract without taking a penny of his due just seemed too good to be true.
And if there is one thing I have learned in life it is that if something seems too good to be true, then it probably is.
If we have Britt, Watmore, Fletcher and Akpom available, I do not see us buing a striker this January. So perhaps a winger and possibly a defender who can play at centre and full back positions.
I would be happy to fee Fletcher and Watmore fully fit soon. Up the Boro!
Not transfer targets as such, but interesting logic - & NW talking a lot of sense:
Wonder if there is any truth to this and indeed if the injuries yesterday maybe exacerbated things?
@redcarred. NW disclosed in his pre match interview that they had a PL player lined up to arrive this week and was hoping he would be involved for the Rotherham game but the deal was awaiting release approval from his current manager.
I suspect we have to release Roberts to balance the wage bill. If I was SG I would be saying to NW that you have a wide man you are not using so if you want another you need to send PR back.
It's case of watch this space. 😎
@stircrazy. I am not in favour of offering him a new contract even at a significantly reduced figure. Too often when he plays he makes little or no contribution and it is like playing with 10 men.
Time is up for me with BA and he should be allowed to move on or make him such a low offer that he finds a better deal elsewhere, which I suspect is the tactic that NB will use as he has done in the past. 😎
@k-p-in-spain I think you are being a bit harsh on Britt there. He had a great game against Forest the other night, one good performance every season or two, what's not to like?
I'm sure his agent is batting away offers as I type!
Seems like NW agrees that Spence isn’t a right back.
We have agreed a £300,000 fee with Preston for Full Back Darnell Fisher. Twenty six years old and out of contract in the Summer, experienced at this level, not a kid but has a bit of a bite on him.
Solid pro who will provide cover and has plenty of experience at Championship level. There must be dozens of reasonable players in a similar position who won’t have a job in July. I don’t expect to see any clubs paying large transfer fees unless it is a truly exceptional player.
I’m open-minded about Bolasie. If he can give 25 minutes of impact as a sub and then build up to a bit more than that, then I don’t see this as much of a risk as it’s only until the end of the season. Knowing NW the salary won’t be a silly number and we need someone to make an impact.
I have a feeling that this January slump is what happened to Cardiff who then powered through the rest of the season. It would be typical Boro for us to go to Norwich and steal something after that terrible performance.
UTB
Sunderland are close to completing the loan signing of Rangers winger Jordan Jones accoding to the Echo.
Redcar-born Jones made one senior appearance for Middlesbrough after progressing through the academy at Rockliffe Park, and made 97 senior appearances for Kilmarnock prior to joining Rangers in 2019.
Up the Boro!
I hope the Bolasie signing works. There's a reasonable chance of it because he seems to be a very motivated and driven person. Possibly closer to Watmore than Ravel.
Fisher is a decent signing. I think he's a better RB than Dijksteel. My issue with Dijksteel is that he's a phenomenal athlete but playing RB isn't instinctive for him. Every match he gets caught out of position several times and relies on his pace and ability to make amends. That's fine until he's carrying some sort of injury that knocks a few percent off his performance. It's hard to know what his best position actually is.
I hope the Bolasie signing works. There's a reasonable chance of it because he seems to be a very motivated and driven person. Possibly closer to Watmore than Ravel.
Fisher is a decent signing. I think he's a better RB than Dijksteel. My issue with Dijksteel is that he's a phenomenal athlete but playing RB isn't instinctive for him. Every match he gets caught out of position several times and relies on his pace and ability to make amends. That's fine until he's carrying some sort of injury that knocks a few percent off his performance. It's hard to know what his best position actually is.
No offence deleriad but it sounds as though you are talking about DJ Spence rather than Dijksteel, who to me has been excellent this season.
Come on BORO.
So two signing since the last match.excellent!
I think we needed some for the positions. Let's hope they both fit in well and Fisher will be ready soon, if needed.
I would expect Bolasie to be ready in two weeks time.
Up the Boro !
I hope Fisher was signed in time for Norwich (midday today) as we desperately need a RB if Dijksteel isn't fit. I'm not sure what Spence is and at the moment it looks like he's not sure himself.
Bolasie will probably be on the bench at Norwich I would imagine but I'd be inclined to start with him and then take him off as he tired. Better to be 1-0 up and taking him off than 2-0 down and sending him on. Hopefully Fry will be OK after the swelling goes down and his blurred vision settles. I believe Hall and Ashley Fletcher are playing in a an U23's game today so hopefully a bit more fitness in them.
@redcarred. If he wasn't, then assuming Fry wants to play, I would go with:
Bettinelli
McNair, Fry and Bola
Spence, Morsy, Howson, Saville and Johnston
Watmore and Akpom 😎
Souness was one who fell through the big club system, Spurs, in a moment of madness said ' oh, go on then you can have him, he is being kept out of our team, he may as well be playing for you'.
On a more serious note, the days are long gone when every club had its Scottish stars. And the reason is pretty obvious, a complete lack of quality in Scottish football. Stracken's supermarket sweep was an observable traffic crash, the trouble was it could be viewed each week and it was not funny. Nobody mentions the most outrageous (and outclassed) player in that whole bunch, i cannot name him but you will all know who I am talking about, small, a head of whispy fair hair, slow, light weight, achieved nothing throughout his stay showed no concept whatsoever of a football brain, everybody could and would shove him off the ball. I would be impressed if anybody could jog my memory about some match in which he saved the day with perhaps a goal or a dominant display.
I hope the Bolasie signing works. There's a reasonable chance of it because he seems to be a very motivated and driven person. Possibly closer to Watmore than Ravel.
Fisher is a decent signing. I think he's a better RB than Dijksteel. My issue with Dijksteel is that he's a phenomenal athlete but playing RB isn't instinctive for him. Every match he gets caught out of position several times and relies on his pace and ability to make amends. That's fine until he's carrying some sort of injury that knocks a few percent off his performance. It's hard to know what his best position actually is.
No offence deleriad but it sounds as though you are talking about DJ Spence rather than Dijksteel, who to me has been excellent this season.
Come on BORO.
I agree that he has been excellent. My point is that he makes up for his occasional lack of positioning with pace, strength and ability. That's fine until he's carrying a knock or something so that he can't make up for it anymore. I do keep coming back to the fact that he only played right back for a dozen games or so for Charlton before he joined us.
Norwich, now which Boro will turn up at Carrow Road?
Being a fully time-served member of that exclusive Boro club, 'Cynics' I would say that this is a game, in the days of spectators, that Boro could win comfortably then a massive crowd would turn up at the Riverside and Boro would play like 'Monty Python's Philospher's Eleven'.
I would add that of course we'd have to be playing the bottom of the league or a team from a lower league in a cup match. We all know Boro have previous there.
Anyway I'm going Canary 3 - 1 Boro. Then I'll sneak about avoiding my Nawrch supporting neighbours for a few days.
Stay safe everyone,
UTB,
John
I texted my mate who is a PNE season-card holder about Fisher. He said he’s not disappointed to lose him. Indeed, he thinks PNE did well to get £300K for him ( not sure how he knows that as Boro said the fee was undisclosed.) Mike thinks he’s inconsistent, and perhaps worse, he’s ill-disciplined, dirty and often gets booked. I thanked him for his encouraging response!
So he might not be a tremendous asset, but he is an experienced extra body in our time of need, and as I said to Mike, if anyone can tame him, Warnock can!
@clive-hurren £300K is peanuts even in todays Football world. He has experience with Preston and Rotherham at this level and at St. Johnstone and Celtic previously so he won't wander round looking dazzled by the floodlights. He does have an "aggressive" edge to him which is something this side needs, perhaps if he was going ballistic when Fry was booted in the face there may have been a different outcome from the Ref.
For the money we can't really lose and he is a huge upgrade on the present deputy.
I asked one of my PNE supporting neighbours what he thought of Fisher. This is his reply.
Sounds like the sort of player you’d rather was in your team than the opposition’s!
If the guy can defend and has the legs to get up and down the flank, he’ll be fine by me.
I’m surprised that Eddie Nketiah hasn’t been picked up on loan by anyone. I can only assume that Arsenal want to keep hold of him as cover.
I must admit I would have been quite satisfied had someone made some kind of bid for Assombalonga and we’d replaced him with a loan deal for Nketiah.
A ball playing full back that can’t be bad !
Souness was scouted and signed by Harold Shepherdson
Shep told me one day when I was refereeing a trial match at Hutton Road how he had found him.
Shep was also the trainer for England under Sir Alf Ramsey and talking to the Spurs players in the team which included the Martin’s Chivers and Peters They told Shep to sign Souness as he had a fall out with Bill Nicholson the Spurs Manager and wanted to return to Scotland.
Shep persuaded him to sign pointing out that Scotland was just over the border from Middlesbrough. Although I do believe Souness did go over the border a few times!!!!
It was however Jack Charlton and Bobby Murdock that turned Souness into a great player.
I’ve met Souness socially at a few football dinners and he’s a really nice guy who talks a lot of football sense. Mind I didn’t tell him I used to be a referee!
Interestingly enough at the same meeting when Shep was talking to me at Hutton Road about Souness I mentioned that he should go and look at a young Mick McCarthy at Barnsley who we had officiated on the Saturday at Barnsley and he was mom.
Shep however didn’t sing him and he went on to join Man City...
You can’t win them all
UP THE BORO
OFB
@platoThere are a number of Scottish players playing in the premiership.
Yes, there are also players from lots of unlikely countries because there is no law that says a genious cannot spring up from anywhere. Probably the best player in the world emerged from Madeira, how did he get that good? And who was he playing against on the island as a kid? My point was that Scotland have been going through an awful period in which they have dropped in class and form simply because of no decent players, or rather large numbers of Good players.