@plato I'm not sure that that's really the case these days, Plato. Vardy is more an exception than a rule. How many more players from non-league are currently playing at Premier League clubs? I would imagine it's less than 1%.
The vast majority of domestic talent is picked up at youth level these days and developed through academies. A decent proportion of players at Championship level are those that were let go from academies at the top end of the game and dropped down the leagues. On our books alone Bola, Saville, McNair (arguably), Clayton (recently left), and Fletcher followed that path.
Some drop to non-league and work their way back up - Tyrone Mings for example - but not too many at the top, and fewer still were never picked up in the first place.
Nothing wrong with scouting players at that level of course, especially when the budget is tight, but I wouldn't expect to turn up gem after gem. These days of course, scouting seems to start with data analysis and I can't imagine there's too much around for those kind of levels.
Its not always for footballing reasons that academy players fail to reach their full potential. There are many pitfalls for young men as they mature in life, ( not only young footballers) especially if they have a few quid in their pockets.
Players will always have their natural talent, but some waste it and some perhaps find a way to get back to their original level. Lower league clubs often take a gamble on one of the bigger clubs failures. Sometimes it just takes the right coach to get the best out of them. A smaller pond if you will.
Thats where the real talent spotters come in.
As it stands at the moment it seems we will be paying £10 per match to watch streamed games until the agreement with Sky and the EFL is reviewed in October. It could be an expensive season. 😎
If you consider a season pass costed £117 last season, which while only covered non-televised games, it possibly allowed us to watch at least two-thirds of the games so probably worked out at maximum of £4 a game.
I certainly would have no intention of paying £10 a game and potentially paying £60-70 a month in some cases. I'd probably pick and choose and after two seasons of watching Boro score less than a goal a game. I can't say that I actually enjoyed watching all but a handful of the last 100 games - indeed, many were excruciating to witness.
Besides, because of the rise in Covid cases throughout Europe, I'm becoming less convinced as the days pass that this next season will actually be concluded. Germany has just announced today that football supporters won't be allowed back in grounds until 2021 at the earliest. So I'm doubtful if the UK thinks sensibly it will ultimately allow fans back on the terraces come October - especially as they are already considering closing pubs to keep the R-value under control so that kids can return to school.
It surely puts into question the financial viability of League One and League Two being played if supporters can't return - plus places at risk many Championship clubs who only have a potential income of just under £7m from their TV and prize money.
Nevertheless, I'm sure many supporters will pay whatever the price to follow their club and wouldn't consider abstaining - it's in their blood apparently...
@werdermouth I’m pretty sure I’ll end up paying to watch the games. I enjoyed watching the final games of the season (even if the results didn’t all thrill me). I’d be happier if I could stream them efficiently to my TV from the iPad. I’ve tasked myself with learning how to do it. Anyone got any tips?
@martin-bellamy. Martin, if you are using the MFC App on your IPad then it is not possible. I purchased a connector to attach my IPad to my tv and whilst it allowed me to watch videos of previous games it would not let me watch live streams.
I contacted MFC who confirmed that this was the case and that the App was configured to prevent it from being used in this way.
I log into the MFC website via my lap top and then attach my lap top to my tv and watch on a big screen that way.
I have not tried it but it may be possible to log on to the MFC website via your IPad and then attach to your tv if you have the appropriate connector. Hope this is of help. 😎
So AV is leaving the Gazette after today. I am still shocked to digest the news. We lost Big Jack this year. And now the writing a true Boro fan and the institution of beeing a fan.
I hope someone starts a new discussion. I really admire AV. His Untypical Boro blog was life changing. At least for me and I got a lot of new friends through it.
A sad day for me. https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/anthony-vickers-after-30-years-18835817
Up the Boro!
Elsewhere, Darlington boss Alun Armstrong described the signing of former Middlesbrough full back Tony McMahon as a “massive coup” for the Quakers. McMahon is 34 now and will take over as head of Academy at Darlo as well as to continueing to play.
Up the Boro!
AV leaving the Gazette is a real, real shame. A fantastic journalist and founding father of Untypical Boro which of course spawned Diasboro. He deserves a virtual statue.
i sincerely hope he’s moving on to something special. No-one would deserve it more.
AV, if you’re reading, you will be sorely missed. Thank you for the absorbing articles - the “Billy Fury” article still springs to mind. Thank you for Untypical Boro. Thank you from those of us you invited to meet the Chairman - a day I won’t forget Best of luck with whatever you’re doing next.
Pop in and say hello. You’re amongst friends here.
AV was always a must read, wherever he wrote it. You only get to be a must read because your words can be trusted; your opinion is valued; you are as inclusive as you are fair; because your heart is firmly on your sleeve; you are unafraid of speaking the truth; and, especially in his case, it is what it is and we are all made to feel that he is one of us.
UntypicalBoro was his finest creation and its value can never ever be understated. Finding that blog one day idling through google is a treasured discovery for me. That Diasboro rose out of its ashes and all of us, and many more, picked up where AV left off is the greatest compliment to him.
So, so long AV and thanks for all the fish.
Yes, quite a surprise to see AV leaving the Gazette and hopefully he's moving on to a new gig - though paid journalism was already facing a squeeze even before Covid came along and the Gazette seemed to have quite a lot of Boro writers to pay for and perhaps it's forced into further downsizing.
Still, AV was the best of them and a very good writer so it's going to impact their coverage - maybe he'll contemplate firing up his Untypical Boro blog again 🙂
@werdermouth You‘ve done a terrific job in picking up the baton, Werder. As great as UntypicalBoro was - and it really was - I think with the added forums, instant posting, added humour of your headliners as well as RR’s down-to-earth-fans-view reports, I think Diasboro has surpassed it. And we still have great insider tips from OFB.
I would love to have AV on board as a contributor and article writer whenever he gets the urge, but think as a community we have a new home now and are quite settled.
Unless, of course, you’d rather he took back the strain!
Self opinionated, arrogant at times, but passionate, that’s what good journalism is all about. Anthony Vickers could be described by all those adjectives at times, but he was the one person on the Gazette staff who most of us turned to for news about Middlesbrough FC. When scouring the Gazette for articles and news I could tell instinctively that he was the author of the contents without having to check because his style of journalism shone through like a beacon. I didn’t always agree with him, but that’s the norm for good journalists and he was/is a good journalist, maybe not in my opinion as good a reporter as the late Cliff Mitchell or indeed our own Redcar Red, but nevertheless a good journalist, a very good investigative journalist and probably worthy of better subjects than football. His legacy though will always be Untypical Boro which Werdermouth has improved upon with Diasboro and even further with Diasboro.club allowing us to diversify on different subjects on this forum.
The Gazette has lost a stalwart and I wish him all the best in the future in whatever field he chooses. Thanks Vic.
Cheers Andy, I would be more than happy to see AV blogging again with all his first-hand knowledge channeled into great writing. Although, having re-read his signing-off article today it actually sounds like he retiring from journalism as he ended with "...time is up for me. The industry and landscape is changing quickly and it is time for fresh blood and a new approach." Having said that, I suspect AV's still too young to retire on a Gazette pension - maybe he'll be snapped up by MFC to become content editor of their website - cut out the middleman - though he may have problems sticking to the party line 😉
I echo the sentiments about AV. He was the only writer from the Gazette that made fabulous reading on Middlesbrough Football Club. He told it like it is. One of the best articles he ever wrote was about Manager Billy Davies as mentioned previously on this forum. AV will be missed that's for sure.
Just wondering if he is deserting a sinking ship.
Hope to see him back in some form or another. I wish him and his family the very best in whatever he chooses to do.
Serious loss for the gazette and Boro coverage, I wish him and his family well whatever path he chooses to follow.
The Evening Gazette is now officially anodyne.
UTB,
John
Phillip Tallentire just announced he’s leaving Gazette today as well.
OFB
Phillip Tallentire just announced he’s leaving Gazette today as well.
OFB
Was about the post the same. What is going on at the Gazette?
Up the Boro!
Phillip Tallentire just announced he’s leaving Gazette today as well.
OFB
Another one? What's going on? Thankfully we have Redcar Red.
I would suspect that the parent company of the Gazette will now rationalise all its journalists sports editors and reporters into a centralised north location to cover Newcastle Sunderland Middlesbrough Leeds etc
Local newspapers are dying ....
OFB
...
Local newspapers are dying ....
OFB
Sadly, ain't that the truth Bob.
I never buy a paper now. All done on the internet. Plenty of apps. Sad really. OFB if they centralise to a northern location then that will be Boro bottom of their list.
@powmillnaemore I hope the last one switches off the lights....
A sad day for all. Up the Boro!
Didn't the EG move into a new building very recently? The trouble with local newspapers is that they are group corporate not local. Whenever I used to visit mum and dad it was a walk to the paper shop, (Amos'?) and then into the Endeavour for a pint to read it from back to front.
UTB,
John
The writing has been on the wall for journalists for some time now. Once the Gazette fell out with MFC there was never really any way back for them. The days of the local rag being an unofficial mouthpiece for the club are long gone with clubs having their own media departments.
Perhaps this will be a good opportunity for AV to write a definitive book about the Boro, he certainly knows where all the skeletons are buried. Personally I’d like to read an in depth look at the 3 Points debacle and the mysterious role Henry Moscowiez played in the resurrection of Boro with the mythical suitcase full of “readies”
He could even put out a “Best of Untypical Boro”
If you do pop in here occasionally AV, best of luck for the future.
( We still don’t know about the abrupt end to “Untypical” perhaps we’ll get to know now 😉)
The Gazette without AV and PT is like Fish and Chips without the salt and vinegar. No doubt there will be speculation overdrive on social media but for them both to go is a very sad day for the local (well not so local these days) paper. I suspect that they will inevitably pop up again somewhere else or at least I certainly hope so. AV is unique and hopefully we won't lose him for long, he has penned many brilliant pieces but his Billy Fury one lives long in the memory as a stand out work of modern man in the street literature. Hopefully its the birth of something fresher and free from restraint rather than a death.
6’3” German centre back Toni Leistner released from QPR.
Played 45 times for them in the season before last but fell out of favour last season.
30 years old but free, experienced (inc. Championship experience) and a big lad.
Could be worth a look.
@werdermouth I’m pretty sure I’ll end up paying to watch the games. I enjoyed watching the final games of the season (even if the results didn’t all thrill me). I’d be happier if I could stream them efficiently to my TV from the iPad. I’ve tasked myself with learning how to do it. Anyone got any tips?
Martin and anyone else that may be interested, my smart TV is a Panasonic and I like you use MFC site on my iPad to watch the Boro matches. I went into my App store and paid £5 for an App called “Mirrorpanasonic”,other makes are available. Once you download the App, open it and search for your TV, once synchronised, then open the App and anything you are doing on your iPad appears on you TV screen no need for a cable (although I am told that works as well) when you have finished watching what match, movies or whatever, switch off your mirror on your iPad and you will probably need to restart your TV as mine goes into standby after a couple of hours. Hope this helps.
Come on BORO.
i want to add my thoughts on the very sad departure of AV. He has been a stalwart and steadfast reporter on all things Boro, and their relation to the bigger football picture, for so long. He was always fearless and honest, regardless of how some of his pieces might be viewed by the Riverside hierarchy. As with many of you, I shall really miss his in-depth analyses, and of course, his unique, intelligent and sensitive writing. I do hope we see him again soon writing elsewhere. And I do hope, Werder, that you might be able to persuade him to pen the odd piece for Diasboro.
I hadn’t realised quite how involved AV was with MFC and what influence on fan participation he has had down the years, which his valedictory article in today’s EG makes clear. I also hadn’t realised that he was also behind Teesside Tommy, who always made me chuckle, though perhaps we should have guessed!
How many of you were with me that very first time we met with AV as an Untypical Boro crew in the Navvy all those years ago? I remember Jarkko and Dormo being there, but I’m afraid my memory has gone beyond that.
A very sad day for me and for many others. I feel a personal loss almost as great as when Ali Brownlee died.