Where's Mido?
WHERE'S Mido? Can you spot the elusive pizza loving poacher slapping on the factor 50 when he should be doing doggies at Hurworth? Have you bumped into the heavyweight Egyptian in Sharm-el-Sheik? Did you get stuck behind him and a trolley full of Jeff The Chef parmos in South Bank Asda? Or maybe he was seen licking a lemontop in Redcar. Join in the family fun and help us track down our targetman turned truant?
MEANWHILE, there's some very interesting number-crunching of the wage bill black hole and bonus payments due now that are a ticking timebomb at crisis-club Newcastle over on the Two Hundred Per Cent blogzine. Crazy beyond belief.
ASTON Villa are currently snifffing around a double Downing/Tuncay deal, a bumper package that Boro value at £20m. This one could have legs....
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Very good AV. However, I'm a bit concerned by the word "doggie" as where I come from it has a different connotation. As such perhaps the other lads are afraid he will disrupt the serious training.
Time for the club to get tough.
Realistically, these two are not going be of any benefit to the club, and no one in their right minds will buy them.
Both are in breach of contract, and the club should sue them accordingly. Then, take it on the chin, tear up those contracts and keep hold of their registration papers, to prevent them ever playing football again.
Learn those lessons, Southgate. Don't buy any more troublemakers.
Alves gone AWOL too I hear.
Great news! Now he is in breach of contract we can tear it up and wave bye bye.
There isnt any possibility of anyone paying a penny for him so this is the best we could hope for. Good riddance
Found him hes the one with his head in the sand looking for gold or did somebody drop a parmo. Opening game of the season pre kick off Alves and Mido in the stocks free rotten tomatoes with every entry should get a full house.
My girlfriend wondered why I called him the Fat Egyptian the season before the last one which we shall no longer refer to "it that shall remain nameless". Then she saw him and understood.
Methinks he became a mate of Gazza and were both partial to that delicacy of the Pharoahs, "the deep fried Gizza Mars Bar". It's actually pronounced in Egypt as the Gazza Pyramid Mars Bar.
Legend has it that eating one, makes one get a strange urge to travel to distant lands. In Gazza's case he crashed the bus on the way. But in Mido's case he was last heard telling his chauffeur to go to get a Gazza, and he's now actually locked away in a Gazza Strip club.
Where's Gibson ?
There is a heavyweight Egyptian in Cairo that never moves and no one knows what it is for. That one has a smile so maybe that rules him out.
Has anyone checked takings at the various Greggs outlets?
I see Alves has gone AWOL. I knew he wouldn't fancy a stint in the championship. I remember at his previous club he went on strike when the club wouldnt let hime leave in the summer before we signed him.
Mido and Alves will have been advised by their agents to not turn up to help speed up their exit.
They were not really at the club last season one way or another. Was hoping to see Alves in the CCC but I have my doubts now.
How credible are these reports and does this now mean the club can fine/sue them for breach of contract? We may be able to pay ALL our new signings annual wage with a monthly fine for them both.
Is there a general consensus on the board that the Boro are going backwards and not forwards?
A worrying development, the club's response to which could set the tone for the season.
Mido is no great surprise and assuming his no-show is an orchestrated attempt to force a move, does little more than to reveal a sulky, craven rich boy focused solely on his self importance. But then we knew that anyway.
The greater issue by far is in the GS response which demands immediate and decisive action. There is no point in trying to find out the detail of why he is not here, no point in trying to communicate with a player who holds the manager and everything connected with the club in such clear contempt.
Fine him and then fire him or move him on now. The money we lose doing this will be nothing to the damage cause if this is not resolved. The club should be ashamed it ever bought him but we need to wash our hands and be done. Mido is a viral player of the very worst kind and a promotion push can only be built upon spirit, togetherness and a shared intent.
Get rid Gareth or it will be you next. And soon.
Alfie is somewhat trickier. I didn't see this coming and we will probably need an effective 25 goal Alves to get us in with a shout of the top. His record in Holland and Sweden - leagues probably similar in status to the Championship - suggests it will be worthwhile to persevere with him. He's also in place (in theory I know), knows the team and is not unpopular as far as I am aware.
GS can't let this develop into anything more poisonous or drawn out. Even with a month to go I'm not sure we have time to sell, replace and accommodate another striker so we need to do whatever it takes to bring him into the fold.
Good management can be as much to do with encouragement and conciliation as it can with being tough. Do what it takes for the benefit of the club Gareth, regardless of how irked you must be by this, and you must be. Getting rid of Mido would help here hugely too.
And finally, Adam Johnson. Likewise, do whatever it takes and tie him down. Promise a transfer if we don't go straight back up but the corrosive effect of a (potentially) key player running down the months will be fatal. Haven't we learned this one before?
What a shame. Like Southgate or not, he is a honorable person. The morals of footballers these days defies belief. I agree with Risdale that this is purely an attempt to speed up their exits, and I don't agree that this means we won't be able to sell them...what it does mean is that our hand is being forced.
We cannot, realistically, hold on to players like this, who pretty much demand a move. Shocking... but in today's footballing world of over-paid, prissy footballers, not surprising.
GET RID NOW! Both rubbish - and take Southgate with them. He's rubbish too. If his latest 2 signings are anything to go by then we are getting even worse 'Neville & Scholes experienced players" what do we ger Yeats and Coyne . Come on, who is taking the mick out of us?
This is one that the Unholy Trinity will need to handle with a swift and sure decisiveness that we are unaccustomed to from them.
If not, we may well see this bit of drama pass on going to a crisis and just go straight to farce with Gate's position being untenable.
Hulse (which is denied) is one thing but hacker Hughes (which seems to be confirmed) and Webber quite something else.
As BoroPhil said elsewhere, if Ched Evans from Citeh is on the market for the £2m quoted then that has to be a good bet.
But I also see that the latest Gate-o-gram on the MFC website is full of the 'have to sell to buy' stuff that Gibbo assured us all wouldn't be a major issue.
I'm sure ridsdale is right - it puts pressure on us to reduce the price to get rid, making it easier for their agents to negotiate with a new club
His record has been a disgrace at every club he's signed for - I have no idea why we bought him in the first place. You would expect that before it spends that kind of moneythe club would have made some background 'character' checks although in this case his reputation as a greedy, self-serving, disinterested, perpetualy overweight, frequently injured, sulk-prone misfit was well established and widely known
Mido was a panic signing, ill-judged and with an entirely predictable outcome. The probability is that we're going to have to subsidise his wages at whichever club he goes to next. For as long as he's here he should be hammered to the full extent his contract permits
Alves is a failure of management. He has the potential but lacks the belief. He must be desperate to get away and rescue a career that he thought was about to take off. He's clearly not the brightest and his agent appears to be pulling the same 'strike' stroke he used to engineer the move to us.
All we can do, for the sake of discipline and team morale more generally, is take a tough stance with the players without letting the financial implications of a prolonged dispute compromise our resolve. I think we've all had enough of over-paid, over-hyped, under-performing donkeys.
John Powls, you mentioned about the talk that GS must sell first before buying. But I think it's not just money. If Downing goes one would buy something else than if, say, Tuncay or Alves goes. The same applies to defenders like Pogy or Huth.
Anyway we have the basic team together already. Our situation is much, much better than at Newcastle. They don't have an owner, manager nor any new players. As everything is for sale there they use barcodes (got it?)...
Up the Boro!
I think that's the fella there, up by the Punch and Judy stall clutching his hammy after breaking down going for an ice-cream. That's the way to do it.
I think Alves must be the one down at the bottom heading the beach ball well wide.
Mido missing? - No surprise and no loss.
Alves missing - worrying and disapointing, presumably when GS had his 'do you want to stay or go' conversation with all the players Alves indicated he wanted to stay?
Whatever the truth we need the club to be decisive and strong in dealing with this issue. If Alves wants to go there is no point trying to keep him, but presumably while he is not training he isnt paid so we have no need to be forced into a 'fire sale'.
The best for all concerned of course is for Alves to train hard, play hard and score a few, that way he helps the Boro and himself, because if he wants to leave the best thing he can do is make himself an attractive proposition to buy.
I shouldn't worry too much about Alves as I know quite a few Brazilians and normally they don't even start getting ready to go out until it's the time they agreed to meet up at the bar - he probably only started looking for a flight to Teesside yesterday afternoon.
As for Mido, well did anyone actually expect him to turn up? Though it's quite ironic that he was slagging off Zaki for returning late to Wigan after an international. Though I disagree with posts saying we should just terminate his contract - what's the point in throwing away money? keep fining him until he's either broke or Newcastle buy him for £5m.
I hope all these other rumours of possible targets are just that as it doesn't sound like they will win us the Championship.
GS loaned out Mido when he was scoring goals for us, mostly as a substitute as well, for that useless lump Alves. He was in good form and I remember his cracker against Liverpool a week after he scored against his ex team Spurs.
At the beginning of the season he scored three goals from three sub appearences and then scored against Pompey in his first start. Despite his good form GS still continued to use Alves over him.
Even weeks after Mido left he was still our top scorer until tuncay caught up with him. We've seen that he has talent and what he could do when he's focussed, last summer he came back looking better than ever and didn't even take a holiday so that he could lose the excess weight.
He's a challenge for any manager and GS simply failed to manage him, unlike Steve Bruce. GS had proved so many times that his decisions this year were disastrous, and preferring Alves over Mido turned out to be just another mistake.
Who knows maybe if Mido had stayed and played he would've gone on to score the goals we needed to keep us up. Now Mido's probably thinking 'he didnt want to use me in the premiership, even though I was actually injury free and not obese for once, and now that his team's gone down and his best striker is leaving he turns to me? No'.
Now im not saying that his thinking is right, he's got a contract and should respect it. But he's probably too proud to play at a lower level, especially if it was for a manager who didn't trust or believe in him. Just because GS was a good player doesn't mean he's a good manager. I just wish Steve Gibson would see that.
Mido- everyone knew he was trouble and yet Gate payed £6m for him. I like Gate as a person but come on, that was a Roy Keane style move.
How depressing, and the new season hasn't even begun yet.
It looks as though our club's "due diligence" checks on potential purchases in the last few years has often been on a par with Mr Ashley's "due diligence" on buying Newcastle Utd. With so many clubs in such a short career it beggars belief that Mido would suddenly have knuckled down and become a devoted one-club player. That he would leave a club on good terms....
It's all sadly a little bit like the nice young girl who thinks that if she can get the violent drunken thug with a history of broken relationships ending in regular hospital visits down the aisle, he will miraculously be converted to a gentle stay-at-home book reader for the rest of their lives. And maybe he will become tee-total and develop an interest in philosophy. "I can change him!"
Not in the real world! Something occurs to me about "leopards" and "spots". So it is in football.
I've just seen Mido. He was at the cash machine at Barclays Bank. He withdrew $200. I asked him if he was going to buy something nice and he said he was going to buy a new castle...or something like that.
I got a chance to read the article about Newcastle's finances on two-hundred-percent; very interesting and somewhat scary that people regarded as successful business men could possible sanction such contracts.
I'm not naive enough to believe that the same problems not are facing most clubs to some degree but football seems to have lost all connection with reality in the pursuit of glory.
Getting into the Champions League I feel it's football's equivalent of putting a man on the moon - an eye-watering financial cost for an all but brief unsustainable moment in the sun to look down on the rest and feel like gods.
However, perhaps we're witnessing the last throws of the footballing empire - transfers and reported salaries have gone through the roof at a time when most people are struggling. Even TV companies can no longer afford the contracts they've signed to bring us our footballing fix. And if ever there was a misnomer in sport then surely 'Loyalty Bonus' is it.
Perhaps after the greedy bankers and politicians it's time to turn our attention to the footballers - how many either earn or deserve these unsustainable salaries? perhaps only a handfull bring a return on their club's investment.
So we can thank Steve Gibson for having the sense to drop out of the running pack of lemmings as they approach the financial cliff's edge - OK it may mean we will have to put up with a few years in the wilderness (though I still don't believe this is the reason why we're where we are) but at least we will be fit to replace those who take a gamble too far before crashing to earth.
**AV writes: Exactly. It is all very well people screaming that we "can't compete" and we "lack ambition" because of the current policy of lowering the cost base but is it really desirable to recklessly shackle the club to potentially financial millstones.
Werdermouth and AV
I try not to get involved in the debate over finances and my main point has been the mismanagement of the resources we had available.
**AV writes: It is hard to dispute that, indeed, a lot of what has been made available has been squandered.
Werdermouth/AV
You present a false choice - except for W's bracketed comment in his last para.
There's no reason why MFC and Boro couldn't have had both a sustainable model AND Prem football. Sure, not the top four but then The Championship wasn't required either to avoid the reckless shackles you refer to.
**AV writes: I don't disagree that we could have had more bangs for our bucks. That doesn't change the big picture though.
Well, to sum up the latest debate. Perhaps the changes are bigger to get relegated if we spend less on players. Less heads (to sustain injuries) and younger players (less experience).
Still just a couple of penalty misses and a few open goal changes separated us from survival.
But at least we didn't go bankrupt either. Let's enjoy the season when we should win or draw most of our matches in any case.
Up the Boro!
AV
But if your 'big picture' argument is right, the Unholy Trinity (or at least Gibbo and The Count) and the current MFC economic model stay in place and the rest of the world doesn't decide to change for our benefit then we are consigned and doomed to perennial Championship status, or worse.
What a dismal prospect.
**AV writes: If we don't go up first time, then yes, I think the short/medium term picture is probably a period bleak stagnation while we regroup. You may or may not take consolation in the view that it should at least be a stable and affordable stagnation or that in the medium/long term we may be better placed than most to weather the coming storm in football finances.
John and Ian:
Without a doubt the main reason for relegation was a combination of inexperienced management and poor decisions in the transfer market - that's why I added my relegation disclaimer.
However, blindly throwing good money after bad to try and buy your way out of trouble is how we ended up with a credit crunch. Boro can't compete financially with the ever growing group of billionaire-backed clubs - those who pretend they can will end up bankrupt.
Newcastle are on the brink of becoming a Leeds, as are Sunderland should their next crop of inflated buys produce the same results - Even Man Utd and Chelsea are both three-quarters of a billion in debt and are not immune from financial meltdown should their backers walk away or they drop out of the 'Big 4'
If we can sell on a few players soon then hopefully we can get some new recruits at the top end of those who are prepared to play in the Championship - but let's not pay through the nose for average players on 4-year contracts who wouldn't cut it in the Premier League.
Werdermouth/AV
You're both just still offering either/or scenarios from the two extremes - dismal stagnation or financial meltdown chasing a dream. I simply just don't accept that those are the only two choices.
I repeat, there have been, are and will be options to have a sustainable economic model AND Prem football.
I believe the 'coming storm' in football finances is hugely overplayed. And even if it was to come about, there is no evidence that a strategy somewhere between retrenchment and stagnation would help you cope any better anyway.
On the player front, I agree with your last paragraph, Werdermouth, but all I see signs of at the moment are the sort of recruits that would self-fulfil the AV stagnation prophesy.
The latest story linking Villa with Tuncay and Downing sums up our situation.
The £20 million for the pair would repay the £20 million spent on Alves and Mido.
We will be left with useless, worthless lumps we cant offlaod whilst looking around to bring in people relased by Sheff Utd, who cant get a game at Hull and pensionable keepers. Bit of a contrast to the young, hungry, pacy squad promised in the glossy brochure.
And that, gentlemen, just about sums up my underwhelmedness.
**AV writes: I've added a link to today's Gazette story on the Downing/Tuncay BOGOF bid to the end of this blog.
I doubt very much that English football is immune from the current economic down turn which is a 'catastrophe of biblical proportions'. It may look immune when we see Real paying £80 million for Ronaldo, but Real's debts are enormous as are those of many many English clubs.
Currently the Premiership looks immune because it still has the guarantee of cash from the SKY contract etc. but this is simply a time lag, SKY has less competiton in the market now (Setanta are gone) their subscriptions may well fall as the 3 million unemployed decide to not renew their subscriptions and therefore the next round of
TV rights may well be significantly lower than that currently in place, if that is true then many premiership clubs will be in dire straights.
Steve Gibson has managed the economics of the football club exceptionally well for years and continues to do so. Unfortunately he made the mistake of appointing an inexperienced manager to manage diminishing resources where there was no room for error and inexperienced people always make errors, that is how they become 'experienced'. The combination of the 'new economics' and inexperienced management got us relegated.
Looking ahead we all know we need a much better class of player than the two signed from League one to date, but at the moment we cant buy until we sell.
This vicious circle won't be broken until well into August, those wanting Downing, Tuncay and whoever else will bide their time in the knowledge that Boro are in a weak negotiating position. It may well be that we have to sell players at below their value in order to break the circle and buy those players we need to ensure Boro are in a position to make a promotion push.
Mfc is in chaos, only eclipsed by our barcode neighbours.
We all knew the problems last season and there was outcry after outcry to sort it out. We have had the Steve Gibson ..."trust me i am right" speech and now we have all of this going on! The dressing room has obviously deserted Southgate as they know this "we will prevail" garbage is just hot air.
You just need to look at the signings to show were MFC are going! Downwards - using cheap, out of contract, cost us nothing players with no real quality or of an age to be a total waste of time.What was Gareth saying a few weeks ago? We are an appealing option to the better championship players. Well, sure looks like it.
Manager who can't control the squad... Chairman who can't control the manager and is in denial....this kind of rubbish really shows where we are at....
From Stewie's point of view, although they're not yet top four, you can see some attractions at Villa... not the least might be the presence of John Robertson on the coaching staff. Who better to develop a left winger of Stewie's style?
And what a difference from Boro's absence of management and anti-coaching set-up.
John:
The recent influx of foreign billionaires added to bigger and bigger sums from TV money has indeed raised the price of success and the cost of failure.
At the beginning of last season I thought we had found a sustainable model for modest success in the Premier League and initially it looked promising on the pitch. But it quickly went pear-shaped and sent us tumbling into obscurity.
It's not impossible but it's becoming less probable every year as the governing bodies have failed to tackle club spending that means debts have accumulated that will never be paid off - it's the too big to fail model that swallowed the banks.
The problem for clubs like Boro is that we always are left paying over the odds and gambling on either untested or damaged goods. Some will be a success and others will be a disaster - If we're lucky they balance out and we into Ian's scenario of Mido and Alves wiping out Tuncay and Downing's profit.
I'm with AV on the need for prudence - i'm not happy with the current situation but at least we live to fight another day. Only time will tell if we become a permanent second-tier club as the whole PL becomes a billionaires playground or things swing back in our favour - and yes it is a bit depressing.
Football finances have been unsustainable for years, and now the Government have upped the top rate of tax to 50%, it's going to bankrupt some clubs trying to maintain the ridiculous salaries they pay some of their stars.
France and Spain only charge 10%/15% tax, so foreign players will soon be leaving the Premiership in droves, which I don't see as a bad thing. We have too many of them in the UK, depriving local talent of the opportunity to shine.
We need a salary cap on players in the UK. Good win bonuses to ensure players do their best to earn their wages. Cash for goals scored, and deducted for goals conceded. Finish in the bottom half of the table and your salary gets reduced next season.
Does anyone know where the missing men are hiding out?
BBC reports that one of our strikers was found: "Middlesbrough striker Afonso Alves has returned to the club after a first-day absence, although team-mate Mido is still to report for the new campaign."
So some good news. If I remember right Mido was bought as an emergency fix after our Nigerian villain, Yakubu went "on strike". So we understood GS work then.
I wish we can sell Mido to Sunderland or Ipswich (they have a manager which spends money much worse than our GS), for example.
Up the Boro!
Nice twist on the US "Where's Wally" kids TV series AV
The missing "wannabes" were last spotted on the 07.16am gravy train departing from platform 9¾ at Middlesbrough station destined for a life of fantasy and make believe!
AV, do you think GS have any arragements for a new assistant manager in place behing the curtains? My guess is that he plans to appoint a player-coach there. Hopefully something like Paul Scholes or similar. Any thoughts?
Up the Boro!
**AV writes: I don't think they have given up hope on Neville, although he doesn't seem in any hurry to consider the offer.
To all the doom and gloom merchants - and there are plenty on here - complaining about the lack of quality in incoming transfers...
Ffirst of all I would guess none of you have actually seen Yeates play. Isn't it a bit early to be dishing out the chicken run treatment? As far as the keeper is concerned he had the best shut out record in his league and that was for a team that did not even make the play offs. He is a short term signing whilst Jason Steele[England under 19 ]matures.
Secondly please point me to one of our competitors in this league that has signed somebody you would regard as proven quality. I can give you the answer- a big fat ZERO.So calm down and have patience.
Returning to Mido, if somebody could ever get him fit, keep him fit and keep him mentally focussed he would be an asset. Southgate is probably the 15th manager to try and fail. I'd be astonished if he got another club in this country.
So we get £20 million for Downing & Tuncay and we give it to Southgate no doubt to invest in 'sub-prime' footballers. Marvelous. The Boro reminds me of the Banks 12 months ago - 'trotting out' a load of empty bull.
Just watch the Boro slide with him in charge. I can't think of anyone who commands less respect. If I was a player wanted by any club in premiership I'd be off like a shot because in six months the Boro and the team will be considered Div 1 material.
Mido, I think we all see as a lost cause anyway, and anything we get for him will be a bonus. As far as I'm concerned if we never see him again, I'll be happy - at least we won't have to pay his wages.
As for Alves, let's just hope that his absence was more down to absent-mindedness and abject stupidity rather than any sort of protest.
scoredraw,
You said: "If I was a player wanted by any club in premiership I'd be off like a shot because in six months the Boro and the team will be considered Div 1 material."
Every player so far (our Egyptians excluded) says that GS is a top manager. Even those who did not get to the starting 11 at Boro according to Danny Coyne. And at least Mathew Bates made a choice to stay eventhough there was interest from the Premiership.
Arsene Wenger also sees GS as a top young manager. And most importantly SG rates him highly. Let's be a bit more positive?
I had started a rant giving more than a hint how I feel about SOME of the players currently registered with our club, and how they treat the club and its supporters. It would apply as much to players elsewhere. I have decided to delete it and think longer.
I now realise that some footballers must believe the sport (and OUR club) is run for their personal benefit. They are after all more important than the clubs, the supporters and the game itself.
Maybe it really would be better if the game imploded? I could find something useful to do on a Saturday. My work would continue. I might be happier. Maybe then Mido would find a job as a brain surgeon and Alves would complete his PhD in biochemistry, and give something useful back to the world? At the moment they take from us all a lot more than they give.
How would anyone here define a parasite?
Stockton Red
The key words in your last posting were 'in this league'.
Yeates looks a good signing, Coyne shouldnt be here because our No 1 should have been Turnbull instead of the Corporal. The rest of the alleged targets are precisely that - alleged - though there is normally some element of truth in there.
The bulk of transfer activity will take place once the big boys have finished flexing their muscles. That is situation normal for clubs of our size.
I have certainly got over relegation (been to Doncaster before) but not the mismanagement of assets. That will take a little time to flush out of the system.
In the debate about money and prudence I am firmly in the get the best out of what you have got group. Having gambled on the squad last year we have shrunk our income as well as our cost base.
As fans we just have to live with it, I am no fair weather fan but I am not forced to be pleased with the outcome nor do you have to be a chicken runner to debate the obvious.
I think all the talk above of finances etc is irrelevant. We all know that the team last season was capable of staying up if you look at the other teams in the bottom 12.
Personally I think the Premier League is overated and I am currently enjoying watching some of the teams waste huge sums of money in the hope that financial meltdown hits the league hard.
We, as a club, are going backwards and will struggle to get out of the league - even if we keep all our under-performing players. I will be willing to change my outlook if there was to be some sign from the club that change will happen. We are led to believe that the reason for relegeation was our assistant manager and sports pyschologist - no one else was at fault!
Plenty of rumours rife in the morning press.
- Tuncay and Downing to Villa for £18m
- Jinky to Chelsea for £8m
- Mido to Sunderland for £2.5m
- Alves to Benfica for £4m
We should bite Bruce's hand off as long as he's not colluding with Mido not to show up to reduce the transfer fee.
I would take £8m for Jinky as he's only got one year of his contract to run - especially if Downing remains with us until January and Porrit can be eased into the squad.
We're probably better off loaning Alves to Benfica and hope his mojo returns so that next year we can either sell him or bring him back to play in the PL should we return.
Tuncay may well see his price rise if it becomes an auction but £8m is all profit.
OK I give in! What has happened is confined to history.
I am now reconciled to the fact that we are relegated and I will give 100% positive effort to Steve Gibson’s “blind faith” request.
I concede that it could take until the end of August for Gareth Southgate to have his full squad and backroom staff in place and it will be a few games into September before we can reasonably expect to see a settled team playing something like the manager wants them to perform.
Our tenth game is at home to Leicester City on Tuesday 29th September. Until then I will be patient and understanding and give full support to the club’s efforts in these complex transitory times.
There, that wasn’t so difficult after all.
Up the Boro!
There it was on SkySports Transfer Centre -Chelsea interested in Alves.
Bugger, its Bruno not our denudate, non striking striker.
Ah, well.
Regardless of whether its finances or simply the fans getting the club we can afford or who stays or who goes etc. there is one overwhelming picture being framed. It is one of a rudderless ship and icebergs looming on the horizon with a force ten gale starting to whip up.
The Turnbull farce (just one of a long, long list getting even longer), the "no shows (lets face it both of them were awol for one reason or another last season), the managerial confidence issue, the kit debacle, "U" turns on Youth. It is all sadly "Typical Boro", all of us have seen it and heard it all before, only the names and situations have changed.
Trying to take a half full perspective, Yeates looks to have some hunger and ability, the "U's" supporters to a man have been gutted by his departure but all wish him the very best and he has responded professionally by hoping that Colchester win promotion this season and wishing them all the best. That in itself is a departure from some recent individuals attitudes in a red shirt of late so for me he passes the 1st test.
Coyne may not be the glamour signing we are hoping for but like it or not Corporal is here for another season and Coyne's stats shows that he may be capable of unseating him and at the same time lets Steele have some hope for his future at the club.
The arrival of another underachiever in Alan Smith is interesting. Again it puts no pressure on anyone but he at least is more gregarious than Bing, albeit a little unhinged at times (perhaps no bad thing). He is renowned for barking mad off the wall coments, one of his best has to be: "I made up a story about Alex Kolinko, who had been in tears after the game. I said he came from the poorest mountain village in Latvia where he had to fight bears when he was eight.
"I said his grandparents had been shot by the Nazis, his mother had died of cancer and his sister was raped by a gang of mountain rebels. But he never shed a single tear because he was strong and brave.
"Then I told them that one month playing behind our defence had turned him into a blubbering wreck! The players didn't know what to say. Except Clinton Morrison - he said, 'It's a shame about his sister'."
At least we will have plenty to blog about next season!
Danny Webber - Why? If he isn't good enough for The Blades why would he be good enough for Boro? His scoring record is poor also, I cant see the logic behind the interest from Boro.
**AV writes: well he's scored against Boro so he ticks at least one of the traditional boxes.
Appear to have lost a post in the ether.
Redcar Red
I had just get over the disappointment that Chelsea were after Bruno and Afonso Alves when you deliver another blow to my attempts to keep a lid on my blood pressure.
When I saw Alan Smith mentioned I went giddy. When I recovered I checked the gossip columns to see no mention of us aquiring another non scoring, misfit of a striker. It wasn't until I fully read the posting I realised it was Gates mentor you were referring to.
Danny Webber "Oh my god!!"
If this is what Middlesbrough FC are going to serve up to the Fans then i think they will be in for a shock as the fans will not tolerate anything less than a promotion bid.
Don't get me wrong I appreciate we have to get some players with championship experience to help us this season, but i was hoping for the better type of championship player not the dregs of the championship.
I for one am not looking forward to the Sheff Utd match and now i expect to see this it makes you wonder whats the point. These type of players will not get us promoted these are middle of the table signings and is surely signalling the end.
I shall end with a quote from Dads Army (We're Doomed)
Nigel
My major concern is if we sign too many players who can earn a living in the Championship but will be hopelesly out of their depth in the Premiership if we did go back up.
The logic as I see it is that they are cheap and we can build a squad with a few of them and then when the big money comes in for Stewy, Tuncay, Huth and co. then we can spend it on someone higher in profile.
I personally think Cox would have been a better acquisition than Webber but Neil Warnock was after Webber as well and he is a shrewd wily old fox so the lad must have something because he does not suffer fools, lets hope he turns out to finally realise his potential with us. Mido, Boksic, Alves, Macaroni hardly set the heather alight so Webber surely could'nt be worse than any of them but a good few million quid less.
Decidely underwhelmed by news of Webber's imminent signing. We already have a striker who can't score, in Alves. Why do we need another one?
Nigel
Logic? There's no logic to Webber - or, indeed, any of it.
All it is is that those off the field who were responsible for trashing our Prem status last season haven't yet taken on board that 'when you're in a hole, at least, stop digging'.
Whether it's about the backroom, bootroom or the squad the shovels are still out with a will and digging the hole deeper.
I thought it said it all when we signed the keeper from Tranmere. Not at all. We are evidently now pursuing Danny Webber, recently discarded by the Blades, whilst the other two relegated clubs are at least signing or wanting to sign hungry, by all accounts, talented non premiership players with something to prove ie, Cox and Beckford.
With regard to the goal keeping situation, it won't matter how well Coyne performs, given a chance, because GS made clear last season Jones was his number one, even though Turnbull had not discredited himself in the way he played following the Jones early season injury.
Living in the south now, Im planning to see the Boro at the least, at Palace, QPR. Watford, Reading and a few home games, but Im really wondering now if its worth the travelling costs and the despair. 2009, Here endeth the dream.
Alan Smith is a clever addition I think, he has plenty of experience and he always seemed to know what he was talking about in his Observer columns. Hopefully he can be the Venables-type figure that Gareth could find useful. At the very least, he'll be better than Malcolm Crosby.
Danny Webber, Bryan Hughes? Not much to get excited about, though I'm sure Webber has talent. Not sure we really need another forward with a dubious goals to games record.
Heard Yeates and Coyne on Tees the other night, both sounded very impressive, obviously really excited to be here and want to play for the club. Can't argue with that - hopefully Yeates could be a steal at that price.
Latest farce just shows that Southgate obviously commands zero respect from his senior players. And we know he cant manage the young lads either (Cattermole). Now he's taken to signing a Sheff Utd reject with an abysmal goals to games record.
On top of the last three years of squandering the clubs money and utterly inept tactics (ah but he is learning from his mistakes...what a laugh) surely Southgate has been found out?
Come on lets boycott the first game - show the Sky cameras what we really think of Southgate. A bit of fan power. Its for the best for the club in the long run if we get rid of him now. Its time the fans bit back and showed some steel. Non of this ''blind faith''. The ineptitude has gone too far and it is asking too much to expect us to just roll over and die. If we wait until xmas and do nothing we will be heading for League one no question.
Yeah, let's boycott the first game! Show the Sky cameras and the rest of the country what great fans we are!
No thanks stevo, I'd rather go and support my team.
Stevo
I presume your post is a wind up."Lets show some steel and boycott the first game". No real fan no matter how concerned, cheesed off or immersed in his own negativity would print this.
Yeates sounds very promising, Coyne is experienced back up for our one departee and the other lad hasn't signed yet. If he does sign he's a squad player.We will not splash money till we get some in because there is no pot. Our major signings will arrive when the money comes in. It is a 46 game season in 8 months and we need a bigger squad.
If you do not want to go by all means exercise your right to stay away but anybody who wants to see the club he professes to support humiliated in front of a national audience is no supporter in my eyes.
Stevo:
To reiterate Ian Gill's sentiment of a few days ago, none of us are exactly overwhelmed by the signings so far, and I know that I'm still utterly hacked off by relegation and the way it happened. However, even I think it's a bit premature to cast final judgement this far ahead of the opener and without a Championship ball being kicked.
As I said before, I haven't renewed my season ticket but, I'm keeping my powder dry until I see what shakes out by around match # 10. By then, the pattern of the season will begin to be unfolding. THEN and only then will the real Judgment Day be approaching.
It's all in the club's court now, but it's appropriate to give them a fair crack of the whip before turning it on them!
With the kick off now less than 4 weeks away it looks like re-assembling a squad for the new season is going to prove quite difficult for Southgate.
I figure decent championship players are still probably holding out for a chance of a move to the PL - as are those from relegated clubs like ourselves.
In terms of this type of player we must bide our time in the overall sequence of events that is the transfer window:
- First the big boys throw their weight around attempting to prise away the really big fish from each other and also steal the best players from non-champions league clubs.
- Next the clubs who have lost their stars come around looking to replace them with the best from the rest from other clubs.
- Following them are the PL strugglers desperately to trying retain their status by gambling money on the 'were once good' or 'good when fit' or 'a promising prospect' (that was Boro)
- And now it's our turn, the group of potential Championship promotion favourites, looking between the cracks in the transfer pavement for decent players overlooked by the others or snatching League 1 prospects or trying to persuade former stars in the twilight of their careers to 'offer their experience for the cause'.
Meanwhile we have to negotiate deals for selling our want-away players for whom the Championship is an unwelcome abberation. Hopefully, we'll sell on players soon but getting your price is difficult when everybody know you're trying to sell - we can't play the waiting game to long though otherwise we will miss out on the first tier of suitable players.
I probably agree with Stockton Red that these early targets are probably squad players and we shouldn't panic or start organising boycotts at this stage. At the end of the day money talks and we should be in possession of quite a kitty after a few sales have gone through.
Whilst I have some understanding of your comment at 9.34pm (stockton red) and at 8.21pm (BoroPhil), let's not lose sight of an important fact here. The fans can't bear any responsibility for the horror story that was our 2008/9 season.
The players on the field (and any whose whereabouts are currently unknown, but are nowhere near the field), and the backroom staff and management of the Club ARE responsible. Our squad, whilst limited, should not have finished 19th in a very poor Premier League.
I suppose fans can shout their support, they can encourage, they might even (at some grounds) attempt to intimidate the opposition. But at the end of the day if some players' hearts are not all in it, or we keep playing people out of position, and don't seem able to move to a Plan B when the first one goes wrong, there's a limit to how influential the supporters can be.
Another thought is this. We can put money over the counter, so to speak, by renewing our season cards and buying club produce, however galling it might be to think some small proportion might be contributing to filling up the fuel tank of a white gas-guzzling Rolls Royce when its absentee owner returns to these shores.
We can even be asked our views when it suits the club to take those on board. Why, for example, ask for supporters' views on next year's team strip then go on to ignore what must be an overwhelming support for the "traditional" white chest band? If we aren't going to listen to the fans, let's not pretend that we intended to in the first place. Otherwise it smacks of "This is a free election, vote for the party of your choice and, providing I agree with your choice, you can have what you want".
If you have limited influence over what happens on the pitch, and if your views (when offered even a small say) in other areas are overridden, what can you do? There is only one choice left, and that is not to buy the product. At the end of the day no-one can ignore that. Even if a megalomaniac billionaire bought a football club as his personal plaything, he wouldn't want his team to play in front of empty seats, and neither would Sky or any other broadcaster want to show games played in an empty stadium.
In the final analysis the only decision one can make is whether or not to hand over the money and buy the product. Isn't that what fans did in the final days of Lennie Lawrence? And, in the final analysis, didn't that have a positive outcome?
Don't get me wrong. I will be there next season (even if I have to miss the first game). But I do have some sympathy for those who feel that not going is the only way (in a paradoxical sense) their voice can be heard.
We have already hit one iceberg. If the ship seems to be heading towards a second one in a couple of months time, are we expected to be philosophical about it? When does blind faith become stupidity? In Division One, Division Two....?
John - We dont always agree, but we're united on this one, the current transfer strategy seems perverse to say the least.
Stockton Red
If we're getting 'major signings' in 'when the money comes in' why is Gate (on his own admission) even talking to the likes of Webber, Hughes - even as so-called squad players?
He's also said that he's only going to have four strikers and we hold registration for four now. On a one out one in basis, Webber's worth it? I don't think so.
Sorry guys but desperate times need desperate measures. Otherwise we are Lemmings.
I count myself as a loyal fan of the club and have been at many games when 25 thousand other so called fans have not bothered. But what else can the fans do to bring about a change? Keep typing on a messageboard or keeping our fingers crossed? Wont make a single difference.
Bind faith is leading our club up a blind alley.
A short term protest might bring about a long term change for the better.
Stevo-
Lord Ken and Richard have referred to 10 games. Steve Gibson has openly stated his ambition for the season is to do everything to go back up at the first attempt. Southgate has openly stated "we have a budget to be very competitive in this league".
If your predicted spiral to disaster continues and we begin next year as we finished the last can you seriously see the manager lasting more than a dozen games? He has nowhere to hide and is in the last chance saloon. Just chill out and lets see what happens.
To contribute to the discussion on support or withdrawal:
Stevo/ FD et al:
When agonizing over season ticket renewal or not, other than writing in blogs, I considered how to make my feelings known to the club. I wasn't convinced at all, that anyone at the club read the fans’ blog comments or otherwise took fans’ views or opinions on board, because of the lack of reaction and change in the football during the course of last season and the seeming absence of urgency to a worsening situation that we had all been pointing out for months.
There was clear (to me at least) evidence that Gibson's corporate strategy had changed; whether forced by external circumstances or not, is, de facto, irrelevant. However, that there had been no attempt to keep the fans on-side with such circumstances was, I felt, offensive and we, the supporters, were treated like inconsequential idiots and mushrooms.
It's my belief that we were, in effect, deceived by being allowed to continue to think that nothing at the club had changed significantly that was likely to alter our Premier League status. And that was despite growing evidence to the contrary.
Whether you are from the “Ostrich Management” school of thought, or are of a more conspiratorial and cynical management persuasion, alters little. The fact is that the club, whether by design or default, were more circumspect with information than I and many other supporters felt was helpful or appropriate considering the emotional investment that supporters make in the club.
In effect, the club Management was disingenuous towards the supporters.
That was, predominantly, what I found offensive, on top of the poor football fare on offer for the last three seasons. Ultimately, I lost trust in the Management. (By "Management", I mean from Steve Gibson downwards, and although I don't entirely exonerate Gareth Southgate, I don't hold him responsible for having to work within the confines of a changing commercial reality).
When it became obvious that we were heading for relegation, a few matches from the end of the season, by that time, I had lost all faith in the "Management" - in their ability to either turn the club round or to keep the fans on board. This was despite attempts to do so in certain blogs I'd written in more objective and generous moments, on “Boro Banter”.
By the time Steve Gibson's BBC Radio Tees interview was broadcast, no amount of "posturing" or public appeal for "Blind Faith" was ever going to be enough for me to restore what trust had been lost. However, instead of making conciliatory noises, Gibson then piled offense upon offense by certain “positioning” comments to which I and many others took exception. That was disappointing, because we’d come to expect more from our Chairman over the years.
Perhaps that was naïve and despite an underlying understanding of commercial realities, many of us got too immersed in the ambitious dream?
Whatever the reality of that psychological condition, I have retreated to a position where I will now have to be convinced once again of the ambitious intent of the club, before I will be prepared to commit to the future as I had done in 10 previous seasons.
By non-renewal, I (and I suspect many others) will perhaps have sent a message to the club that we are dissatisfied with the club's performance. But this isn’t just in footballing terms.
It's also important that as a retail organisation (i.e. a commercial organisation that deals directly with the public), the Management also understand that it's not JUST about the football results that protests are being made.
If supporters cannot be “heard” through opinions expressed via newspapers, blogs or supporters club, and if their concerns are not being acknowledged as having been registered, then the only course of action remaining is to hit the retail establishment where it will HAVE to take notice, or face significant contraction.
However, given that it is presumably in neither parties’ interests for there to be such significant financial supporter shortfall as to put the whole enterprise in jeopardy, the half-way position of season ticket non-renewal, but match-day attendance on an ongoing match-by-match basis seemed to me to be a sensible way of maintaining honour. If the club convinces doubters like myself, then we’ll continue to offer support. If they don’t honour the commitment that Gibson appeared to be giving on BBC Radio Tees, then they’ll also get what they deserve.
If they perform, financially, they’ll get more of my money over the next season than they would have had I renewed my season ticket. I don’t have a problem with that, because they’ll have deserved it.
But they won’t break any more “promises” and still get the benefit of this supporter’s revenue without earning it!
The above rationale is why I intend to be there for, at least, the first few matches of the coming season and implicit in all of that is the importance of giving Boro a decent chance of succeeding by offering support from the outset, without offering my ongoing loyalty as hostage.
What happens now in terms of my own relationship with the club is largely in the club’s hands.
Withdrawing our support will only hurt the club. Short term and long term.
If you think we are destined for League One under the current management (40/1 we are to be relegated I think I heard so put your money where your mouth is?), then I suppose organising protests might be the logical choice of action.
However, I agree with the bookies, and fully expect us to be challenging at the top from the start.
We were going to the evening do for a wedding on Saturday so planned a mini break. Difficult to get a room in Sunderland so booked and paid for a four star in Durham city centre so we could spend some time pottering about.
Friday night got a call from the groom, someone has come down with illness could we come for the wedding itself. Agreed and changed our plans.
Got to the wedding venue around lunchtime and called and reconfirmed the room with the hotel advising them we would be arriving in the evening. Don’t worry Mr Gill, the room is paid for and guaranteed, you can arrive any time, made a note.
Had a good time at the wedding and arrived at the hotel around 9.00pm. Struggled to get parked in their car park and was advised to just park where we could. Went into reception and the problems started.
‘Sorry, Mr Gill, the room is unavailable. We have had a plumbing problem and your room is affected. Let us try and find you another room elsewhere’
No success with getting a suitable replacement, Durham Miners Gala, and was offered an economy room in a faceless establishment by a motorway junction with no food and rather than a stroll around a pleasant city could stand on a motorway bridge.
We suspect someone had either double booked or, my favourite, despite making a note someone just sold the room. No attempt had been made to contact us, no answer phone messages. We had a miserable drive in heavy rain back to Derby.
What on earth has this to do with Boro?
There are striking similarities to many a trip back from the Riverside and following gross mismanagement of resources now we are offered something that wasn’t in the brochure and should be grateful.
The words of the poor chap giving the job of stuffing us up was 'dont let this reflect badly on Radison, please come and stay with us again' Just need a bit of blind faith.
I got Boro's new home shirt this morning by post after ordering it last only last week.
The red is a bit too dark for traditional Boro red but it looks good as a colour of a normal shirt, though. This is the first shirt I own with the new crest - it looks fabulous and not as bad as suspected beforehand as I had read complaints here.
The year 1876 on thelogo is good - it shows our long history. Even though I will always remember the year 1986, too. All in all I am very satisfied with the Adidas shirt - also it could be the first new type over here in Finland! I am proud to wear it.
Up the Boro!
Ian Gill
Sorry to read about your do with the Radison.
I've stayed there once. The hotel receptionist asked me if I would mind filling in a questionnaire so I went outside and punched the doorman.
**AV writes: It's the way you tell them...
It's hard to make sense of the spin coming out of this Riverside at the moment.
First Gareth tells us that Jinky is our most sought after player and then Lamb announces he's not for sale - but he's about to enter the last year of his contract and presumably can start to organise leaving on a free in January if he doesn't agree a contract extension(or would we still get compensation?).
We are also told that Downing will be out until winter but Gareth is telling other clubs to buy now to avoid missing out - will somebody buy a player that can't play until almost the January transfer window?
I thought Boro would have learned the lesson of trying to spin after last December's pre-window attempts ended up destroying the moral of several players and ultimately our season.
On top of that recently sold academy graduates like the Catt and Morrison are being coveted for twice the fees we sold them for - in the meantime we have recently bought players who we'd be lucky to get half the price we paid.
David Whelan states you can't replace players like Cattemole - he's right we didn't - and Morrison is now the attacking midfielder we have spent three years trying to find. I should also mention we lost the best performing keeper of last year to Fulham and even the Yak discovered both a work rate and heading ability he kept hidden from us.
I'm still not convinced the three wise men understand how to play the transfer market other than spouting spin that takes us all for fools.
**AV writes: There is a fault line between contradictory demands: Boro are desperate to make a couple of big sales in order to fund their own rebuilding but they are also keen to give the impression they are no under pressure to sell in order to push up the price. Something has to give. And soon.
James
Thanks for that advice, I will bear it in mind should the manager ever phone me up as promised.
My problem is I can find a nice hotel elsewhere but our team is consigned to the motorway service station like the 'hotel' we were offered. To be fair Premier Lodge is probably as close as we will get this season.
By, the way, I have nothing against that chain of hotels but if I wanted to stay at a service station I would have booked for one.
Just to drag people back on topic, does anyone know if Mido turned up for training this morning?
**AV writes: No he didn't but the club say he has let them know when he is due back. Our guess is the suggested date is "when freezes over."
Any word on the Pilsbury Dough Boy, or is he still Walking Like An Egyptian?
If Southgate knows how to kick the team up the backside why didn't he do it to his group of players last season? If you you remember he used the phrase "I couln't ask the team for more" almosy every week.
As things are League 1 beckons. Every player in all leagues must know play for Boro and your transfer value goes down. Go and play for a good manager and that value rockets. Ask Cattermole, Downing, Greening, Morrison, Woodgate