Back With Some Bits And Pieces
RIGHT I'm back recharged and tanned after two lazy lappyless weeks out of the loop - Tenerife, yeah, fantastic thanks - and I'm fired up and ready to resume multi-media tub-thumpery. So, what have I missed?
I'll be working my way through two weeks worth of Gazettes over the next few days but all that wading through inky paperware is so old school. Far easier to "crowd-source" and ask you to filter the news for me, adding colour and comment as you go.
Here's some things to chew over while I get back up to full match fitness.
Boro summer targets scouted via YouTube (Pt 1 of an occasional summer series): Bristol Rovers goal getting wide lefty Mustapha Carayol
Of course, as we know from reality TV, the clip package "let's have a look at your best bits" can be deceiving. Remember how good Lee Dong Gook was on Youtube? But I've sat through this nine minutes of indie-backed Muzzy compilation and I have to say it ticks a lot of boxes. He has a bit of pace, a trick or two, a decent left peg and he can cross a ball. He scored a few for Rovers last year and with a decent striker to get on the end of some of his balls in, we would have got a lot more assists.
Would he add something different? Can he step up a level? can we afford him? We'll see. Boro have been watching him for a few months and Mogga has been to see him in person. He is certainly on the list.
Golden Moments From European Championship History - In LEGOVISION!
Still on YouTube, this exquisitely crafted Legovision montage should get you in the mood for England's upcoming hysterical biannual slog through to the quarters and subsequent dejected trudge back home through an ankle deep mess of discarded cross bedecked car flags and beer cans.
Brilliant toomuchtimeontheirhandstastic entertainment. Just look at his face!
Someone who knows these things tells me mighty England have only won SEVEN games in 90 minutes in the entire history of the Euro's - two in 2004 and 1996, one each in 2000, 1980 and 1968 . I'm not expecting any dramatic improvement on that this time round. And, as regular readers will know, I'm not that bothered but the histrionics of the media should fill out the two weeks until the fixtures come out.
Bairdy's Writing A Book
And it sounds like it will be a fittingly put-yourself-about-a-bit take-no-prisoners affair. Here's a taster with an interview he did in the Sunday Sun last week.
Boro Crowned Kings of the North East
Let's see what you could have won... staunch republican I may be but its quiet out there and Boro-based colour is thin on the ground so had I been here last week I think I'd have done a Jubilee flashback feature to this game: the 1953 Coronation Cup.
Boro beat local rivals Sunderland 4-3 at Roker Park in a post-season celebration of the impending regal pageantry. One report refers to it as "the final" but there is no record of Boro playing a previous game in the competition so possibly Sunderland saw off Newcastle first for the right to play our heroes.
The game was slotted in on the weekend between the end of season 4-1 win at Portsmouth - their sixth victory on the bounce - and the 'Matthews' Cup Final. Today's players jet off to Barbados or Bali the minute the season ends but back then Boro had a lively few weeks looming because after this clash they then embarked on a tour of Holland, arranged by Ayresome hero George Hardwick, then busy inventing total voetball as part of his role as coaching director at the Dutch FA.
With Wilf Mannion pulling the strings Boro went two up with goals from Arthur Fitzsimmons and Geoff Walker added another before Sunderland pegged two back through Trevor Ford. Bill Edwards made it four for Boro before Ford completed his hat-trick with a late consolation in what had been a ding-dong game.
The crowd was a meagre 5,896 on a scorching day and organisers conceded that with Sunderland limping to the end of the season and Boro finishing like a train, had the game been staged at Ayresome "the gate would likely have been three times as many."
The team: Ugolini, Bilcliffe, Corbett, Bell, Dicks, Mulholland, Delapenha, Mannion, Edwards, Fitzsimmons, Walker.
Just out of interest, to pad out some space, look at how times have changed (or not) and to throw a bone to the youngsters out there I though I'd look at the Boro teams at the time of the other big Jubilee landmarks.
For the last game before the Sex Pistols Jubilee in 1977, the Summer of Punk, Boro had drawn 0-0 at home to Bristol City in front of 14, 849 to finish ninth in the top flight.
The team: Platt, Craggs, Ramage, Boam, Maddren, Souness, McAndrew, Mills, Wood, Hedley, Armstrong. Sub: Boersma
For the Golden Jubilee, back in the halcyon days of 2002, Boro had just finished Steve McClaren's first season with a nice bit of symmetry. Having started with four straight defeats under the new boss they ended with another four losses on the bounce, the last a 1-0 reverse away at Leeds in front of 40,218 to finish 12th.
Pallister Park prodigy Stewart Downing - just 17 - started for the third game running and fellow teenager David Murphy was on the bench. Leeds included Rio Ferdinand, Lee Bowyer, Robbie Keane and Seth Johnson. Jonathan Woodgate was injured.
The team: Schwarzer, Stockdale, Ehiogu, Southgate, Cooper, Greening, Ince, Mustoe, Downing, Nemeth, Whelan. Subs: Murphy, Debeve, Windass, Crossley, Johnston.
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"So, come on! Fill me in!"
Not something so very often heard these days outside a pub at closing time.
You will have to see how slow this InterBlog thing is during the extended Diamond Jubilee Holiday period. Maybe the Peoples' Republic of Teesside is taking a few days off, to towel itself down after a soaking standing by the River Thames yesterday to watch the Royal Flotilla. Of course others may well be girding up their loins for the Jubilee Concert tonight.
Either way, the 2012-13 season is currently looking a long way off into the future. It looks like half of the Premier League clubs will have changed their manager by the start of the new term, and that might mean previously favoured players feeling unloved by their new regime, and therefore some movement in the market.
Hopefully when others start slicing their granary loaf, we might pick up a few crumbs. Musical chairs - a game coming your way, soon(ish)!
**AV writes: I'm looking forward to the bread and butter stuff. Leadbitter in on a free for Robson on half the dosh is a fair swap and good housekeeping. Replicate that with three or four others out of contract, a long term loanee or two and maybe one or two real cash signings and we may see a real team emerge in Mogga's image.
We're after Emmanuel Ledesma from Walsall; maybe he could be the next Carlos Marinelli? Apart from that, I've not heard anything. Keane's injury was a disappointment - good quality loan signings could be massively important for us this year.
I'm intrigued as to who, out of Bates, Hoyte, McMahon, Martin & Ogbeche, will be staying - are there are clues? And I think we're all still on tenterhooks for the Elite Player Performance Plan inspection results...
**AV writes: Hoyte has been offered a new deal on vastly reduced wages but I think he is loved up and #bouji and desperately wants to get back to London and so would take the same money to go to Charlton, Palace or Watford. McMahon is up in the air. He was offered a new deal back in Oct/Nov but said he would wait and see and now, when he is more inclined to take it, the club have since looked at other targets and now they are waiting to see.
I can't see Martin and Ogbeche being offered new deals if Mogga gets in the midfield men he wants. They were only ever stop gaps and while they were adequate neither have put in consistent displays that screamed out that they wetre a key part of the future. Main is ahead of Ogbeche in the pecking order now and Martin isn't even a definite benchwarmer.
Bates will be given every chance to rehabilitate and get back to fitness at Boro. Mogga feels a moral obligation to help and it could benefit Boro too. His injury doesn't seem as bad as his previous cruciates but you can never tell. The thinking is that if he can get fit he may be offered a short term new deal (possibly pay as you play or perfromance related) on a lot less money than he was hoping for when he let his old deal run down. I think he was badly advised on that.
Can you find out about the Elite Academy rating while you're catching up AV?
**AV writes: There wasn't a formal timetable for the results but they have only just finished the assessments . That said, the new football year starts on July 1st so they will need to announce or at least give strong indications by then so clubs can plan recruitment and development plans. It may or may not be significant that Boro have been provisionally interviewing youth coaches ready to expand their set-up.
As to the quality of the advice given to Bates, it might simply have been a bit of a gamble. Do you take a risk and go for more, or do you play the safe option and accept an early sure-fire lesser deal with Boro at no risk?
If he hadn't been injured, there's a reasonable chance he might have got a decent deal at a QPR/WBA/Norwich/Wigan sort of level. But he did get injured, so letting the contract run out, in hindsight, seems a bad decision.
He tossed the coin and called "heads". It came down "tails". In a rose-tinted world he'd be allowed another toss of the coin, or even "best of three". In the real world of Boro's present financial austerity...
**AV writes: Or he could have pressed for a short extension on the same money - a year say - with a release clause if one of those clubs came in during the summer, thus giving Boro a bit of protection and the chance of a fee as a show of good faith for the club sticking by him during his injuries. Like Rhys Williams did for instance. Even injured he'd be quids in now. As you say, a gamble. I'd have gone each way.
Looked in my copy of "What's On in Middlesbrough" for June. On page one it said "Bugger all."
Normal service indeed, I have had half a dozen goes and it comes up with address/email needed - yes, they were input - or the submission timed out. Certainly not a problem at this end as all other websites are ok and we have a decent internet connection.
Shame for Keane but at least modern techniques aid recovery. May find it works out for us because good prosepct that he is do we need another non scoring striker who needs to develop a killer instinct?
He may have blocked a place in the team and bench at the expense of our own prospects, not that Mogga has a history of filling the bench with retreads he brought in to the club.
In my eyes a good wide man, not in the way I am wide, is of more importance be it someone brought in or giving Haliday, Park, Reach a run.
But I wish the young lad well, does Sir Alex need Hernandez to get some game time?
**AV writes: I'm not aware of any problems in the system but then again I have been off for a fortnight. And it is a double diamond Bank Holiday so they may all have knocked off and left the server on idle while they carouse down the Mall.
How about the chap from Bristol Rovers? I think Mustapha Carayol looked quite lively and quick - we might do with with a right-footed winger there.
AV, you had a nice video on him in Twitter. Of course he looks a bit unpolished as most of the young African players when young. But definitely different to what we have (Arca or Thommo) now.
Any info when Mogga is back from holiday? That will get the wheels moving. Secondly I don't understand why we must wait until July before we know if Hoyte or McMahon have accepted the reduced-term new contracts. If Boro find a better player during the delay, just go for him. We cannot wait as the time runs out in the end as always.
Up The Boro!
**AV writes: All football contracts run until June 30th. Very few people will sign a new deal before then that puts them on less money. Hoyte is on a ball park £25k. It would be madness to think he would sign a new deal - here or elsewhere - for £5k a week. That would mean missing out on £75k. That's #bouji.
But cannot these new contract start after June 30th even though they are signed now? I mean like Robbo signed for the Vancouver well before the end of the season. Why wait?
Up the Boro!
**AV writes: I'm sure they can. But unless there is a big pay rise in it, what is the advantage in doing so for the player? And unless they thought the player may go elsewhere unless they moved now, what is the advantage to the club? Pre-season training doesn't start until the last week of June.
Robbo's situation is different as he was moving abroad and had to be signed and registered as part of their squad before the new season. If that hadn't been the case we would now be paying him until June 30th while he looked for a new club.
It's hard to see how the situation with our current four strikers can remain unchanged going into next season if we are to get the goals needed for a promotion campaign.
Jukiewicz was around a 1-in-4 striker with Coventry but has managed only 2 from 19 since joining Boro and doesn't look like being the lead goal scorer.
Emnes seems lively but doesn't look like a striker and has managed around 1-in-5 during his stuttering Boro career.
McDonald was extremely prolific in Scotland managing nearly 1-in-2 over 200 games but his Boro career has seen that goal ratio drop to a still respectable 1 every 3-4 games - could be better if he stays injury free.
Main is a good prospect but with only a couple of goals to his name will need game time to become a better striker.
So does anyone think this is the strikeforce to get us promoted? Will we see one (or both) of McDonald or Emnes being sacrificed to free up wages? Can we afford a natural goal scorer or will it be another gamble?
I think I'd move Emnes on as he's probably the least likely to become more prolific - OK he has pace but can he supply others with assists.
**AV writes: Given his PL wages I think they would sell McDonald (and probably at a loss) in a heartbeat if only a club would take him. Whatever else he brings to the party - workrate, neat interplay etc - he is far too expensive for this division.
I see that the pre-season friendlies are shaping up to be another set of away encounters like they were last time round - with the exception of the Juninho game.
I can see why that makes sense for the likes of Falkirk, Scunny and Carlisle. But don't Boro - above all - need to sharpen up at The Riverside in their prep for next term?
**AV writes: Home games are not in vogue these days. These cost too much to stage and crowds (PSV v TLF circus aside) have dwindled over the past decade.
I'd like to see a return to the good old days of a mini-tour of local Northern League sides - Synners, Guisborough, Marske etc - as it is good missionary work, a chance for local kids to see the players up close, cheap and easy for travelling fans to and with a decent crowd a useful boost to the coffers of our own minnows.
Welcome back, I trust we will now be ramping up the twitterbook, live interactive experience at the remaining Durham and Yorks CC games? I have been missing this particular involvement and trust you and your colleagues will be hot footing it down to a cricket ground as we speak....
On the Carayol front I am concerned his penchant for wearing gloves may unsettle the hardy folk of the Riverside although the profligacy of his team-mates should make him feel at home straight away. Onwards and upwards.
Wonder what the response would be if a new owner or co owner decided we whouldnt play in red anymore. Would we be as sanguine as some Cardiff fans who are more bothered about being debt free than being the Bluebirds?
We had posturing because we went to all red rather than having a white band of some form even though the band was not a permanent feature.
All least Cardiff managed to keep the bluebird somewhere on the badge.
Anyway my favourite administrator, our little French Poison Dwarf, assures us that referees already have the power to stop matches and warn crowds of racist abuse. If it continues then they have the power to stop matches.
I can hear the sighs of relief from officials confident of getting the full backing of the UEFA president should they call off a match at the Euros.
Shall we have an online poll on whether they would be backed or not or just disappear into officiating in the 14th of tier of their association's football pyramid?
God, its boring with little Boro news to debate but at least Gary Liddle tells us how good Ledesma is especially coming on as an impact sub. Now how did Mogga get on with subs last season?
Ah well, Euros and Olympics coming up as well as Wimbledon and cricket.
Are you off to Henley again Vic?
**AV writes: Who are they playing?
A number of tweets today about the ownership of football clubs generally, and Cardiff City in particular - with reference to the decision to wear red shirts and a dragon instead of the traditional blue shirts for the Bluebirds.
Different viewpoints have been put forward. On the one hand: an affront to the dignity of the supporters and to the club's history; tradition being thrown to the wind; new owners paying no regard to the views of the core support when they change many of the things the supporters hold dear.
And that is to say nothing about the recent history for some clubs in failing to check out whether the purchaser is a "fit and proper person" rather than some crook on an ego trip or (worse) who has in mind some financial scam.
On the other hand: supporters want success and that means buying expensive players with salaries to match their perceived abilities, and that rules out the local businessman who, in other times, might have joined the board to help the club he had always supported. When will a butcher be Chairman of Manchester United again?
On that basis the only people who will have the money to provide the finances required by clubs with ambition will be the billionaires, the oligarchs, the sovereign wealth holders from oil-rich sheikhdoms etc. There aren't too many of those who have been lifelong supporters of clubs like Manchester City, Cardiff or Middlesbrough, and who live just around the corner from the ground so they were able to walk to the match during the wilderness years in Division 3.
Red is apparently a lucky colour in the far east, from where Cardiff's new owners hail and from where those owners hope to mine a rich seam of memorabilia. Red shirts will sell in bigger numbers and a dragon (apart from being quintessentially Welsh) seems much more macho than a little bluebird. There is a massive rising middle class with plenty of new money to spare in China/India/Malaysia/Japan (substitute your country - the principle is the same).
We can be offended if we wish, but what is the alternative? It would, of course, be nice if your favourite club could discover a rich sugar-daddy who really has the interests of the club and its supporters at heart. My own dream is that Bill Gates is found to be the long lost cousin of a former Boro centre-half and sports shop owner and decides £10B out of his large fortune could revive the club he should have been supporting when he was being a geek. He wouldn't miss the money, after all.
Aside from daydreams like that, the reality is that if some distant billionaire decides to put money into a football club in another country, or even continent, he wants something back. If he is fabulously wealthy, like long lost cousin Bill, he MIGHT be in it for the glory, the thrill and honour of winning, or simply because he wants a plaything. Like an everyday man buying a bike, or a flash surround-sound TV.
But it's more likely that, if he is the driven sort of individual who is successful in big business, he will be single-minded, in it for the profit and unlikely to be sentimental about those who might be hurt in the chase to unearth that profit.
We've done the maths. If Boro were to fill the ground with 32,000 fans willing to buy a season ticket at let's say an average of £400 each, that's only £12.8M. And AV will tell you that wouldn't even have made a dent in the players' wages a year ago. And our merchandising and sponsorship deals will be much less now than 3-4 years ago. The TV money has withered away.
Of course we are unlikely to sell even a half of those season tickets for 2012-13, and many of the seats are much cheaper than £400, so the gate money will be much less. The local pawnbroker, worthy sponsors though they may be, can hardly afford let alone be expected to put in the shirt-money that an international brand, let's say an IBM, a Ford or a Heineken, would pay for a Premier League club guaranteed to receive international TV exposure.
The same applies to Cardiff, and other clubs wishing to be amongst the Big League, as it does to Boro. Maybe a smaller amount of money would ignite success in a smaller club at a lower league level, but then the fans at that club would "get greedy" and want more. Who wouldn't? And the higher you get, the more it costs to make a difference.
I tweeted earlier that "he who pays the piper calls the tune" and that the piper is very expensive these days.
Supporters will ask questions. If we are to be successful, we need to buy better players (as if the most expensive ALWAYS meant the best, but there you are...). More expensive players tend to attract higher salaries. The most successful clubs TEND (not always) to have higher wage bills.
So the supporter, knowing his club has just missed out on a play-off place last season, thinks that if we could just buy that very handy looking striker, that right back, and maybe a centre back (not to mention a back-up keeper and perhaps sign a couple on loan), we could bridge the gap and maybe have a shout at promotion.
The problem is that those players have just wiped out all the gate receipts for the season, and more, and that is to disregard the players already on the books who would prefer to be paid throughout the season, if that's OK with the fans.
The supporters might say that player X will only cost £750K and wages of £5K a week but that's an outlay of £1M in this season alone, and if there are 3 or 4 of them....
People will expect Steve Gibson to put his hand in his pocket. Yet if it were suggested ticket prices were doubled to help fund the project, maybe £1100 for West Stand Upper or whatever, the outcry would be deafening.
"The local market/peoples' pockets couldn't bear it", we'd hear. Well maybe Steve Gibson's pocket couldn't bear the year-on contribution into the club's coffers either, and there doesn't seem to be a line of wealthy fans outside the Riverside desperate to invest in the club
So there are options. A club might cut its cloth according to its pocket. Cheaper signings, much lower wages for players (might have to make do on a measly £200K a year, lads - after all we are only a second tier club with largely second tier players), and therefore much lower expectations.
Or, if there is a willingness to pump money into the club on the part of its owners and (in a club like Boro) its supporters, then maybe there could be a well-managed stab at success within reasonable budgets. Or you could go down the route of "let's get an outside investor to pump money into OUR club".
The point with the last option is that if the club is sold to someone who puts millions/billions into the pot, it is that investor's club. The supporters may retain a loyalty, a sentimental "ownership" but the power follows the money. And if Mr X is pumping tens or hundreds of millions into a club, he will have his own motivations (which might not be the same as the fans') and he will want to do whatever he wants to do.
If he wants to have the team shirts in dark brown, then so be it. If he wants the food stalls to sell sushi, or to stock HIS brand of soft drinks, then that is the price to be paid for having sold the club to him in the first place.
In an ideal world, our club would be bought out by a fabulously wealthy philanthropist with an interest in sport and in the area, and who has no ulterior, profit-making motive, who just wants success for the club and for which he is prepared to pay. Such men are very rare. The supporters would like something for nothing.
Put another way, if I spend £350K on a house, I'm not likely to want other people telling me what to plant in the garden. It's my house, I paid for it, and I'll grow what I want. Now, if you'd like to give me £750 to pay for a nice tree that I can put in the corner so that, when you walk by, you can look at it and enjoy the sight of it, then that would be lovely. But if I pay... And I guess it's the same if Mr X pays £100M (or more) for a football club.
Obviously one feels some sympathy for Cardiff supporters who will feel trampled on. But they are hardly likely to go 40 miles up the road to watch Swansea, are they?
When a club is sold, it isn't only the purchaser who will pay the price. And I suspect it will get worse before it gets better. Lots of supporters are going to be unhappy.
**AV writes: I'll respond to this in more detail later but basically - the notion of clubs as cultural capital and precious vehicles of local identity and pride aside - the idea of altrustic outside investors coming in to pump cash in as a labour of love is a nonsense. Ask the supporters of Portsmouth. Or Birmingham. Or Leicester. Or even Liverpool. Even Manchester United. These people are in to take money out. And along with the money they take the soul, the stability, the continity. They rip out the roots that bind a club to its community. Be careful what you wish for.
Sorry about the length of the last one, Vic. Got carried away. It would, however, have taken about 175 separate tweets! (Just a guess).
And with reference to the comment made by Ian Gill at 9pm, surely a well run Evening Newspaper, catering for a wide range of sporting interests, would set aside space on the back page for the latest goings on at Cowdray Park (Veuve Cliquot Gold Cup starting later this month), and a mention of the forthcoming Bumps races on the River Cam. Can't remember any Fives results being posted on the back page, or inside, and as for croquet - just forget it.
I guess readers of the Sevenoaks Chronicle must think Teesside is all whippets and ferret-fanciers.
(And the real reason for this is to test whether, now it is a little after midnight, I can send a second post without getting "too many posts in a short period". Maybe midnight means we start the clock at zero - if you see what I mean).
RE: The bluebirds are now red as Robins debate.
What was the reactions of the Leeds fans when they changed to all white shirts? I am too young to remember that (or I was not able to understand English nor followed English footy yet at the time).
Up the Boro!
**AV writes: The comprehensive HistoricalKits.co.uk says the change was met with a mixture of 'Yorkshire cynicism' and 'indifference'. But that was a very different case. The Blue/yellow combo was only 20 years old as Leeds had switched from a blue/white striped shirt just before the war and that may have softened resistance.
Crucially, the Leeds change had not been imposed from outside and certainly not to suit the business needs of a remote foreign market. Leeds change of colours was an internal decision driven primarily by Don Revie's vision of creating a new ethos at the club and to give them some echo of Real Madrid.
That wasn't the first such change dictated by a strong boss at the start of a dynasty. At about the same time Bill Shankly changed Liverpool's strip to all red (previously they had worn white shorts and socks) as he wanted to distinguish them from a legion of similarly kitted sides, he wanted them to be special.
Before that Herbert Chapman had taken over Arsenal and immediately given their red shirts distinctive white sleeves, arguing they could be more easily seen by team-mates. You could say the same about Jack Charlton, who echoed that when he introduced Boro's white chest band.
It has more in common with the rampant branding road show that is Red Bull who have used money as a cosh and bludgeoned Salzburg in Austria into submission and carved out a new franchise in New York in the MLS.
Internal tweakings are very different to steamrollered rebrandings at the behest of a foreign business. There is no footballing logic and it is a PR disaster, coming as it does after the massive fan's backlash when it was first mooted back in March. They angrily pointed out the historical and cultural damage a change would do. To press ahead anyway shows utter contempt for supporters. It shows the owners care more about perceptions on the ground back in Malaysia (and as yet unquantified financial gains there) than the fans of the club in Cardiff.
It is deceitful, cynical and insensitive. It is a breach of trust. Whatever financial gains it makes the owners back home will not make up for the long term damage to the club's heritage and cultural integrity. And let's be honest about this, there isn't even a guarantee that the owners will deliver the promised cash. Look at Portsmouth, Notts County, Birmingham. Shinawatra at an City.
People who go starry eyed over the prospect of big bucks should be wary. Would I want it at Boro? No. Most definitely not. Control and stewardship of the club being exported as part of an insensitive global PR strategy? Like Venkys? No thanks.
AV, do you think we could ever sign a player near Juninho status? I mean a player admired as much as Juninho was - ever again? Thanks for the link on Juninho:
www.football365.com/faves/7797940/Focus365
Secondly do you think we will ever see a club doing a Nottm Forest? Getting promoted and winning the PL the following year? We nearly did it with Charlton (he just have needed to sign a player more!). And Norwich, Southampton and even Boro have won two consecutive promotions. So why not promotion and Champion League in succession? I don't mean Boro but any team.
Thank God the Euros start on Friday. Up the Boro!
**AV writes: I don't think anyone can come out of nowhere and win the title in the current financial climate when the entry fee - expenditure on fees and wages for a good enough squad - to break into the elite group is so expensive.
But football is cyclical. Who knows what effect the Euro-crisis could have on the financial models of the big continental clubs and competitions. Who knows what the game's political economy could be in a decade's time. I hope things do take a seismic change for the better to break the glass ceiling and restore competitive balance in the league(s) because right now the game is boring and predictable and the final table more or less mirrors the wage curve.
I dont see why we are so uncertain about Bates. Is he such a risk or should we consider his previous injuries as unrelated to the current one which could strike any player at any time?
His current injury has come along after a season he has probably played more games than any in his career before and he certainly has played more than most in the squad over the past year have so why do we consider him more of a risk than say Rhys Williams?
It may mean he won't get the chance of a move to the PL so has to limit his sights to achieving that with us. Good news for us I would have thought.
As for Cardiff? A fan's revolt or a encessary price to pay for the level of investment needed to make the step up? Only time will tell if the money gets them up and established in the PL. Cant help them having Swansea top-dog in Wales right now.
But fans revolt spin-off clubs arent doing too badly right now. AFC Wimbledon have made it through the non-league ranks to the football league and the anti-Glazier's ManU spin-off isnt far away from Conference level so I suspect most Cardiff fans will give them one year to make it up and if that fails then some might jump ship.
I take AV's point about cynical rebranding.
I am struggling to define what our effort was when the white band/panel disappeared and the infant school badge were introduced. And the architects of our changes were on our side. Thank heavens for small mercies.
Even the test match has been delayed by rain.
**AV writes: They are just tweaks, not fundamental changes at polar opposites.
Jarkko, why are we mentioning them again?
Can we not go one thread without mentioning them
I call Godwin's Law
Smogon -
sorry. Just read the Cloughie book I bought at the Boro shop. But I think it were you who mentioned the unmentioned last time around! I hoped you got over this after our recent win ...
Quite frankly, I hope a team outside the current top five wins the Premiership soon. Otherwise we loose all the interest in the PL as it is now.
Let's concentrate on Poland and Ukraine, now.
Up the Boro!
Lots of talk about Johnson going to Liverpool - do we have a sell on clause?
**AV writes: No, I don't think so. There was an add-on extra £1m for a set number of games which was triggered quite promptly as he played a lot in his first year. I heard Sunderland were keen last summer but I'm not sure if it's still the case under MO'N.
AV
I agree with that view on our 'rebranding'. There are two views on not being clever and one of them is just doing it poorly.
Jarkko.
Come down off the fence, who do we support, Poland or Ukraine?
Re Cardiff, I think we can guarantee a sea of blue & white flags, scarfs, banners and shirts at the season opener at Ninian Park (or wherever they play these days) as the fans make their feelings known.
The change of colour might give other owners some ideas though, perhaps Blackburn will be wearing feathers next season.
**AV writes: Ramsden green with the pawnbrokers' three balls on the badge?
Bob at 10.35pm -
it's difficult isn't it? Got to admire Spain and the way its talented team plays. Got to admire the way the Germans always qualify for tournaments, always improve as tournaments go on and always seem to make the best of the players they have available. Got to admire the Dutch, with memories of Total Football - the best team never to have won the World Cup (three times!).
But there remains the other side of the argument. Have the Spanish just started to come down from their lofty peak of performance? I quite like Portugal but they've got that lad who could challenge Tom Daly for Olympic diving supremacy, and that leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth.
Whilst admiring the Germans, their effort and efficiency, you could never support them against the brave Dutch, could you? There's something likeable about the Dutch - they're almost like us. Tolerant, they like fish+chips, enjoy a drink or three and they, too, have a "thing" about the Germans. More than a rivalry (if you get a Dutchman on his own because, of course, he'll always be polite to his German neighbours, face to face).
And then there's Ireland. Maybe a shock or so before coming up short against the big boys?
Notice there's no mention of England (Oops! That's spoiled it.) They COULD do well. Sometimes they SHOULD have done well. But it would be a major shock if they won the competition. To do that it might be necessary to beat, say 3 decent teams in a row. I could (at a pinch) see them beating an Italy, or a Holland, even a Spain, but they are hardly likely to win a series of matches against those teams, or the other big boys.
I'd like it to be Holland. I wouldn't be surprised if it were Spain. But I have a resigned sort of feeling it may very well be the Germans.
Go on then. I'll stick my neck out. Despite the above I will go for Holland. Heart always trumps head in these things.
Oh yes! That reference to the Boro team of 1953's "Coronation Cup" took me back.
The team included two of our earliest overseas professionals ( well before the days of Juninho, Ravanelli and Emerson). I am talking of Ugolini and Delapenha, two of the most colorful characters.
Does anyone remember the first night game when Dela broke the side netting with a penalty and the goal was disallowed? ! Ugo one of the first goalies to wear short sleeves ? Quite a team back then despite relegation with Liverpool the following year.....
**AV writes: I'm glad someone can remember the Coronation Cup. There is virtually no record of it. There's nothing in the official histories and only a couple of paragraphs long cutting in the Gazette match files.
Personally I think MFC as a football club are finished. No major signings, the likes of Leadbitter, and payiing him peanuts. What do you get when you pay peanuts? Monkeys. And that is what MFC will get - MONKEYS. I think the club will go out of business in a couple of years as more and more fans wil desert the club to watch PL football, nobody want to watch anything else. RIP
**AV writes: And yet the average crowd was up last year by 1,000. And in the Championship - the 4th biggest league in Europe - by 5%. How did that happen?