Gobsmacked Gate's Transfer Trauma

Borolad32 wrote...

And so the current transfer shambles rumbles on!

Murmourings of "not being held to ransom", and "money grabber" amongst fans is not making the transfer debacle any easier to watch. We are all familiar now with money driven and materialistic nature of premiership footballers and their agents, and I could understand pulling out of a deal if it is too expensive for the club.

But from where i am sitting it appears as though the club is only half backing Gareth. Every previous manager has had significant funds made available for new signings.

Remember Boksic, Juninho, Ziege etc. these signings were significant financial commitments by the club and showed the club was committed to the manager and its intent to the fans.

So where are we now? Well, we have a new manager who has cut the wage bill by a significant amount i should think, with the departure of Hass,Quedrue,and Doriva. Replaced with one player who in fact cost less that the player they replaced, and.......err.....well thats it.

Significant signings,none.

Is it a case of boro seeing how Gareth manages the season up until January before committing to any significant financial backing? Thats certainly the picture i am getting from the nonsense so far.

Well how about the club shows a gesture of intent to Gareth, and the fans, and really push the boat out with a signing that injects some excitement and hope for the season ahead. I think you will find that if the Boro back gareth, the fans will too.

Posted by: Borolad32  | August 18, 2006 5:53 PM

chris wrote...

I agree in most with borolad32 .....but lets look at this sensibly...last season boro got to quarter finals in the league cup,semifinals in the FA Cup and the finals of the Uefa Cup so from a financial side middlesbrough had a jackpot season!!!

The income from tv alone must have run to a fair sum...combined with the off loading be they right or wrong of some highly paid players.Middlesbrough basically should be rolling in money far more than alot of premiership sides who's only achievement was finishing 7th or 8 th and so on.

But these same clubs are spending and buying in high quality players with no better outlook than middlesbrough.

To my knowledge and I may be wrong the problem is not money or wages. In fact I have not heard it said that a signing failed due to wage demands.

I think the problem here is the inability to sell the Boro to the new targets once the hard work of 'financial negotiations 'have been completed.....or to put it bluntly.....players do not believe that middlesbrough is a good long term career move due to the new 'top drawer' manager.

All we can do is sit and hope for divine intervention as i think we will need it this season , with the defence we are left with i hope we do not break sunderlands record :(

Posted by: chris  | August 18, 2006 8:49 PM

Nigel wrote...

Not being in the UEFA cup this year is bound to have an impact on attracting (or not) new players to the club. Prehaps Malbranque,Emerton et al may have been more attracted to a club who had won the UEFA cup and were in the competition this season.

Also having a new manager who is 'unproven' may be an issue. Never the less Huth was keen to come and is obviously a class act, it was pure bad luck he had a foot injury, but this should be a timing issue. Surely he will be a Boro player soon? Then we will have the defence we need to defend a two goal lead!

I don't believe the Reading game is a reflection of a lack of players in the squad though, not defending a two goal lead is a psycological issue. Boro need to be more determined and ruthless, that is the main difference between success and failure.

Losing at Reading should not be the end of the world but it will be a big blow to the confidence of the team and to be succesful this year we need to beat teams of Readings stature.

Posted by: Nigel  | August 21, 2006 1:31 PM

Never Happy wrote...

I thought that Southgate would identify transfer targets that he wanted and then the wheeling and dealing was undertaken by Lamb.

Lamb has been in the job long enough to know how the system works, even if Southgate hasn't. However transfer window after transfer window seems to go by along with the so called targets.

Season after season Boro have struggled with training ground injuries, missed transfer targets and in Don Mackay have a chief scout who is earning his wages under false pretences.

Until these issues are addressed Boro will struggle.

Steve Round sang Venebles praises in his Gazette interview, why doesn't SG see if he would be interested in a part time consultancy role with the Boro to help Southgate out. After all it worked a treat when he helped Robbo out.

Posted by: Never Happy  | August 21, 2006 3:37 PM

IanH wrote...

Oh dear. It looks like the money has finally run out.

None spent last January and hardly any this transfer window. Players, & maybe prospective managers, backing out of transfers because of not agreeing "personal terms". Southgate given the managers job - another big wage saved.

If Boro was a public company we would know what was going on, maybe Steve Gibson has run out of money.

The big name players we attracted in the last 10 years came because of big salaries. We made Ravanelli the highest paid footballer in the country. It would take us another ten years of top 6 finishes to be able to attract good players without the money being number one.

We need a manager like Allardyce, or Jewell who are realistic about their teams strengths and get them to play committed, physical, hard football. Afterall we are North-easterners, if we aren't hard who is!

Posted by: IanH  | August 22, 2006 8:45 AM