STEVE Gibson is set to reveal the new look global scouting network that led Boro to Turkish superstar Tuncay Sunli. In an exclusive interview with the Gazette today he talked guardedly and kept the specific hidden about how the club have put in place a world wide army of eagle-eyed talent spotters to snap up burgeoning potential before bigger clubs are alerted and the price starts to soar.
But we can cut through the cloak of mystery. The move for Tuncay Sunli makes the new strategy obvious. Boro have pedalled Don Mackay and replaced him with a geeky gang of pizza-powered teenage gamers, bleary-eyed virtual dug-out gurus who are scouring the database of PC cult classic Football Manager for future stars with sizzling stats. Sunli is a bona fide FM Legend. It is obvious how he was spotted - by hours of sifting through the world best selling soccer supremo simulator.
Scouting with Football Manager is the way forward. We need a system that can determine with scientific precision which players have the stamina, pace, creativity and influence to slot into the team, who can shoot, pass and tackle and who have the right attitude. Football Manager has the world's biggest database of players, it is a SugerMegaCharged Opta Stats with bells on.
For many Teessiders the first response to Boro's move for Sunli would have been "who?" No on has ever heard of him. But wait up. the kids have heard of him and thousands of them make him their first major signing every day. Sunli is one of a select band of players who tick all the right boxes and who are transfer targets in every game becuase they are guaranteed to add to any cyber-side bidding for glory.
There are others: Anthonh Vandenborre, Alberto Medina, Vincent Komapny, Diego, Kim Kallstrom, Dagoberto, Lukas Podolski. Get those in - and you can do it on Boro's FM budget - and you are not far short of the club's Holy Grail of a top six place.
You think other team's don't do it? What about Bolton? What do you think Fat Sam was doing with his laptop in the dugout? He wasn't updating his myspace page. He was playing Football Manager, modelling tactical changes to see if he could pull a fast one. Where do you think all Bolton's exotic squad of Israelis, Moroccans and Macedonians were spotted? They all came from Football Manager. How do you think Wigan got Julius Aghohawa? Look at his stats.
The beauty is that you don't need to pay through th enose for a group of hit-and-miss old bench coats to swan around the less salubrious spots of Europe in club class to take notes just keep the cyber scouts happy in the bedroom with lager and Big Macs and they will text you a list of targets that will be every bit as viable as the clipboard brigade's.
Of course you have to be wary of on-line shopping. If you had tried to build a team this way a few years ago you would have ended up with a team that now included Carlton Cole, Harun Babangida, Sambo Cherno and Fabio Rochemback.... doh!
******
Tuncay Sanli is the BEST player in Turkey!!!
Some Fenerbahce fan writes here and says he is bad thats just a lie.
He was the HEART of Fenerbahce!!!
He was the SYMBOL of Fenerbahce!!!
He was the CAPTAIN of Fenerbahce!!!
He is the STAR in Turkey!!!
Boro took the BEST OF TURKEY!!!
WE LOVE TUNCAY!!!HE IS THE HERO!!!!!
That was the not so level headed assessment of Boro bound Ottoman hero Tuncay Sunli on the Fly Me To The Moon board from a shouty Fenerbahce supporter spraying superlatives like Ali Brownlee at his best, while the official web site has been inundated with messages of goodwill from Turkish Fenerbahce fans distraught that he is leaving. Newcastle's web-site can't get any of the Boro fans' tributes to Mark Viduka past the swear filter.
He looks good on YouTube too....
Turkish football press people have been on to the Gazette to swap information about the story and one told us that Tuncay was a player notorious for his tendency to drop deep. pick up the ball then put his head down and try to dribble through to within shooting distance. Hmmm. Juninho II then? "He will excite the Middlesbrough supporters," he said "but your manager may ask him to change the way he plays."
Tuncay is presumably one of the two "spectacular " signings Steve Gibson vowed to deliver during his multimedia press offensive yesterday. He told the official Boro website the club had lined up players who would "excite the town" then reiterated that in a lengthy interview on BBC Radio Cleveland .
"We're talking to players who will improve the attacking part of the team. Players with flair, pace and strength," he said, echoing the Keith Lamb declaration last week - but the deal in dishing out £42,000 a week to an established Champions League player who had never heard of Boro 48 hours ago and who seems to be chasing the lira appears at odds with the notion of going for up and coming players who are burning to play for Boro. Still, free transfer, proven hitman and a chance to boost Teessider's chances of prompt service in Turkish resorts can't be bad - although he may be disappointed to see the iconic white band has gone from the shirts.
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