FULL STEAM ahead for another blistering nine month blur of net-busting action at either end, nail-biting angst and recriminations punctuated with sporadic bursts of elation and frustrating glimpses of glory. There will be moments of defiant pride in our Infant Hercules when it all clicks and we look to be poised to finally claim our place in the spotlight - and moments when the icy hand of fear grips our hearts. I can't wait.
I am duty bound at this point to make some kind of prediction and I am not usually reticent in making myself hostage to fortune. It's an occupational hazard. But swear down, I really can't call this season.
It could be the dawning of a new era as Gareth's Grand Design of cavalier football is finally realised. Or it could fizzle out leaving us wallowing water waist deep in mediocrity. It could be a defining year, a watershed not just for the boss but for the entire current strategy of the club and for many in the crowd.
Many of the ingredients are there for a Great Leap Forward. Boro look potentially very sharp going forward and that excites me. There is pace and fluid movement right across the front line, a tendency to get the ball down and pass it, an enterprising mentality and in Alves we have the natural striker we have been crying out for for years. We saw flashes of a style that could reap the rewards at the tail end of last term when the rapid breaks from midfield and the confident inter-passing was a delight to watch and cause for optimism.
But the team also look potentially fragile at the back.There is a worrying lack of experience (only Pogatetz of the likely starting four has played more than 50 Premiership games) and there has been so much chopping and changing that it is hard to come up with a quartet combination that has played even in double figures together. We don't know who is the first choice keeper (the biggest potential pitfall position of them all and the ticking time bomb that could yet blow the season apart) , we don't really know who is the first choice central pairing, at the time of writing we have no established right back and the left-back slot may be determined as much by the need to politically accommodate the skipper as by ability, aptitude and form.
We must hope that Hoyte comes in and makes an immediate impact, that he makes the position his own and that his Arsenal class shows through so brightly that the hasty exit of Luke Young is neutralised as an issue. We should also hope that he is so good that next year his value has doubled too - but that this time we keep him as part of a long term project to see this fledgling team blossom.
There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic: it is an 11th successive season in the top flight, a run adding undeniable substance to claims that, for all the problems, we are still in the midst of a Golden Age. There are home grown heroes at the heart of a team of hungry young players, plus, the likes of Alves, Tuncay and Aliadiere having bedded in and should show exactly what they are made of this time out and in Downing a powerful creative force that is just getting better.
There are signs too of a refreshing new attitude both on the pitch with a public commitment to entertaining football, the beginnings of a sustainable new model for the club that can help isolate them from the the credit crunch and help them compete in the future. There are encouraging signs too that the club are ready to listen to what the fans want and act on the little things: the return of the traditional design and colours is a symbolic but significant step and the slashing of prices for the kids could be a cultural transfusion that galvanises a flagging crowd and halts the slow drift towards crusty Meldrewisation.
The influx of fresh blood in the crowd is to be welcomed too with a new generation of junior reds taking advantage of cut-price tickets and stemming the slow bleeding away of old school season ticket holders. They are several thousand not-yet-too-cynical blank canvasses to be either energised in the way that the Juninho generation were, bring a new zest and new songs, albeit pitched several octaves higher .... or turned into moaning broken shells before their time and driven away forever.
But against the reasons to be cheerful there is the weight of history, the tendency to take out the pearl handed revolver and take aim at our own size nines and the rigid financial straitjacket that has Boro and similar sized hopefuls firmly trussed up in the lower half of the table. That will take some escaping. Ultimately is ANY significant progress even possible beyond an audacious peek into the top ten? We will see.
As I said in the 'Gazette's Talking Boro' pundits panel this week, I see Boro as competing for top spot in the Premiership's division three, the teams ranked between 11th and 16th - us, Sunderland, Newcastle, West Ham, Blackburn and Wigan. My personal perspective has been swinging like a metronome with every snippet of injury and transfer news this week and I suspect it will a season of similar syncopation. Get Hoyte, an experienced keeper and a good midfielder in then I think at a push and with a good wind behind us we CAN finish tenth with a buoyant crowd behind the team but without the strengthening in those key positions then a wobble, a butter-fingered self-inflicted wound or an injury crisis could see us slip back to the bottom of that pile - or worse - and push the crowd to another round of internecine bitching and blood-letting.
Oh, go on then .... I'll have a burst of (relative) optimism and say we will finish 12th, but with plenty to be optimistic for the future about rather than just a meagre one place improvement... or (groan) finish 14th and with the growing fear of being locked into a permanent Groundhog Day season of transition. Whatever, there won't be much in it and it is rush to be an exhilarating ride. Bring it on. Come On Boro!
**Apologies for anyone who has had problems reading or posting this week (I know I have). There have been some teething problems with the new group wide blogging software but that is almost resolved. Thanks for sticking with me through a frustrating few weeks.
There are some exciting developments on gazettelive planned for new season including a clutch of new Boro Banter fan bloggers lined up to add lively imput and interactivity. Some regulars on here are among the first but there will be room for more too when we are up and running. Watch this space.
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