Getting comfortable with the reality of being a Boro Fan

I don't get this 'we're a second tier' club thing.... punching above our weight etc. Most of our history we've been in the top flight and on occasion challenged for the title and had some top class players.

We should be always aim to be ambitious. It's not always going to work out but there's no way in hell I'm settling for an also ran team. We'll be back at some point, in our rightful place (and I don't mean that arrogantly)...
 
newyddion said:
We have to roll the dice.. we get it right more often than our peers. Sunderland and Newcastle for instance.
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How do we get in right more than Newcastle? In terms of years in the top flight over the last 20 years, they must be well ahead.
 
Duffman said:
Good management might be seen as a Burnley, Bournemouth Brentford West Brom et al - bad management is a Bolton, Bury Wigan Derby - we are not a team affected by bad management IMHO
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We went from the premier league to the brink of league one in 5 years, club practically skint, have been through numerous managers and made a significant loss on almost all of our big money signings in that period

forget what’s happening at any other club and focus on us, how can that be anything but bad management?
 
The key time for gibson is when he converts Ravenswick to a hotel, five years after he moved in.
 
nowthen said:
How do we get in right more than Newcastle? In terms of years in the top flight over the last 20 years, they must be well ahead.
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What have they won? They been in a UEFA cup final or won a trophy? I mean pretty awesome that they sell lots of shirts and hover above relegation an all..
 
JM14 said:
We went from the premier league to the brink of league one in 5 years, club practically skint, have been through numerous managers and made a significant loss on almost all of our big money signings in that period

forget what’s happening at any other club and focus on us, how can that be anything but bad management?
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I suppose this points back to the OP. Bad management would see us doing a Bolton. Good management a Brentford. We have ‘also ran’ management - ‘ just enough’ management. We don’t seem to have the capacity or capability to strive to be anything more than that. Do you really think since the ‘we going to smash the league’ comment we have genuinely aspired to even be a Brentford? We will always as fans have hope and ambition at the start of a season but as a club, at the moment we have got ourselves ‘comfortable’ as ‘the Boro’ a perennial mid table Championship team. Whilst they might be a bit reluctant to admit it I think most fans have accepted that’s our immediate future. Football has moved on miles in the last 5 years and we couldn’t keep pace and naturally fell back into a lower tier. I don’t disagree we have made some poor decisions over that time period in terms of management appointments and transfers but realistically I think we are about where a small north east town club ran by a committed but not rich enough chairman for the highest level of investment needed for top flight football should be. We can still enjoy it though and we will all support the Boro come what may.
 
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What does the future hold though? Steve Gibson won't be around forever - or even much longer - and I don't see a way forward without him.

He's bankrolling a club that seems to need a very large budget just to stay in the second tier.

Nobody has mentioned what I think is the key problem - that many of the identified targets don't want to come to play for Boro. You can have the best scouting in the business, and pay people well above the odds, but if the players don't want to come, there's not a lot you can do about it. This comment has been made by managers at Newcastle, Sunderland, and Boro in the past. I don't think anything has changed.

No doubt last season's accounts will show another crushing loss, which the owner will have to absorb somehow. I guess he's happy so to do for the time being, but the reality must be dawning now that he's never going to get his money back, these losses are unsustainable, and he's sitting on a business that nobody in their right mind would want.

I'm baffled why so many of you think that going out of cup competitions in the first round is a good thing. A good thing is a bit of a run, money coming into the club and a bit of excitement. I guess I'm in the minority.
 
JM14 said:
We went from the premier league to the brink of league one in 5 years, club practically skint, have been through numerous managers and made a significant loss on almost all of our big money signings in that period

forget what’s happening at any other club and focus on us, how can that be anything but bad management?
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I fundementally disagree. They are football decisions.
 
Soutra said:
What does the future hold though? Steve Gibson won't be around forever - or even much longer - and I don't see a way forward without him.

He's bankrolling a club that seems to need a very large budget just to stay in the second tier.

Nobody has mentioned what I think is the key problem - that many of the identified targets don't want to come to play for Boro. You can have the best scouting in the business, and pay people well above the odds, but if the players don't want to come, there's not a lot you can do about it. This comment has been made by managers at Newcastle, Sunderland, and Boro in the past. I don't think anything has changed.

No doubt last season's accounts will show another crushing loss, which the owner will have to absorb somehow. I guess he's happy so to do for the time being, but the reality must be dawning now that he's never going to get his money back, these losses are unsustainable, and he's sitting on a business that nobody in their right mind would want.

I'm baffled why so many of you think that going out of cup competitions in the first round is a good thing. A good thing is a bit of a run, money coming into the club and a bit of excitement. I guess I'm in the minority.
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I don't get the cup thing either. It's a cop out. Football is a sport about winning things. The premiership is a dull, perfect run by say 4 teams and success is not going down.
 
Same_as_before said:
I fundementally disagree. They are football decisions.
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Wrong mangers chosen by those at the top, disastrous transfer strategy also on those at the top. Stupid money thrown around that was never going to be sustainable for a club of our size, all on the management and no one else
 
JM14 said:
Wrong mangers chosen by those at the top, disastrous transfer strategy also on those at the top. Stupid money thrown around that was never going to be sustainable for a club of our size, all on the management and no one else
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So Man U abd Arsenal have been be badly managed since Fergie and Arsen.
 
indeedido said:
And your mindset is self fulfilling - I hate it.
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Is it? How?
We can moan all we like on here but it doesn't make the least bit of difference.

I'd rather think of us as the grubby upstarts crashing the toffs' party and upsetting them, than somehow thinking we're entitled to be there.
 
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Frozen Horse said:
Is it? How?
We can moan all we like on here but it doesn't make the least bit of difference.

I'd rather think of us as the grubby upstarts crashing the toffs' party and upsetting them, than somehow thinking we're entitled to be there.
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Obviously in a dictatorship we can do relatively little other than show up, but how we act and sound does have some impact.
To me you are an apologist for mediocrity in claiming we are ever so humble - another Uriah Heep.
How has that party crashing been going with your upstart approach?
Ten years of feeling like an established top flight club seemed to be working, or did you think we were unworthy then too?
 
indeedido said:
Obviously in a dictatorship we can do relatively little other than show up, but how we act and sound does have some impact.
To me you are an apologist for mediocrity in claiming we are ever so humble - another Uriah Heep.
How has that party crashing been going with your upstart approach?
Ten years of feeling like an established top flight club seemed to be working, or did you think we were unworthy then too?
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Dictatorship !!! OMG, by that you mean the guy that pumps £1M per month into the club 😱
 
indeedido said:
Obviously in a dictatorship we can do relatively little other than show up, but how we act and sound does have some impact.
To me you are an apologist for mediocrity in claiming we are ever so humble - another Uriah Heep.
How has that party crashing been going with your upstart approach?
Ten years of feeling like an established top flight club seemed to be working, or did you think we were unworthy then too?
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I pleased you acknowledge that I said I like crashing the party, but I don't see how you can equate that to claiming I'm being humble. When we're successful, I see us as upstarts and proud.

I never said we were unworthy, or that Burnley are unworthy now. We earned the right, treading on others toes as we went. I never felt a sense of entitlement to be there, even after 10 years.
 
Nobby_Barnes said:
Dictatorship !!! OMG, by that you mean the guy that pumps £1M per month into the club 😱
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Nobby, one owner, one chairman, one man responsible for the finances, one man rules. No board of directors- just one man. The damn nearest to a dictatorship you could ever see!
 
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