I feel proper deflated

Mayor Goldie Wilson

Mayor Goldie Wilson

Well-known member
Last season was the best season I can remember in years. In some ways even better than the promotion season under Karanka cos of the football we played and the way we blew teams away.

Even at the start of this season when we were struggling you felt it was just a matter of time before we got it right. Now thought I don't know...we just seem to be doing the same things over and over again when it is clear its not working and not likely to. January obviously hasn't helped in that regard, selling one of our best players, which I have no issue with on it's own, but to finish the window so much weaker than we started it is poor. I think it is becoming clear that Rogers was the one player we had that could produce something out of absolutely nothing and create a chance or goal.

Still, I'll renew my season ticket and keep going, cos what else is there to do?
 
I'm trying to look at the big picture. Was abundantly clear that, from September, this was a rebuilding season and we were never going to achieve the levels we did Jan - April last season.

The loan system helped us......then didn't.....and losing Chuba was massive. Huge.

We recruited in bulk and as pretty much expected not everyone has been top quality. But, overall decent enough window.

Squad took a long time to gel, and when it did we were treated to flashbacks of last season. Then the injuries came and have totally knacked us. Not many teams can have 12 players missing and maintain a high standard. We couldn't.

January, not getting a serviceable striker in was mental. We will suffer for it. Mid table obscurity beckons.

BUT. Big picture. Players have had a chance to settle in, one years worth of Championship experience (which is a brutal unrelenting league). We know we need 5-6 players in the summer but it looks like we have a few quid and the recruitment team looks like it knows what it's doing. But these players - has to be quality over quantity.

Massive summer for the recruitment team, and fingers crossed the club shop order in more than two dozen kits - various sizes. 👍

Too old and seen too much sh*t for the Boro shenanigans to affect my mood for any period of time.
 
I often question how long some fans on here have supported the Boro. Starting to sound like Man Utd fans.

Just to clarify, we do support the same team yea? Middlesbrough FC. We haven't had consistent seasons since the mid-2000's when McLaren was at the helm, even then we drastiscally fell off with relegation and years of mediocrity.

It is times like now that makes the 1-0s against Chelsea even the more sweeter. Or the promotion pushes. We can't be surprised that Leicester, Southampton, Leeds, Coventry etc are all fighting for promotion this year?? I stated at the start of the season this would be the toughest in years, if ever within this division. We have been massively hampered with injuries and lacked a proven goalscorer since game one.

We'll still play good football up until the end of the season because of the standards that Carrick demands, and anyone who doesn't buy in to that will no doubt face the consequence of being ushered out of the club. How many years did Brighton linger around those play offs and promotion before they finally clicked in 2016/17?

Those who enjoy the journey will be a lot happier than those who enjoy the destination!
 
It's been a big drop off from last season undoubtedly, but maybe thats not that big a suprise when you consider the number of key players from last season either not available or mostly unavailable through injury.
Akpom, Archer, Lenihan, Smith, Steffen, McGree, Forss, Giles. That's more than 3/4 of the team. We still should be doing better but it's understandable that it's a bit of a transitional season.
 
Mayor Goldie Wilson said:
Last season was the best season I can remember in years. In some ways even better than the promotion season under Karanka cos of the football we played and the way we blew teams away.

Even at the start of this season when we were struggling you felt it was just a matter of time before we got it right. Now thought I don't know...we just seem to be doing the same things over and over again when it is clear its not working and not likely to. January obviously hasn't helped in that regard, selling one of our best players, which I have no issue with on it's own, but to finish the window so much weaker than we started it is poor. I think it is becoming clear that Rogers was the one player we had that could produce something out of absolutely nothing and create a chance or goal.

Still, I'll renew my season ticket and keep going, cos what else is there to do?
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Watching the game unfold though, jeez, we played them off the pitch and although it’s frustrating as hell to even draw a game like that, let alone, lose it(!) you can see our style of play, we got the ball forward quicker last night than any game
I can remember watching, we didn’t mess about too much at the back with the ball.
I just think we had a different team with a great style, injuries in key areas, for example, strikers
And we need to change our goal keeper, other than that I’m excited
We are on a journey, come on you mighty reds
 
Jedi boro said:
Yet we sold one of those building blocks at the drop of a hat
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Absolutely no chance we could have kept hold of Rodgers.

1. He wanted to go to Villa.
2. £8-16m - about an 800% profit in 6 months.

We are just not in any financial position to turn down this sort of money. Disappointing he left, but life goes on. We'll cope.
 
h_m_boro said:
Absolutely no chance we could have kept hold of Rodgers.

1. He wanted to go to Villa.
2. £8-16m - about an 800% profit in 6 months.

We are just not in any financial position to turn down this sort of money. Disappointing he left, but life goes on. We'll cope.
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It’s not about Roger’s though it’s the principle as Selling him so soon shows that anyone can go at any time and was a huge white flag to the rest of the league.

that we don’t care about league position over short term gains.

I honestly still can’t believe we did it.

Btw if you don’t think his sale has not demoralised the rest of the squad your kidding yourselves.
 
Jedi boro said:
It’s not about Roger’s though it’s the principle as Selling him so soon shows that anyone can go at any time and was a huge white flag to the rest of the league.

that we don’t care about league position over short term gains.

I honestly still can’t believe we did it.

Btw if you don’t think his sale has not demoralised the rest of the squad your kidding yourselves.
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Sadly, anyone can go at any time. If a PL club comes in for any of our players with a suitable offer, they're gone. That's where we are as a club.

I don't think his sale has demoralised the squad. They are professional players, 99% with no link at all to Boro, and they know the score. Players come, players go. That's football. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️
 
h_m_boro said:
Sadly, anyone can go at any time. If a PL club comes in for any of our players with a suitable offer, they're gone. That's where we are as a club.

I don't think his sale has demoralised the squad. They are professional players, 99% with no link at all to Boro, and they know the score. Players come, players go. That's football. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️
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So where is Bellingham where is Clarke etc

Were they sold of course not

Btw what have our results been since he left ???

So what have we gained ?
 
I honestly don't know what Sunderland are asking for their players. I don't know where they stand financially. I don't know how mad their owner is.

I assume a lot of clubs are monitoring Bellinghams progress and are happy for Sunderland to develop him then they will swoop in and buy him when he's 19-20 (tops).

Clarke......he's a decent Championship LM/winger but I can't see him making that step up to the PL. He's not THAT good. May be in a minority thinking this but that he's remained at Sunderland may well back me up. Or not, time will tell 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

We've seen our best players sold off ever since I can remember - go back to Souness, Proctor, Spike etc. It's just how things are, and while being disappointed I don't get upset about these things.
 
The football we played last season had a lot to do with our start man Chuba Akpom.. adding Cameron Archer into the mix in January really did boost us into the next level. We knew it would be difficult in the summer to replace those players and we waited and wheeled and dealed and it cost us the first six games of the season.. getting the right players at the right price.

We didn't have to rely on just one player.. we added goals and assists into the whole mix.. injuries struck and we started to lose points as a result. not to worry.. the belief was still there because we know how tight the championship is and the fans truly believed in the players we had.. there was always the chance that with everyone back fit.. we could make a real go of it.

Kick on from January.. cover our injured players and with Kieron Scott true to his word.. we would find additions to improve the squad and get us into a nice tidy run.

WE SOLD OUR TOP TWO ATTACKING PLAYERS - and we did not re[place them. Compromise over compromise.. one more danksy special form Aston Villa.. but the striker we missed out on in the summer.. the striker we missed out on before January.. not even a back up of a back up.. not a free agent and not a loan.. because we couldn't do it.

Oh.. we can loan in a right back to cover for Tommy Smith, we can loan in another midfielder like with Alex Mowett last season.. another young promising striker.. we can give him game time.. another Rodrigo Muniz loan deal... we've learned our lessons here by the way.. we are doing it completely different to last season.

Imagine if we had sold Chuba Akpom last January! because that's exactly what we've don this season.. imagine if we just didn't bother to loan in Cameron Archer.. what sort of effect that would have on the rest of the season. No need to imagine.

Aston Villa selling Cameron Archer was supped to make us more attractive as a club to loan in strikers.. to purchase young talented strikers and develop them. Sounds great.. except we just haven't bothered. Too bust concentrating on the early renewals and whacking the prices up.

WE GOT A WAR CHEST IN THE SUMMER.. erm.. why not just go for promotion this season? the playoffs were very much still in reach. Two extra games at least..
 
Jedi boro said:
Not after 6 months we haven’t

It’s not normal and it’s not a good precedent for this so called model.
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Its not normal. It's mad. And head scratching.

But while we are under strict FFP rules etc, an 800% profit on a player who has only shown potential - we would have been daft to turn this down.

I appreciate the football sentiment.... because we are a football club ....but it was a cold hard business decision. And he wanted to go. We didn't force him. What should we do - keep an unhappy player?

We move on.
 
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