Anthony Vickers - Images of Middlesbrough to blame for lack of recruitment?

People used to come as we were one of the highest payers. We now don't pay over the odds and other champo sides still do.

This whole 'selling the club' as absolute guff. The players have been coming due to us paying well over the odds for bang average players. They ain't coming because the 'love Boro' or for the 'project'.

Does anyone really think Martin Braithwaite came because he had heard of us? He came because he was one of the highest paid players in the champo (according to pulis).

I would still imagine we are one of the better payers. If we sign players from leagues 1 or 2 it will still be life changing money for them. I guess if we offer 10k a week and someone else offers 15k then I know where I'd go😉.
 
So in summary some players prefer london, particularly those from the south. And actually it has very little or nothing to do with the towns image.

We're in the same position as the vast majority of northern clubs then. Blackburn, Burnley, Barnsley, Sunderland etc.

More great hard hitting, insightful "journalism" from the Gazette.
 
Gazette selling their souls.

In the past they’d have done an article on all that was good with the area. I remember they rebuffed an Evening Standard article of a similar ilk in the 90’s, now they’re the ones penning such tosh.
 
Well as we are not one of the highest payers any more and all things being equal I think it’s not unlikely that when choosing a Club a player, and their partner if they have one, are not going to choose the bright lights, the variety of shopping, the transport connections, the restaurants the nightlife of Teesside over many other areas. Sad but a fact of life.
 
nowt to do with the area imo, it’s down to lads wanting playing time and a chance of promotion. when do we ever have our transfer deals done in good time? years under agnew, monk, pulis & woodgate have hardly put us on the map as far as being promotion candidates or playing exciting football.
 
They changed their tune yesterday when it was all about loan signings, now it’s some lame excuse about an industrial landscape that most players won’t see anyway.

The gazette sports writers must have to get approval from the club’s communication department before publishing a story. It certainly seems that way. The lack of critical journalism is there for all to see.
 
They changed their tune yesterday when it was all about loan signings, now it’s some lame excuse about an industrial landscape that most players won’t see anyway.

The gazette sports writers must have to get approval from the club’s communication department Before publishing a story. It certainly seems that way. The lack of critical journalism is there for all to see.
Of course it’s got nothing to do with landscape. Players don’t turn down Tottenham because of the location of the ground which is in a terrible area of North London. It’s a multitude of things to decide which includes pay, quality of living as well as the likelihood of enjoying success
 
All sorts of reasons players don't sign not just the area.
Money and success being two key ones,can we offer either of those?
 
As for the "6 hours stuck in traffic". Jesus wept. Is that really bring cited as an excuse for not getting a deal over the line?

Must be all open roads driving to training in London. 🙄
 
I remember Craig Johnston lived on Crescent Road.. back in the day.. doubt any current players live anywhere but on the very edges of town, possibly Nunthorpe.. & more probably in one of the many villages within 30 mins drive..

I anticipate many players will be soon scrambling over each other to get a contract, esp in Jan.. if Witty's winter Covid prophecy is proven accurate.. I think there will be many players getting a sudden dose of reality, very soon..

Boro not paying OTT contracts (for footballers) is a refreshing move..
 
The latest defence of Gibson, Bausor, Gill, etc.

Blame the area:rolleyes:

Middlesbrough’s Industrial Hell Hole
Unfortunately that article is absolutely spot on, there’s too many people with thin skins and small town mindset. Where would you like to go.....Lens or Paris....Pittsburgh or New York etc etc. He states in the article one of the main culprits is the press who seem to take great delight in knocking the area.
 
Unfortunately that article is absolutely spot on, there’s too many people with thin skins and small town mindset. Where would you like to go.....Lens or Paris....Pittsburgh or New York etc etc. He states in the article one of the main culprits is the press who seem to take great delight in knocking the area.

I’ve worked and resided all over the country - London, Edinburgh, Dundee, Bristol, Kent, Crewe, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Derby and I can honestly say that while Teesside wouldn’t be top of the list, it certainly wouldn’t be bottom.

This line “It is understood that one player keen on a switch recently arranged to drive up for talks and got snarled up in a string of tailbacks, roadworks and diversions on the motorway and what should have been a routine trip turned into a draining six hour slog” is absolutely laughable. I spent most of my time in Birmingham and London sat idle in traffic, it was horrendous. We don’t realise how lucky we are with the lack of traffic congestion in this area.

To blame the media image is giving the awful recruitment team a free pass. Bristol and Swansea are hardly New York and Los Angeles, yet they’re trumping us.

Norwich is the back end of nowhere but they always seem to get signings, Sheffield has zero glamour about it but they attracted players to come and get promotion.

We can’t get players because the club isn’t identifying the right ones, isn’t offering the money other clubs are and has spent years on a downward trajectory.
 
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“isn’t offering the money”

I think we are all very aware of that. It’s a downward spiral alright which could only be halted by paying more than our rivals. That’s how you get players to sign now because it’s not the area or our prospects of promotion that are wooing them. And if we can’t we have an issue.
 
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