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.