Attracting Players to our area…

sambaDTR said:
So where are the great places in the Championship to play football?
Click to expand...
A good point.

Sunderland - literally nothing to offer outside of the club.
Huddersfield - governed by the M62 chaos and just a small town in industry and steep hills.
Rotherham - horrendous add on to Sheffield.
Hull - shocker of a place (sorry Bri)
Sheffield - big city, great if you are a student, but otherwise no draw at all. Leeds' rear view mirror.
Burnley - a small town on life support.
Blackburn - a genuinely horrible place.
Preston - good retail, but very small.
Wigan - good fun, but an eyesore. Only dubious attraction being close to Manchester and the airport.
Blackpool - where to start.
Stoke - a truly ugly soulless place, half the size of Teesside but with all the problems.
West Brom - second city "opportunities" and otherwise.
Birmingham - the nasty dimension of Birmingham in every way.
Coventry - there are nice Warwickshire escapes, but the city itself has been grim since it was bombed.
Bristol City - good city, but a long way from anywhere and a pig to get around.
Cardiff City - decent city, but very remote and low surrounding attraction.
Swansea - horrible city, lovely surroundings, but The Gower is no Moors or Dales. So very isolated.
Reading - nothing town, expensively surrounded.
Watford - see Reading.
Luton - war zone, expensively surrounded.
Millwall - I just don't understand why you would live nearby unless you work in the City of London.
QPR - the west side of London, but you'd better be very good to afford it.
Norwich - nice place, but hugely isolated.

I don't see Middlesbrough having a recruitment issue compared to this competitive set.
 
RoaryTheLion said:
How many had queues of clubs lining up to sign them? Aren’t we a mid table championship team? Of course it’s easier to attract a poorer calibre of players. If we’re talking about signing up and coming players who can improve our first team then we will be competing against other clubs. It’s obviously complex but in the past we would blow other clubs out of the water wages wise. It’s delusional to think players are considering the area as an actual positive influence in them signing. It’s more like “can we put a package together where that will convince them to accept the location?” That’s become more difficult as the purse strings have tightened.
Click to expand...
That’s my point. It needs real skill to be able to sell the club, area, facilities etc
 
Nero said:
If a player is a serious professional it doesn't matter how bright the lights are. It's about facilities, training and organisation. In a typical season there are loads of games and lot of traveling. Boro is a good choice. It's simple really.
Click to expand...
Rubbish. They are young lads often not very bright and are pulled by other factors like London close by. Etc etc
 
RoaryTheLion said:
Professional footballers do not reside in dilapidated urban areas though. They (probably) want modern, stylish and safe accommodation in extensively resourced cities, which are packed with a variety of recreational activities and entertainment. Middlesbrough and it’s surrounding areas have little to zero of this.
Click to expand...
Presumably this is why the training ground is at Rockcliffe with relatively easy access from the A1.
 
Anton_Berg said:
Players live in identical houses, near a golf course, away from the ground. They spend a lot of time traveling so aren't at home much.

It's not players, it's WAGs that are the problem.
Click to expand...
But a young WAG wants to go somewhere for a decent night out and not be bothered by negative media stories so being close to London isn’t easy for the club as a sell….these are all subtle factors in convincing players to come
 
Ex Footy Legs said:
Rubbish. They are young lads often not very bright and are pulled by other factors like London close by. Etc etc
Click to expand...
I'm involved with local junior football and can tell you players who are serious about football want the best training and good facilities.

If you're a professional player 8 months of the year is all about playing, training and recovery. If you do get down time the big cities are hardly on Mars.
 
Scrug said:
Exactly this, that’s why most of our squad lives in Harrogate/Newcastle etc. I think if I was a young player about to sign a 20k per week contract, I’d want to be in a city where I could enjoy the fruits of my labour. There’s only so many times you can walk down Saltburn beach before you need something else.
Click to expand...
Be surprised if any of our players live in Newcastle.
 
indeedido said:
A good point.

Sunderland - literally nothing to offer outside of the club.
Huddersfield - governed by the M62 chaos and just a small town in industry and steep hills.
Rotherham - horrendous add on to Sheffield.
Hull - shocker of a place (sorry Bri)
Sheffield - big city, great if you are a student, but otherwise no draw at all. Leeds' rear view mirror.
Burnley - a small town on life support.
Blackburn - a genuinely horrible place.
Preston - good retail, but very small.
Wigan - good fun, but an eyesore. Only dubious attraction being close to Manchester and the airport.
Blackpool - where to start.
Stoke - a truly ugly soulless place, half the size of Teesside but with all the problems.
West Brom - second city "opportunities" and otherwise.
Birmingham - the nasty dimension of Birmingham in every way.
Coventry - there are nice Warwickshire escapes, but the city itself has been grim since it was bombed.
Bristol City - good city, but a long way from anywhere and a pig to get around.
Cardiff City - decent city, but very remote and low surrounding attraction.
Swansea - horrible city, lovely surroundings, but The Gower is no Moors or Dales. So very isolated.
Reading - nothing town, expensively surrounded.
Watford - see Reading.
Luton - war zone, expensively surrounded.
Millwall - I just don't understand why you would live nearby unless you work in the City of London.
QPR - the west side of London, but you'd better be very good to afford it.
Norwich - nice place, but hugely isolated.

I don't see Middlesbrough having a recruitment issue compared to this competitive set.
Click to expand...
If you think every player lives in the city/town they play for then you are a fool!!
 
We shouldn’t have that much of a problem, newcastle is one of the best cities in the uk and it’s just up the road. Leeds just over an hour south. Even Manchester is close enough to come to the town 3/4 times a week.

Plenty of fantastic villages in North Yorkshire too, if you had millions to buy a great house it’s one of the best places you could live in the uk
 
I'm pretty sure Jordan Rhodes still lives in Wynyard. The Teesside area can't be that bad if ex players stick around.
 
Bigstrongman said:
This is far from the best part of the country. Look at the crime rates, the smack heads on the streets, the town centre shops are average as hell, the streets near the town are an absolute mess. There’s no nightlife. Most lads are on steroids and 90% of the women are over weight and on benefits.

We can’t say it’s the best place because we have the Yorkshire sales on our door step.
The Middlesbrough part of the river tees looks like oil and there’s a massive eye sore near the ground
The north east is a dump
Click to expand...
That shouldn’t be a problem for attracting players though, expect the majority of our squad won’t have ever been to the town outside match day
 
Ex Footy Legs said:
The one big factor people mention not too often is the difficulty of attracting young players to the north east coast.
I think it’s a tough ask….Unfashionable even though it’s an amazing place to live and quite frankly the best part of the country in my HO.
Hope the club is promoting it properly!!!!
We all know we have a hidden gem of a place but for young lads this most definitely won’t seem like the case….
Roy Keane said something similar about when he was Sunderland manager but then our area I think is better than Sunderland having the Yorkshire dales and amazing coastline on our doorstep, decent traffic, low house prices compared to anything further south, York on our doorstep….ect ect…
Click to expand...
I think younger players from london would jump at the chance to join middlesbrough, the chance to buy a huge countryside property for a fraction of the price on london properties. top end championship with a chance to play premier league football.if you're from a rough area in london my guess it that you'd jump at their chance to sort your family out with a nice gaff in north yorkshire
 
I think London is the big pull area for a young guy on £5k plus/week - Night life, entertainment/concerts etc, expensive shops, cosmopolitan, close to major airports, a chance to mix with celebs, also you don't stick out.

Once players have a couple of kids and are married priorities do change and living in places like a village/small town in North Yorkshire has its appeals.

All the North East suffers from some geographic remoteness - Newcastle is a major city, but about a 18th of the size of London and 290 miles away.

I have heard managers of Sheff Wed complaining about attracting players to its area and its a city of 530,000 and 100 miles nearer London.

To me you sell coming to the club as a place to come to concentrate on improving your footballing talents. The top Italian clubs have training camps away from their cities, the same in the past with Mohammed Ali who maximised his abilities through extensive training and fitness. Divorcing work from leisure.
 
If you have ambition as a footballer, coming to Boro is a good option. Good crowd, top facilities and passionate area. Decent chance of promotion. Should be about the football. Area and people are getting more cosmopolitan - I wouldn’t be talking it down too much.
 
Mendieta played for Valencia, Barcelona and Lazio but stayed on Teesside for years after finishing his career with Boro. He’s moved on now because of media commitments but it can’t be that bad a place round here.

I work with a Spanish lad who lived here for years and loved it. He moved back to Spain expecting a better quality of life but is now moving back to Teesside because he prefers it here. The people, the countryside, even the weather!

I think Shearer lived on Wynyard when he played for Newcastle. Didn’t Keegan live there too? McLaren stuck around too. These might not be players but they have enough money to live anywhere they want.

The first reply to this thread said the entire North East is a dump. I’m sorry that guy lives in a bad area and I hope he gets out one day but he obviously hasn’t seen much of the North East.
 
Last edited:
Linny said:
Mendieta played for Valencia, Barcelona and Lazio but stayed on Teesside for years after finishing his career with Boro. He’s moved on now because of media commitments but it can’t be that bad a place round here.

I work with a Spanish lad who lived here for years and loved it. He moved back to Spain expecting a better quality of life but is now moving back to Teesside because he prefers it here. The people, the countryside, even the weather!

I think Shearer lived on Wynyard when he played for Newcastle. Didn’t Keegan live there too? McLaren stuck around too. These might not be players but they have enough money to live anywhere they want.

The first reply to this thread said the entire North East is a whole. I’m sorry that guy lives in a bad area and I hope he gets out one day but he obviously hasn’t seen much of the North East.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I've been fortunate to work all over the world. My job now means I travel extensively in the North East. The area is beautiful mainly and people outstanding.
 
Bigstrongman said:
This is far from the best part of the country. Look at the crime rates, the smack heads on the streets, the town centre shops are average as hell, the streets near the town are an absolute mess. There’s no nightlife. Most lads are on steroids and 90% of the women are over weight and on benefits.

We can’t say it’s the best place because we have the Yorkshire sales on our door step.
The Middlesbrough part of the river tees looks like oil and there’s a massive eye sore near the ground
The north east is a dump
Click to expand...
not sure any players we sign will be living in the town centre or using the Boro for a night out, what is true is that their money will go a lot further up here than many other areas. Housing, good schools etc
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top