Balogun

He's obviously improved greatly and learned from his time with us. He looked a bit weak and easily knocked off the ball when he played for us. He'll return to Arsenal with a chance to compete with Nketieh and Jesus next season.
 
I said a few times last season that he’s better suited to playing in a front 3 rather than a 2 like Wilder had him playing in. When he was doing it for England U21s he looked a much better player than he did for us.
 
Connolly was probably in a wrong space before he arrived, and it seemed to deteriorate somewhat after that through perhaps his own doing. I still think he’ll be a decent player and can play in the Prem. He’s definitely better than the likes of Adam Armstrong etc, just needs to get on a run.
 
I said many times it was obvious he had ability and the only thing he was struggling with was the step up to playing against men instead of kids. Was obvious that would take a bit of getting used to buy it would come. I would have definitely had him back this season but I think he has realised Wilder wasn't the sort of manager he wanted to play for after dropping him when he scored for seemingly no reason.
 
Balogun and Connolly seemed to be striking up a decent partnership at one point and then Wilder dropped them both for the Fulham game for some bizarre reason.

He started them both in the next game vs Hull but you can't help but wonder would the Fulham result have been different, if he'd stuck with them both for that game.
 
Balogun would be far better playing in our team now with MC style of play. How wilder was asking him to play was not his style at all. Looking back how were we so fooled by Wilder?
 
Balogun would be far better playing in our team now with MC style of play. How wilder was asking him to play was not his style at all. Looking back how were we so fooled by Wilder?
He has had success in the past tbf. But then again so has Jose Mourinho, far more so, and even he seems to have come to the end of the road.
 
I never thought Connolly was as bad as was often made out. He had pace and looked very direct, he wasn’t a great finisher but that comes from confidence. Largely made a scapegoat for our sudden dip in form but I think we now know that was a lot more to do with Wilder.

Balogun, as above, looked decent until Wilder inexplicably dropped him and seemed to dent his confidence too. Maybe neither player will become world beaters but I’m certain we didn’t see the best of them during their time here in what was a fairly toxic situation. No wonder Connolly started looking for other outlets for his frustration. 😁

Was chatting to a Blade the other night for ages at a wedding, and he said my Wilder/Boro story sounds so familiar to him in terms of what happened at SUFC. He said he’s actually not a big fan of him either, despite the good work he did.
I stuggle to blame Wilder for either to be honest. I thought he gave Connolly plenty of chance to play his way out of his poor goalscoring form as he was doing the job he wanted in terms of chasing around and pressing, certainly earlier on anyway.
Balogun looked decent but for me lacked that desire to get himself on the ball and really hunt out goals. I'd imagine the French league suits him, proboably a bit less hectic thatn the championship.
For a bit of blalance, my Sheff Utd supporting colleagues loved Wilder.
 
He has had success in the past tbf. But then again so has Jose Mourinho, far more so, and even he seems to have come to the end of the road.
I think every manager has a shelf life, both at a club and then overall.

Wilder had been a success at every club he had managed and had, generally, stayed for a decent length. His one failure, the relegation from the Premier league, was during Covid so it was hard to tell how much was down to him and how much to the situation. Then, when Sheffield Utd reverted to Wilder's tactics with Heckingbottom, they started to fly again. Basically, he left every club he managed in a better situation than he found it until us.

It was perfectly reasonable to think, when we appointed him, that he would be a significant success with us. What wasn't obvious from the outside looking in, was that there must have been doubts about him in football networks which is why he wasn't getting jobs until we pitched up. I actually can't think of a manager who went so quickly from hero to zero as Wilder did with us. Mourinho does the same kind of thing but usually over a 2-3 year cycle, not 9 months.

He turned out to be incredibly destructive to our club. It's noteworthy that after he was sacked no one in football, no ex-players, no media pundits turned up to say he had been hard done by. That's pretty surprising and indicates to me that he has very few friends in football.
 
Balogun would be far better playing in our team now with MC style of play. How wilder was asking him to play was not his style at all. Looking back how were we so fooled by Wilder?
It depends what you mean. We weren't fooled football wise, he's a manager with a track record of promotion who also had an instant impact with us and we massively improved following his arrival. Even when we wobbled a bit around Easter/Burnley onwards we were still better than under Warnock. What he does appear to be though is a manager who needs everything to work the way he wants, and isn't afraid of promoting himself for other jobs.
I think that was the root cause this season, the narrative on here that he is clueless from a football perspective doesn't really add up to me.
 
I stuggle to blame Wilder for either to be honest. I thought he gave Connolly plenty of chance to play his way out of his poor goalscoring form as he was doing the job he wanted in terms of chasing around and pressing, certainly earlier on anyway.
Balogun looked decent but for me lacked that desire to get himself on the ball and really hunt out goals. I'd imagine the French league suits him, proboably a bit less hectic thatn the championship.
For a bit of blalance, my Sheff Utd supporting colleagues loved Wilder.
Fair enough, am sure he's divisive there.

Like my work colleagues in Manchester all think Tony Pulis is a God in Middlesbrough because of my face tattoo. I often have to remind them that my opinion isn't fully representative of the entire Teesside faithful.
 
It depends what you mean. We weren't fooled football wise, he's a manager with a track record of promotion who also had an instant impact with us and we massively improved following his arrival. Even when we wobbled a bit around Easter/Burnley onwards we were still better than under Warnock. What he does appear to be though is a manager who needs everything to work the way he wants, and isn't afraid of promoting himself for other jobs.
I think that was the root cause this season, the narrative on here that he is clueless from a football perspective doesn't really add up to me.
Once other teams figured out how we played he didn’t seem to have any answer to that. He kept blaming players rather than his system. I may be wrong but I can’t imagine MC coming out and blasting his own players. Right or wrong I think that should be kept behind closed doors.
 
Once other teams figured out how we played he didn’t seem to have any answer to that. He kept blaming players rather than his system. I may be wrong but I can’t imagine MC coming out and blasting his own players. Right or wrong I think that should be kept behind closed doors.
i don't really but the "figuring out" stuff. You know how most opponents are going to play, it doesn't take months to figure it out, it's right to have a system and philosopy. People will say the same when we have a bad patch under Carrick. I think the spirit in the camp suffered as Wilder's outlook changed and was the causes of our issues
 
Gibson is not a fan of managers who are actively open to other opportunities while coach or manager of Middlesbrough FC unless they are considerable leaps. The man flirted with opportunities which were not considerably more prestigious than managing us yet still demanded certain players who did not fit the recruitment model of the club. Those two things do not work together. His attitude went out the window and the players no longer believed he was committed and showed it on the pitch. That and he never quite had the balance of players needed to play his specific style of football.

He actually had more success when he used the players at his disposal and tried to coach them to play his style, which they bought into while he pretended to have confidence in them, but when he publicly tore into them in the end of season rant in an attempt to press the chairman into backing him in his expensive niche forays he also alienated the players doing a job for him.

That’s based on more than just my own personal opinion and can be taken for whatever anyone thinks it’s worth.
 
I stuggle to blame Wilder for either to be honest. I thought he gave Connolly plenty of chance to play his way out of his poor goalscoring form as he was doing the job he wanted in terms of chasing around and pressing, certainly earlier on anyway.
Balogun looked decent but for me lacked that desire to get himself on the ball and really hunt out goals. I'd imagine the French league suits him, proboably a bit less hectic thatn the championship.
For a bit of blalance, my Sheff Utd supporting colleagues loved Wilder.
Wilder is far from universally popular with Sheff Utd fans.
 
Balagon on the other hand clearly had talent and Wilder chose to waste it.
I think the problem with signing very promising young players is you are on their path of development. He had his first real league experience under us and wherever he went next would really benefit from that. Probably better for him that he made that step up to the French top flight - then next season he should be challenging for Arsenal first team. He was learning on the road with Boro. How could he be the finished product.
 
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It would be going some if Balogun and Spence were both in the Ligue 1 team of 22/23 or the French equivalent at it's season end.
 
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