Boro footballers who we never appreciated at the time.

I always raved at how good Schwarzer was 😲 The way he would pluck aerial balls from crosses was excellent. We were lucky to have him. Fans used to moan about his kicking for some reason, hardly a major crime for a top keeper. He was let go too soon.

Some players that I thought were not appreciated quite enough in their time at Boro were Steve Vickers, Dean Gordon, Doriva and Derek Whyte They did a job, yes the odd gaff or 3 but decent enough players in their day.
 
Dean Gordon could have been excellent for us, sadly he suffered horrendous injury problems. Class when he first came though.

Doriva went under the radar a bit because he wasn’t flash and just did his job, but did it very well. At the time we had some big name players and yet he was always a solid 7 or 8 week in week out and a great platform in the middle of the park for the other players. Solid, dependable.

Going back a little further I always liked Vladimir Kinder. Had a mistake in him of course but was forward thinking and loved getting forward.

Curtis Fleming used to get quite a bit of abuse at times too but while he was limited he didn’t often try to do anything silly and was pretty dependable the majority of the time. Hard as nails too and would have ran through brick walls for the Boro.
 
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I think Gaston Ramirez was appreciated at the time, but after leaving it became obvious what a gap he actually left.
 
Brian Deane is always the first to come to mind on threads like this. Imagine him in our side over the past season, someone who could win his headers and hold it up, link the play, AND score goals! Imagine!

Mikkel Beck is another great shout. Excellent player for Boro, used to get pelters but never hid away from anything. Took the knocks so the more illustrious players such as Rav and Merson didn't have to.

I think Kike was good as well. Bit of a cult hero maybe but seemed to get a lot of stick. Another one who never went missing, even when he was struggling for goals.
 
Traore`
Stuani
Nicky Barmby - we were so fortunate to get him an Higgy - "The Midget Gems"(y):love:
Robbie Mustoe
Curtis Fleming
Jacob Butterfield

Tomlin and Butterfield - superb goal .......
 
Ambie said:
Hamilton Ricard, Mikkel Beck, Brian Deane immediately spring to mind.
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Disagree with Beck personally.

People look at his stats and think 'he was decent' when compared to the current crop. But I think its easy to forget that we played a much more attacking game in those days and scored a lot more goals (we had the players around him to do it - Emerson, Hignett, Juninho, Merson etc, players we can only dream of now and I mean that even in reference to Higgy who'd walk into our side now).

But if you ever watch footage back of 96-99 era he was frustrating. Pretty slow, and a pretty poor touch. He *could* finish some of the time, but he missed a lot more chances than he scored, or just wasn't in the position in the first place (Rav was always a step ahead of him) and hence why we had to throw money at our promotion push in signing Ricard, Branca and Armstrong all at once. We easily might not have gone up had we persevered with Beck (despite this myth that Merson did it all by himself).

I honestly think Britt would have easily got similar amount of goals to Beck in that 97/98 team (don't forget he only just got into double figures despite playing most of the season).

That said, we've had a lot worse and he seems a thoroughly decent bloke. But he wasn't under appreciated.

Ricard was amazing one week and horrific the next. A little like Fabio Rochemback in that respect (different position). Deane was, comparatively speaking, nowhere near as good as some of our other strikers of the era.
 
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Another vote for Gaston although can appreciate the way he left clouding things.

The most talented footballer we've had at the club in years.

That said, his head clearly isn't there most of the time. You'll find him warming the bench for Samp (and Ranieri) most weeks in Serie A these days. Mad to think he's only 30 actually.
 
Canyoudigit said:
I dont believe Bernie was appreciated anywhere near enough as he should have been.
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Yeah. I cringe when I see people saying he was a goal-hanger/tap-in merchant or whatever. Watch the youtube video of his 150 odd goals, a very sizeable chunk aren't even from inside the penalty area, let alone the six yard box. He was a quality striker for the era and a brilliant finisher.
 
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changingman said:
Another vote for Gaston although can appreciate the way he left clouding things.

The most talented footballer we've had at the club in years.

That said, his head clearly isn't there most of the time. You'll find him warming the bench for Samp (and Ranieri) most weeks in Serie A these days. Mad to think he's only 30 actually.
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He was so talented but frustratingly temperamental.
Would love another like him for next season(y)
 
One I'd throw in is Nemeth. He was never going to be as good as Juninho, Boksic, Carbone, Mendieta, Jimmy, Yakubu, Viduka or even Massimo, all of whom he competed with for a place upfront or wide right. But he was a bit of work horse and he always seemed to cause defences problems, wasn't a bad finisher and didn't seem to mind always being in and out of the side.

He was also consistently better than Job, Whelan, Ricketts and a few others in my opinion.

I suppose that comment about Middlesbrough lasses being ugly didn't help.
 
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