Getting comfortable with the reality of being a Boro Fan

[Same_as_before]

I don't think there is a supporter in the country who felt as good as I did with my son on the flight to Ostrava.

I doubt it will ever be equalled, and I went to most of the European games with him.


In that square where it seemed everyone was as transfixed as we were. Beer flowed, food excellent, and then into the stadium


I will thank Gibson and MacClaren to the nails in the coffin.

 

[Jr. SkinnyLegs]

Norwich had an incredible season last year off the back of relegation, played some great football and attracted some really exciting players to their club. I would take one season of relegation if it resulted in that.

Its not automatic loosing every week and certain relegation though, look at Burnley. They went from the same position as us to a great finish and playing in Europe, same with Southampton, Wigan won the FA cup, Swansea and Birmingham won the league cup. Leicester even won the league. Clubs that are run well can thrive when they are promoted its very difficult but not impossible for clubs of this size to compete

Yeah and the most likely outcome despite their flashy play is another season of many defeats and another relegation back to the championship. How can that be fun. That's when going to the football become joyless. Defeat and defeat. No hope. Maybe win 7/8 games. No thanks.

I agree with the bigger opportunity to win cups, fair enough. Having said that Man City have won the league cup 4 years in a row and the last non big-six team to win was 2013. But compete? In the league you are not competing for anything other than possibly Europa League/Conference League at a stretch. The most realistic outcome for our club is not going to be that.

Burnley, Southampton? Did either make it to the group stages. Are they consistently in Europe or have they fallen back to battling in the lower half? Bournemouth were the in thing for a while. Relegated. Sheff Utd the same. Relegated.

 

[futureboy]

It’s been a long time since a Boro result spoilt my day.

QPR spoilt my day.

Swansea spoilt my month. I'm still not over it.

 

[alanmoodysdog]

Same. Although I will admit to being a little bit angry directly after the 2015 play off final. Couple of beers at kings cross on the way back and I was over it by the time I got home…

watched that match in Singapore with the Boro Supporters Club over there, really good crowd in the pub all up for it before the game.... soon began sinking into unbelievable depression during the game and suffered in silence for 15min as we walked back to the hotel.... that and the Cardiff cup game were the worst ever dissapointments (eindhoven was different just beaten by a better team on the day)

 

[jonny_greenings_sock]

Good thread. I’d follow the Boro anyway but one of the things I loved about us is that it’s rarely boring, our seasons always used to go to the wire with chasing promotion, avoiding relegation or doing something in the cups.

One of the historians will be able to answer this, but there was some mad statistic that when we finished mid table with Robson and/or McClaren, that was one of the only times in 20-30 years that we haven’t gone into the last game of the season with something to play for.

Being mid table also-rans is really odd for us. And there’s been a lot of that for the last 5 years. Our historical league average position is 20th, so right at the pointy end of dropping out of the top league and winning the second division.

It’s boring, and unusual being mid table - you have a totally different sense of excitement going into the season in, say, the third Karanka season where we’d just lost in the playoffs or the PL season, I was sick with excitement for both.

 

[Lemmy_kilmister]

You could apply the OP to 80 odd clubs in the 4 leagues...or for that matter any league. Had a Gills supporting mate chuntering on yesterday about Steve Evans, Paul Scally and we could have done this that and the other. We're no different to any other set of fans not in the top 6.

It's the nature of the beast. You just have take it for what it is, you'll sleep better.

 

[Osboro]

Doesn't being one of the many "also rans " make winning or even almost winning that much more special.
Id hate to support a club where only one cup was failure.
And its when we get promoted, not if .

 

[TeaCider]

Being mid table also-rans is really odd for us. And there’s been a lot of that for the last 5 years. Our historical league average position is 20th, so right at the pointy end of dropping out of the top league and winning the second division.

Surely last season was the only time we were mid table also-rans in the last 5 years?

- We could have been relegated till the last day in 2019/20.
- We could have made the play-offs till the last day in 2018/19
- We did make the play-offs in 2017/18.
- We were relegated in 2016/17.
- We were promoted automatically in 2015/16

Plenty to play for in 5 of the last 6 seasons.

 

[Aet290204]

watched that match in Singapore with the Boro Supporters Club over there, really good crowd in the pub all up for it before the game.... soon began sinking into unbelievable depression during the game and suffered in silence for 15min as we walked back to the hotel.... that and the Cardiff cup game were the worst ever dissapointments (eindhoven was different just beaten by a better team on the day)

Ah Cardiff…..I was spared that as was on a round the world trip. I was on a 14 hour flight between San Francisco and Sydney….I knew that Barnsley had beaten Chelsea when I got on the flight. Switched on my phone at Sydney airport on Monday morning 7am to a barrage of texts…..didn’t care though for obvious reasons.

 

[Facefuzz]

It’s great when the expectation isn’t there.
I just love the match, win lose or draw. I love the home games and my pre match pint, putting my £1 score and first scorer bet on, fist bumping the regulars around me and the view from my seat. Doing pig bag and singing like hell for 90 minutes.
I love away days, up early home late, relaxed train journeys, new grounds, old grounds, ground I’ve been to half a dozen times. It’s tribal. Give me Boro over citeh any day. I like seeing the same faces and chatting about signings tactics and last weeks result. Are you going here or there?
I love spending a full day with my young un, my best pal and statto.
It’s our way of life. Live for the next match

I’ve probably been like that since the last relegation

 

[Frozen Horse]

I hope that you are right because increasingly it seems that teams won't really have a shout without the prem ' drop-down cash .

I think that was true last season and may prove so again this year. I put this down to the impact of COvid: when other streams of income have been cut off, those deriving from TV, including parachute payments, remained.

In the decade up to that, automatic promotion at the first time of asking had become increasing rare, suggesting that parachute payments have not kept pace with the financial hit of relegation.

Ultimately all Championship clubs want and need parachute payments to continue. Without them, they know there is no chance of them ever surviving in the PL. Promoted teams will simply not be able to offer the competitive contracts that give them hope of PL survival without the safety net of parachute payments.

 

[Norman_Conquest]

I’m not sure when it happened, the moment things changed but I realised today I can’t quite remember when I last had genuine expectations for the Boro? Not hope, always have that but actual expectation that we have a realistic chance of automatic promotion. I don’t question or get upset our hunting ground for recruits, people contracted with other clubs, is now places like Rotherham, Wycombe, Banfield and Billericay Town. That’s just accepted as the reality of how things need to be now. Still get excited by the odd good game but in equal measure just shrug me shoulders when we are poor. The Boro have become a bit like my favourite old pair of trainers, not very attractive or fashionable anymore but comfortable and familiar. Expect we will flirt with top six for a bit and equally look over our shoulders at the bottom 3 once or twice but generally settle in for another year of comfortable obscurity. The most surprising thing is the acceptability of this that so many fans now seem to have.

I have only read the opening post and tend to agree. What it does remind me of though, is the late 60’s early 70’s before Charlton took over. During that time we would be amongst the promotion places and drop off towards the end of the season.

 

[Redwurzel]

I do think our natural position is top half Championship, probably gained by early formative years of Stan Anderson and based on normal attendances. Without major investment its hard to get beyond that. But always live in hope that a few wonder kids come through the ranks at the same time and we have some Vardy like transfers in or we are bought by some rich country or super billionaire. Credit to Steve Gibson for raising the bar at the Club and for moving the club up a notch in the late 1990s and early 2000s and making us an established Premier League club for 10 years.

There are not many teams now not from a major city in the Premiership - possibly only Burnley.

 

[Same_as_before]

Look no further than the state of our finances - as I told you last time - remember? Managerial choice, pricing policy, a dictator run club, a club that offers little/ zero lace for financial investment, an apparent lack of any coherent plan, failure to organise a business plan that never remotely looks like working ( only time we have achieved a modest profit was our disastrous stay in the Prem - this enough for now?

I told you before MFC are a small division of a very successful larger business. Managerial choices, they are a lottery, would you have chosen Robson and MacClaren, I thought Strachan was going to be a massive success, you would not of chosen Mobray or the current England Manager, hindsight is easy.

How do you know there is no plan or has not been? It seems weird that a bloke who runs one of the most successful businesses in the North, I don't know how Bulkhaul has survived.

 

[Same_as_before]

Only been supporting the Boro for well over 50 years so doubt I will change now thanks for your input and counter argument

It must be great sat next to you when we are one down

 

[indeedido]

I told you before MFC are a small division of a very successful larger business. Managerial choices, they are a lottery, would you have chosen Robson and MacClaren, I thought Strachan was going to be a massive success, you would not of chosen Mobray or the current England Manager, hindsight is easy.

How do you know there is no plan or has not been? It seems weird that a bloke who runs one of the most successful businesses in the North, I don't know how Bulkhaul has survived.

Bulkhaul is a very profitable business, but is actually not that big.
Group Turnover of Bulkhaul (not GO'N) was £189m in year to 2020 and the gross margin was 45% to £85m. The nett was 15% to £29m.
They have been very successful for very many years and had built Equity and Nett Assets of £284m by 2018 folllowed by two more years of very good nett profit.
The Directors have since taken £147m in Dividends out of Bulkhaul (this is nothing to do with MFC and Group Undertakings)
Steve and Mike are absolutely entitled to do what they want with their Company and its equity, but interestingly, Bulkhaul stands with £215m Nett assets/equity at end 2020 and MFC is unchanged. There has been no switch of equity between the two, despite the £147m withdrawl, just increased MFC liability to Group as Boro continued to lose money.

Bulkhaul have large external finance which they can easily afford and still have a strong balance sheet.
The money they have borrowed in turn allows Group Undertakings across the whole GON Group, which is chiefly MFC who "owed" Group £116m to 2020.

It is not beyond the wit of man to see MFC turnover in the PL get close to Bulkhaul's, but the profit profile would be much more volatile (understatement). It is also possible to see MFC' value as an established PL club become very high too. Bulkhaul is a stable, profitable machine of limited scale. It can't compete with the backing of many other Club owners.
Steve could have injected equity into the Club to help with both FFP and therefore spending, but has clearly chosen not to since 2016. Again, very much his prerogative.
But let's not get caught up in a romantic view that there could not be better ownership who makes better decisions and runs a better club.

 

[Same_as_before]

Bulkhaul is a very profitable business, but is actually not that big.
Group Turnover of Bulkhaul (not GO'N) was £189m in year to 2020 and the gross margin was 45% to £85m. The nett was 15% to £29m.
They have been very successful for very many years and had built Equity and Nett Assets of £284m by 2018 folllowed by two more years of very good nett profit.
The Directors have since taken £147m in Dividends out of Bulkhaul (this is nothing to do with MFC and Group Undertakings)
Steve and Mike are absolutely entitled to do what they want with their Company and its equity, but interestingly, Bulkhaul stands with £215m Nett assets/equity at end 2020 and MFC is unchanged. There has been no switch of equity between the two, despite the £147m withdrawl, just increased MFC liability to Group as Boro continued to lose money.

Bulkhaul have large external finance which they can easily afford and still have a strong balance sheet.
The money they have borrowed in turn allows Group Undertakings across the whole GON Group, which is chiefly MFC who "owed" Group £116m to 2020.

It is not beyond the wit of man to see MFC turnover in the PL get close to Bulkhaul's, but the profit profile would be much more volatile (understatement). It is also possible to see MFC' value as an established PL club become very high too. Bulkhaul is a stable, profitable machine of limited scale. It can't compete with the backing of many other Club owners.
Steve could have injected equity into the Club to help with both FFP and therefore spending, but has clearly chosen not to since 2016. Again, very much his prerogative.
But let's not get caught up in a romantic view that there could not be better ownership who makes better decisions and runs a better club.

Are you agreeing with The statement it is mis managed?

I see it simpler than you. Say my wife and I were jointly on £80,000 a year and our son son does not pay lodge is our household mismanaged?

 

[Nosmo-King]

It must be great sat next to you when we are one down

Don’t be fooled my criticism of the club is mirrored by my support for the club on match days. One poster who knows me can vouch for that. Still I am sure you thought it may be a useful stick to beat me with! And, indeed, playing a part in sponsoring a player through FMTTM.

 

[Same_as_before]

That's good to hear.

 

[Nosmo-King]

Whilst some won’t be able to equate this statement I criticise because I care. I just am filled with despair and disappointment how the club is unrecognisable from yesteryear. The ambition we used to have, the quality of players, the standard of football. A club to be exceedingly proud of.

And today? A pale shadow of the club and a return to the mediocre. The millions that have been wasted. Despite a clear out I don’t feel we are equipped to progress out of this division.

A lot of fans don’t wish to/ can’t see we are treading water at best. I really would have hoped our sights were higher through having a genuine chance of “ giving it a go”. We aren’t near this sadly.