Is anyone else simply not bothered anymore?

I am very much bothered. I like many others have invested small fortunes into Boro through thick and thin. Boro has been a huge part of my life and remains so. However, I have to admit my faith in how the club is run by ‘the emperor‘ with his shiny new clothes, is lost. I no longer have faith in him to make good footballing decisions.

People say he is great at the financial side of things because he puts a reported £1M a month In the kitty to keep us afloat. Whilst being extremely glad he does, I think the fact he has to shows he has not managed the finances well. £15M for Britt, huge salaries reported for the likes of Randolph, Britt, Downing, £6.75M for Fletcher. £8M for Saville. Great with finances.

I probably care too much to be honest. I get far too upset about games of football. I get far too upset about things that happen off the pitch. I get far too frustrated about blinkered officials at the club who watch the same product but do nothing to resolve the problems, mores the point, they keep on adding to them. We appear to be a football club in denial, players with no fight and little value, a head coach that has the gift of the gab, but no substance behind it, a chairman who seemingly can’t see the woods for the trees. Crikey we even have some fans who refuse to believe their eyes and add to the problem by just accepting it is what it is and wont hear a bad word said because to do so is a sin. The real sin is is when people ignore reality and praise mediocrity and accept failure.

The academy gets praise, but in reality how many top quality players has it really produced that feed our first team? The club seems a mess from top to bottom and are sleepwalking to relegation again. I see no hope for automatic bounce back either. If we tamely carry on as if nothing happens we will be looking at crowds of 12-14k next season and dwindling further if we are not competing at the top end. I am extremely disgruntled and angry as to what has been allowed and achieved within 5 years of promotion to the Premier League. Calling it shambolic is papering over the cracks.
 
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Cardiffdaffs said:
Human reaction to what is happening is natural. i think that reaction differs depending on how you deal with it. Some will be drawn into apathy which is understandable. It’s a way of avoiding continued disappointment. Others will react angrily and want to see something done about it. Others will just despair.

For me football is more than entertainment. It’s in the blood so I will always care. I hate what I am seeing at the moment and I do feel we are heading for relegation sadly. I am in the despair camp. I can’t get angry. I have enough in life to worry about
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Same 👍
 
atypical_boro said:
City are being penalised by that though.

I think one thing which has contributed is the 7 subs rule. Good players at smaller clubs get hoovered up by the big clubs to fill their benches. Back in the 90s that couldn’t happen as they only needed 2/3 subs on the bench.
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5 subs including a keeper is all you need.

Absolutely no need for 7 subs, imagine those lads on the bench who know they ain't getting on the pitch. For example if you are Tyrone O'Neil and you are on the bench with Assombalonga or Fletcher you know for a fact you ain't getting on the pitch before those two.
7 subs is ok if you are a part of a successful top of the table club with chances at medals. Imagine what it does for morale been part of a 7 player bench at a club at the bottom end of the table getting beat every week and still not getting a shot.
 
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boromike85 said:
Anyone being able to spend anything is more of a level playing field than the current Financial Fair Play system. That is designed to keep the big clubs big. How can we compete with another club that is allowed to spend more than us even when we can afford to spend more? In the long run it is impossible for us to be as big as Utd, Liverpool etc. because our revenues will never match theirs. We could get lucky and put together a squad of overachievers and do well for a couple of seasons but eventually the big teams will just pick that squad apart.
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That's always been the case, hasn't it?
 
RandySavage said:
5 subs including a keeper is all you need.

Absolutely no need for 7 subs, imagine those lads on the bench who know they ain't getting on the pitch. For example if you are Tyrone O'Neil and you are on the bench with Assombalonga or Fletcher you know for a fact you ain't getting on the pitch before those two.
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I'd go back to three subs on the bench. I like to see players adapt to the situation even if it means someone out of position. We start off that way often enough so it shouldn't be too difficult for them. I'd also like to see a proper reserve league for the top two divisions that mirrors the first team set up. Squads are big enough to do it, it's better that players play rather than sit on a bench or in the stand, young players get to play with seasoned pros and it would be cheap or free football for the fans.
 
Cardiff has summed up my thoughts too. I think I am a passionate supporter and that passion will not dwindle no matter what I see on the pitch. But that passion doesn’t extend to anger though as I know deep down I can’t do anything about it. Part of me thinks that is because I no longer live in the area and I am sanitised from the way it is affecting the morale in the town.

However deep down I think it’s because I don’t believe this current crop of players have the same passion as the supporters. They get paid very well for what they do so I expect them to bust a gut to do what they need to do. I also acknowledge that they are not being coached or managed adequately. I don’t empathise with them as much as I have with similarly poor Boro teams in the past. Compare this lot to the side that played Newcastle in May 1990 and how they battled for our Tier 2 lives. Or even when we went to Shrewsbury in 1985 and went down to Tier 3. At least we had a core set of local passionate lads.
 
RandySavage said:
5 subs including a keeper is all you need.

Absolutely no need for 7 subs, imagine those lads on the bench who know they ain't getting on the pitch. For example if you are Tyrone O'Neil and you are on the bench with Assombalonga or Fletcher you know for a fact you ain't getting on the pitch before those two.
7 subs is ok if you are a part of a successful top of the table club with chances at medals. Imagine what it does for morale been part of a 7 player bench at a club at the bottom end of the table getting beat every week and still not getting a shot.
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And that’s part of the draw for top players at smaller clubs now. “Oh I won’t play but I’ll get 5 minutes in the cup final and a winner’s medal, as well as a bigger wage”.

The likes of Jay Jay Okocha at Bolton would last one season now. He’d be on Chelsea or City’s bench months after he joined.
 
I felt so bothered during Karanka's last two seasons in the Championship. It was like an Indian summer of the way you enjoy football as a child.

Last season and this season though... wow. I'm not angry at how we're declining, because none of it is my fault or could have been affected in any way by me.

It just makes me apathetic and wonder what the point was in every last ditch challenge, every run to meet a cross and score during the push back to PL football, when the players who replaced those blokes have been poorer and less effective in every capacity.
 
Block21 said:
I’m bothered, but it’s getting to the point where I think fans are beginning to care more than some of the people who are working for the football club. I look at Woodgate on the touch line with his legs spread apart and he genuinely doesn’t even look arsed to me, and then he comes and gives interviews surprised that his master plan hasn’t worked. I don’t know what planet he’s on.

Then you have people above him who are constantly making terrible football decisions so it’s getting to the point for us fans where our opinions are becoming pointless as no one seems to be listening.
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If you knew (I mean really knew) that there was no way you were going to be sacked If you were crap at your job think how motivated/concerned you would be.

In his comments post match yesterday when asked if we’ll see changes for the stoke game was we’ll have to see. Ooh yes as that will really scare the players, he Should have been raging ( not singling anyone out) that this will not happen again.

instead we got the usual flannel about well we looked good in training... really
 
zorro_mfc said:
If you knew (I mean really knew) that there was no way you were going to be sacked If you were crap at your job think how motivated/concerned you would be.
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I don't go with that point Zorro. He is a poor manager yes but I think he looks like a man with the world on his shoulders. Stress is definitely a factor of a man who is struggling to cope. Something in me feels sorry for him because he cant help being incompetent at the job - its the man who put him there that has to take responsibility for that situation.
 
atypical_boro said:
And that’s part of the draw for top players at smaller clubs now. “Oh I won’t play but I’ll get 5 minutes in the cup final and a winner’s medal, as well as a bigger wage”.

The likes of Jay Jay Okocha at Bolton would last one season now. He’d be on Chelsea or City’s bench months after he joined.
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Exactly.

Also who wants to place a bet that the 9 subs stays permanently?
 
Just a matter of time before we’re like the NFL , subs stood along the pitch in the coaching zone with 4 quarters ££££
 
Aaaargh was what I thought when I saw yesterday's team selection. When was the last time we selected a team to say to the opposition Go on deal with that then. Woodgate is now so frightened of what could/will happen that he can't get out of the trap. The only thing that has given me any hope is that now his hand might be forced and he goes back to the formation that brought him limited success in the middle of the season.
is he competent enough to see this? Unfortunately I doubt it
 
Cardiffdaffs said:
I don't go with that point Zorro. He is a poor manager yes but I think he looks like a man with the world on his shoulders. Stress is definitely a factor of a man who is struggling to cope. Something in me feels sorry for him because he cant help being incompetent at the job - its the man who put him there that has to take responsibility for that situation.
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But he’s still there though despite being a poor manager and as you said incompetent at his job that is my point.

btw it’s not just aimed at him it’s aimed at the players as how do they motivate themselves when they know the guy in charge is rubbish at his job.
 
I think the eight subs in rugby has negatively affected that sport. I don't want 'finishers' or impact players that can't last longer than half an hour. I like seeing one side gradually assert themselves, sometimes through superior fitness and then take advantage in the closing stages. There are a lot of things that we could take from rugby but this isn't one of them.
 
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