Paul Ince time at the boro

Jedi boro

Jedi boro

Well-known member
Watching the itv documentary about black footballers and seeing Incey interviewed got me thinking back to his days at the Boro and you forget how good some of our ex players were. First black captain of England.

We have had some truly amazing players wear our colours over the decades.

So what do you remember about once at the Boro
 
He was outstanding for us.

Yet for some reason never really gets mentioned, and rarely did anyone rave about him at the time. I think because people expected us to push on from our 9th place under Robson and we never did, and although he was good he wasn’t quite as good as our other great signing (Ziege).

He was probably as good as Boateng but for whatever reason George connected with the fans better as his replacement, so he never gets in anyone’s “best Boro XI” etc.
 
Ince was top class and put a shift in as well. He was one of those players (a bit like Bryan Robson himself) who you didn’t quite realise how good he was until you saw him playing for your own team.

I think he was relatively low profile because he wasn’t a spectacular type of player he was just very good at what he did.
 
The second Robson period is a pretty big blank for me for some reason. It's when I moved away and started regularly attending away games. Can't remember that period too well and struggle to remember ince playing for us. The McLaren period on the other hand is pretty vivid.
 
That was my reason for posting because as you say he rarely if ever appears on anyone’s top team list but his calibre was second to none.
 
We had a strange team back then. Some really good players like Schwarzer, Ugo, Ince, Ziege, Gordon and Ricard (on his day) and some utter dross like Mark Summerbell.
 
uncle_rico said:
Ince was class for us, you could see his quality and he was very underrated, especially when looking back and as you say doesn't get the recognition he probably deserves.

I think the fact he wore number 9 never really sat right with me.
Click to expand...
Yeah, used to get right on my nerves, especially after Gazza left and the #8 shirt was vacant, it went to Karembeu who could have been given #10 and Brian Deane given #9.

Some of the decisions the club has made over the years are mind-boggling, heads should have rolled for this!
 
Last edited:
Remember Emerson turning him inside out in the inter friendly.
Was at Vicarage Road for his goal v Watford. Good player.
 
Quality. Remember being a bit miffed when we were signing him. Thought he was completely over the hill. How wrong I was!
 
We had some great players on paper back in 99/00......Schwarzer, Cooper, Ziege, Ince, Gazza, Juninho, Ricard. A midfield two of Gazza and Ince, with Juninho playing behind Ricard could have been brilliant.

You look back and wonder why we didn't perform better that season, but if I remember rightly Gazza barely played and Juninho wasn't the same player he was during his first spell.
 
Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret said:
The second Robson period is a pretty big blank for me for some reason. It's when I moved away and started regularly attending away games. Can't remember that period too well and struggle to remember ince playing for us. The McLaren period on the other hand is pretty vivid.
Click to expand...
"second".?
 
He was brilliant. Had that rare ability to almost single handedly fire up the team mid game with a surging run or a crunching tackle. I don't think we've had his like since.

Good little partnership with Mustoe. Think we set a new club record for consequetive clean sheets (in the top flight?) and while Southgate, Ehiogu and Schwarzer rightly too a lot of the credit for it, Ince and Mustoe were key to it too.

Also remember his completely messing up a 1 on 1 in an away game at Anfield. Think we drew 0-0 in the end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top