Steve Gibson's fmttm Q and A - Thursday

Aztec chimera said:
Rob posted it on the Sunday, I clicked on the link the next day. It was sold out.
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There were only about 130 seats available. I put a QR code in the fanzine which went on sale last Thursday. On Sunday I advertised it everywhere.
Although sold out I managed to squeeze in 3 people that contacted me late yesterday that contacted me wanting tickets. I did the same with 2 people the day before.
Everyone seemed to really enjoy the evening. The chairman gave everyone a free bar and food on the night.
With the chairman's permission we will look to do more events next season.
Thank you to Yvonne, Robin and the Boro staff and MC Ellen and runner Liam for ensuring it was such a smoothly run evening.
 
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LaPennaBianca said:
To be fair to the kids of Heaton Mersey - Stockport has always been a City heartland. Well before Abu Dhabi.

I believe it had the highest % of city season ticket holders of any Greater Manchester borough. That's why Stockport County fans hate City much more than anyone else (bar that rivalry they made up with Burnley).

It's why - in response to the "Trafford United" jibes - United fans say they're the real Manchester club. They say City fans are actually from Stockport, not Manchester proper. (Just don't ask where United season ticket holders come from!)
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Fair points.

Even have a "City Pub" 😬😬

Couple of my son's mates -

1. Friday, was a Utd fan from a Utd supporting (actually go to the games) family. Monday, turned up a City fan.

2. Another, dad was a "Utd fan" but then suddenly became a "City fan" when they became more successful. Son, biggest City fan ever......🥱🥱🥱

As plastic as Barbies t*ts.........

WHEN the City dynasty ceases - and it will happen - fully expect the Utd/Arsenal/Chelsea kits to appear.........

Anyhow, how this fits into the Steve Gibson Q&A I'm really not sure........🤔🤔
 
exeterboro said:
You have to assume that of the 4 or 5 main transfer targets that 2 or 3 are with the club already, Ayling, O Brien and possibly Greenwood, if not then it will be those positions that are being looked at.
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I wouldn't assume that at all. In fact I'd only assume Ayling is one of those as he has had a massive impact and was a massive loss against Leeds too. I'm not convinced we will sign the other two. Not that they are bad players, but O'Brien might be difficult to make the numbers work and get real value for money, and Greenwood is a 2 year project to be a top champo player, and 3 year to be prem ready.
 
NYboro said:
Yes, but the answer was that we don't need to sell, but if a player gets offered stupid money and wants away......
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and that's probably the right approach, we have to play moneyball, to get our FFP room to invest. We've done that to a large extent over the last few years. But it's a continual process.

We don't want unhappy players, and we don't want to be seen as that club that holds players back from life changing contracts. We've got ourselves a reputation now as a good place for talented young players to play and find their way to the prem, be it Rogers, Spence, Tav, even Archer, Ramsey and Giles come under that same model. If 20m was offered for Rav, Hackney or Lath we would first ask them do they want to stay, keep them involved in the process, because they'll find out through agents, and find out if they want to stay another year, before we let them have that move.
 
h_m_boro said:
In exactly the same boat, substitute "York" for "Stockport".

Son plays U10s footy, trains 2-3 times a week and adamant he wears his Boro top (couldn't get the shorts and socks, sold out). Lovely to see surrounded by City/Utd/Real Madrid/PSG kits.

Most of his mates are plastic City fans, not a chance he's going down that road......and thankfully he doesn't want to.

So it's April and now thinking "hope I can get one in August". Crazy.

Or could go down "alternative routes".........
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you're going to design and make him one?
 
Thanks for the summary, sounds a really good night (and a pretty exciting Summer ahead) - wonder if we'll strike early given it's a tournament Summer?

The foreign manager thing concerns me - we already artificially limit our potential pool of managers to those out of work, if we're ruling every single foreign manager too it's a very limited field! It works well at other clubs so surely it could here as well? I think his gripe is probably with Karanka personally, rather than (hopefully) all foreign managers.
 
changingman said:
Thanks for the summary, sounds a really good night (and a pretty exciting Summer ahead) - wonder if we'll strike early given it's a tournament Summer?

The foreign manager thing concerns me - we already artificially limit our potential pool of managers to those out of work, if we're ruling every single foreign manager too it's a very limited field! It works well at other clubs so surely it could here as well? I think his gripe is probably with Karanka personally, rather than (hopefully) all foreign managers.
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Gibson is hoping Michael Carrick is here for the long run. And from Carrick's side he does seem to really love it here. Everyone says that the fans are a very big part of that.
 
changingman said:
Thanks for the summary, sounds a really good night (and a pretty exciting Summer ahead) - wonder if we'll strike early given it's a tournament Summer?

The foreign manager thing concerns me - we already artificially limit our potential pool of managers to those out of work, if we're ruling every single foreign manager too it's a very limited field! It works well at other clubs so surely it could here as well? I think his gripe is probably with Karanka personally, rather than (hopefully) all foreign managers.
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On the one hand I agree with you, but on the other, it’s absurd now how obsessed England has become with foreign managers. Who was the last one to achieve anything of any note? Look at the potential replacements for Southgate.

I don’t particularly care where our manager comes from, but it would be nice if the country as a whole actually produced some English managers who’d achieved some kind of success (ie more than just the Swedish Cup).
 
Leadbitter said the same thing about the Spanish contingent in an interview when we came down. He said something like he could sense something had changed when the players came back for pre-season and there was new players and staff everywhere, in their own group and all speaking Spanish. It created a divide straight away. I think you can understand the chairman wanting to try and avoid that happening again in the future.
 
atypical_boro said:
On the one hand I agree with you, but on the other, it’s absurd now obsessed England has become with foreign managers. Who was the last one to achieve anything of any note? Look at the potential replacements for Southgate.

I don’t particularly care where our manager comes from, but it would be nice if the country as a whole actually produced some English managers who’d achieved some kind of success (ie more then just the Swedish Cup).
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Last foreign manager to achieve anything, or last English manager ?

For English I think there's a few that stand out, but to me Dyche has done brilliantly keeping Everton up with a 8 point deduction.
 
viv_andersons_nana said:
Leadbitter said the same thing about the Spanish contingent in an interview when we came down. He said something like he could sense something had changed when the players came back for pre-season and there was new players and staff everywhere, in their own group and all speaking Spanish. It created a divide straight away. I think you can understand the chairman wanting to try and avoid that happening again in the future.
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I wonder if footballers are just a little bit parochial, or whether people would resent a large amount of Spaniards in an office environment.

My company is American, and we have loads of Americans who work over here now but I'm not sure anyone necessarily thinks thats a bad thing (although the fact they broadly speak the same language may be a differentiating factor)
 
viv_andersons_nana said:
Leadbitter said the same thing about the Spanish contingent in an interview when we came down. He said something like he could sense something had changed when the players came back for pre-season and there was new players and staff everywhere, in their own group and all speaking Spanish. It created a divide straight away. I think you can understand the chairman wanting to try and avoid that happening again in the future.
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To be honest, that's just bad management. I don't think that's particularly typical of a foreign manager.
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
I wonder if footballers are just a little bit parochial, or whether people would resent a large amount of Spaniards in an office environment.

My company is American, and we have loads of Americans who work over here now but I'm not sure anyone necessarily thinks thats a bad thing (although the fact they broadly speak the same language may be a differentiating factor)
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I think he was meaning more that the Spanish players and staff kept to themselves and spoke in Spanish. I would imagine that creates an odd atmosphere in what had been in the two years leading up to promotion, a very tight dressing room.
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
I wonder if footballers are just a little bit parochial, or whether people would resent a large amount of Spaniards in an office environment.

My company is American, and we have loads of Americans who work over here now but I'm not sure anyone necessarily thinks thats a bad thing (although the fact they broadly speak the same language may be a differentiating factor)
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It's the same with any group of workers or even groups of people outside of work. You tend to gravitate towards the people who you have things in common with.

Having been to awards nights and other club events in the past, all the local lads used to sit together and the different foreign players used to sit with each other. I'm sure part of it was just a shared language.
 
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