Boro team had we not been relegated in 97

Kevo4 said:
Del Piero was linked I'm sure, and juventus teammate at the time Moreno Torricelli? We were definitely going to heavy though, not a lot of emphasis on defence!
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I also remember the Del Piero link and Shevchenko before he went to AC Milan
 
Uwefuchs said:
Bakero actually played for us in a pre-season friendly if I'm not mistaken, I'm sure he played as a trialist away to Hartlepool but we chose not to sign him.

He was a brilliant little player and was the captain of Barcelona for a while so he must have been a bit past his best if we chose not to sign him.
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I was a fan of Bakero at the time and he did play in a pre-season friendly. I don’t think his style suited the way we played. He was a very gifted player who liked to let the ball do the work and very frequently used his first touch as a pass.

As for who we would’ve signed, it was a huge sliding doors moment for our club. Whoever we would’ve brought in to add to what we already had, would’ve been hugely exciting times.
 
If I recall correctly a young Jonjo Shelvey (plus one other) were due to sign for our (pre-school age) academy that summer too.
 
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5-3-2 was all the rage (with robbo and venebles) with a cheeky Xmas tree thrown in now and again.. emphasis on that midfield three

Mustoe—Emerson—Ince

Holy cow!!
 
I’ve often thought about this. Juninho AND Emerson AND Ravanelli AND

I wonder if it would have panned out like that? Some of the big name players to be mentioned I think could have been to replace our big name stars. Romario for Ravanelli, Ince for Emerson etc

Look at Leicester City and their title winning season. I just think that two cup finals was our moment, we lacked a certain depth in our squad and an experienced hand to steady the ship. So close! What a story, what a ride.

We rocked it in Europe with a similar vibe and hopefully we will once again.
 
Zoophonic said:
I don't think the Gazette were stretching the truth. The story came straight from Gibbo's own mouth. You can of course dismiss it as I say as Bruvado but the Gazette were merely reporting what he said.
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Well it was Robson in the article I was referring to rather than Gibson.
And the quote is:
"I said ‘what about the left-back Roberto Carlos?’ But they said ‘Mr Robson, you are too late, we just sold him to Inter Milan last week.’”"
That doesn't constitute nearly signing someone. "Bryan Robson reveals he almost signed Roberto Carlos for Middlesbrough"
 
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Jedi boro said:
We had no defence that was the issue.
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I wonder what Robbo was cooking up for us. I’d love to see one of those ‘evening with’ things where robbo sets out his team of who he should have played against Blackburn.. then in the 2nd half do who he would have signed the season after!


in an interview with the Gazette, he selected his best ever XI..

Bryan-Robson-dream-teamJPG.jpg
 
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newyddion said:
I wonder what Robbo was cooking up for us. I’d love to see one of those ‘evening with’ things where robbo sets out his team of who he should have played against Blackburn.. then in the 2nd half do who he would have signed the season after!
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I think nadal was the sort of signing he was looking at but it never really happened.
 
After watching the season highlights again of our first season in the prem under Robbo and then the subsequent relegation the following season I've always wondered if we had gone the other way what would have happened. Our squad depth was woeful back then, Robbo himself even playing at 40, the likes of Barron, Freestone, Whelan etc playing numerous games despite being nowhere near top level players.

I wonder if we had spent 11M on say 5 or 6 grizzled top flight type pros or inexpensive foreign imports rather than Rav & Emmo whether we would have stayed up and then could add the panache the following seasons and build from there?
 
MickaelDebevePhenomenal said:
After watching the season highlights again of our first season in the prem under Robbo and then the subsequent relegation the following season I've always wondered if we had gone the other way what would have happened. Our squad depth was woeful back then, Robbo himself even playing at 40, the likes of Barron, Freestone, Whelan etc playing numerous games despite being nowhere near top level players.

I wonder if we had spent 11M on say 5 or 6 grizzled top flight type pros or inexpensive foreign imports rather than Rav & Emmo whether we would have stayed up and then could add the panache the following seasons and build from there?
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Then we would have ended up with a team like the one we had around about the 98/99 season when we got back up.

Players like Townsend, Maddison, Cooper, Pallister came in and made us a really solid team. It wouldn't have been as exciting though would it!
 
Uwefuchs said:
Then we would have ended up with a team like the one we had around about the 98/99 season when we got back up.

Players like Townsend, Maddison, Cooper, Pallister came in and made us a really solid team. It wouldn't have been as exciting though would it!
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oh i totally wouldnt change it, those seasons were incredible if ultimately unsuccessful. I suppose doing it safety first Robbo would have been given more leeway.
 
Jedi boro said:
We had no defence that was the issue.
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We never lost a league game when we had our first choice CBs in 96/97....we just took too long to get Festa in after Nadal messed us about and then Pearson got injured which was a real killer for us as we needed his leadership and he was hard as fook

Festa & Pearson partnership:

Boro 6-1 Derby
Boro 2-1 Blackburn
Boro 1-0 Chelsea
Boro 1-1 Forest
Boro 3-2 Villa
Man U 3-3 Boro
Blackburn 0-0 Boro
Leeds 1-1 Boro

If we kept those two together we would have stayed up.
 
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