Of the 7 on stage last night who would most improve this current side

George. Our defence is so exposed through the middle so often, there sometimes seems to be no buffer at all in front of them, especially when the Howson/Hackney combo is out.
After that Gareth. Playing alongside RVDB, he’d turn the kid into a £50 million player within a season.
 
Really hard question. I assume they’re all Carling Cup age and we get to keep them for the rest of their career?

I’m going Southgate, because he was the best. Then Boateng, would probably make the biggest difference to the current team. And I can’t believe I haven’t picked Bolo, god he was so good.

Funny how no one has even mentioned Stewie. I think we’re all (including me) picturing the 34 year old, safely pass it back to the full back and then whinge about the manager version, not the jet heeled crossing machine 19 year old version who is just about to get 30 England caps.
 
Before Carrick took over it would have been George but he wasn't good enough in possession for how we play (see Lewis O'brian) hence why he didn't get many Holland caps.

Has to be Southgate for me, think he would have fitted well with how we play, similar but better version of Lenihan due to both originally being midfielders.
 
As much as I loved George and think he would be massive in our team now,Gareth is the best defender I've ever seen in a Boro shirt,he never had a bad game and inspired others around him,I don't actually think he gets enough credit for what a top top player he was whilst here.
 
Southgate. He was a brilliant defender and he would fit the system but he was also a leader and our team lacks someone like him.
 
All would walk into our team now, but the pressing problem we have is not having a natural finisher. So right now I'd take Nemeth who was a very good finisher and I think he'd fit very well on our system with clever through balls and touches from those in the 3 behind him.

On a more general note, there're all excellent players but I would take Boateng and Southgate who would both get in any Boro team in history.
 
I'm going with Zenden. Players like him are like hen's teeth in this league with the composure to guide a ball through midfield and deliver it at the edge of the box, not just get dispossessed on the edge or lazily stick it out wide while the opponents mark up for the pointless slow cross to their centre backs.

It's worth considering that clubs of the type we were at the time just don't get midfielders of Boateng's quality these days. Same could be said of Zenden. The type of players hoovered up by the big boys and parked up.
 
Canyoudigit said:
As much as I loved George and think he would be massive in our team now,Gareth is the best defender I've ever seen in a Boro shirt,he never had a bad game and inspired others around him,I don't actually think he gets enough credit for what a top top player he was whilst here.
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I agree, I thought he was absolutely elite. Some amazing centre halves around in that era but can’t say any of them stood out as loads better than Gareth, and like you say he was 8-9/10 every single game.

Every season I expected United or particularly Arsenal to come in for him and was surprised they didn’t.
 
jeff_potato said:
It's worth considering that clubs of the type we were at the time just don't get midfielders of Boateng's quality these days. Same could be said of Zenden. The type of players hoovered up by the big boys and parked up.
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Absolutely true. Zenden’s prime years as a footballer were spent at Barcelona, Chelsea just before Mourinho when they were top 4, Boro and Liverpool.

We had so many players with elite CVs then. Mendieta is obvious but Geremi, JFH, Juninho, Woodgate, even Abel Xavier had played for some massive clubs and were top internationals.
 
jonny_greenings_sock said:
Really hard question. I assume they’re all Carling Cup age and we get to keep them for the rest of their career?

I’m going Southgate, because he was the best. Then Boateng, would probably make the biggest difference to the current team. And I can’t believe I haven’t picked Bolo, god he was so good.

Funny how no one has even mentioned Stewie. I think we’re all (including me) picturing the 34 year old, safely pass it back to the full back and then whinge about the manager version, not the jet heeled crossing machine 19 year old version who is just about to get 30 England caps.
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I wouldn’t mind the West Ham central version either tbh.

As much as I love Southgate, and he goes down as my favourite ever player, I think I’d go for Boateng in our current situation. Our midfield is just so soft and the ground he covered in there was outrageous really.
 
Interesting no one has said Bolo, I guess because we have McGree etc who most of us deem to be good enough already.
 
There's a lot of things wrong with the current squad but ultimately quality is lacking, however, in response to this question I think Southgate is the one we would benefit from the most, a leader, organiser and true professional, first and foremost we need to be better defensively and I feel he would add steel, quality and leadership which is severely lacking in this squad, stop conceding soft goals, defend like its the last minute of the cup final every minute and maybe we will give ourselves a chance to get something from a game.

By mixing our game up opponents won't know when to press which will open up more gaps for us when we do play!

But for me Southgate
 
Boateng by quite a distance. He's exactly what this team needs and was one of the best at it but all of them would walk into our team.
 
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