Spot onInjuries
Recruitment
Penny pinching
Naive management.
Spot onInjuries
Recruitment
Penny pinching
Naive management.
Spot on again. I'd at the commercial department to that.They've just sent out season ticket renewals so I'd say knowing who is to blame for this season is very important because people have to decide whether it is worth spending their money. If it's the manager then we should change manager. If it's recruitment then we need to improve recruitment, if it's Gibson then we should be replacing Gibson.
If the management of the club is the problem and they aren't going to put right some of the things they are poor at and will continue to make the same repeat mistakes while asking fans for more and more money then people have more information to base their decision on renewing. We're all Boro fans and we want to be successful but we don't want to be exploited or have the **** taken out of us which is what appears to be happening when fans are being asked to stump up more money to cover the poor decision making of the club.
Gibson might see this season as a success. We've made a profit on player sales and our wages have been lower because we've replaced high earners with young players and we had no PL loan players. We've also achieved the same as last season because we'll be playing championship football next season. There was also a big money cup match to swell the coffers. If Gibson sees it as a success then his vision isn't aligned with the fans who are paying the most in the league to have to settle for midtable mediocrity. If midtable mediocrity is the ambition then the prices should reflect that.
Thought you didn't do politics.Is the answer that nasty Mr Gibson for being a Tory
I don’t - it’s just satireThought you didn't do politics.
I think that may be three: defence, midfield and attack.The crowds won’t fall that low, we are missing a couple of pieces to complete the jigsaw.
Season ticket prices aside, which I think are ridiculous, I pretty much agree with what the club has done in the transfer market.The denial optimists are not doing this club any favours at all.
I don't think I've ever disagreed with a statement more. You can't just use the few successes when the quantity of failures far outweigh them. Also, how far back do you go because some of those signings were made before the current recruitment setup was here. The only real measure is whether or not our current line-up is getting better or worse and it's difficult to argue that it is better. You also have to include loan players because needing to loan a player is either because we don't have someone good enough in the squad or it's a temporary solution, neither of which should be needed if recruitment is effective. Last season we had multiple loan players sitting on our bench, or not even making the bench. That's a colossal waste of money and development opportunities.In short I think our recruitment is the least of our problems.
This might be an interesting debate nano.I don't think I've ever disagreed with a statement more. You can't just use the few successes when the quantity of failures far outweigh them. Also, how far back do you go because some of those signings were made before the current recruitment setup was here. The only real measure is whether or not our current line-up is getting better or worse and it's difficult to argue that it is better. You also have to include loan players because needing to loan a player is either because we don't have someone good enough in the squad or it's a temporary solution, neither of which should be needed if recruitment is effective. Last season we had multiple loan players sitting on our bench, or not even making the bench. That's a colossal waste of money and development opportunities.
Some of the recruitment decisions are really hard to justify. Hoppe and Payero are two players we have bought recently, for significant money for us these days. They have both been deemed not good enough by multiple managers. How does a recruitment team misjudge a player so badly to the point that we don't have a striker in the squad, we're a goal down and still the manager won't bring him on?
I agree with the model that we are using. It is more sustainable and I think it gives us more chance of success in the long term of being promoted than the constant big gambles. The model allows us to bring in several players with the hope that we will get big money for some of them to fund the next wave. Signings should gradually get more expensive so their minimum level of performance raises. We should never be signing a player that isn't good enough for our current level though. That can only be seen as a complete failure. I have a feeling though that we are too late to the party. There are better recruitment setups identifying players and we're left scrabbling around for the cast-offs because it's taken us far too long to realise that just spending big might be the wrong approach.
The most blame that the recruitment team has to shoulder though is that for the last 2 seasons we have started the season with gaping holes in our squad and essentially stopped the season before it has even got started. That is unforgivable. It's not like we were hanging on to sign some superstar. We're buying cheap development players. They should be in the squad and the squad should be mostly settled for the first game of the season with any additional that could significantly improve things if they come up rather than relying on the last days to do all our business.
I am not sure what this actually means "denial optimists". Who are you referring to? I am certainly not denying we are in a difficult situation in terms of transfer buying power, in terms of attracting footballers to the North East, lack of strikers. but balanced out by having a progressive young manager who is respected and with some of the best training facilities in the country. If one was an optimist somehow denying there are issues how are they not doing the Club any favours? Do you really think believe that the Club thinks everything is rosy because of continued support? Really it's a throw away line which is meaningless. The Club are very aware of the issues but are boxed in by circumstances.The denial optimists are not doing this club any favours at all.
It's a long term thing and you can't just look at individual things in isolation. Our squad isn't getting better and you have to include the loans because that is money we are spending. We are as weak now as any time since relegation.This might be an interesting debate nano.
I mentioned 3 successess, I could also list Lenihan, VDB, Forss, Jones and Dieng. Thats almost an excellent first 11.
Yes we have had some stinkers, you are right, and you always will. It's perhaps not too surprising that the 2 failures you mentioned have come from different countries. Whether a player will settle in a new environment is always a risk and the more different the culture, the harder it is to know. Now I don't know if the issue with these two is the player settling, or they just weren't (aren't) good enough and I don't think that matters too much, as long as the recruitment team are getting more right than wrong. You could go on and argue Lath, Silvera, Bangura and Engel are all not good enough. Bit early to say I would suggest and none of them would be written off, I don't think. Whether they make it or not, the jury is out, I think it fair to say.
You go on and mention that the recruitment team should be judged on whether the team is getting better or not. That's a fair assessment, but when making that you have to discount loans who returned to their parent clubs. So comparing this years team with the back end of last year, you would have to discount Archer and Ramsey when comparing. We coudn't afford those players.
In addition the recruitment team are not responsible for Crooks and Rogers going, which undoubtedly weakened us, but not the recruitment teams doing.
Our biggest single factor this season in our mediocrity is our injuries. No team could have sustained that level of crockedness (maddo would be proud of that word).
I think we can all agree that we aren’t getting into the play offs this season. Which was surely the minimum aim at the start of the season. Truth be told we my be pushing our luck to finish top half.
So is it, the recruitment team for not providing the coaching team with a squad capable of a top six finish?
The coaching team for not getting the best out of the players? Team selection and in game tactics?
Or the players for being unable to shoot straight and pass to red shirt.
What a dismal season this will fizzle out to be
Yep, as mentioned earlier saying blame was a bit childish, but feel free to swap that for responsibilityDoes there have to be any blame put anywhere??
A League Cup semi final dreaming of Wembley and a Top 10 finish in the toughest Championship in years, is no mean feat.
We're probably not even going to finish top 10. We're 13th and 6 points off 10th at the moment and we play the runaway leaders tomorrow.Does there have to be any blame put anywhere??
A League Cup semi final dreaming of Wembley and a Top 10 finish in the toughest Championship in years, is no mean feat.