Last year the fans of Middlesbrough were expecting nothing less than automatic promotion after the marquee signing of Kris Boyd. Come the end of October however, they found themselves languishing in 23rd place. After Strachan had left, fan’s favourite Tony Mowbray had taken over and after a slow start, Boro ended the season as the form team.
Four wins from the final four games which included away wins at Cardiff and Hull, the former of which was an emphatic 3-0 win, has made the fans optimistic ahead of the new campaign.
But just like last season, the Teessiders will struggle and should be content if they make it into the top half of the npower Championship.
Middlesbrough have so far only added two new players to their squad. Both of them unproven.
Malaury Martin has signed on a free from recently relegated Blackpool. The former Monaco midfielder was released by the seasiders after failing to make a single appearance in the Premier League.
19 year old Curtis Main also signed on a free. The striker had been released by Blue Square Bet Premier League club Darlington. The team he scored a meagre five goals in 61 appearances for. He is young though and should be given a chance before being judged.
Not only are the Teesside team not signing players, a handful have left and there have been rumours circulating that others are on the way out.
Kris Boyd has signed for Turkish Super League team Eskisehirspor and has signed a three year contract reportedly worth £40,000 a week.
Although the Scotland international failed to make an impact in the North East, the striker is still a predator when it comes to scoring goals and at the tender age of 27, has a lot more to offer.
He managed a credible six goals in ten games for Nottingham Forest as the reds made the end of season play offs. Who knows what he could have achieved for the Boro this season having found his feet in the Championship towards the end of last season.
Didier Digard has opted to ply his trade in France and Andrew Taylor has joined Cardiff to once again link up with Malky Mackay who he played under while the Scott was managing Watford. Willo Flood has returned to former club Dundee United and the technically gifted Julio Arca has left the club after his contract expired.
Premier League new boys Swansea are chasing former loanee Marvin Emnes. The Dutch winger impressed on loan last season, scoring two goals in four games. The Swans have also had a bid for Leroy Lita, believed to be less than one million pounds, rejected by Middesbrough.
As a ‘Boro fan, I can give you one simple reason why we will struggle to make the playoffs. What sparked our run of good form near the end of the season? Jason Steele getting injured in goal against Reading.
We’ve already made it clear we intend for him to be our number one even though he will miss the start of the season through injury. A blind man can see that he threw away point after point. Paul Smith came in and was superb but we aren’t buying him which is madness.
Steele is 20 and prone to mistakes, and second choice Danny Coyne is 38 and might as well be retired already. We aren’t going up without a good goalie, and we certainly can be found wanting in that respect. In fact, we can barely be said to have a first team goalie at all since Coyne is basically a coach and Steele might as well still be a rookie.
Spot on, I don’t care if he is young and from Middlesbrough the lad is absolute garbage.
Any boro fan thinking about promotion in any sense is an idiot, the squad is an absolute joke. No right midfielder, no left midfielder, only two centre mids, and full of kids.
21st place will be success for Boro
Troll alert!
So we’ve only got 2 midfielders have we? Barry Robson, Nicky Bailey, Kevin Thompson, Merouane Zemamma, Richie Smallwood, Cameron Park, Tarmo Kink, Andy Halliday, Matty Bates… have I gone past two yet?
And of course I forgot new signing Malaury Martin and Marvin Emnes, not to mention Joe Bennett and Justin Hoyte who have been used in midfield a few times.
How many of those are good enough mind? Thomson is a crock, I think Robson may go back to Scotland if we got an offer due to wages. Hoping for big things from Smallwood. Bates etc out of position in midfield.
I think we are ok in the middle of the park but on the wings I really don’t think Kink and Halliday are good enough to create chances. Let’s hope some youngsters kick on
Well Paul its obvious you seem to be a prat.
Thomson is injured.
Zemamma is as much a midfielder as Juninho was, not good enough to play in a 4.
Park is a kid and has played less than 5 times for the club, if you think he can be relied upon you are an idiot.
Kink and Halliday are rubbish.
Then you mention Bates, Bennett and hoyte all defenders.
Robson will probably play on the right but is far from a right winger, nobody at the club can be classed as a left winger.
As for centre midfield, only smallwood, bailey and thomson fit that and one is crocked.
So what you are saying is that you only think we have two fit midfielders capable of playing in a 4-4-2 and that means we will be lucky to finish 21st across the whole season, despite the fact that pretty much the same lineup finished the season as well as anyone in the division.
Even assuming that Mowbray is going to play a 4-4-2 all season (which I don’t believe is the case) you still have Robson, Bailey, Thomson, Bates and Williams with enough experience and ability in centre midfield to challenge for promotion and Smallwood showing masses of potential.
As for wide roles you have Kink and Emnes as natural attacking wide players, Bennet and Hoyte who can be pressed into service if need be, or more centrally minded players who can also play wide in Robson, Bailey and Thomson. Then you have the highly rated Park who is unproven but then so were Downing and Johnson at one point.
I stand by my initial comment – Troll alert!
Interesting. However…
Boyd…..A prolific striker at rangers and forrest yes. However even gers fans admit he was not brilliant. This being down to his inability to perform in big games and only being used to mop up against lower SPL teams.
However, Boro’s season was ruined by ban management, bad players (Kris Boyd) and injuries.
As for the strengh in the squad. Its sound, what has been proved before is that the boro academy is quality and will produce competent players. And thats why we’re in with a shout.
Geordie scum.
The problem is Gibson is cutting the funding, we have lost what 4 so far and Proctor came out this week saying we might not be able to get a new goalie as we have to cut the wage bill further.
I expect Lita and Emnes to go and I would quite like to see Hoyte and Robson leave.
I feel gutted for Mogga, he is a class manager and with funds he would have us walking the league. Still get shot of a couple more, with a combination of good youngsters and a few smart signings we could do alright
poor article in truth
the players that have left Arca was the only one who played well and until Mogga come in he was awful.
Not one of the players that have left have been a loss and only two were managing to grace the first team on a regular basis and are very easilly replaced (Grounds, Kink and Robson are all left sided) so this is still the team that finished last season so strongly
And to the Steele haters (although Boro fans are known for hating there keepers) how settled were the back five last season? or is that something else that is quickly forgotten!
Mid table and consolidation is fine for next season as the team has been utterly dismantled four times in the last five years. anything else is a welcome bonus