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Mackems or Geordies?

Who do you hate the most & why?

Just finished interviewing Bob Mortimer...

Bryn Morris makes reserve debut vs Sunderland (friendly)

finished 0-0

Coddington, Pilatos, Gibson, Jackson, Weldon, Dolan, Brobbel, Edwards, Reach, Franks, Wyke

Fowler for Franks
Bennett for Pilatos
Morris for Wyke
Dobie for Brobbel

Mobray vs McClaren

Hi,

My name's Andy and I've been asked to write about footballing matters relating to the North East for a new blog that's just started up (I will post a link once I've written anything Boro related).

Anyway I noticed Steve McClaren has been re-appointed by FC Twente recently and it got me thinking about how he was successful there but was deemed a failure elsewhere. With Boro he seem to do ok though, decent eufa cup runs and premier league survival.

So now you have Tony Mowbray in charge who seems to have steadied the ship and given you a chance of promotion via the play offs this year I was wondering who you feel is the better of the two managers?

Given the choice between the 2 managers, who would you pick as the best man to take you back to the promised land of the premier league and keep you there?

I'll be popping in from time to time in the future and hope to represent your club well on the blog and give you as much exposure as I can.

Many thanks
Andy Hudson

never forget

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKWUDdM2W1A

just brought a tear to my eye seeing those scenes again - great video

blog

It's early days, but what does everyone think?

http://honeywellfootball.blog.com/2012/0...f-january/

I also have a gaming blog about FM in my signature.

Australia day! Boro players....

As you all may or may not have heard, today is Australia day and to celebrate I thought people could share some of there memories of Australian players for the boro.

Off the top of head I can remember...

Mark schwazer
Brad Jones
Rhys Williams
Scott McDonald
Luke wilkshire?
Mark viduka

Schwazer imo one of the best keepers to ever pull on the shirt, that penalty save against city to put us into Europe was amazing. People said he was past it when he left us, he has put them to shame.

brad Jones other end of the scale, great shot stopper but endless mistakes and flappy wrists. Had it not been for him we would never have had the two best games of recent history as a comeback like that would never have been needed.

Mark viduka, lots of time on the injury table, but by god, what a player, best In the business at what he did, very fond memories of him.

Middlesbrough vs Sunderland Betting

Afternoon all just wondering if any is going to have a little bet on Boro getting a result on the weekend at the SOL if so what odds are you taking and what bets are you placing, just currently on sky bet and did a quick scorecast with them the Juke to score first and us to win 2-1 is 81/1 odds

Feel free to post predictions of any betting markets and what your backing


UTB

How a football manager should be?

I read a v. interesting article suggesting what a manager must learn to manage with what they've got and below is the link

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/...65439.html

I never underestimated what Mcclaren brought to us. With him, we won the first trophy and participated in european cup competition twice.

but i clearly remember Gibson's opinion after reaching those competitions. Pls tell me if my memory is wrong. He told those competitions had not brought any profit to the club who on the other hand needed to deal with the expenditure on transportation and accomodation incurred.

The ambitions for getting trophy seem the start of a nightmare if a club could not control its outlays beyond its means. Today the below paper also share with us similar point of view.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footbal...1-3bn.html

Mcclaren brought a lot of international players to the clubs, Mendieta, Mills, Zenden, Southgate, Ehiogu, Maccarone, Ricketts, Christie, Geremi, Allan Johnston, Hasselbaink, Parlour, Reiziger, Viduka and Boateng etc. Most of them worth their value if only we count the standings where we sat and the trophy we got and i am not here discussing if they were good players or not. The point is if the expenditure on their wage alone is sustainable when we are in PL. Another concern is we needed to rebuild our team which was full of aging players without resale value after Mcclaren left us for his england national manager.

When we look at Portsmouth, someone here believe these are directors & chairmen who spent beyond their means that got the clubs into trouble. If same theory is applied, i don't think we could blame Southgate for signing Mido and Alves. And we heard the same manager came out suggesting he was not the one having brought Alves here. I am not suggesting Southgate was not guilty of bringing wrong players, but every manager should take their full responsibility on the players they signed and the club's financial situation. I even remember Mourinho came out suggesting to Real president Florentino Perez that he needed the same power as his when he was in Chelsea and Inter Milan. He said every england club manager had the full power for deciding who they wanted but he did not get the same power when in the 1st year he managed Real Madrid.

When we look at Arsenal, someone believe it's the time their fans need a new manager. But they seem to be forgetting who has brought success to the club and what will achieve if his successor comes. Changing a manager does not guarantee you with a success when you look at Liverpool. We could understand why fans vent fury at Wenger considering they are the clubs from fighting for trophy to fighting for a top 4. But at least they could play in european champion league yet their club is on a break-even or gaining small profit. It is weird if someone said boro could do so considering we are suffering financial deficit and endured bloody relegation 2 season ago.

Ex Boro XI

Who you would welcome back (if anyone) to The Boro if we had a bit of cash to splash?
What would your preferred XI be if we had managed to keep certain players?

If things had worked out differently, we could have seen a Boro team like the below. What would yours be? No doubt I forgot a few faces and Juke's inclusion is more out of hope than evidence!



Yes, it's a little nonsensical and born out of transfer activity frustration, but still makes a point; if we had been lucky enough to keep all our talented players over the years, we'd have a decent premiership quality team.