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Can I be first to ask if Parrott deal is dead....or just resting

Why has nobody started a FFP details and specifics thread yet for the few who are interested 😶

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/woodgate-issues-update-middlesbrough-contract-17582560 some good news this morning. Woody says that he thinks Spence will sign a new contract "in the next 10 days" with Pears and Tavernier to follow suit soon after.

Ridiculous comments from those criticising Liddle, he's a young kid making a debut away to a Premier league team. Not only that our shape was all over the place in the first half which left him and Wing totally outnumbered in the middle. In the second half we pushed our defence 10/15 yards further up the pitch which reduced Spurs' space to play and got ourselves back in the game.

Just arrived home and certainly for 3 generations of my family it was well worth the trip. Good game, good football and I get to go to the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium. Lads did us proud and the work ethics was first class. MOM for me was Howson but the new lads certainly looked a step up from what we have been used to. Joe (Blanco) was really good seeing you again with your family sorry I could not spend more time with you. Teddy very irked that he will not be going to the replay!

Et tu DS?! I don't think I'm getting enough credit for this upturn in form. Woodgate hasn't mentioned me once and the Gazette are acting like I don't even exist 😢

Wouldn’t be surprised if woodgate got manager of the month for December

I mentioned yesterday about Stoke diving a lot. Here is the one that actually made me choke on my drink at the time.

I get very little about contracts but I would like to think 4.5yr deals for all 3 of them.

All blame to Mejias for me, dropped all heads immediately with the error.

I am SO glad, that is a finger! 😄

For *** sake, I'm blaming my maths teacher. He taught me values based on football league tables, where 24 has less value than 1. Are you telling me he's wrong? I'm starting to figure it all out now.

Has that big red arrow just pushed that car forward?

We're talking about making a loss on Britt because it gets the wages off the book. It also accounts for the fact he's not really established himself as one of the best strikers in the division over the last 2.5 years and the fact we paid over the odds for him to begin with. Darren Randolph is widely acknowledged as the best keeper in the division and we could actually lose money on him, someone we paid a third of what we paid Britt for. He's been in the form of his career for most his time here now and we're only gonna break even on him? We don't even have the luxury of having another great keeper behind him, there's a young lad in great form but we've given this platform to a young promising keeper before and he fluffed it, and we had nowhere to turn. And the counter points are that he's 32? Pretty good age for a keeper, Tom Heaton is a year older, has had injuries plaguing him for 2-3 years, wasn't even first choice at Burnley and he went for £8m. I can accept it. But does it annoy me? Hell yes. In an era where we want to make the most out of our better players, breaking even on a player who was going nowhere, has established himself at both club and international level since and who has little to no competition even close to his calibre behind him... no way should anyone look at this as a good deal.

Everyone brace for the Spurs response...

You can add @Raf smog to that list. He gets a lot right as well

Pears wasn't really troubled other than the shot before the goal. Ayala was at his best Howson did really well covering the space behind Djed, great through ball for the first goal Fry, some good moments and some poor ones, decision making needs to improve, and it will when his confidence returns Djed was excellent going forward and Coulson did a great job defensively after a rocky opening 10 mins Clayton did ok Tav, shaky first half, but he really took the game by the scruff of the neck and for 25 mins of second half they couldn't contain him Saville well he wasn't a liability, I'll take that as a step forward Walker didn't see much of the ball, didn't put a foot wrong though Fletcher had his moments and put a lot of work in, great run for the goal Gestede, good cameo, really troubled their defence challenging for those arial balls. If he can get back to full fitness he will be a good last 30 minute plan B Wing a good cameo, great shot, but he was chasing Allans shadow for the last 20 Johnson didn't get into it, but didn't get a silly sending off either All in all, a game of two halves but again we showed some promise in spells, with Ayala and Tav being stand outs

Woodgate’s subs or lack of them really annoy me. It’s going to be too late for them to have an impact soon

From an interview with him: You played three times for the Macedonian U21 national team, but lastly you were on the bench for Austria’s U19 national team and did not get a chance to play in the games. How is it currently, for which country do you want to play in the future and why? In a year, no one from the ÖFB has called me. For me that is a sign that Austria has no interest in me. Macedonia, on the other hand, wants me for the senior national team. Unfortunately, this is not possible right now since I have just Austrian citizenship.

All you've done mate is highlight exactly how *** terribly we used De Roon while he was here. He came from Atalanta nicknamed the Wave Breaker for his defensive abilities, only to be played as a Box to Box player while here. Goes back to Atalanta, goes back to his usual DM role and is now a full international and champions league player. De Roons problem was his usage here, not his talent level. He was far and away the best CM we had at the club and it's not even a contest.

Surely if your nana had a penis she/he wouldn’t have been able to copulate with your grandad to make your mam/dad? Therefore you wouldn’t be here. What that has to do with not achieving the playoffs I haven’t the foggiest but we should probably think about it, at least for a while anyway

I'd be quoting silly money for Tav. Give them a price of say £50m+ to see how solid their interest is. We don't need to sell him at all so if anyone wants to buy they can pay WELL above market value imo

Sounds like something SmogDane would do.

I suspect there's a fair deal more to his tactical analysis than the things he often speaks about in press conferences. Even crap managers have views on how to play the game tactically and where they think they can hurt teams or where best to defend against them. The difference between good and bad managers in that regard is perhaps how correct they are, how nuanced they are about it, how much they set up to counter the opposition vs. how much is just "Here are our strengths, lets impose ourselves" and when to do either of those things. Woodgate has played under all kinds of good managers throughout the years, as he's said himself, he will have picked some of that up alongside his coaching badges. From there, it's about how you apply the skills and knowledge that you've taken on board and how well the players can take that on board. And hey, even the best managers get it wrong sometimes. I'd say one thing that seems to have changed is that the results have picked up a few heads. Credit to the lads who dusted themselves down when things weren't going well and came out against the likes of Hull and Charlton and put the form book to one side, players like Howson, McNair, Johnson, Fletcher and Britt too. It's almost certainly helped some of the younger inexperienced players, like Tav, Wing, Spence, Coulson, Pears, them lot are bright sparks but if the older lads aren't having a good time, it's infinitely harder for them. This point in the season when so many things are going our way is when Woodgate and co. need to shine, everyone will be switched on and willing to listen and do the job for him. There are promising signs right now, let's hope he keeps this going.

I think we're playing pretty well. Howson is some man isn't he

I'm telling you now If they offered 10million we would charter a private helicopter to the West Ham training ground. It's that simple I promise you.

Oh absolutely @DurhamRed but not a chance in hell we are getting £4m for him. Why would anyone pay £4m given he out of contract in 6mths? Makes zero sense. Think that bit is lazy journalism.

I'm just gonna write him off now to save time. I hope we're not paying his full wages, the useless get.

Never heard a murmur of this... also may mean the club is also releasing dodgy Info etc. Happy to be wrong If Randz stays

Cb gibbo midfield clarke Maddison attacker young spurs striker parrett I think his name was

Not sure I buy this. Players get forced out all the time.

OK, so when you take your coaching badges you learn about the 4 phases of play. All players have varying influences on them. 1) With the ball. When we have possession of the ball, does Britt pull his weight, does he have a positive influence on us? Well he taps the ball in, and that shouldn't be underestimated, he comes alive in the last 8 yards. But the consensus is that outside of that, he shows a poor touch, his movement isn't intelligent, he doesn't drop and get involved in build up, he doesn't dribble past anyone, he almost exclusively looks to run in behind. This means that our midfielders have one option, the eye of a needle through ball. It's no surprise that with Fletcher up top, who likes to drop and get involved, our CM have looked much better. Saville looks like a player again, Tav is making runs, because Fletcher is making intelligent movement to create space. This isn't an accident, when Britt next gets a run in the team, see how many overhit through balls there are and how many square passes from CM 2) Without the ball. Britt has never been good in this area. Fletcher is much better. Britt closes off the square pass, showing the line to opposing players, but then doesn't traverse the line with any aggression, to force mistakes. Britt probably wouldn't have put pressure on the defender to score an own goal at Preston, because he doesn't have the fitness or desire to work in that area 3) Positive transition. Britt needs to make those in behind runs from 35 yards, he can't do it from the halfway line as he isn't quick enough. So he relies on us winning the ball fairly high up. If we win it deeper, he isn't very good at hold up, pinging balls to spread the play, or playing through balls for midfield runners. So he is limited in this area. 4) Negative transition. He doesn't get involved in defending too much, so negative transitions are a 10 man game with Britt. Considering he does lose the ball a lot that creates stress on the team. That's an honest opinion of him, can you take all those negatives with him in the team? 25-30 years ago, he would be a superstar, the game was less tactical, he probably would have played with a tall striker to win flick ons. But it isn't the early 90s or 80s, teams play far more possession football. The idea that he would thrive in a team like Sheff Wed with Nehui is ludicrous, Britt likes to play on the last man, and Nehui-types are generally immobile and also need to be on the last man to flick it on... teams would have to sacrifice a midfielder and would barely get any quality possession. This would create massive pressure on a defence. Britt will end up at a lower half champo team over the next couple of years because his limitations cannot be overcome unless he can get 20+ league goals they don't balance out.

I'm sure they'll find something else to sell to themselves 🙂

Gestede's deserved that he's done well, we look very good out there again honestly well done Woodgate since Charlton we look like a serious team 70-80% of the time it's an incredible turnaround honestly.

I think Souness' suggestion is better if part of the attacking player is onside then they are onside. It would be easier to review as well.

Britt for Johnson the only change for tomorrow.

To be fair, part of the new setup was essentially to bring through young players on the cheap and become profitable through making money on them. Selling Coulson and Spence would hurt us right now but selling them for good fees would represent half of the task we need to do. It's the reinvesting of the money that is the worrying part more than the selling for big fees.

I am all for this type of link not only does it indicate that perhaps we can explore overseas players but perhaps introduce some skilful players that can and will turn and maybe dictate passages of play. I guess making the Boro a bit more exciting to watch

Think there’s a difference between ‘want’ and ‘would take to boost an extremely depleted squad if he was cheap’

I’m not sure it is ‘good news’ if Randolph stays, he’s a great keeper for us yes but imo the absolute biggest difference he can make to the club rn is to bring in £5m and hope we get a bit of it to spend. Bringing in Clark and Maddison will be far more beneficial to us than having Randolph in goal and ste walker playing.

Just turns up to collect his pay cheque? Been reading through some of the posts arguing about who's fault it is, why we seem to start games so poorly / negatively. Unfortunately they didn't help me make my mind up. All I know is, its incredibly frustrating to see how tentative we are. So slow, hesitant...almost scared to play. We get so far up the pitch, but then keep passing sideways and finally all the way back to the keeper. Over and over again. Its probably not a coincidence we only seem to get our fingers out once we go behind. Is that down to the manager's instructions, or the players' "self-preservation" instincts kicking in? I wish I knew. When you see how we CAN play when we decide to really attack, it makes you want to give them all a good slap.

Give Ayala what ever contract he wants. He deserves it, we’d be screwed without his leadership and power. Won EVERYTHING tonight.

I would play my strongest team, kinda like a reward to play at Spurs new ground. Imagine the bounce if we managed to beat them!

I know that I'm in the minority here, but I'm not sure that Gibbo returning would be good for either him or us. Yes, he needs to get his career going again, but I think he could achieve that elsewhere. Gibbo has played very few matches for Burnley and is currently out injured. It will take time to regain match fitness and sharpness. Some of our fans will be understanding, but there will be quite a few who will expect the same player we had before. It could take months to return to his previous level, if he manages to do so. I would rather remember Gibson for the great player he was for us, rather than as a shadow of what he was. If he went elsewhere then there would be fewer comparisonsand expectations for him to need to live up to.

As much as we question the info of some of the peeps on here, I suggest we throw the same pinch of salt over whatever 'quotes' the Daily M**l pull up. My suspicion is that the article is not being written based on anything factual other than West Ham's interest and our refusal to sell for a pittance, Randolph getting involved and being desperate to go back where he was desperate to leave seems a bit questionable to me.

I know for a fact that Gestede has a goal bonus written into his contract. However it was written in that long ago we owe him a £1 note and a wham bar. He’s just not scored enough to warrant upgrading it

Obviously I don’t want to put words in JTs mouth but I believe he means gutless in his set up And early tactics. In recent memory I seem to remember that our best performances happen after we stop trying to defend and start pushing forward He is unbelievably negative and we’re not good enough to defend for 90 mins. However when we concede (which we inevitably do) he forced to release the shackles and attack

LEAVE ME ALONE DAD