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I don't know whether you've noticed this or not but you have a tendency to recommend Danish people for various things.

seriously mate, it's done. I think everyone gets your opinions on this...but The club/Gibson have made the decision they are entitled to make, time to move on. you can be angry at the club and hope everything goes tits-up, so that you can come back and tell us all how you 'told us so' or get behind the new plan and see what happens? even then you can gleefully wait for it to fail!

It'll be vastly different to the ones you get as he isn't a bellend about it

FWIW -The Chinese discussions with Gibson were centered more towards Bulkhaul and Rockcliffe. Despite what was said in the media the talks were primary regarding club sponsorship and hotel ownership structures through a broker Alexander Jarvis. -Gibson has a very close relationship with Sir Jim Ratcliffe (INEOS) and the latter sought the former during the process of due diligence and advice on club ownership after deciding to proceed with plans for investment in OGC Nice. Peter Kenyon is linked to Ratcliffe after using him to seek advice and knowledge regarding Chelsea. - I dont know the latest regarding Jokanovic but as has been widely reported he did have discussions with club hierarchy in London. He is not supportive of a DOF model but has a close relationship with a wide network of agents and links with scouts across the world. It does not appear his apparent wage demands are the problem as mentioned by a number of people on here. His reservations are the magnitude of the task ahead transition to a more free flowing attacking philosophy. (This is evident after the WBA transition from Pulis style after Pardew came in). There was set to be another meeting with Jokanovic who was provided after the first meeting with all of our statistical records, data, player database information and coaching infrastructure. - As I mentioned earlier in this thread Phil Neville was on the list, meeting was held in London but he was looking to combine both a role with Englands women team and our club which was not something we were willing to consider. - Moyes, Rowett and Paul Clement were proposed by their respective agencies for an interview but none of these went any further.

I did a poll as well and 100% of the people who I asked refused to answer and got quite annoyed with me, which surprised me a bit as it's not like there's lots of other things to do at a funeral 😕

D.Z & Randy Can we all just knock it off please lads. It’s becoming quite tiresome. If you do need to chat to each other do it via DM CHEERS 👍

Randolph and Ian Harte (loves round here) played a big part in Keane coming

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum, I've been lurking since the end of the season and it is much better than FMTTM! Anyway..... I must be honest, initially I wasn't happy with the Woodgate links and I thought the club will just go backwards just like the Southgate era. However, the longer it has gone on, I have warmed to it. I'm now genuinely pretty excited at whats to come. I've only heard good things about Woodgate from players, managers and coaches. The impending appointments of Round, Leo & Keane excites me too. Round is massively experiences in a number of roles and is versatile, as is Leo. Whereas Keane is fairly new to coaching but Assistant Manager of his home country is nothing to be sniffed at. UTB, here's to a successful 19/20 season.

Overall, I'm happy today that we've finally heard how we are choosing to portray ourselves for the foreseeable future. I'm enjoying the positivity that a lot of people are portraying on here at the moment, I know it's not entirely how everyone wanted this to play out, some still not at all convinced and that's fine. But I hope we can at least give Woody and indeed the club as a whole the chance to do things the way so many people on here were asking us to do. The actions will make or break this without a doubt but for a moment, it would be nice to just appreciate that the words today are exactly the kind which people have been wanting and spent a lot of time last season talking about. We want everyone to believe that we want to create an identity, we want to play positive attacking football, we want to bring the fans back by being more positive. I think that's why a lot of people have been happier and more positive today, despite Woodgate not being many people's choice to take on the mantle. I'm excited to go to the Riverside as a season ticket holder for the first time this season and sharing that experience with my mates, I'm hoping more than anything that this positivity from today can continue in some fashion and that we start to get the sceptics back on board. It will make being a Boro fan more enjoyable again. I've said I despised last season in the end because I've never felt more disconnected from my fellow fans and I hope that never happens again. I've personally had a really challenging 12 months and usually being part of our club and community brings me right out of those bad times when match-day comes around. Last season ended up being entirely the opposite and a combination of that and other things led to one of the worst mental health scares I've had in 7 years. Feeling a lot better than I was though and it feels like today is another step in a positive direction and it's important to take on board that positivity in those rare moments they hit you. Onwards and upwards, people. UTFB!

Hold on fella. You claimed pulis (wrong), then you claimed the odds on favourite and do a song and dance about being right when you pushed and pushed about a DOF that would be Bebington or grayson. Neither appear to have been mentioned for that role never mind appointed. In fact, it's been mooted that we won't be having a DoF. Your "source" got 1 out of 3 and that was odds on. Let's see if one of the itk guys does a song and dance about being right if we don't hire a DoF. My guess would be they won't. In other news I had a winner in a horse race yesterday. Odds of 2/1. The bookies are now leaning on me to find out how I knew beforehand 😜 Only a bit of fun mind.

Looking forward to the Woodgate era. There’d be nothing better than a local lad bringing through the youth players with attacking football. UTB

I don’t care about Woodgate’s private life to be honest. I care about Middlesbrough as a football club and I feel that appointing Woodgate would be another massive mistake. I am going to keep away from character in this assessment as I do not know him personally. But what I would say is that he does not strike me as the intelligent, professional person you would like to have managing your club. But as I said, that opinion could be completely wrong. On a purely footballing basis, he has absolutely no managerial experience. The coaching experience and much of the playing experience he has had has come under negative managers. So, if he does prefer a more attacking style, where has he learnt to employ this effectively? It’s been a long time since he played for Real Madrid and football has changed a lot since then. Another important reason in my opinion is pull in the transfer market. Unfortunately, Middlesbrough aren’t a club who everyone dreams of playing for. We struggle to compete in the transfer market due to location. We used to have money that we could offer in wages to make up for that but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Therefore we need a manager with a bit of pulling power and links to other clubs. Our best spell in our recent history was in the Championship, under Karanka. Much of that success was due to his ability to bring in players because of his links to the Spanish national sides and Mourinho. As much as I hate Terry, and wouldn’t want him near the club, he would have massive links to Chelsea that could be tapped into. Arteta would have massive links to Arsenal and Man City. Realistically, what links would Woodgate have? Reputation wise too, players know about the way Jokanovic wants to play the game so would be attracted to the club because of that. Arteta has worked under Pep so players would assume he would manage the same way and that would be a big attraction for many players. Terry has captained Chelsea to Champions League titles and Premier League titles so has a big reputation in the English game. We all know Woodgate would have been a fantastic player had injuries not ruined his career. But his reputation in the English game, both as a player and a manager, isn’t enough to attract players to come and sign for this club. We have a massive rebuilding job to do. Fans morale and trust for Gibson and the club is at an all time low. A sense of a ‘Jobs for the Boys’ culture has set in. Appointing Woodgate would just go to enhance this belief and the distrust for Gibson and the club would grow. I, like many others, feel that after a year of excruciating football, we need a complete change, someone from outside the club. Even if it’s only for what it signifies. Like it or not, appointing Woodgate will not sit well with many fans. Therefore he will not be given time by the fans. As soon as we lose a few games, which will inevitably happen at some stage, the fans will turn on him, and the atmosphere in the Riverside will revert back to what it has been the last couple of months and that is no good for anyone. In contrast, if Jokanovic was appointed, I’m 100% certain the fans will stick behind him for a lot longer due to his past record. Is it fair that Jokanovic will be given a lot more time than Woodgate to get it right? Probably not... will it happen? Most definitely.

A complete 360 would mean they were facing the same way they were to begin with 😂

Quick update on a few changes made today: - I've tweaked the font size and colour on mobile so this should render a bit nicer - The number of reactions you can give out per day has been lifted - You can edit any post you have made (was previously locked down to a 5 minute timeframe). This is good to know for updating the opening post (e.g. Transfer thread or New Manager thread) - Merged the sticky posts in the Boro forum so that it's quicker to see 'normal' posts In terms of the question about automatically quoting all posts in your post (e.g. nesting of quotes), this is the implementation of Invision Community so that the last post is quoted. This helps keep the replies streamlined rather than quoting quote after quote, however as mentioned by users in other threads, you can highlight the text and use "Quote selection"

These are bold appointments in my opinion not just the "cheap" option some of the keyboard warriors would have us believe. As for fan divisions I really do think that these will evaporate once we hear from the new team. The divisions were purely down to Boolis as he was firmly ion charge so it is unfair to say that Woody was his stooge previously. In fairness this has all the hallmarks of a fresh start that might well take a few years to get right , as opposed to smashing the league , but I would rather have a young , hungry team trying to play decent football than some of the garbage we have seen in recent seasons. If this is to be the the start of playing the youth / bringing in lower league players I am quite happy to see mid table and above as success next year. Lets give Woody and the gang a fair crack before we go all "typical" on them.

He is under 20’s manager at one of the biggest teams in Brazil, they consistently qualify for the South American version of the Champions League, they play in a 78,000 capacity stadium, they are a bigger team than Ajax, yet people were happy to have the Ajax youth manager as manager!

BREAKING NEWS: OUTRAGE as man shares pictures of his FAMILY on HOLIDAY on social media. We'll bring you more as this story develops.

I'm against his appointment for a number of reasons, and I would welcome a challenge to anyone to change my mind. 1- he has 0 managerial experience of a first team in competitive action. I think it's too much of a big risk for my battered and bruised Boro. 2- I have no idea what his philosophy or playing style is. This is then making the decision less appealing as I cant picture a boro squad under him or what formation or what brand of football he will play. With Jokanovic I can. 3- rumours of him failing his coaching badges have now all seem to be forgotten? I'm sorry but a month ago he failed his exams. He is the definition of a rookie manager but that's okay because he loves the club.. 4- I personally believe he will have a hard time winning over the senior members in the squad. Will he have their respect? 5- Woodgate has had stories about him speaking out against other members of the managerial staff, Karanka and Pulis. That doesn't seem like someone who is a good fit. Seems a bit back stabby for my liking. If I was a player in the dressing room, those thoughts would certainly cross my mind. 6- for me, it also signifies Gibsons white flag for a couple of seasons. It feels like hes fobbed the fans off with *** football with Pulis, we've sold our best players and now we are being punished with a cheap option. 7 - if he gets the job no matter what he does, he will always be compared to a "if only we got Jokanovic". Typical Boro, he will go to West Brom and get them promoted probably. 8- personal problems off the pitch and his reputation. 9- there are plenty of other managers out there. I thought this was a "plum job". For the sake of the club, I hope he works out. But it just has a feeling of Southgate mk 2 and that set us back and it seems that history will repeat itself. *rant over*

Imagine Woodgate's response to the fans after we fall to our 4th straight defeat 0-1 at home to Luton Town.

Just to add more info if it means anything... 2 of the scouting dept left us today. Seems to be a mass overhaul behind the scenes.

Tone it down lads. It’s getting tiresome. If you’ve got nothing to contribute with then either don’t or keep it to PM. I genuinely don’t want to read your bickering. It’s not like you can win a prize or a special hat.

Guys if we can get back on topic. I've issued a 24 hour posting ban to king boro to stop the madness for now while we figure out the best way forward. I'd appreciate if we dont keep talking about it because if anyone wakes up tomorrow and has to read anymore of this they'll have to chuck themselves in front of a car.

Not sure if this has been posted already but THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION HAS BEEN ANSWERED. WHAT WILL WOODY WEAR?!? From the gazette's latest piece: After the conference, with most scribes dispersed, Woodgate came over for a chat with the local press and reiterated his choice of clothes. “It will be suits all the way,” he said. “It sends out a message.”

If everything that was said in the press conference happens and the club actually make strides to achieve these changes, this could be a huge watershed moment in our history. I really want this to work for all involved and us as fans too!

Couldn't care less about ffp to be honest, that's Gibson's thing. I was referring to the kind of questions we've all been asking on here for a while. So I'd be interested to hear about the process of appointing the new Head Coach. I'd be interested to know whether Gibson's original intention was to try and keep Pulis on and how this would go with this new philosophy we now have. I'd like to know when Gibson decided we were going to change things. I'd like to know what Pulis' remit was in particular with reference to finances if he's now laughing off suggestions that we have issues in this area. I'd personally like to ask about the rise in ticket prices being announced during one of the worst spells of football I've ever seen. I suppose I'd be interested in a detailed answer as to why Woodgate was the best candidate for the job in his opinion, if possible with reference to who the other candidates were and why they were less suitable. How does he feel about the growing disconnect between the club and fans? I'm sure you could all think of a few yourselves seeing as how we've spent the last few months asking them on here. I'd probably even ask what he hopes to achieve by taking those clubs to court although that would be down towards the bottom of my own list. Of course he's happy to talk about ffp as it deflects attention away from the club and on to the EFL and we can all be angry together at those rascals for allowing other clubs to get away with things. It's easier than asking more pertinent questions about this club and the decisions we've made recently.

Plot twist - Money was never tight he just didn't want to give anymore to Pulis. 😂

Can’t believe people are say “Nothing has happened” it’s been really busy below are the highlights Some people upset @D.Z. 😳 @Changing Times posted something sarcastically (Which was instantly taken the wrong way) 😱 I think @Duvel got his message across that he may not be ‘Too Keen’ on Woodgate 🤔 But the biggest breaking news was....... @Prowler has actually got a girl to agree to go on a date with him 🤭🤭🤭 cmon oneBoro what more do you want???

I really don't get the Woodgate hate from people. I realise he was part of the coaching set up under Pulis, well all the ones Pulis brought into the club have left. He played for some of the biggest teams in Europe Real Madrid, Spurs, Leeds(hell of a team when he was there) and was known as a footballing defender always oozed class and looked for a pass as opposed to hoofing it. Would have played far more for England if it wasn't for injuries. So many people saying they don't want him to be manager yet they would accept other unproven managers without any issue, complete hypocrisy if you ask me. Yes I would prefer Jokanovic, a manager who has won promotion twice and played great football doing it. If not him I would be happy to have Woodgate especially given how well he knows the younger players.

Oooooohhh interesting, hope its Jokanovic then.

It has though, he's got the job. I suppose it's like if you want pizza for tea, but everyone else decides they want Chinese. You can either sit and sulk looking at photos of pizzas, or just get over it and enjoy your sweet & sour chicken. I've kind of held off on giving my opinion on Woodgate, largely because I don't have one. I wanted Jokanovic because he has a track record of getting teams promoted. I wouldn't have been completely against Karanka for the same reason (though I never thought that was likely). I wasn't overly concerned about Woodgate being part of Pulis' regime, as obviously being a coach under someone else is very different to being Head Coach. I am concerned about his lack of experience, and nothing he says in a press conference makes any difference to that. But having said that, obviously Ferguson, Guardiola, Shankly etc were all new managers at one point. I'm not saying Woodgate will ever be anywhere near that level, but we don't know how good he will be until the season starts. To be quite honest, as a generally positive fan, it's just nice to be optimistic about something again after one of the worst years of following football I've ever had. Until we line up with 5 centre backs and Gestede and Downing up front on the first day of the season, anyway.

This conversation - CT - I dont know why you changed your stance Everyone else - because of these reasons CT - your reasons are wrong, you're not allowed to interpret things differently than I do. Why ask for reasons if you're simply not going to accept them?

Don’t know if it’s been mentioned but Randolph definitely staying.

In what world has anyone ever seen a manager unveiled at a club with anything other than "He was always our man". I know some people think that Gibbo is paying Woody £100's of thousands because he is "cheap" but i dont think the multi millionaire businessman is that daft , after all now the FFP is upon us he will be spending a lot more every month keeping us going. Could it just be that he actually does want to see a new Boro , because he actually does care what is served up for the fans. Could it be that he accepts that the pragmatic Pulis approach didn't work , could it be he just wanted to keep Duvel out of the ground I am being flippant but what good does raking over past misery do. Football is all about hope and even if that hope evaporates after the season kicks off why not let us at least have hope now. I am happy to be deluded enough to think that this is a brave new world because it is already a dam site more hopeful than the last one. Now where did I put those foam hands?

Bloody hell, that's no barometer. I'm followed by Maddo, and I'm as reliable as a bulletproof vest made of paper

I’m told they have all signed today.. Keane not yet signed and ongoing... trying to get hold of a picture of them all apparently in gear today ready for press release.

So then which member is going to reveal themselves as a reporter for the Gazette.....

Agree on every word Billy. Get a youth team manager from a huge club in South America to join as AM is fairly decent. If it was a no name youth team manager from Sao Paolo, Boca Juniors, Velez Sarsfield or whatever a lot would probably say it's a bold and inventive move by the club. Now it's just jobs for the boys, chuckle brother and whatnot just because he has experience from here earlier. So what? It'll just help him settle in and it's a completely new backroom set-up. He even has years of experience of being an actual AM. He also strikes me as the kind of guy who will actually tell the manager if what he sees isn't working.

I have a friend of a friend who worked for him at Southampton, so I asked him a very simple question, good manager or not. His answer was very positve, he said, a top bloke who the players would run through walls for. He apparently had a difficult relationship with the clubs foreign owners and he was sacked after taking them into the Premiership, a situation that he apparently took a long time to recover from. The senior players were given freedom to play forward and the crowd was generally pleased with the type of football he gave them. The youth players and coaches still have fond memories of him as he liked to be involved at all levels apparently. As far as anyone knows he has no links to the underworld, was a paragon of virtue growing up so has no police record and did not dabble with drugs at university, (that one is for Gove). Sounds like he ticks all the boxes to me especially after his successful season at Hull despite the interference of the owners as usual, bring it on.

I said when Pulis was here I'd take playing the kids under a home grown manager all day long and I'm sticking by it. If it's Woodgate then so be it, it can't be as bad as what we've endured. UTB

I'm not sure why everyone is so against championship football. On the whole it's a good league to be in. Our last two seasons in the premier League (two separate occasions) were miserable experiences followed by relegation. If we continue to challenge for playoffs, then surely that's better than winning a handful of games a season. I'm not that keen on Woodgate, because he has no experience. But what experience did Pep Guardiola have before being given the Barcelona job... One year of Barcelona B team. You never know which ex-players are going to make good managers?! Why shouldn't Boro give Woodgate a try, if he talks a good game, let's find out if he can deliver on those philosophies

Steve Gibson--"so Neil who are we going with after the interviews?" Neil Bauser- "interviews? I thought Peter was doing those?" Peter Kenyon - " b***ocks I thought you were doing them Steve" Steve Gibson - "***"

I thought it was fairly common knowledge that Woodgate was lined up to replace Pulis, we’ve been talking about it for months. Why the sudden hysteria? The club obviously see potential in him, he must have passed his badges, even though the rumourmongers said he hadn’t, his appointment isn’t a glamorous one, but I’d prefer him to Phil Neville any day of the week. People keep saying that his appointment will divide the fans, that really is in the hands of the fans, if you want to be divided, then keep moaning and spreading rumours about him, if you want to stand together, get behind him and see where he takes us.

For me it is as simple as this: Which other clubs in the Championship would seek to have Jonathan Woodgate as their Manager or first team coach? My guess is none, which begs the question as to why Boro would. If we are short of funds and need a coach who can blend Academy players with 1st teamers, why Woodgate?, he has zero experience and in truth, has never gave the impression that ANY form of management would suit his attributes. If he is appointed, then we are taking a huge gamble and given our past history of selecting a new boss, a gamble that is almost certain to fail. On the back of Pulisball, this would only serve to disengage the vast majority of fans. Other clubs seem to be able to pluck unknown managers from nowhere and deliver success, yet we think Woodgate is the best available, based on what exactly? Oh yeah...he's a Boro old boy.

'Worse than non-league' is not even close to accurate, but even putting that to one side, Neville has also coached at Valencia, Man United and England U-21. He's more experienced than Woodgate, definitely more than Southgate was and arguably more than McClaren or Robson were.

Yeah it's under Settings > Grandpa

'...manage a ‘non-winning club to make them a winning club’ Didn't he already try that with Man United?

I have him on ignore, its very refreshing. You can find this option in your settings.

You're trying too hard mate. Need to use a little subtlety I reckon.

I wish everyone would stop using the rumoured information as a reason to get really annoyed and as a stick to beat Gibson with. While I appreciate the info that gets passed on here, no one is right 100% of the time, far from it. So just take the info on board and wait and see what ACTUALLY happens.

Couldn’t care less what Jokanovic has done in the Prem. We are a Championship Club. His record in the Championship speaks for itself therefore he is the best man for the job to try and get us up from all the candidates who we know have spoken to Gibson.