Leaderboard

Hi guys! PAOK fan here from Greece. You are getting a really hard worker in Akpom. He is a top lad and a good professional. When he first came, he was considered a bench player. It was the 2018-19 season. During the first half of that season he would only come in as sub but during the January transfer window, PAOK sold their best striker, Prijovic in Arabia. Everyone was panicking since we were on route to our first championship in years. Chuba stepped up and was one of the best players, in the second half of the season. He contributed in PAOK's first championship in 34 years (!) where we were also invincibles. Some of his best games were against Olympiakos in Toumpa were he scored an impressive goal and his performance against AEK in the cup final where he scored an impressive overhead kick to win us the double (he was also the MVP of the final). His scoring record might not be the best but he is a really hard working striker, who runs a lot without the ball. His positioning is good and he can press a lot. In Tuesday, we beat and disqualified Benfica (which is considered a big deal considering the teams economical difference) and Akpom was one of the best players. PAOK's pressing started from him and he ran a lot. I mean A LOT. He also kept the ball well against world class defenders like Vertoghen and he had an unofficial assist in Benfica's own goal. Now for the price, I think 2.8 is fine because you are getting a player with important experience for his age (promotion with hull, first team appearances with arsenal under Wenger, double and Europa league with PAOK, playoffs in Belgium side Sint-Truidense). Keep in mind that Arsenal kept a 40% future sales when he signed for us (I do not know the right english term sorry... but I think you get it) which means that you will be paying around 1 mill to Arsenal. To be honest I am surprised that he chose a Championship team to continue his career, but his will to play near his family played a big part in his decision. Last year he was linked with West Ham and this summer with Besiktas (a Europa league team that PAOK also beat two weeks ago in a game where Akpom had an assist and a great overall performance, but a missed pen 😭). IMO he can be considered Premier League level. I dont know if he is a starter there but he can surely fight for a position. Now for the negatives. His heading ability is not that strong despite him being relatively tall. He sometimes lacks concentration and confidence. Also, I don't know how effective he will be in a team that plays long balls (as I read somd of you say). He is although energetic and he is not an old type boring striker who waits in the penalty area. He also played as a winger in some games in Belgium and as a second striker at PAOK in a 3-4-2-1 formation (but not that many times). Overall I am emotional about his departure because his name was written in PAOK's history and he played a huge part in our first double and championship in so many years. I dont know I might be biased but I tried to describe him as objectively as I could. P.S. Sorry for the loooong message but I thought I could inform you. Even though I live in Greece I am interested in the EFL and I support Bristol Rovers so I said why not... P.S.2 I just read the news about Warnock. I hope he stays healthy and good 🙏

Morsy nearly done

Although that pic is now out there, I could get in trouble and have been asked to take it down. Good news either way 👍

Was hoping for something a little more humble to be honest...............................goodbye! Thor's account has been deleted fyi Not standing for stupidity and mickey taking

Yes club are expecting 2/3 in before weekend, and gibbo been for talks with Norwich / and Forest none starter with The clubs. Looks like it’s forcing Burnley’s hands. They have ran out of options

Hopefully they want them all sorted by Monday next week. But I quote “ working a lot harder on a different transfer Pulling out all the stops to get it done”so might hold out on announcements until answer of extra transfer

I don’t normally post if have ITK info but I have a few things if anyone is interested. I’ve only had ITK info once before and that was when I broke Burnley’s interest in Fry a few year ago. From the same source; Warnock is taking a few trialists to Cornwall with him to have an in depth look, one of them is Maghoma, the other 2 I don’t know names of. Club keeping it under wraps. We’re confident on getting Gibson back as he is being stubborn as he only wants to come back here and Burnley don’t want him at the club again to avoid a repeat of last season, this will go to the wire. McNair & Britt being offered about as we believe we can get a decent fee for both and obviously high wages off the books. Britt not to fussed about leaving but McNair wants out. We have also enquired about Tyler Roberts from Leeds, they don’t believe he’s cut out for the Premier League. If I get anything else I’ll post.

Morsy Signed. #UTB

Sanogo is training with the players this morning

I really cant believe people are suggesting Grant Hall should be dropped after his 1st game in 6 months. The level of impatience in todays world is bonkers at times.

2 players back at rockcliffe tomorrow all booked in for overnight also.

I *really* like the sound of this Morsy fella.

It makes me smile reading this thread. We’re a small town club and unfortunately it’s increasingly difficult for small town clubs to go toe-to-toe with the big boys. We took some chances after we got relegated, if they’d have worked we wouldn’t be talking about Gibson’s failures. They didn’t work and I’m sure Gibbo is a disappointed as most of us here. Let’s not forget that we wouldn’t have a football club if it wasn’t for him. We wouldn’t have had our only silverware and we wouldn’t have had our fun in Europe. I’ve got used to the idea that Middlesbrough will never win the Premier League but that’s Ok, imagine being a Man Utd or Arsenal fan - they were used to dominating the league and suddenly they’re struggling despite their huge budgets. We need Warnock to stabilise the situation and anything more is a bonus. I think he’ll get us playing like a team instead of 11 individuals - that’s what we’ve been missing. Whether he brings in 5 more players or not the team has to rise to the occasion and all this talk of young players being too young - someone once said if you’re good enough, you’re old enough and I think that says it all but obviously you need the right manager and maybe Warnock is the one!

Could we have a separate thread to vent your frustration on lack of transfer activity, and anything else that's wrong with mfc, and just keep this thread for actual transfer gossip/news. Its getting pretty depressing to read everyone say the same thing in different forms. 😕

I think it's ludicrous to criticise Britt about his time here to be honest. Not once have we played to his strengths - for the last 4 years we have consistently reverted to hit-and-hope hoofball regardless of the manager we've had (even saw it against Shrewsbury, to my IMMENSE frustration) and it just isn't his game. My abiding memory of watching Britt Assombalonga play for Middlesbrough is watching our defence by-pass the midfield, ping a long ball towards him, and seeing the taller centre back win the header and turnover possession. The man has been done an absolute disservice.

Yet if DJed Spence scored and got an assist people would be talking him up. I’ve said from the start that Marvin Johnson really hasn’t had a fair crack at it the Boro fans haven’t liked him since his displays under Monk when let’s face it most of the players were ****. Now every time he puts a foot wrong the fans kick off but when he does something good the fans still don’t want to compliment him.

No this is a totally different scenario than idiots moaning about ridiculous things. This is the culmination of 4 years of terrible decisions, from the pathetic attempt at building a premiership team, putting our shot at survival in the hands of gestede, guedioura and Steve Agnew, spending £30m on strikers when we already had bamford, abandoning a £50m project after 6 months. All the way through to trying to pull the wool over our eyes with woodgate and a boatload of bad PR. We have the people spewing out the ‘gibson pumps money in to keep us afloat!!!’ And the ‘we have to get used to operating on a small budget!!!’ Lines out at us. They don’t stop to think WHY gibson has to pump millions in to keep us afloat, or WHY we have no money. It’s simply our own fault, gibson has to do that because we got stuck with gestede for 4 years on big wages, because we spent a fortune on players we didn’t really need. Not all of these decisions are ‘poor in hindsight’, no boro fan thought gestede and guedioura would transform the team, no boro fan thought woodgate would achieve ANYTHING. We knew at the time they were terrible decisions. BUT that isn’t why people are moaning, we moan now because the people that oversaw not 1 or 2 but 3 shocking periods of this club are ALL still here, the people that seen over £200m pass through the clubs finances are still here. Not only that but we continue to make the same mistakes over and over and over and when we make a poor decision we make sure we DOUBLE DOWN on it. People aren’t moaning today just because of the lack of signings or because we can’t afford any of the bigger names. It’s because we’ve been put in this position by people who continue to have positions of power. There are plus sides however, warnock is probably the most sensible manager we’ve appointed for a while, we apparently have made changes to the scouting set up and I don’t think our squad is as bad as made out, warnock will get a tune out of them. I just hope we can at least get 2 or 3 of the players he actually wants through the door.

This thread isn't about the transfers... but the memories, friends, and enemies we make along the way ❤️

It's just football lads, a bit of fun to take our collective minds off every day life.

Hi guys, good to be back on the forum after health issues the past year. Hoping I will be more active this time around!!!. I mentioned Betinelli in one of my very few posts on July 1, 2019 so i'm chuffed to bits that he's coming to the mighty boro.

Jesus Christ... There's some on here who make me genuinely embarrassed to be a Boro fan. There Birmingham fans down here who've read Boro forums, including this one, and regard some of the posts as absolute laughing stock. There's an inherent negativity in some who act like entitled, spoilt brats. Transfers are not the be-all-and-end-all of football. It's laughable. Genuinely laughable. Because I've been laughing at it with Blues fans.

It's a very emotional time for me as you can imagine 😢 I have to be careful what I say because I had to sign a non disclosure agreement or they threatened to hide my earring 🤫 It hasn't been the easiest environment to work in for a while now. There's a lot of tension in the building and there has been for some time. Anyway, it all started a while ago. Each day I prepare my lunch at home and pop it in a paper bag to bring to work. A nice tupperware box of salad or pasta, some fruit, a yoghurt and a cheeky little bag of crisps. It clearly states 'ANTH'S DINNER, KEEP OUT!' on the outside of the bag in big letters so that everyone knows it's mine. However, someone kept nicking the crisps and opening the yoghurt but then leaving most of it! Being a top investigative journalist I decided to track down who was responsible. My first move was to stand in the middle of the office and ask who had done it but nobody owned up. I was stumped. My good mate Dom suggested that it could be Tallentire as he is "always nicking stuff". I confronted Phil but he of course flatly denied it. I'm not proud to admit that this lead to some fistycuffs between us. Dom said he would have joined in to help me but he was in the middle of a bag of crisps. Good lad is Dom. The fight between Phil and I got reported to management somehow. There was only me, Phil and Dom there, so it must have been Phil who grassed the weaselly little git 😡 Phil of course tried to pretend that it wasn't him but you can't pull the wool over my eyes. Not a top investigative journalist like me, no way! Dom tried to stick up for me. He told them that it wasn't really a fight at all as we are both soft as ***. He said it was more like watching two sea lions trying to turn a door knob but they wouldn't listen and we were both told to find other employment opportunities. I didn't understand what they meant at first but Dom explained that they were telling me to *** off. 😢 I think Dom was gutted. Looking thoughtfully at the bag of crisps he had in his hand, he mumbled that he would miss me. I think Dom really looks up to me in a lot of ways, especially the goss I get from Steve. Dom said he considered leaving as well in solidarity, but with me and Phil gone, they were offering him a big pay rise, and he reluctantly felt that he should stay for the good of local journalism. He really is one of the good guys is Dom. So there you have it. I'm gonna miss looking in here for the next major scoop while I'm sat at my desk twiddling my thumbs. But I won't miss having my crisps nicked every day by that swine Tallentire, that's for sure!

I tell you what Thor I am a very patient person and always give members the benefit of the doubt so at this time I am prepared to accept your statements. However it does concern me that your posts and comments are causing a reaction and for some calling you by a previous user name from fmttm as a wum of mass destruction. Should it not be the case then hey please do continue on the forum, your input is appreciated if sent with the best of intentions but if not then your continuance on the forum will be short lived I can assure you. Would rather keep the majority happy than the individual so if you declare anything then please offer details and from where the information came from, we can all make our minds up from there!

One positive I do want to make is I think Dijksteel is turning into a quality player back there. My MOTM again today, looks comfortable as the RCB.

I don't know mate, it's not so much the individual as his beliefs that I'm interested in I suppose. I think the club should have certain core beliefs or philosophies and every manager we appoint should be of the same mind. So for me, I want to see good football, I want to see our young players promoted, and given lots of opportunities to succeed (and fail) if necessary. I would love to see coaching, proper developmental coaching, at the heart of everything we do. Seems to be less and less of that these days around football in general, and that seems really short-sighted to me. I want to base our signings on speed, technique and intelligence, rather than how big they are, and how strong they are, and how good they are at shouting at other players, as though that's the be all and end all. I don't want to see central defenders punting balls upfield over and over again, I don't want to watch a team with a passing accuracy of just over 1 in 2, that should be seen as garbage at this level, but clearly some people are fine with it. Warnock plays the way that he does because it doesn't require much thought. It's basic, simple stuff, that can be implemented pretty quickly and doesn't require some of the things I would prefer to see in our players. Any club at any level could do it, it's no different to what you'll see on weekends all over the place. In fact, you'll probably see more football being played there, that shouldn't be how it is for a team spending millions of pounds on player salaries. It was crazy watching our players trying to do that last Friday, with the team that had been selected, in the shape that it had been selected. That isn't good management, it's just complete inflexibility. I just found it disheartening I suppose and if it continues then I will continue to find it disheartening. Apologies for being a downer on this issue as I appreciate that other people aren't really bothered but I can't help the way I see the game and feel about things. I have tried not to talk about it so much on here cos I know people don't want to hear it 👍

Watford fan here - I come in peace. As many of you have pointed out it appears like it's a good time to play us. From an outside perspective that's totally understandable. I thought I'd share our view and what you can expect from us. Ivic will be utilising a back 3 in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1 formation. Ben Foster is expected to start in goal and is arguably one of the best 'keepers in the division. A back 3 of Craig Dawson, Christian Kabasele and Ben Wilmot - Dawson isn't the fastest but is experienced at this level, Kabasele is inconsistent but on his day unplayable, so it depends which Kabasele turns up, and Wilmot is comfortable on the ball and has some Championship experience under his belt (just returned from a loan at Swansea). The two wing-backs will be Jeremy Ngakia and Pervis Estupinan. Ngakia broke into the West Ham first XI just before lockdown and started 5 times before joining us on a Free in search of regular game time. He was our best player in the 2-1 win over Spurs at the weekend, and scored the only goal in our previous friendly. Estupinan is regarded as one of the best young full-backs in world football and has been linked to a whole host of clubs including Barcelona, Manchester United and Tottenham. He was sensational out on loan at Osasuna last season and we are determined to keep him for this season. He may take a few games to adapt to English football, but he has everything in his locker to succeed. Tom Cleverley and Nathaniel Chalobah will play in central midfield. Clevs will be right at home in the Championship this season, and for Chalobah it will be interesting to see how he does during a run of games having been a bit-part player for the last 2 seasons. Domingos Quina will either be one of the inside forwards or the furthest forward of a midfield three. Signed from West Ham 2 years ago, any Watford fan will tell you he has been criminally underused. Now 20, this will be his break-out year. Quick note: he loves a goal from range. The final three players are less clear but three of Luis Suarez, Stipe Perica, Glen Murray, João Pedro and Tom Dele-Bashiru will likely occupy the remaining positions. Luis Suarez scored 19 goals in La Liga Segunda last season and is likely going to be our main source of goals this season. Stipe Perica has just signed from Udinese; he most recently played on loan in the Belgium league and had an excellent goal rate of one every 127 minutes. Glen Murray has joined on loan from Brighton and adds Championship experience to the forward line, but is likely going to be an option off the bench in most games. João Pedro is one of our brightest young players; he joined from Fluminense in January and was restricted to a few substitute appearances in the league, but he is now ready to play regularly - he will be one to watch this season. Finally there's Dele-Bashiru, a midfielder who joined from Man City last summer. He has only featured in cup games so far, but he's another lad with a bright future. I hope that gives you some indication as to what our team will look like. Our style of play will be building from the back, utilising the wing-backs to make our way up the pitch, bouncing the ball between them and the midfielders. Expect us to switch play often and when in the box look for cut-backs wherever possible. With regards to the reports of dressing room unrest - nonsense.

Aren't you a barrel of laughs? 😅

No one was excited when we signed George Friend from relegated Donny or Grant Leadbitter on a free from boring Ipswich but they turned out pretty well. Players like Stewart can thrive in the right set up.

Sanogo will get double figures in goals for us next season. Please feel free to mark this message. But please only bring the message back up if I am right.

Whereas you seem to think he's the antichrist or something, just continuous negativity. People are hopeful; we had a terrible season under a terrible manager, Warnock came in and quite possibly prevented relegation and therefore he has some credit with the fans. He has a decent Championship record, has turned teams around and made them competitive in the past. He has made good and bad signings, as has every manager, but again, after Woodgate, there's a hope he won't just sign 3 players who never get a game. Or offload decent players and replace them with midfield plodders a la Pulis. Yes, there's a bunch of PR nonsense about him - but there always is with any manager (see Woodgate's Powerpoint presentation nonsense). It may all go terribly - but it's just a bit of hope after years of awfulness.

EFL Cup - Middlesbrough v Barnsley, 6pm Tuesday 15th September Scene 1: Int (Daytime) [A café table at Scotch Corner Services. Neil Warnock is eating a full English breakfast when a man in dark glasses and a raincoat sidles up and sits in the seat behind him, back to back.] WARNOCK: Ey up, lad. SCOUT: Don’t turn around. We’ll talk like this. WARNOCK: Oh God, not this Breaking Bad cosplay again. Just tell us what you found out about Barnsley before I put something in your tea. SCOUT [sighing]: You’re no fun any more. You should have retired back in the Eighties. [He pulls out a manila folder and passes it to Warnock, who drips egg yolk onto a long-distance photo of Luke Thomas looking particularly gormless] WARNOCK: So, Barnsley. From what you've seen in the bushes, are they any good? SCOUT: Not really. But we’re not, either, judging by Friday night. WARNOCK: That's the lot with Jaap Stam in charge, yeah? SCOUT: Looks like him, but he's called Gerhard Struber. Not a very interesting fella, but he did cry live on telly after they avoided relegation on the last day of the season. WARNOCK: What a bloody wuss. SCOUT: I thought it was quite moving. Anyway, they won their first round cup game against Forest, when Cauley Woodrow scored the only goal. WARNOCK: Pah, we scored four goals in round one. SCOUT: And conceded three. To Shrewsbury. Anyway, Barnsley played on Saturday so they'll be knackered for an away game on Tuesday. They lost as well, 1-0 to Luton. WARNOCK: Anything else I should tell the lads? SCOUT: Not much. They've got players called Frieser and Oduor. They like a 4312 formation with three defensive midfielders, just like... WARNOCK [shuddering]: Don't say his name. Bad enough I keep finding baseball caps hidden around Rockliffe, like cat turds. Okay, they're defensive and a bit crap. Reckon we can win? SCOUT: Got 0-0 all over it, mate. I stuck a tenner on a no-score draw earlier, with us losing after Britt skies his penalty and then sparks a lengthy debate on whether a captain should smile after he's been s**t. WARNOCK: Good work, son. Fancy some fried bread for the drive back? [Scout pulls up overcoat collar and stands up to leave. Scene ends.] Questions for the audience: 1. Do we change the team who played against Watford? 2. Would you rather Boro won the Carabao Cup this season, or got promoted? 3. What's the best part of a fried breakfast?

3m .. Come on .. It's way better than spending 8m on Saville and 6m on Fletcher .. And don't get me startet on Gestede and others .. I swear to god, some people can find problems to every solution in the world .. It's like they are addicted to moaning .. Fans: We need another forward .. Not to old.. why don't we explore other European leagues .. blah blah .. Club: Signs a youngish forward from a European legue for a fee lower than 80 % of our transfers during the last 5 years .. Fans: He sucks, he is way to expensive... Greek league sucks .. Another Arsenal reject, moan moan moan ...

It’s €1.5M with potential ‘add ons’. Within a couple of hours it’s almost perceived wisdom on here that it’s £3M. Also the fact he has been playing in Greece would suggest that the overall package, including wages, is about right. Please don’t compare him to Roberts in terms of the cost to the club. It’s daft!

As discussed the other day morsey was here all weekend Warnock met him over the weekend at rockcliffe. Club very confident will be completed soon left Sunday/ Monday, sanogo did 1st part of medical over seas, but both him and his agent have been isolating. 2nd part tomorrow., club got annoyed when he agreed but club got suspicous his agent was still touting him around. Woodrow 1 of 4 clubs had offer agreed for him, will only go to a team he will start and not bench warm for and wants to stay north believe he’s from Harrogate.

Apologies one and all for "the return" sometimes very difficult to pick him out being able to use multiple ip addresses. This account will be deleted and we will await the new resurrection to follow Which probably did as I stopped a new user name of stickboroupyour**

Just a thought for the admins, but to improve the forum when the discussions comes off track regarding what the thread is about then why don't you start a poll for members to use as alternative?Hopefully this may side track members constantly coming off thread. There is nothing worse of reading endless amounts of pages of *** that has got nothing to do with transfers rumours.

My companies health and safety record has been examplary since we started using Chernobyl as our barometer

My Son is a twin and was 4 weeks prem, so is a little behind with his speech and other bits. But I was saying to my partner I'm going to watch the Boro match tonight and my young'un said Boro several times. It is also his 1st birthday and only his 4th or 5th word. Just need a win tonight to finish off a awesome day, hopefully he gives us a bit of luck!

Why is it so many of our fans think that signing players is as simple as working through a shopping list and going to a particular aisle and selecting what you want before you move to the next aisle? The transfer window has many moving parts, yes you may want a winger or creative player but you don’t just allow the other positions that require filling to be passed by. Would fans find it preferable if we didn’t sign anyone until we signed a creative player, even though we all know that we need other spots filling? Typical of Boro fans to lose their *** before allowing the club to finish the job. At least save the moaning until the window slams shut before we bemoan our lack of activity. UTFB

I know Clayton wasn't Makelele and now he's not the player he was, but he got totally underrated on this board as well. He was as good as anyone in the division for a couple of seasons and that wasn't just for his tackling ability, he could play as well.

We are back in for Roberts i have heard this morning.

Point is were just on the back of a very positive performance - whether you consider that based on attitude or ability - against a strong Newcastle side. After the dross of last season, a performance like that is a significant step. And came without McNair, Saville, or Fry - so from slightly depleted resources in an already depleted squad. Do we need bodies? Yes. Do we have time to get them in? Absolutely. Have the signs of an upturn in communication, understanding of roles, player performances, etc been seen? Yes. But there's a portion of fans who will always find something to moan about. They're the ones who wanted McClaren sacked. Who only remember the negatives aspects of Karanka's reign. Who would moan about Adomah/Kike/Bamford/Clayton/Friend/Leadbitter/endless list. The absolute nonsense spouted about "awful transfer window" etc is like watching the first 20 mins of a game and going "this is the worst game ever in the history of football." Calm down. "Give the kids a go!" Vs. "we need experienced leaders" "Why can't we find the next Vardy" vs. "we should be signing Julio Geordio" There's posters on here who've said both statements within months of each other. The club can't win. It's Boro. We love them. Stop being so inherently negative all the time for god's sake. There's more to life anyway. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Call me crazy but I'd rather see Nathan Wood given a chance than 45 year old Sol Bamba ambling around

You haven't got any sources.

*Boro don’t sign anyone* “why can’t we just sign someone for the love of god” *Boro close to signing Yaya Sanogo* ”What a stupid move why are we signing him?”

Sacking Karanka would have been acceptable if we'd hired an actual manager to replace him. Instead we accepted relegation by giving the job to Agnew.