Boro Badger

I thought they were holding it back for PR purposes, so we look active on the final day. Conspiracy theory would be we're going for Maddison and might pull out of the Johnson deal (unlikely) BBC Tees are behind the deal as they know Maddo could pronounce it!

I can't see both Johnson and Maddison incoming, just one of them

Harry will be chuckling. He's getting Jota instead of Downing. I can't see any more incomings other than Johnson today - can anyone else?

With the Ramirez / Traore situations, there might be a certain amount of the club refusing to be bullied by players or agents, to send a message to other players. I hope we keep Traore. If he gets his head down, Monk will give him chances and he should tear this league apart. Off the back of that, we could keep him or get get £20M+ for him come May. If he doesn't play ball, we still should get around what's being offered now in January/May.

I'm amazed that after showing some signs of improvement, we took a giant leap backwards. It wasn't even backwards, or a leap, it was a kind of sideways/backwards fall on the floor.

We were so bad that when Downing came on he looked very good. Bamford is our best footballer and should play every game. Fry was good 2nd half. Pretty awful team display, I like Monk but it didn't work today

Interesting! And makes sense. Getting the bid in over the weekend and trying to sneaking the deal through before other teams get desperate and come sniffing Tues/Weds/Thurs.

Hopefully this is the case, they've certainly done it with a lot of our signings. Then again they could just be desperately grasping at anything to fill column inches which they also do quite a lot... Hmm we had almost daily Gazette updates with Jese, Bojan and Snodgrass too. I think it will be very hard for us to get Jota. You'd think both the player and club will want him to go to a Premier League team. So I'm going to remain positively unexcited about this one until Bausor's grin is as wide as the river Tees.

3-2 Boro 17' Assombalonga 21' Assombalonga 42' Baker 56' A person from Preston 82' Another person from Preston

It's the calm before the storm. Things will liven up after the weekend when we head into the international break.

Could just be a loan now though But who would loan us a player to just sit on the bench? With the amount of talent in our team we are not the most attractive team to send players on loan to. Baker came because we desperatly needed someone like him so is guaranteed plenty of minutes. Regarding keeping everyone happy they should all be happy to give their best to try and come up with a team and a chance to play in the Prem. If they can't make the team they can always move in january or next summer to another decent championship team. Well to name a few... Swansea have loaned us C

We still badly need a defender. Can't go all season with just Gibbo, Ayala and Fry. Could just be a loan now though But who would loan us a player to just sit on the bench? With the amount of talent in our team we are not the most attractive team to send players on loan to. Baker came because we desperatly needed someone like him so is guaranteed plenty of minutes. Regarding keeping everyone happy they should all be happy to give their best to try and come up with a team and a chance to play in the Prem. If they can't make the team they can always move in january or next summer to

We still badly need a defender. Can't go all season with just Gibbo, Ayala and Fry. Could just be a loan now though

I wonder... with Fry playing well and us not going for Tisserand/Shotton, did that free up spondulix for Jota?

Tasty! ------------------- Randolph ------------------- -- Christie -- Fry ---- Gibson -- Friend -- --------------------- Clayton --------------------- ------------ Howson ----- Baker ------------- -- Bamford -------------------------- Jota -- ---------------- Assombalonga ---------------

On the Jota vs Traore debate... At the moment, there's no good time for Monk to start Traore. Against the better teams, he's not disciplined enough. Against the worse teams, we don't really need him to open them up - we have enough players already who can do that already. Having said that, I would like to keep Traore AND sign Jota. If/when we're back in the Premier League we'll need Traore's pace. With better players around him he could be a monster. I hope Traore stays but I can understand if the club need to sell to fund the Jota purchase - which is more useful to us now. Jota would

Get that man Jota in!

Let's play the old classic 4-1-2-2-1 with our in form* players. *well, we'll give Britt another go... ------------------ Randolph ------------------ -- Christie -- Fry ---- Gibson -- Fabio -- -------------------- Clayton -------------------- ------------ Howson ----- Baker ----------- -- Traore ---------------------- Bamford -- --------------- Assombalonga --------------- Once Braithwaite is fit I'd like to see him start on that left-ish side, then rotate Bamford/Traore pending on the opposition. If Howson and Forshaw start again together there will be some quite seriously an

Loving it! Monk's mixing it up and all kind of selection headaches for Saturday

Lewis Wing - our #51 http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/watch-incoming-middlesbrough-talent-lewis-12825659

Traore and Fabio combine from either side of the pitch to score - what a squad! UTB

Yes, Assombalonga let the heckling get to him, but hopefully the Britt bashers can acknowledge the power/pace that got him into those positions in the first place. I can't remember the last No. 9 we had who could sprint past/shrug off defenders like he can. He will score a hat-full for us this season. I think one of the reasons strikers often struggle at Boro is because of the moaning - so let's not do it! He's working his socks off and had a very bad day. Unfortunately one of his first games for us happened to be away at the club he just left. We're not far off, we're making a lot of ch

Voted for Leads but I think McGugans was better! Haha thanks! McGugans probably was better, but I don't want him to know it :p Didn't Leadbitter give the foul away before McGugans free kick?!

Big game this. Will we keep the improvement going and assert our dominance? Or will we be over confident and forget the basics? So hard to say, we're still learning what the team is capable of. The result will tell us a lot about our season ahead. UTB.

On Fry, he needs time to physically develop, so he can begin to boss the opposition forwards. I'd be happy if he stays or goes out on loan, there's pros and cons for each. Either way it will be another season or two before he's fully ready.