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starbuy

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Everything posted by starbuy

  1. I'd assumed it was a loan. £250k is an absolute bargain if that really is the fee. Having watched him for much of last season I was of the opinion that he might well be a player we'd look to sign if we went up (before he suddenly disappeared) and was thinking a good couple of million would have been the cost. Perhaps he's not as highly thought of at Spurs and obviously isn't at Boro either. It can't be down to the his ability because he showed he's a good player.....
  2. Interestingly Karanka said quite the opposite. He felt he had it too easy last season and much of the team picked itself. His aim this season was to bring in more quality that would give him a headache picking the team on match days. I think we're nowhere near finished with our transfers, even after we bring in a striker. We know that the Premier League loans don't always become available until later so I think we'll see some good players come in from that too. I'd say most of the players you mentioned were our most consistent performers last season and should they continue where they le
  3. That's a good signing for them. I thought he was by far our best right back last season. A little bit more experience and I think he's capable of playing in the Premier League too.
  4. Based on that article we're going to be the team to beat this season. Almost everybody fancies us for promotion. That means we've got a lot more pressure on us than last season. Even our own fans expect automatic promotion this season. Last season we were all just hoping to give it a good go. I think top 2 is going to be a battle between Boro, Derby, Hull, QPR, Burnley and Wolves. But then there's always a dark horse who you don't expect to be up there.
  5. The points are no more important but the difference was that in August we lost points at home and we lost them needlessly. Once we got on a good run we were great for most of the season but them early games were where we seemed to lack the conviction in our ability. Also the better we start the more likely we are to tempt targets in throughout the month. I'm making the comparison to the start of last season because its the same situation.. We didn't have our squad complete and imo that's why we dropped points early in the season, 3 Defeats in the first 5 games. Its more frustrating thi
  6. I'd have liked a bit more money in the deal but I guess once a player is surplus to requirements then playing hardball isn't an option. Rhodes' club don't want to sell so obviously bigger bids than he is really worth are what it will take. I think 3.5m in general terms is decent money for Tomlin and that our expectation on price tags has been inflated somewhat by the Rhodes deal. I didn't really want to see Tomlin leave and fully acknowledge there are 20 of our goals last season that he was involved in that need to come from elsewhere, but I also think that while Karanka knows he has the ab
  7. I'd be disappointed to lose Tomlin despite feeling on many occasions last season that he was ineffective, but I also came up with his name as the player most likely to be allowed to leave to bring in some cash. With Downing in the number 10 role and Vossen preferred at times last season to Tomlin I always wondered whether Karanka truly trusted him. He did provide goals and assists that I'm expecting will be replaced by Downing but ultimately if Tomlin found real consistency in his game then he'd already be playing in the Premier League. The ability is all there and if he does go then I really
  8. Struggling to pick a hole in that argument JT , I confess I was very surprised AK put his twopennuth in the other day. I think that behind the scenes we are already lining up alternatives but they may also be taking time and at some point we have to make a choice over an agreed alternative or holding out til the end of the window for Rhodes , and therefore taking the risk that we lose out on what might be a decent alternative. Not a clue who that may be though! For what its worth I think Kike will have a decent season and with Stuani we have bought quality so its not as if promotion rest
  9. I personally think we will spend a significant amount of money yet, possibly on Rhodes, but I also think we'll see a big outgoing. I just have a feeling that regardless of whether he wants to stay or not we'll be offered enough good money for Ben Gibson that we can't afford to turn it down. If we don't then I suspect Adomah will be the one to leave because I think ultimately both contract wise and age wise he's at the peak of his value level.
  10. That's the Marvin Emnes who kinda plays for a Premier League club and the Didier Digard who has just signed for Real Betis and will be playing in La Liga? Both have something about them but for me it looks like only Digard who is realising his potential. I think in general most of these kind of young signings are a gamble, but compared to the price of young English lads, it can be worth it if it pays off. We were, afterall, in the Premier League at the time. The real problem was that they weren't brought in as an understudy but replaced experienced quality and never really lived up to it
  11. Since he's by far our best winger, what does that say about the rest of our wingers?
  12. Anyone else getting worried about a Uruguayan striker jetting in to sign for Boro.. Fergie isn't around these days, we're fine :P Yes but Mark Hughes is and he's obviously learned a thing or too from Fergie when it comes to jumping in and stealing players who are close to signing for us! ;)
  13. I think Stuani would be the replacement for Vossen and that we'd be looking to sign another proven Championship striker as well.
  14. You can't blame Given for wanting to wait and talk to other clubs too. That's just football and many signings have and will be lost at the last minute. Until the contract has been signed it's not a done deal. It's quite possible he'll go and talk to Stoke and then decide which option suits him best. He knows Hughes at Stoke too so clearly feels he's worth talking to, even if he's almost already decided he wants to come here. It's likely to be his last playing contract so he'll want to make the right decision, but then it also might depend on what is on offer afterwards when he hangs up his
  15. I really don't get it when fans say this, in what situations would Given had done something different to Dimi to get us those 10 points? Don't get me wrong, he'll be a great signing but at no point last season did I think that the difference on us going up or not would be a new keeper. I'd agree. I can't think of any games we lost where I thought oh if only we had a better keeper. Our main problem last year was goals. We didn't have a true killer instinct and ultimately it cost us. I don't think the goalkeeping position was a major priority but I do think we've been made aware of
  16. They're saving the best until last - rumours have it that the third kit is set to be luminous marker pink! :D
  17. I prefer Vossen to Kike, even though I do like Kike as a player and think he too will be better this season. As I mentioned before, I think Vossen will benefit from playing up front rather than the position we played him in and I assume we didn't sign him because we think we can find a better fit. The fact that Karanka played him a lot in the second half of the season suggests he appreciated what he can do. I also don't see the poor finishing that people talk about. I don't recall Vossen missing many easy chances, though Kike on the other hand missed a bucket load. Anyway, as Red Rocket say
  18. Kike 10 goals 2550 mins = 255mins / goal Vossen 8 goals 1925 mins = 240mins / goal (from whoscored.com) Vossen had the better ratio? Vossen also played behind the striker whereas Kike played up front in all of his games. I'm inclined to believe that the reason we didn't sign Vossen is because we're not about to switch our style to a true 4-4-2 and Karanka believes he can find a better fit for the number 10 role, while not believing Vossen is suited to the lone striker role. I think our whole attacking play needs working on and that we could have scored more goals last season with
  19. Very disappointed that we didn't take up the option to sign him. In a traditional 4-4-2 I think Vossen has the ability to score 20 goals a season in the Championship and I for one will be sad to see him playing in a different shirt this season. I don't think we got the best out of him by a long shot and there was more to come this season. Here's hoping our priority striking targets are better than him. I have yet to hear of any links to strikers we can afford who have proven championship ability. I guess we'll have to trust our recruitment strategy and see what we get!
  20. Missing: 11 players wearing red, last seen around 3pm today at Wembley!!! Firstly, congratulations to Norwich. Today they were the best team and deserve it. Now on to Boro. Why did we fail to turn up? We played most of that match with 9 players and the 9 that did do anything hardly looked a shadow of the players we've seen all season. Norwich came out well and got their tactics right but I didn't see any belief in our players that they could come back and for most of the match we didn't even try. What a massive disappointment after such a competitive season. The only thing more shocki
  21. Easy as pie for me via the website. Had to wait in the online queue for about 10 mins but once on the ticket website it took just minutes to buy tickets. I'd rather sit and wait for the website to load rather than wait on the phone though.
  22. starbuy

    Sad News

    I haven't been on the forum of late so just coming across this thread. My thoughts go out to you and your family treknut and I hope it all works out for you with a fitting tribute for little Avonlea Rose at the Fulham game.
  23. Very surprising signing unless this guy can play left back as well as right back. I'd have thought Fredericks and Kalas offered enough at right back. I'm guessing Abella isn't going to be coming back into the fray any time soon and maybe Karanka doubts the long term fitness of Fredericks?
  24. Regardless of the content of the post, responding to it is not typically something we will do. Deleting the post is what we'd do. Please do not suggest that my comments are in any way excusing such offensive posts because that is not my intent.
  25. There is a difference in this situation. One is an inappropriate post - usually they'd be deleted and the poster contacted via PM to warn about that kind of thing. Nobody is perfect and people let things slip out of frustration - why make a big deal out of that? Are you really trying to excuse an offensive homophobic slur because the poster was "frustrated"? No I'm telling you why we don't usually respond and make a big deal out of inappropriate posts. It's a comparison between why one has a response on the forum and the other does not, nothing to do with the nature of that particula
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