wilsoncgp

I'll chip in twenty if it means getting rid of me as well. It'd be absolutely blissful.

Makes over the top reaction. Says reaction to over the top reaction is over the top. Mmmmhm.

It's definitely not true because the tweet is from Earth and we all know Boro are from Mars.

After several more reports about Abusive Behaviour, the decision has been taken to ban digger. This is one of a number of situations the moderation team has been monitoring throughout the past couple of months in the time we have to give and we have given opportunities for the situation to improve. I was somewhat hopeful when digger said they were going to make use of the ignore tool that we could get past this. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. We made it clear that the tool is there for people to have reasonable conversations with one another on here if you choose to make use of it, we're all adults at the end of the day. If there are members you don't get on with, the ignore function exists to primarily reduce the level of friction between members. We can't force you to use this tool, it's up to each member to make a decision on how much they want to make use of it. But in being clear about it and stickying the thread, we are considering everyone having acknowledged it. So to continue with abusive personal attacks after the fact and after having acknowledged you are making use of it is unacceptable. As digger has already received a short term ban in the past, and has since received both direct and indirect warnings which have not resolved the problem, the decision right now is that the ban is indefinite and will be reviewed by the moderation team going forward if we believe we should revisit it. I understand there will be a number of members upset by this but that's the decision right now.

So we tell people to ignore people so they don't have to engage with one another and what we end up with is someone just insulting the people they mute. Christ.

So you're saying we're going backwards to the extent of needing new owner because we've not bought anyone this transfer window? Here I am talking about even just the past 5 years, which is surely a more suitable measure of how our club is performing against its peers and you're saying we're going backwards because of a season that hasn't really kicked off yet? I have no idea. I posted earlier that this squad holds a lot of risk. There's about 10 players we can hang our hat on being around for the length of the season and it's a complete mixed bag of quality at present. But that's labelling every risk as fact and playing out the exact way we wouldn't want to, when it isn't fact, at the very least not yet. Nobody knows if Lenihan will play 6 games or 46 games this season until after the fact. Nobody knows if this summer Hackney or Azaz will stay or be sold, or who will come in the other direction, because the window isn't closed. At best people have an idea what to expect from Silvera, Hamilton and Gilbert but it's a new season under a new manager who seemingly wants to play a different way, I'm not writing any individual off before a ball is kicked. These are questions that need answers before we judge them. A big component of our failure to achieve a decent position last season has been dismantled and replaced, so they need to be given a chance to show what's possible under their tenure.

I don't even know how this is a point of agreement or not. We finished 10th last season. Warnock's first full season we finished 10th. Those are our lowest finishes since Woodgate. We've finished from 4th-10th for the past 5 seasons. Whoever these teams are that you think are our 'progressive competitors', for the past 5 seasons there has only been 23-29 teams higher up the English pyramid than we have. Nobody is passing us significantly without being replaced by clubs going further below us, in Luton's case doing both! So how are we going backwards if we're not moving significantly at all?

But we're not going backwards if we're standing still. If we were going backwards we'd be finishing in the bottom half or worse, fighting relegation. You say others strengthen and improve - but that means we should be finishing below them right? So why do we end up still as a top half Championship team? Well there must be others going the other way for all these clubs that are improving along the way. Acceptance of mediocrity? It's acknowledgement that it's a dangerous world out there and I wouldn't take the slightest chance of being a Bury, not one tiny bit of it. It will happen eventually but I wouldn't willingly without necessity put this club up to the highest bidder out of blind optimism, like swapping owners is just swapping the manager that can be easily undone and rectified. People act like these one offs aren't a problem, they shouldn't exist at all in this country, none of these historic clubs should have ever had to fight against the very real danger of going out of existence, whether they remain now or disappeared after. This club should be here now and when we're gone for the generations beyond that. Whatever Gibson does, whatever decisions he makes, he has by his own willingness and pocket sustained this club from disappearing into the ether. It doesn't matter who else could do that either, just like it didn't matter who else could have taken the club from relegation candidates to survival in 2020. What matters is who did it, they're the ones who you will see in the history of the club and remember. They are the facts of our history and will persist. I don't like the man at all beyond that season but Neil Warnock was the man who came in and saved this club from League One whilst Steve Gibson is the man who has consistently put his hand in his pocket for 40 years, neither of them ever having had to do that. It's not about what is a good job, a bad job, what could be better, what could be improved on when the person in that seat dictates the continued existence of the club. I'll continue to criticise him, I'll continue to criticise the club, he doesn't get a free ride. I've done so indirectly as a representative of this forum. But unless you can find someone who will commit to this club's future with the same level he has done for 4 decades then it's a firm no from me to looking at alternatives.

I doubt that a foreign or otherwise new investor would bring the cost of season tickets down, not whilst in the Championship, bad though they are. They'd want to improve the cash flow into the club, not reduce it.

It's not though is it. We're not going backwards as it stands at all, we're just not doing much of anything in the long term. We were in a significantly worse spot when we appointed Woodgate, that's how we nearly got relegated. We haven't even finished in the bottom half of the table since then.

I'd even say for those unconvinced by his current leadership of this club, or those who just find the idea of moving on a positive thought out of expectations of bigger and better investments in the club, that it is better the devil you know when it comes to a football club owner. I'm much happier being what we are, moans included, if it means being owned by someone who will care about this club's existence until the end. It's invaluable to me.

I wasn't sure which Smith you were onabout so I went to read the post on their website - only to find Heckingbottom has nicknamed Michael Smith the same name I gave one of my cats.

I'm sure someone else has done this before so to that (potentially hypothetical) someone, I apologise. But I did just have a look at the number of ins and outs at this stage since we were relegated in 2009. 09-10 - 2 in, 1 out (Southgate sacked, Strachan joins mid-season) 10-11 - 5 in, 1 out (Strachan leaves, Mowbray joins mid-season) 11-12 - 2 in, 4 out 12-13 - 5 in, 2 out 13-14 - 2 in, 0 out (Mowbray sacked, Karanka joins mid-season) 14-15 - 2 in, 2 out 15-16 - 3 in, 4 out (promotion year) 16-17 - 8 in, 3 out (prem year, Karanka sacked) 17-18 - 10 in, 9 out (back in the champ, Monk joins 9th June, sacked and replaced by Pulis mid-season) 18-19 - 2 in, 4 out 19-20 - 1 in, 5 out (Pulis leaves, Woodgate appointed 14th June, sacked and replaced by Warnock) 20-21 - 1 in, 5 out (adjusted for month later start due to COVID) 21-22 - 4 in, 6 out (Warnock sacked, Wilder joins mid-season) 22-23 - 4 in, 6 out (Wilder sacked, Carrick joins mid-season) 23-24 - 7 in, 5 out 24-25 - 3 in, 1 out 25-26 - 0 in, 3 out (Carrick sacked 4th June, Edwards joins 24th June) So seasons before this one, average 3.8 in, average 3.6 out. With Dijksteel, Coburn and now Howson having left, we're close to hitting that average on leavers but sounds like we're just starting to get there on 1 incoming. It's certainly odd. Although as noted by appointment dates, this is probably the longest the club has gone through a summer without knowing who the manager will be. Anyway, a 22-man squad as it stands, not counting McCabe, Connor, Woolston, McCormick, etc. That's including the long-term absentee Dieng, the returning long-term absences of Lenihan, Bangura and (arguably) McGree, and a few fringe players who were sent out last season in Gilbert, Hamilton and Silvera. 2 or 3 of the remaining squad are still being considered as expected to leave, with interest in VDB, Hackney and Azaz. So aside from those mentioned, that leaves a squad of Glover, Brynn, Fry, Ayling, Edmundson, Borges, Barlaser, Morris, Burgzorg, Whittaker and Conway. I've not really been thinking about it a lot in recent weeks, I know plenty of others have been much further ahead in that thinking. But having watched us on Saturday and having had a proper look at the squad again, the lack of movement on the incoming front right now is certainly concerning. Relying on the fitness of those who have not achieved it in a couple of years, fringe players and assets which could yet be sold this summer, the squad picture is bleak if the odds go against us. The picture of letting players go without a great fee, struggling to buy those without a big asking price, the seeming nonexistence of a record sale's numbers. There's time to fix that, the window is still open for a while yet, it's not panic stations. But the longer things go on without serious action or improvement in circumstances from those still in the squad, the greater the chance we will reach panic stations by the time the window slams shut.

I'll have you know we're a Boro(plus biscuits and crisps) only forum.

I had no idea whether they were Boro, Mansfield or neither... until he said he used to work for TFM in the 90s during the Bryan Robson era. 😂