J.T. 640 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Is being professional enough to give someone a new contract? I’d be extremely professional if someone was willing to pay me £5-10k a week to play football. And I fully agree that George has been a fantastic servant to this club. But there’s no room for sentiment in football. George has been past it for at least 1 (arguably 2-3) seasons now. I want Boro to improve and we aren’t going to do that by keeping on players who are no longer good enough for this level. Link to post Share on other sites
Borodane 6,246 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Johnson. Sigh. Really hope it's only as a squad filler and not for left back at all. As for Friend I would have liked to get someone fresh but out of all the players that have left I guess it's OK to keep him as long as he isn't a starter. I expect the new wages to reflect our position in the league. Link to post Share on other sites
wilsoncgp 9,228 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Just now, J.T. said: Is being professional enough to give someone a new contract? I’d be extremely professional if someone was willing to pay me £5-10k a week to play football. And I fully agree that George has been a fantastic servant to this club. But there’s no room for sentiment in football. George has been past it for at least 1 (arguably 2-3) seasons now. I want Boro to improve and we aren’t going to do that by keeping on players who are no longer good enough for this level. TBF to George, he was fine in the last few games under Warnock as a centre-back. After all, it's not like he is tasked with a lot as a centre-back in this regime and limiting his responsibilities sounds like a good way to keep getting something out of him. Similar with Woodgate under Karanka, really. You have to move on at one stage or another, for sure. But I think there's value in keeping a positive character like George around for off-the-pitch reasons more than what he gives us on it, especially when it's relatively little on the wage bill. It's just up to him if he's prepared to move into that stage of his career, if he wants to continue playing week-in and week-out or if he thinks it's time to hang up the boots. Link to post Share on other sites
Jamie-H 1,322 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Friend's contract offer is supposedly 40% less than what he was on before I mean sure we offered him a contract that doesn't mean it's necessarily a good contract the question for him is probably can he get better elsewhere if not he resigns, I don't think him sitting alone in the dugout after Cardiff was for show and the new contract was talked about back then. Johnson as a 3rd/4th winger I guess can do no harm I question what contribution he can make though he's not a goal threat and lacks the genuine pace for counter attacking football. Link to post Share on other sites
wilsoncgp 9,228 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 6 minutes ago, Borodane said: Johnson. Sigh. Really hope it's only as a squad filler and not for left back at all. As for Friend I would have liked to get someone fresh but out of all the players that have left I guess it's OK to keep him as long as he isn't a starter. I expect the new wages to reflect our position in the league. Honestly, if Warnock wants to keep him as one of our potential wingers, by all means, lets keep him on board. He was a threat in the first 10 games or so under Woodgate, alongside McNair he was one of our most positive players in that time. But one way or another, I don't want to see Johnson at left-back going into the new season. If that's why we want to keep him, I'd really rather we didn't. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
estonpidge 1,442 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Both represent squad fillers, if they sign, they'll have the same chance in preseason as everyone else but i'd expect them to be at best on the bench if Warnock gets his targets. Link to post Share on other sites
Skinemrippers 894 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 I’m not surprised George and Johnson are being offered new deals. I think Friend is decent at CB and we need depth in that area. A couple of injuries and we would be down to bare bones again. I don’t mind Johnson at all and Warnock has obviously seen something in him. Again, probably a squad player. Sounds like he wants to keep Britt and Fletcher as well. With all of the issues at the moment with money and clubs offloading players, I think people will find it difficult to get decent contracts elsewhere anyway. Wouldn’t be surprised if our offer to Ayala in Jan is better than anything he can get now, not heard any rumours about Clayton or Shotton or Gestede and it’s pretty obvious why Howson quickly triggered his extension. Some lads could be kicking themselves 1 Link to post Share on other sites
mendieta420 988 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Both are good squad players. George very loyal and one of the leaders that the group needs. Both are likely to accept low deals. There isn't much downside.. 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Borodane 6,246 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 1 minute ago, mendieta420 said: Both are good squad players. George very loyal and one of the leaders that the group needs. Both are likely to accept low deals. There isn't much downside.. Tbh I haven't seen much to suggest that Friend is a "leader". Nice guy and a good pro and all that but he's not a leader in the Leadbitter, Southgate mould. I doubt any of his teammates fear that he will rip into them if they don't perform on the pitch. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
edinboro 804 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 By 'spine' I think he means key players not the middle of the team. So he wants experience to compliment the exciting young players. Which is fair enough. Link to post Share on other sites
wilsoncgp 9,228 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 2 minutes ago, Borodane said: Tbh I haven't seen much to suggest that Friend is a "leader". Nice guy and a good pro and all that but he's not a leader in the Leadbitter, Southgate mould. I doubt any of his teammates fear that he will rip into them if they don't perform on the pitch. Probably not but then that doesn't mean he isn't a good leader in other ways. Though I suspect Warnock wants more of a Leadbitter than a Friend right now. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Jamie-H 1,322 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 (edited) He mentioned wanting another signing this week as he was talking about the difficulty of getting a striker on our budget better than what we have put that together with the Echo story today saying he's going to start targeting other striker targets in the coming days suggests that a new striker might be his next priority? https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/18626250.middlesbrough-pursue-alternative-targets-kieffer-moore/ You scan through League 1/SPL scorer charts from before lockdown I have to say there's not alot of standouts at all there and that seems to be where we'd be looking to get value. Maybe we've handed him some names we've scouted previously like Dykes or Kamberi but the only real standout striker in League 1 for our budget is probably Ladapo who is 6 foot 2 it is pretty scarce out there. Obviously would love us to look abroad but as we saw with Kike and Vossen that doesn't necessarily translate perfectly either especially on a 2 million pound budget. I am curious who we end up targeting up front we probably need an aerial specialist but not a lampost who can't score at least Taylor/Moore have good feet and engines on them I'm just not seeing others out there that fit that bill at least not domestically. Link to post Share on other sites
ManBearPig 1,833 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 1 hour ago, TLF10 said: Guidieora was 3.5m and even at that price was too steep never mind being a good price at 7.5m. Howson was 5m. De Roon fee was 8.8m. When club had a fall out with EG they decided to randomly confirm fee they paid for him.....a year after he signed for us Apologies, I wrote them down wrong. Fair play for correcting those figures. I blame not having a morning coffee by then 🤪 Link to post Share on other sites
BoroSmoggie 2,678 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 As long as they are on peanuts, then it’s a no brainer imo. Link to post Share on other sites
Jamie-H 1,322 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 https://www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-qpr-close-to-beating-middlesbrough-to-1m-signing-of-25-yr-old/ It's a no go for Goode it seems. Link to post Share on other sites
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