Why we won't be promoted this season or in the near future

[Lee. 21]

This is just my belief. I know it is pessimistic, but such is life. 

Middlesbrough Football club will not be promoted this season. We probably won't be promoted next season either. If you look at the teams that do get promoted, they all share one glaring thing in common that right now we do not have. They all have unity. Unity right from the academy, all the way through to the terraces. I have never in my 25 years of following Middlesbrough felt such hostility between the supporters and the club. It seems to get worse each season. 

I am also not privy to any internal running's, but from an outside perspective - I cannot see any real unity within the club either. From CW's latest press conferences, I see a frustrated personality lashing out at the recruitment team. Without that inner unity, we cannot have a connection with the fanbase - and this is the reason I believe we will not get promoted this season, or any time in the near future. 

There is no doubting CW's talents as a manager, but is he the man to unite us all? I do not think that he is. 

 

As always, I hope to be proven wrong. 

[TeaCider24 12,640]

Cheers for letting us all know.

It's also ***, but cheers.

Plenty of teams that have been promoted have been an absolute shambles behind the scenes.

[Blanco 4,917]

I feel I have to provide the antidote to the above pessimistic post.

We are going up as champions Lee UTB

[Denzel Zanzibar 6,972]

Are you KM's twin

(I actually do agree with you that we won't be going up this season, not because of disharmony but because Wilder only knows 3-5-2 and we don't have the right players to play that system still)

[SouthernSmoggie 4,242]

Yeah it all looked really miserable and divided at the Riverside vs WBA... I'd actually say this is the most engaged the fanbase has been in years. We're seeing signs the club is starting to drag itself into the modern way of doing things and people are responding well to that. 

And so what if we don't get promoted? We have no divine right and we're up against some much bigger budgets. For what it's worth I think this season will be a slow start (and will get worse before it gets better in the next few games) but we will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. 

 

[BillyWoofs_shinpad 1,884]

Just now, Denzel Zanzibar said:

Are you KM's twin

(I actually do agree with you that we won't be going up this season, not because of disharmony but because Wilder only knows 3-5-2 and we don't have the right players to play that system still)

Spot on…more than half of this league set up as 3-5-2, we need something different and Wilder and Knill don’t seem able to provide it. 
 

We don’t have the right types of players and it must be incredibly frustrating for them having to adapt to play Wilderball when there are so many more suitable systems that would be more effective. 
 

We need to build from the back and start keeping clean sheets…it’s the only way to get out of this division but Wilder seems more interested in bringing his defenders forward with disastrous consequences. 
 

We have the players to play a solid 4 at the back, but a winger and a striker and we can compete in a 442, instead he is still searching for that unnecessary left footed ball playing CB that will set us back the best part of 5m. We never spend that much on a CB it’s crazy when you look at the players we have. 
 

Last season I predicted we’d finish 7th…this season I think we’ll do slightly worse and finish in 8th or 9th. 
 

 

[Bruce 1,559]

We probably won't get promoted this season because realistically there are at least 5 teams with a lot better squads than us and another half dozen or so that we're roughly competitive with.

I have no problem with us playing 3-5-2 and going for aggressive, possession-based football. However I think there are problems to solve with it: basically what do we do when the opponents press our midfield and how do we keep the back door shut when we attack. Last season, with Taylor, we naturally shuffled across and locked up the left and middle when attacking up the right. It was when we tried to find a way of attacking up both sides that our system started to creak.

Ironically, Wilder always talks about square pegs in square holes but when push comes to shove he would rather have an experienced round peg in a square hole instead of using a youngster. 

We could play 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1 but we don't have the strikers for it. 

I think it's perfectly reasonable for Wilder and Knill to stick with 3-5-2. Where Warnock failed (among other reasons) was that he never knew what formation to play and tried, ironically, to be too clever, changing week by week to deal with the opposition. Carlos Corberan did so successfully with Huddersfield but that's because he spent 18 months coaching his players intensively to do exactly that. 

Anyway, we probably won't get promoted because it's not a level playing field and we are starting at a disadvantage. Things could change; if we get the right players from the £20m or so from Tav and Spence then we can give it a good go. I don't think the fanbase is split. There is a range of optimists and pessimists. If come the end of August we are in the bottom half of the table and we haven't brought in the players Wilder is looking for, then fans will start getting chewy and there will be a growing anti-Wilder brigade. Hopefully, it doesn't come to that.

[RiseAgainst 3,793]

I agree that we won't be promoted this season. There are too many holes in the squad - first-team-shaped holes, not just bench-shaped ones. The current turnover of players won't produce a harmonious and intuitive team ethos for months. I predict a late-season charge up the table, finishing in our customary position of 7th once again.

My hope - and it's the hope that kills you - is that we're building a proper ethos and long-term ideology here, where every season we gain a couple of players and lose a couple, rather than rebuilding the squad from scratch under each new manager/after each summer transfer window.

This summer has been a massive disappointment for those of us hoping this season would be the one, but I am enjoying - to an extent - our new tactic of buying low and selling high, rather than the opposite, which we've done right back to the days of Alen Boksic.

[AnglianRed 6,320]

2 hours ago, Lee. said:

This is just my belief. I know it is pessimistic, but such is life. 

Middlesbrough Football club will not be promoted this season. We probably won't be promoted next season either. If you look at the teams that do get promoted, they all share one glaring thing in common that right now we do not have. They all have unity. Unity right from the academy, all the way through to the terraces. I have never in my 25 years of following Middlesbrough felt such hostility between the supporters and the club. It seems to get worse each season. 

I am also not privy to any internal running's, but from an outside perspective - I cannot see any real unity within the club either. From CW's latest press conferences, I see a frustrated personality lashing out at the recruitment team. Without that inner unity, we cannot have a connection with the fanbase - and this is the reason I believe we will not get promoted this season, or any time in the near future. 

There is no doubting CW's talents as a manager, but is he the man to unite us all? I do not think that he is. 

 

As always, I hope to be proven wrong. 

For what its worth, I agree that this season will be too soon for a serious promotion push, but if the masterplan survives this season and Wilder is still here, I fancy our chances next season.

 

[Blanco 4,917]

13 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

For what its worth, I agree that this season will be too soon for a serious promotion push, but if the masterplan survives this season and Wilder is still here, I fancy our chances next season.

 

Next year will be the toughest year to get promoted from the championship @AnglianRed when you take into account the relegated teams of Man Utd, Everton and West Ham 🙂 

[AnglianRed 6,320]

4 minutes ago, Blanco said:

Next year will be the toughest year to get promoted from the championship @AnglianRed when you take into account the relegated teams of Man Utd, Everton and West Ham 🙂 

Why West Ham? They were great for most of last season. 

Everton are a basket case at the moment and unless major changes have gone on behind the scenes, I could see another flirtation with relegation.

Man Utd, as much as we would all love to see it, are too big to fail and the Glazers would likely make sweeping changes before that happened. If only to protect their investment.

Either that or the Green & Gold Brigade would have a full-on riot outside Old Trafford.

 

[Blanco 4,917]

12 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

Why West Ham? They were great for most of last season. 

Everton are a basket case at the moment and unless major changes have gone on behind the scenes, I could see another flirtation with relegation.

Man Utd, as much as we would all love to see it, are too big to fail and the Glazers would likely make sweeping changes before that happened. If only to protect their investment.

Either that or the Green & Gold Brigade would have a full-on riot outside Old Trafford.

 

I just don't like them AR. They were baying for our blood when we got the infamous 3 point deduction and should have had their own comeuppance by a points deduction when they had Tevez and Mascherano illegally but got off with a fine and Sheffield United had to suffer because of it.

Man Utd would be the funniest thing in the world if they were relegated 🙂 and yes Everton are indeed a basket case

[Foogle 2,104]

2 games is way too early to tell. Bad start to the season but we could've easily beat West Brom if Watmore scores an easy chance and if we don't fall behind to a wonder goal at QPR who knows how that game would go. Losing Tav who's up there for best player in the division in the most important position on the pitch is hard, but our starting 11 has improved in other positions.

We certainly need reinforcements, but as the famous quote goes "you're never as good as they say you are when you win and never as bad as they say you are when you lose"

[Dynamo Kev 1,557]

3 hours ago, TeaCider24 said:

Cheers for letting us all know.

It's also ***, but cheers.

Plenty of teams that have been promoted have been an absolute shambles behind the scenes.

hey remember when we were a shambles behind the scenes and got promoted. our manager even had a week off near the end of the season. 

[TeaCider24 12,640]

4 minutes ago, Dynamo Kev said:

hey remember when we were a shambles behind the scenes and got promoted. our manager even had a week off near the end of the season. 

Hadn't even considered us when I posted, but yeah.

I was thinking of the likes of Aston Villa and Sheffield United (fittingly).