Steve Gibson

[Duvel 594]

3 hours ago, Motor Mouth said:

I would welcome any Owner or chairman who would be sensible and start sorting out Boro's problems.

But not Fat Boy Ashley one day the crap is gonna hit the fan with that fella and all of his holding will suffer badly.

You know what I could except Woodgate as manager if only Gibson would get in a Director of Football that knows his game and can work with Woodgate .

Too long now we have had DoF's that know nowt about the game they are just money men no football savvy, and they keep buying players that managers don't want.

I never wanted Woodgate which I've made clear on here but if we appointed a DOF and/ or revamped our recruitment set up I'd be happy to give this project more time. 

I notice that Rangers appointed a director of football last week, I can't remember his name but he was the guy at Southampton who is credited with signings like Mane and Van Dijk. I'm not saying we should have signed this particular guy but surely there's people out there who have a similar track record. 

If we are in a period of austerity then we need to think outside of the box a bit, I think paying a couple of million to bring a similar type of person in would pay for itself in the long run if they could find a few rough diamonds. It makes far more sense than signing another league 1 player like Browne or Bola. 

[wilsoncgp 1,395]

I don't think Woody would be against it either. My worry is that DoFs are suitably not cheap. For a good one, you're probably looking at more than our manager's wage for sure. Can the club afford that?

I suppose a good question would be, if you could find and fund a good DoF by selling one of our better players, would you do that if we're still in this situation in January?

[AnglianRed 643]

21 hours ago, Duvel said:

Just had another look at the table, we currently sit below teams like Preston and Charlton (who are in and around the playoffs), Brentford, Blackburn, Luton, Millwall, Wigan and Hull. 

I don't see many billionaire owners there and very few that have spent any real money. What it shows me is that smaller clubs with far less resources are outperforming us. Even owners like the Venkys and Allams are outperforming us. 

It doesn't suggest to me that Gibson can't compete financially, how many of those clubs have spent 16m on a striker? It suggests to me that he doesn't know how to run a football club properly. 

We can go around in circles arguing about managers and players but while Gibson is calling the shots we are going nowhere. 

You've hit the nail on the head.

While its true Boro are in a tight spot financially, there are plenty of examples of clubs being run well on small budgets.

 

Boro need investment...but they need good organisation a lot more IMO.

[Duvel 594]

56 minutes ago, wilsoncgp said:

I don't think Woody would be against it either. My worry is that DoFs are suitably not cheap. For a good one, you're probably looking at more than our manager's wage for sure. Can the club afford that?

I suppose a good question would be, if you could find and fund a good DoF by selling one of our better players, would you do that if we're still in this situation in January?

Of course I would, no question. 

[wilsoncgp 1,395]

14 minutes ago, Duvel said:

Of course I would, no question. 

Even Randolph? I think that's a tough one, his back-ups aren't close to his level and I suspect we wouldn't replace him very well, if at all. I'd be interested in seeing who else would agree to sacrifice him for a DoF if that was a choice we could make.

[Duvel 594]

8 minutes ago, wilsoncgp said:

Even Randolph? I think that's a tough one, his back-ups aren't close to his level and I suspect we wouldn't replace him very well, if at all. I'd be interested in seeing who else would agree to sacrifice him for a DoF if that was a choice we could make.

It's never gonna happen anyway but I'd hope a good scout could find a decent replacement. There's plenty of above average keepers out there who could do a job at this level. 

We might not find anyone as good as Randolph but even with someone half decent in goal and with the current squad we have enough to stay up. 

[Will 463]

1 hour ago, Duvel said:

I never wanted Woodgate which I've made clear on here but if we appointed a DOF and/ or revamped our recruitment set up I'd be happy to give this project more time. 

I notice that Rangers appointed a director of football last week, I can't remember his name but he was the guy at Southampton who is credited with signings like Mane and Van Dijk. I'm not saying we should have signed this particular guy but surely there's people out there who have a similar track record. 

If we are in a period of austerity then we need to think outside of the box a bit, I think paying a couple of million to bring a similar type of person in would pay for itself in the long run if they could find a few rough diamonds. It makes far more sense than signing another league 1 player like Browne or Bola. 

Paul Mitchell is the one who worked wonders at Southampton (then Tottenham and now Leipzig), and although he was gone when van Dijk signed he'd done all the spade work for the signing.

 

Ross Wilson, the one who just went to Rangers, was largely awful for Southampton with signings like Carillo, Boufal and Elyounnoussi all signed for massive money and struggling to make any noticeable impact between them.

 

I do agree that we definitely need a DoF though, preferably an experienced one.

[Duvel 594]

9 minutes ago, Will said:

Paul Mitchell is the one who worked wonders at Southampton (then Tottenham and now Leipzig), and although he was gone when van Dijk signed he'd done all the spade work for the signing.

 

Ross Wilson, the one who just went to Rangers, was largely awful for Southampton with signings like Carillo, Boufal and Elyounnoussi all signed for massive money and struggling to make any noticeable impact between them.

 

I do agree that we definitely need a DoF though, preferably an experienced one.

Ok fair enough, they were discussing the new guy at Rangers last week on the radio and said he was behind some of the good signings at Southampton. Maybe it was misreported.  

I know it's not an easy job to find the right person and there's always risk involved but the way I see it is that the current strategy isn't working either. 

I've been banging the drum for another foreign manager since Karanka left. If we are struggling financially then surely we should be looking at a wider area for talent rather than a local manager and British based players. It feels like we are restricting ourselves because the Karanka project finished badly. 

When times are tough we need to be more creative whereas on the surface we seem to be doing the total opposite. 

[Changing Times 1,687]

On 10/19/2019 at 6:46 PM, Smoggydownsouth said:

Long time no post from me... my contact is under lock and key these days... been told today whilst in the ground that Cleveland Cables had offered to buy the club and pay all of SG debt back to him but he said no.

That would surprise me a great deal.  I think that's just a rehash of the same rumour that has been going around for years.

[Smoggydownsouth 1,233]

5 hours ago, Changing Times said:

That would surprise me a great deal.  I think that's just a rehash of the same rumour that has been going around for years.

Quite possible with all the unrest in the stands.

[RiseAgainst 433]

11 hours ago, wilsoncgp said:

I suppose a good question would be, if you could find and fund a good DoF by selling one of our better players, would you do that if we're still in this situation in January?

Yes. Even if it meant selling Randolph. We badly need strategic governance and a long-term plan. Since Aitor left, we've been rudderless and disorganised as a club, which is largely why we're now staring into the abyss of League One and comparing ourselves to STID-season-one Sunderland. It feels like nobody has really been in charge behind the scenes for a long time, and I don't believe for one second Pulis was involved in the 'root and branch reforms he claimed to be.

A well chosen DoF could develop a five-year plan for the club and oversee it's execution. Without a plan (or even a recognisable identity on the pitch), we will gradually sell all our best players and then limp along in the lower reaches of the Championship until either (a) Gibson sells the club or (b) we luck out with another manager who can take £100,000 signings and turn them into players who are among the best in the league.

A plan, a plan, my keeper for a plan...

[LinoJo3 363]

It’s ironic that the gazette slated karanka after he got sacked saying stuff like he took total control over the club etc, now Gibson wanted it back. 

Well if that’s true that he took total control maybe karanka should be the one running the club, he took us from bottom half to premiership in 3 seasons. Yes it went pear shaped but he left us £180m better off and in a far better state than he found us. Now that the saviour has took control he’s took us right back to where we started within 3 seasons. 

Interestingly, a team down the road who are apparently a ‘laughing stock’ employed another villain from that era, victor Orta, who has spent a total of £11m (not including loan fees) putting together a team that is 2nd. 

All the evidence is there that our hierarchy can no longer run a football club, badly let down our best manager in years and we’re to egotistical to accept any of the blame after ripping up anything karanka had touched.

[RiseAgainst 433]

10 hours ago, LinoJo3 said:

It’s ironic that the gazette slated karanka after he got sacked saying stuff like he took total control over the club etc, now Gibson wanted it back. 

Well if that’s true that he took total control maybe karanka should be the one running the club, he took us from bottom half to premiership in 3 seasons. Yes it went pear shaped but he left us £180m better off and in a far better state than he found us. Now that the saviour has took control he’s took us right back to where we started within 3 seasons. 

Interestingly, a team down the road who are apparently a ‘laughing stock’ employed another villain from that era, victor Orta, who has spent a total of £11m (not including loan fees) putting together a team that is 2nd. 

All the evidence is there that our hierarchy can no longer run a football club, badly let down our best manager in years and we’re to egotistical to accept any of the blame after ripping up anything karanka had touched.

Great post, but let's not deify Karanka too much. He's the best manager we've had in many years, but he was far too stubborn with his 4-2-3-1 formation. Even at the start of the PL season, we played very negative football - I remember dreadful early away performances against West Brom and Everton - and he did walk out of the club in a huff. We'll never know exactly why that happened, but I wouldn't have given him greater responsibility afterwards.

 

It does seem that our club lives or dies by its choice of manager, much more than clubs where there's a long-term focus and a settled hierarchy in place. I'm not a fan of the chop-and-change managerial approach of clubs like Watford - in many ways it's the antithesis of what I want Boro to be - but changes in their dugout don't seem to turn the entire club philosophy on its head, or lead to boom-and-bust cycles every few years.

[SmogDane 716]

I am not up to date with all the Brexit politics atm, but... 

If Uk stays within the EU, could that make Gibson put more money into the club again? 

I think an actual exit from the EU would be damaging to his bussines (Bulkhaul), so atm he is doing damage control and the club might not be as important as his other bussines? 

Someone who knows more about it, who will enlighten?

[wilsoncgp 1,395]

I don't think he'll put more or less into the club based on Brexit. Brexit could enforce changes on how we as a club conduct business elsewhere with Europe, never mind just Bulkhaul, people talking about European recruitment of playing and coaching staff, well it could absolutely affect that too, whether financially or through the requirement of visas which may only be given to the best of the best, akin to how we can't simply bring in promising players from the rest of the world outside the EU.