A completely myopic view from someone unfortunate enough to live in Middlesbrough

[Uh_huh_him]

9 million for rhodes over 4 years, same with downing over 4 years so the outlay isn't 16m over one season. Nugent 2m and a further 2 m now promoted, de Pena and stuani we sold Tomblin. Also sold widshut for 1m also. Have we failed financial fair play before? Steve Gibson said we would live within financial fair play and I have no reason to doubt him. Last season we passed when we reached play off final and the losses come down from the season before.

I know nothing about your financial standing. It's possible that you may be within FFP.
However purely going on what you stated though:

You state that you kept within FFP due to the additional revenue from the Playoff Final. - You won't have that income this year so I would assume your overall costs would have to go down this year by at least the same level as the revenue you got for the final.

£22 million in recruitment over 4 years, will put £5.5 million onto your annual costs, minus what ever the annual cost of contracts which ended last year. - So contract costs are unlikely to have gone down.

I would assume Rhodes and Downing's wages will be a noticeable increase on the salary cost from last year. What's your view on this year's wage bill, compared to last year? Which big earners did you ship out to ensure FFP compliance?

As I say... purely going on what you have stated, it seems very unlikely you are within FFP this year.

 

[Boro5707]

To be fair to Boro - Stoke, Watford, Palace, West Brom, Sunderland, Swansea, Burnley, Bournemouth and potentially Hull are also fixtures almost no one gives a crap about and yet they somehow manage to market this stuff successfully around the globe.

And people around the globe actually know who they are! Not some side that has spent most it's existence hanging around the lower leagues. To most people your just another reading, but at leat they have made to top flight in the last 30 years.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

And people around the globe actually know who they are! Not some side that has spent most it's existence hanging around the lower leagues. To most people your just another reading, but at leat they have made to top flight in the last 30 years.

Not disputing that for one minute fella, we're no great shakes at all, but the PL is top heavy with underwhelming fixtures, you can't deny that, and we'd be another one if we ever got there I'm well aware.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

I agree it's crazy Boro fans are having to pay £200 more than sunderland fans just up the road for a season ticket. Steve Gibson has said we are going up to compete, let's wait to see who we get in the door first. We have already sold more season tickets tha last season before they went on sale yesterday.
We will see what he does over the next few weeks.

Best chairman in the land coupled with the 14th best team ever since football started in 1992... he'll see you right.

 

[El Presidente]

And people around the globe actually know who they are! Not some side that has spent most it's existence hanging around the lower leagues. To most people your just another reading, but at leat they have made to top flight in the last 30 years.

Aren't you being somewhat conceited though?

We're fully aware of our history, but does that make us worse, as fans of our local club, than fans of another club simply because they have spent more time in the top flight?

If we are nothing more than another Reading, then why are you on our message board less than two weeks after being promoted?

As has been said on numerous occasions, few here begrudge Boro being promoted. We have no axe to grind with you, the table is determined over 46 games, and you were the best team to play at the Amex last season.

Our opinion of Mike Dean is very different, but shit happens in football as in life in general. What hasn't helped has been the stirring by one of your 'journalists' at the Gazette, who seems to think he's a combination of Howard Stern and Charles Dickens, has a lot to answer for in trying to stoke up a hostility between the two sets of fans that doesn't exist. For that he should be ashamed of himself.

 

[Icy Gull]

And people around the globe actually know who they are! Not some side that has spent most it's existence hanging around the lower leagues. To most people your just another reading, but at leat they have made to top flight in the last 30 years.

Need to feel wanted do we? I imagine most people around the world would only watch a game involving Boro if they were playing a name team. I have NEVER seen a Boro shirt on anyone in Africa, South America or Asia. I have however seen a couple of Brighton shirts on my travels.

Can we stop with the billy big bollocks talk now? You are no more relevant on the World stage than Brighton or Reading, believe me. In fact you are less relevant as most people have actually heard what a cool place Brighton is, is there anyone in the world who thinks Boro is a cool place??

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

And people around the globe actually know who they are! Not some side that has spent most it's existence hanging around the lower leagues. To most people your just another reading, but at leat they have made to top flight in the last 30 years.

Not cool. Not cool at all.

 

[bhanutz]

And people around the globe actually know who they are! Not some side that has spent most it's existence hanging around the lower leagues. To most people your just another reading, but at leat they have made to top flight in the last 30 years.

But anyone that has ever been to Middlesbrough would agree....What a shithole...but your birds are easy!

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

few here begrudge Boro being promoted. We have no axe to grind with you

I didn't have an axe to grind, until their fans took to social media to continuously GLOAT about how superior they are to us. The stuff I've seen on Twitter and Facebook and on here has really surprised me. If our fans behaved like that (even a minority) I'd be pretty ashamed of it. Even PALACE didn't taunt us like they have. And there's absolutely no reason for it.

And their new home kit makes Jordan Rhodes and co look like they've had the wedgie of their lives.

 

[Nixonator]

And people around the globe actually know who they are! Not some side that has spent most it's existence hanging around the lower leagues. To most people your just another reading, but at leat they have made to top flight in the last 30 years.

Are we having a pissing contest on who has the most fans outside of the club's area? We yield.

Makes our attendances all the more impressive though doesn't it? Amazing how many of your fans were hopping on the train at Kings X, all seemed to have lost their accents.

 

[El Presidente]

Having gone from being ambivalent about Boro's promotion to mildly annoyed at some of the lunacy coming from some of their fans and one of their writer on the Gazette, I've taken a deeper look at their accounts.

Greatest chairman in the world and all round loveable former Labour councillor Steve Gibson has managed to reduce the tax bill of his empire by over £29,000,000 through transferring the losses clocked up at 'Boro to other group companies.

This, along with the old news that The Riverside stadium was made with steel from Germany rather than the recently closed down Redcar, perhaps reveals his true colours a bit.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Aren't you being somewhat conceited though?

We're fully aware of our history, but does that make us worse, as fans of our local club, than fans of another club simply because they have spent more time in the top flight?

If we are nothing more than another Reading, then why are you on our message board less than two weeks after being promoted?

As has been said on numerous occasions, few here begrudge Boro being promoted. We have no axe to grind with you, the table is determined over 46 games, and you were the best team to play at the Amex last season.

Our opinion of Mike Dean is very different, but shit happens in football as in life in general. What hasn't helped has been the stirring by one of your 'journalists' at the Gazette, who seems to think he's a combination of Howard Stern and Charles Dickens, has a lot to answer for in trying to stoke up a hostility between the two sets of fans that doesn't exist. For that he should be ashamed of himself.

That journalist needs to take stock and really have a look at himself. There is no place for encouraging ongoing ill-feeling in the way that he has.

 

[mona]

Boro's problem is probably because they have Newcastle up the road. The Geordies are contemptuous of Boro as a club and a place. Their arrogance is worse than the BHA element who get dizzy north of Watford. Now this is what amazes me. Why are there still Boro fans concerning themselves with us rather than gloating at the Mags up the road?

For the last time, my frustration is with a poor ref who ignored a player knocking a yellow card out of his hand and a didn't report a pitch invasion which featured aggressive gloating and abuse of our players. The Complete and Utter Shyster instead was very keen to red card a key Albion player out of the play offs.

 

[ipad1977]

Boro's problem is probably because they have Newcastle up the road. The Geordies are contemptuous of Boro as a club and a place. Their arrogance is worse than the BHA element who get dizzy north of Watford. Now this is what amazes me. Why are there still Boro fans concerning themselves with us rather than gloating at the Mags up the road?

For the last time, my frustration is with a poor ref who ignored a player knocking a yellow card out of his hand and a didn't report a pitch invasion which featured aggressive gloating and abuse of our players. The Complete and Utter Shyster instead was very keen to red card a key Albion player out of the play offs.

Most Boro fans I have spoken to are like myself are rooting for Brighton to go up this year. If this happens to be at Newcastle's expense then all the better.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Last season seems like a lifetime ago.

I'm sad for Tony that it's costing him another 20 million, but I wouldn't swap this season for a Premier League one. That's for next year

 

[theboybilly]

Most Boro fans I have spoken to are like myself are rooting for Brighton to go up this year. If this happens to be at Newcastle's expense then all the better.

I had a great time over the weekend of our match in Middlesbrough. All the Boro fans I met were great especially in the pub before kick off. It all got a bit silly on line from certain posters on both sides but I genuinely feel Boro deserved to go up as Champions instead of Burnley with us taking runner-up spot. As has been said they were the best visiting side at the Amex last season

 

[Nixonator]

I had a great time over the weekend of our match in Middlesbrough. All the Boro fans I met were great especially in the pub before kick off. It all got a bit silly on line from certain posters on both sides but I genuinely feel Boro deserved to go up as Champions instead of Burnley with us taking runner-up spot. As has been said they were the best visiting side at the Amex last season

Really? Mine was pretty shit.

 

[perseus]

Why do Boro (and Sunderland for that matter) feel they are downtrodden.

Apart from the weather it is not a bad place to live. Now the smog has gone.

Wages are higher and the cost of living is cheaper up there, so if they have a job they are better off than Brighton and the coastal strip of Sussex. It is very apparent , the cars a year newer.

I've forgotten the match at Boro. I was not too upset as some. I was glad we took it to the wire (or we would have done if it was not for the sending off).

Between the top teams in the Championship, the midfield battles are a bit close. Ire directed more towards Barton and Burnley, who started fouling and mucking a good game up. And we could only draw at home. Newcastle were a bit cloggy as well this season.

Albion team did not really peak last season (not for the whole season) so we have a bit of room for improvement. But it has got to be this season though. Stronger squad if not a stronger team.

Your season tickets prices are still substantially cheaper than ours which are £595, but mostly £745.



.

 

[theboybilly]

Really? Mine was pretty shit.

Why may I ask? It got a bit lively near the Holiday Inn where I was staying after the game but I managed to avoid all that. Once I was on the train back south all I was thinking of was the play-offs and was still in a positive mood. Friday the 13th was the real downer for me.

 

[Nixonator]

Why may I ask? It got a bit lively near the Holiday Inn where I was staying after the game but I managed to avoid all that. Once I was on the train back south all I was thinking of was the play-offs and was still in a positive mood. Friday the 13th was the real downer for me.

The circumstances of it all which have been discussed to death did not sit well with me, so the whole thing felt more business than pleasure.

I honestly felt we were going to go on and win that game until that shit happened. Of course I could have been wrong, the frustrating thing is we'll never know as the chance was taken from us by dean giving boro a free pass into the PL. If the game had stayed the same, or if boro had beaten us then it would have been far easier to accept than what transpired.

Throw in some less than graceful fans.. and yea, a pretty shit weekend on the whole i'd say.