→ March 10, 2010
No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones. The Long And Winding Road we were forced down has morphed into the Road To Nowhere… The run up to the next installment of the Tyne-Tees derby evokes unconceivable pain. Newcastle is going straight back up to the Premier League, rendering all the pleasure and consolation derived from mutual [...]
→ March 8, 2010
Middlesbrough will be playing in the Championship next season. And it’s all part of the apparent 2 year promotion plan the club claims it’s been following all along. Year one ostensibly for protracted deliberation over who was to blame for the relegation mess, and year two to survive on the last parachute payment and re-mould [...]
→ February 28, 2010
For all the previous penalty injustices. Dodgy ones called against – Luke Young’s hand ball at Villa…with his back completely turned against the attacker. And the ones not awarded – Lee Dong-Gook at United in 2007 anyone? We win that match and United might not be enjoying their current clutch of 3 consecutive league trophies. [...]
→ February 24, 2010
Haven’t we been here before? A club recently incapable of stringing any sort of strong form together – something more ambitious than 6 unbeaten w/ 3 draws – are required to produce another miraculous feat to avoid an undesirable league position. Last year’s model had infamous results, and the current trajectory of a rebuild-on-the-fly project [...]
→ February 19, 2010
Bear Grylls gnawing g on a zebra carcass in the Serengeti. Aron Ralston amputating his right arm solo in the Colorado wild. Antonio Banderas in the first 20 minutes of Desperado. Matt Damon in those Bourne films. Men. Fucking badasses… Gary O’Neil is a man. He’s a fucking badass. Forgoing a debilitating groin niggle, the Boro [...]
→ February 17, 2010
We left, but were never really away. And the more things change, the more they stay the same. Shoddy clichés are all we can muster after officially completing the most packed 4+ weeks ever experienced in any incarnation. Middlesbroughfcblog.com has entered into a ground share agreement w/ Dynamo Girlfriend , open ended and w/ immediate [...]
→ January 20, 2010
We were sat there on the oversized armchair, sipping a Ketel One and cola, naked, gazing out of the floor-to-ceiling windows in our perch high atop Las Vegas Boulevard, contemplating the southern Nevada sky at dusk. What happened Saturday? Resignation to missing the match was realised before departure – no laptop due to flying hassles [...]
→ January 14, 2010
So Gary Caldwell isn’t coming? Okay, fair enough, Premier League certainty outstrips mere remote possibilities of it. No matter, cos Gordo has a list of targets who want to play for Boro as long as his arm – or a bigger blokes arm. The former Celtic gaffer was able to successfully trap three quarters of [...]
→ January 8, 2010
Banging on like he’s Graham Norton or something – and not the manager of Middlesbrough Football Club – Gordon Strachan keeps proclaiming ‘…I need men’. Some familiar Scottish imports are en route – late reports say a fee has been agreed for Gary Caldwell and Barry Robson. It’s half the quartet the former Celtic gaffer [...]
→ January 3, 2010
It wasn’t difficult to agree w/ Roberto Mancini. Boro did play very well – for large spells anyway. Immaterial really, since the quality of the final product remains abject. Gordon Strachan employed a five-man midfield to harry their elite opposition, even overcoming a devastating injury to Adam Johnson – which is becoming so redolent of [...]