Boro - Back to where we belong

#11 Working on next Years Squad!

Emmanuel Ledesma opened to Paul Gascoigne, that he is unwilling to sign a new contract, which would keep him at the Riverside, after this Season.
Ledesma said, that he is "amazed by the teams performance level this year." and he "think that we will win promotion, if we keep up that level, but I think it's time for me to move on!"
He will always keep this fans in his heart, as they're really passionate and always cheer for the team. Also they always supported me and he said, that "i wanted to thank them for every single day, I have spent here. And with my performances this year and the goals I scored and assisted, I hope to be able to give them Premiere League football next year!"
Ledesma is about to join Estudiantes de la Plata and he wants to win the Copa Sudamericana, that is the Reason he is going to leave Middlesbrough and moves back to his home country.



Other players who are about to leave Boro at the end of the Season, are the loaned out players, Jack Grealish, Kenneth Omeruo and Jelle Vossen.
Vossen is the only player, who has a agreed transfer fee and could bought permanently after the Season, but it is not sure, if Middlesbrough can open up the almost 5 mio. € to buy him.
Omeruo and Grealish are about to rejoin their clubs, Chelsea London and Aston Villa.



All 4 players, are Key-Players for this years succesful Sky Bet Championship campaign for Middlesbrough and they need to be replaced, with hugh quality, if Middlesbrough wants to fight for Promotion in the Championship next year or wants to avoid Relegation, if they win promotion this year!

Four players are already signed for next Season on a free transfer. Paul Gascoigne is really looking for some bargains, in order to free up enough money to keep Vossen at the Riverside.
The first player who was signed, is Real Madrid Castilla goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco, who was a spanish u21 international on severel occasions.
The goalkeepers right now have conceeded loads of goals and Tomas Mejias and Charls Ikeme hadn't shown that they have the class for the Premier League.
Ikemes' loan deal was also terminatet in the transfer window.



An addition for the offensive line is a outstanding coup for Middlesbrough.
Gerard Moreno is a young spanish striker from Liga BBVA side Villareal, he played in 15 matches this year (started 9) and scored 6 goals.
Moreno is a 22 year old striker, who has his strenght, when he has the ball and can dribble into the opponents penalty area.



Another young offensive transfer, was young argentinian player, Leandro Paredes, who is a Boca Juniors player, but this year on loan at italian side AS Roma.
Paredes is one of the best argentinian youth players. A 20 year ols offensive midfielder, who can also play as a central midfielder.
He could form an amazing central midfield with Adam Clayton next year.
Paredes always wanted to play in the Premiere League and he thinks that "the Middlesbrough team is one to watch over the next few years and that it would only be a matter of time, when they will move into the Premier League."



A replacement for Kenneth Omeruo is also already signed on a free transfer. Young Juventus Turin defender Frederik Sörensen.
The 22 danish central defender agreed to sign with Middlesbrough, as he had loads of talks with Paul Gascoigne, Sörensen was convinced that Middlesbrough would be the right choice for his future.



With all these signings, the Middlesbrough team will be a very young at the start of the next Season and Paul Gascoigne is about to form his team, so he can achieve the goals Steve Gibson pointed out.

North east pride xD. Love a bit of gazza too. Nice start.

#12 Next Stop Manchester!

After a convincing 3:0 victory against Derby County in the FA Cups fifth round, Middlesbrough moved into the round of the last 8. No one would've believed, that Middlesbrough would overcome two Premier League teams and Derby County to be in this competition that long.



Striker Jelle Vossen scored 4 goals in the 3 games so far and is one of the reasons, why the team is one of the main surprises in this years FA Cup campaign.
Adam Reach, Jelle Vossen and Emmanuel Ledesma scored the goals against a strong Derby County.
Paul Gascoigne said in the post match press-conference, that he is "absoulutly amazed, with the teams overall performance and that the fans should enjoy it, as long as the players are at the Riverside. Vossen, Grealish or Clayton are players, which made themselves interessting for the big teams."

And he is right with that. Grealish' team Aston Villa officialy announced, that Grealish won't be loaned out again to Middlesbrough and that they want to bring him into their first eleven, as he is one to watch.
Vossen also catched the interest of german side Borussia Mönchengladbach, who could reach a UEFA Champions League spot this year, if their form continues and how could Vossen say no, to a future in the UEFA CL?

The FA Cup sixth round saw Middlesbrough drawn against no other than the biggest team in the UK and surely one of the biggest teams in the World, alongside FC Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, Manchester United!
The Boro players are excited to head to the Theater of Dreams and play in front of over 75.000 fans!

@toon thanks mate...hope i can build on that start!

#13 Theater of Dreams! Will it become a Nightmare?

The big Manchester United, The Underdog Middlesrough, 6th Round FA Cup and nothing to lose! That's the things which can provide an awesome story!

Middlesbrough Manager Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne did everything in the media, to make everyone aware of the fact, that this would become a very boring and hugh victory for Manchester and Middlesbrough is only about to give them a fight and that even on a very good day, Boro wouldn't have the right weapons to capitalize on a possible Manchester weakness.

But experts say, that Middlesbrough has weapons, which could bring Manchester into a hugh dilemma.
Striker Jelle Vossen, is in a superb form this Season and the rough british football is the perfect kind of football for him. He scored loads of goals and opend up the room for Grealish or Ledesma.
That would be two more weapons for Boro, who could turn this night into a disaster for the red devils.
The two wingers are also in superb form and they can decide a match on their own.
Ledesma has 20+ goals and 10+ assists so far and Grealish has 10+ goals and 15+ assists!

The game started with a offensive storm by Boro, as they had a couple of shoots, bur most of them missed the target by a few meters.
After a while Manchester found better into the match and they had a few good shoots on target, van Persie and Alex Sandro caused a lot trouble for Boro.

The game had gone into the half-time with a 0:0 and it was deserved that way, because the teams had been on the same level.

The second half was also very interesting and Boro again made a hugh effort in the first few minutes and almost got lucky, as Ledesma hit the woodwork with a cracking shoot from approximatly 30m.
The next attack, saw Robin van Persie score the first goal of the game and now Manchester dominated the game and a few minutes later it was again Wayne Rooney, whom doubled the lead.
The game was set and the Manchester fans hoped for another couple of goals.
And they weren't dissapointed, but wouldn't wanted to see the next thing.
Alex Sandro tackled into the feet of Jack Grealish and gave away a penalty and Grant Leadbitter hit it into the net.
There was no more time for Middlesbrough to score the draw, but the team can be proud of themselves, as they gave Manchester United a fight, which no one had thought could be possible!

#14 Tension in the League

It's less then ten games on the run and a few teams are still fighting for Promotion and the Play-offs!
Norwich City really held up the expactations the experts had, at the Pre-Season, as they had been made favourits by the bookmarkers.
Watford, Middlesbrough and Huddersfield Town are fighting for the second Place, which would secure the promotion to the Premier League!
Middlesbrough are one match short, after their succesful run in the FA Cup and could overtake Watford, to take the lead in the "Race to the Premier League".
Almost 10 teams are still fighting for a place in the Play-offs, this Season is very interesting and almost every team is still fighting for something, if it's fighting for promotion or fighting against relegation.



The player of the Season is, up to now, Emmanuel Ledesma from Middlesbrough, as he scored an incredible 23 goals and 14 assists in 32 games, he played so far.

good season keep it up

#15 Gazza brings Success!

The Sky Bet Championship had come to an end and Paul Gascoigne lead Middlesbrough to an incredible 2nd Place. Boro where some way short in comparison to Norwich City, as Boro where 15 behind them.
In 46 games played, in Boros games where scored an incredible 190 goals! 107 for Middlesbrough and 83 against them.
There had never been a team who won promotion with that many conceeded goals.
The most unluckiest team of this Season was Nottingham Forest, who laid on the 6th place before the last game and dropped two places and dropped out of the playoff zone.

Norwich and Middlesbrough had gained promotion, but Blackpool, Ipswich and Rotherham United had been relegated down into the Sky Bet League 1!
A few teams had been really dissapointing, such like Cardiff City (7th Place), Reading (16th Place), Fulham (17th Place) or Leeds United (18th Place).
All 4 teams wanted to fight for Promotion or at least the Play-Offs.

@Jack thanks mate...

#16 Who will be next years Manager?

Paul Gascoigne led Middlesbrough back into the Premier League. Loads of teams are looking into the possibilty of signing Gazza, as he surprised everyone with his spectacular style.
190 goals had been seen in the League games, when Middlesbrough was on the pitch, this will be a record for the history.
Premier League teams who wants to play a spectacular style, are willing to sign Gazza, as his contract wasn't renewed by now.



Tottenham Hotspur already officaly announced their interest in getting Gascoignes services and promised him a hugh transfer budget to spend this summer.
Middlesbrough Chairman Steve Gibson offer up to 15 mio. € for transfers.
A third of this amount will be spend for Jelle Vossen, to sign him permanantly.
Jack Grealish and Kenneth Omeruo are to players, who also wants to play longer for Middlesbrough, so for new players there are only 10 mio. € or less to spend, if another player sign on permanently base.

Steve Gibson already told, that he has a plan b in case that Gazza would leave Boro, but he doesn't think that Gazza has already done his mission, as in last years negotiations he said that he wants to bring Boro back, where there already had been.

#17 So many new faces!

After providing Promotion to the Premier League, Middlesbrough Chairman Steve Gibson raised the transfer budget a little bit.
With the new Chapter in front of them, the team had to be strenghten, as there where some Problems in the defensive movements.
A few player left and a load of Players had been signed for the new Season, to have a few more options.

The offense was incredible last year, with Jelle Vossen, who was signed on a permanently base, just a few days ago, who was one of the Top Goalscorers of last years Championship campaign.
The other three players for the 4 offensive positions had been loanee Jack Grealish, Kike and Emmanuel Ledesma.
The last one was the Championship Player of the Season, part of the Championship Team of the Season, the Championship Goalscorer of the Season, the Championship assistant of the Season and the Middlesbrough player of the Season! There's only one word to discribe this: Amazing!

Ledesma left the club and joined Estudiantes in Argentinia, Gascoigne really wanted to keep him, as he was a major part of last Seasons success, but he was unwilling to stay in Europe!
Jack Grealish was the Championship young player of the Season and he extended his loan for another year! The Middlesbrough fans are excited for him to stay and he is about to become a fan favourite!
Another young star of last years Season was Kenneth Omeruo, loanee from Chelsea London and he also extended his loan deal for another year!

With the 4 players, already signed on a free transfer in January, Middlesbrough already had 7 players signed for this Season! (Pacheco - Sörensen, Omeruo - Paredes, Grealish - Moreno, Vossen).

Only Ledesma left the club so far. The only other Senior Member, who left the club, was last year loanee Emiliano Nsue, who joined Stoke City for a fee of 2.5 mio. €



Other Players who joined the Squad, had been young french under19 international Rosario Latouchent from scottish side Ross County. Latouchent is a wing back, who can play on both sides and he is a promising young player, who already had been part of a french under21 squad, but hadn't played up to now. He could be a long term replacement for Damia, who isn't geeting any younger.

Another young promising player, who had been signed, was young english central midfielder Nick Powell from Manchester United! This signing was a hugh coup for Boro.
No one would've believed, that Powell would sign for the newly promoted team, as he is a future star for the English national team.
Powell had severel offers on the table, from teams such as Aston Villa, West Ham United or Southhampton.



To strenghten the defense, Patric from FC Barcelona had been signed on a free transfer, after he recently signed a new contract, but he had been allowed to leave for free, after he hadn't been given a fair chance to show, that he earns a spot in the Barcelona Senior Squad.
Patric is a spanish under21 defender and another young player who signed under Gazzas reign!



The last player who signed until now is swedish Striker John Guidetti from Manchester City!
Guidetti is another bargain, as he had been signed for free!
With Guidetti in the Squad, Gazza now finally has some options in the attack.
Last year he only had Kike and Vossen, but now got Moreno and Guidetti in addition to them to have more debth in the squad!

#18 Team Report & Season Preview

After gaining Promotion to the Premier League, Middlesbrough Manager Paul Gascoigne brought a couple of players into the Team.
Players like Guidetti, Powell, Moreno or Sörensen, who are still very young and will add something to the team!

Goalkeepers

1 Fernando Pachecho, Spain, 23 years old, 6.25 mio € value
13 Jason Steele, England, 25, 3.2 mio €
40 Thomas Mejias, Spain, 26, 0.5 mio €

Defenders

2 Kenneth Omeruo, England, 21, 8.5 mio €
3 Rosario Latouchent, France, 19, 0.8 mio €
5 Patric, Spain, 22, 7 mio €
6 Ben Gibson, England, 22, 10 mio €
15 Frederik Sörensen, Denmark, 23, 6 mio €
17 James Husband, England, 21, 7 mio €
24 Damia, Spain, 33, 0.2 mio €
25 Rhys Williams, Australia, 27, 6.75 mio €

Midfielders

4 Alex Corredera, Spain, 19, 0.5 mio €
7 Grant Leadbitter, England, 29, 2.4 mio €
8 Adam Clayton, England, 26, 9 mio €
10 Nick Powell, England, 21, 6.75 mio €
16 Joan Roman, Spain, 22, 6.75 mio €
20 Adam Reach, England, 22, 1.6 mio €
22 Callum McManaman, England, 24, 2 mio €
23 John Swift, England, 20, 0.7 mio €
32 Leandro Paredes, Argentinia, 21, 2.7 mio €
41 Jack Grealish, Irland, 20, 9.75 mio €

Strikers

9 Kike, Spain, 25, 5.75 mio €
11 John Guidetti, Swedish, 23, 11.5 mio €
18 Gerard Moreno, Spain, 23, 11.25 mio €
19 Jordan Booker, England, 16, 0.4 mio €
21 Jelle Vossen, Belgium, 26, 5.75 mio €

The Team was strengthen with a lot of players and and Paul Gascoigne now has severel options to choose from!
Last year there where only Vossen, Kike and at the end of the Season youth player Jordan Booker as options for the 2 Striker spots and so Kike and Vossen had a to play all of the games in the Cup competitions and the league, which led both of them to play in 50 games! (International games not counted!)

This team is filled with a hugh potential. Players like Grealish, Omeruo, Guidetti, Moreno, Powell, Gibson or Husband!
Gascoigne was looking to bring in some talented, but cheap players and only Powell did cost a transfer fee.
The experts think that Middlesbrough will be a number one contender, for a relegation spot and that they're unlikely to stay in the Premier League for longer than a year!

Gascoigne recently signed a new one-year contract and promised the Boro board that they will stay in the Premier League and that he wouldn't ask for a new contract, in case he would fail!

#19 Premier League Kicks-off

The first few games of the Premier League had been played and what should I say? See it yourself...



We played against some of the teams, we probably are fighting against, at the end of the Season, for staying in the Premier League!
And we're building a lead against the other contenders.
First there was the Match againsts Queens Park Rangers and West Bromwich Albion. Two games which we won in the last moments of the games. Against QPR we had the been a goal back until the 84th minute and got a win and against West Brom we had the draw until the 74th minute and got a win in the last 15 minutes!
The game against Everton and Stoke both had been a hugh surprise to the Boro fans, as everyone thought, Boro would lose both matches and only lost points against Everton.
The next two games again had been played against some contenders for keeping clear of relegation.
And Watford and Leicester both had been played into the ground with a 3 goal advantage in both games!

We are leading the Premier League after 6 games! Who would've thought that would be possible?
Me surely not!

Player to watch

Guidetti had been in a great sheap recently, as he scored 6 goals and 1 assist in 6 games.
He played very well and the Boro fans already love him and want to see more of the same.
Another player who would've earned to call player to watch, was Guidettis partner Gerard Moreno, who scored 5 goals and 2 assists in 6 games.
The Boro strikers both had showed that they are worth their money!

Wow - What a start to the season. Certainly couldn't see that coming. Good luck for the rest of the season!!

#20 Struggle for the first time!

After 6 games we had been at the top of the BPL and we hoped for our good start to continue!
Another 6 games later, we really are struggeling to get anything out of a match!



What did happen to us?
It was a rugh month, as we lost 5 games in a row, but it was expected that we would lose against teams like Manchester City, Tottenham, Chelsea London, Aston Villa or Liverpool!
5 Teams who are all possible of winning the League or gaining an international place!
The draw against Norwich was just rotten luck, as we had the advantage for almost the whole game.
We had some injury problems over the last month as we lost Guidetti, Paredes, Moreno and Omeruo.
Now we hope to get them back for the next games and try to keep up the point advantage, we build over the first few weeks against the relegation competitors!



No player earned it to be called Player of the Month!