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Pulis in before the weekend


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2 minutes ago, Bouncing Owl said:


We need to stay up this season. I don’t think many on here know that this will be a struggle this season given our recruitment this summer. I’m ok with it as  long as it’s only until the summer. 
 

I don’t think we can risk an unproven manager at this stage. It’s a firefighting operation to me. 
 

Personally, whilst I don’t rate Monk, he shouldve been given time due to bringing in his pen back room team and 9 players. I agree with bully blunt - he only got sacked as DC still thinks we can make the playoffs. That in itself concerns me.

 

We can’t wing the playoffs not this season or the next 2 seasons. DC needs to be planning now for next season on who to bring in, a footballing philosophy and a new structure at the club. Unfortunately, I don’t think this will happen tho. 

 

My thoughts are the same, but I can't see him just walking away in the summer. It's pretty rare a manager's contract just expires. 

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Guest Hornsby

On a positive note , a fond memory of hoof ball is that 4-2 home win against Geordies in front of 42,000.

 

Keegan the purist went ape.  And then of course Wilko's overall early success.

 

But not getting Zahore or another Lee Chapman is gonna make it difficult for Pulis for a few months.  

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2 minutes ago, Pieman said:

 

I also think Pulis is good shout for DoF and I suspect DC has discussed this with him for next season. 

 

I suspect you are completely wrong I have DC has stated before that he does not want a DoF.       :Chansiri:

 

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1 minute ago, cowl said:

I'm not sure some of you have even looked at the table.

 

A single win more than our actual points haul would see us 12th. And we've got 35 games to go still; 105 points to play for.

 

Do we really need to be making an appointment, the rationale for which seems to be that we're under the most severe risk of being relegated?


spot on. We are 2 points from safety. Ridiculous we are bringing in Pulis to ensure we stay up. 

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3 minutes ago, WalthamOwl said:


very worrying. 

"Over the course of 10 seasons with Stoke City, Crystal Palace and West Brom, Pulis has been manager for 321 Premier League games and seen his team score only 319 times – 157 of them via set pieces. In all but one of those seasons, the team that Pulis was in charge of registered the fewest number of passes in the division."

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Anyone who seriously thinks DC sacked him because he thinks we can still make the play offs need to give there heads a good shake 

 

Billy Sharp should probably concentrate on his own side been rock bottom of league before stirring the pot here, clearly just on the wind up 

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1 hour ago, Hitcat said:

 

  

Tony Pulis: the man that time and football forgot

 

The announcement was so popular that in the immediate aftermath Middlesbrough’s website crashed. There were jubilant responses on Twitter. Fans made clear their relief at the news most felt had been a long time coming.

Tony Pulis had been sacked. After a season of turgid, dismal football at the Riverside, a season in which Middlesbrough missed out on the playoffs having been ensconced in the top six for most of the year, there were very few dissenting voices. This, for most, was a welcome update.

Boro’s supporters, by the end, had grown tired of Pulis and his insistence on playing the most functional, one-dimensional football imaginable. It was not that his team missed out on the playoffs; it was the manner in which they did so.

They got close: one point behind sixth-placed Derby after winning their final two games of the season. But they fell short, and that, ultimately, was inexcusable. Even if they had reached the playoffs, it would not likely have changed the opinions of most Middlesbrough fans.

The issue, for Pulis, is that his methods are increasingly outdated. Fans are no longer content to pay to watch 90 minutes of unadventurous, ugly football, regardless of the end result. Middlesbrough’s fans, by the end of this season, approached matchdays with a feeling closer to dread than anticipation.

That is because they knew what would, without fail, be served up by Pulis’ team. Boro scored just 49 goals in 46 league games, fewer than all but four teams in the Championship, and two of those were relegated. That they finished seventh was due to a typically solid and well-organised defence: they let in just 41 goals, the joint-best record in the division.

Pulis has argued that coming so close to the playoffs was a success, given he sold close to £50million worth of players last summer – the likes of Adama Traoré, Patrick Bamford and Ben Gibson all left – in order to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.

For that, he deserves credit, though Middlesbrough are hardly poverty-stricken. “Two years ago we invested heavily in the squad in terms of transfer fees and salaries in an attempt to regain our Premier League status,” chairman Steve Gibson said in a club statement. “This happened before Tony’s arrival.

“Over the past 18 months Tony has been proactive, not only in the ambition to win football matches and promotion to the Premier League, but also in addressing our financial position in order to comply and respect the Championship Fair Play criteria.

“He has ensured that the club is stable and strong for the future. He leaves us in excellent condition.”

On the surface, then, it appears Pulis has done a respectable job. This season was hardly disastrous; it did not set the club back several years and they will again be amongst the favourites to challenge at the top of the Championship next season.

As always, though, with Pulis, it all comes back to his dogmatism, to his refusal to even consider the possibility of playing more expansive football. The club’s fans, for the most part, were fed up with it, and wanted him gone.

It did not help that Middlesbrough were often poor at home. They won just ten of their 23 games at the Riverside, losing seven and drawing six. They scored just 23 goals and often played unnecessarily defensively for a promotion-challenging team on their own turf. It was much different away from home, though.

Over the course of the season, Boro created an average of just 1.1 big chances per 90 minutes, some way off the division’s pacesetters. They completed an average of 344.13 passes per game, which ranks 19th in the Championship.

None of this is surprising, of course, but it highlights the dearth of entertainment at Middlesbrough over the course of the campaign.

Inevitably, such a style of play does not endear a manager to the fans, particularly in the modern game, where most supporters feel entitled to a certain level of entertainment (Marcelo Bielsa and Daniel Farke have certainly provided that at Leeds United and Norwich City this season).

There are others, too, who have suffered similar fates because of their refusal to conform to modernity.

Chris Hughton was dismissed by Brighton largely due to his side’s consistently dour performances in the Premier League. Sam Allardyce and Mark Hughes are out of fashion, too, since their most recent and forgettable tenures in the top flight.

It seems clubs are growing increasingly weary of Pulis and his ilk. The former Stoke and West Brom manager is undoubtedly effective in the right circumstances. But, after a while, he prompts a feeling of existentialism from fans: Why are we watching this unapologetically drab football? Would success even make it all worthwhile?

The answer to the latter, for Middlesbrough, proved to be no. Pulis is gone, and he must now consider his next step wisely. If he does not change his approach, he may find himself faced again and again with an alienated group of fans and a dissatisfied chairman.

 

 

YIPPPEEE, CAN'T WAIT!

 


fizz Boro fans. They whinge about everything and everyone. Its the toxicity of the water up there.

 

Tin pot club who should be in the lower reaches of the Championship where they ******** well belong.

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2 minutes ago, Sefton owl said:

Apparently him and Bannan had a big fall out at Palace, would be interesting to see how that pans out then

 

 

 

This is true and beyond repair too


Which is ok though because we won't be passing the ball now anyway

 

(apart from our goalkeeper back to the centre spot so we can kick off again after conceding)

 


Owlstalk Shop

 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, cowl said:

I'm not sure some of you have even looked at the table.

 

A single win more than our actual points haul would see us 12th. And we've got 35 games to go still; 105 points to play for.

 

Do we really need to be making an appointment, the rationale for which seems to be that we're under the most severe risk of being relegated?


Exactly 

 

We are ONE WIN from getting out the relegation zone

 

Weve just got rid of one of the worst managers ever 

 

Go our and get someone to kickstart a long term plan - anyone but Tony Pulis

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Thank god for lockdown ,up here in N Yorks surrounded by Boro fans,give me chance to digest it all before the pubs open and cue pee taking.

Problem is we used to get him on the telly friday and Monday talking footy , he use to make folks squirm in their seats,white pumps and basey cap and talking absolute testicles.

Still if he keeps us up..................................................  

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6 minutes ago, Bouncing Owl said:


We need to stay up this season. I don’t think many on here know that this will be a struggle this season given our recruitment this summer. I’m ok with it as  long as it’s only until the summer. 
 

I don’t think we can risk an unproven manager at this stage. It’s a firefighting operation to me. 
 

Personally, whilst I don’t rate Monk, he shouldve been given time due to bringing in his pen back room team and 9 players. I agree with bully blunt - he only got sacked as DC still thinks we can make the playoffs. That in itself concerns me.

 

We can’t wing the playoffs not this season or the next 2 seasons. DC needs to be planning now for next season on who to bring in, a footballing philosophy and a new structure at the club. Unfortunately, I don’t think this will happen tho. 

 

I agree that we need a 3-year plan, but I doubt DC has the resources and appetite to wait. I genuinely believe DC didn't understand what he'd bought in terms of liability if we simply hoover around mid-table year after year. Losing £10m per year isn't something I'd want to prop up; particularly if I lived half way around the world and had no affinity to England; Sheffield or SWFC.

 

He wanted a RoI of 3/4 years max - sell for £25m profit net when we got into the PL. What's unraveling is a cultural; financial and personally headache for him and his immediate family. I bet he wished he never heard of SWFC or MM.

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1 minute ago, TodwickOwl said:


Exactly 

 

We are ONE WIN from getting out the relegation zone

 

Weve just got rid of one of the worst managers ever 

 

Go our and get someone to kickstart a long term plan - anyone but Tony Pulis


Fully agree. We need someone for the long term. Pulis is not that person. He will just bleed us dry and retire 

Edited by WalthamOwl
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“Tony Pulis came in, so right up my street,” Bannan said, sarcastically.

 

He grabbed me in half way through the season and was like, if I was managing a team that was going to play football you would be the first name in my team but we’re fighting for our lives so..'

So I knew from then on that this wasn’t going to be the club for me.
 

“I can safely say that the two managers that came in during my time there, after Holloway (Pulis and Neil Warnock), were probably, in my eyes, the worst managers for the way I play.”

 


Owlstalk Shop

 

 

 

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