The Pride of the North East - A Middlesbrough Story

[Mike :]]

Nice to see another Boro story. Great work on promotion.

As a Boro fan, I will definitely be following.
I have a Boro save as well but not doing as good as you. Similar to you, I go for youth but I go for all nationalities.

Cheers mate, thanks for following. Had a hard start to life in the Premier League with Arsenal and Liverpool in the opening two games!

Nooooooo, you sold Adomah!!! He gave me like 15/20 assists per season for 3 years before I sold him to Shaktar for ?14m

Sold him for ?4m believing I could get someone in but the %age of transfer revenue was cut to 25% from 100% and I couldn't afford Will Buckley.

It's a pity you lost Dave Parnaby, I think he was mainly responsible for these amazing regens. I predict you'll finish somewhere near the 8th place. Good luck!

It's a massive shame that he left as he is possibly the best around and is English but he kept refusing to extend his contract! Hopefully I finish in the top half but I'll be happy with mid table.

Have a look at Virgil van dijk he's not English but young.... He's been a rock so far for me in my first season in the premiership with Boro.

2nd highest average rating in the league behind vidic and we sit 13th at the moment after 12 games

Thanks for the tip but I'm going to stick with my transfer policy!

 

[Mike :]]

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August 2014

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What an awful start to life in the Premier League as we lose our opening three games in the league but manage to just beat York in the Capital One Cup First Round. We had a very tough start though as we lost to both Arsenal and Liverpool who will be up there at the end of the season but the loss to Crystal Palace was hard to take. I tried to go for a more attacking formation to try and get a win but we conceded more goals than the Arsenal and Liverpool games combined.

Squad Stats

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Player of the Month

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League Table

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Quite a bad month for us as we are only off the bottom of the league on goal difference. However it's a marathon not a sprint!​

 

[robbieboro82]

What formation are you playing?

 

[Mike :]]

What formation are you playing?

4-2-2-2, the formation that is on the front page from Jassar

 

[Mike :]]

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September 2014

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We finally get our first win of the season as we beat Leicester and we follow it up with a solid 1-0 win over Cardiff, who are also down near the bottom of the league. The month didn't start so good though as we suffered a 2-0 loss at the hands of Stoke but we bounced back against Leicester with the perfect result. We were knocked out of the Capital One Cup as well as we rested 10 of the starting eleven from the Leicester game to ensure that they were fit for the Cardiff game but we still put in a good performance.

Squad Stats

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Player of the Month - Charlie Austin

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He had quite a tough start to his Middlesbrough career as his only goals in August came in the win over York but he bounced back and came off the bench to secure the win over Leicester.

League Table

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It's progress compared to the last month and it sees us get out of the relegation zone and hopefully we won't go back in it.

Club News

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Jerome Sinclair has agreed a new five year deal with the club after he turned 18 on the 20th September. I wanted to secure him on a long deal to show that he is the future of the club and English football.

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Following Kyle Waine's goal against Leicester he has set a new record for the youngest goalscorer in the premier League beating James Vaughan's record of 16 years and 270 days.
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[robbieboro82]

4-2-2-2, the formation that is on the front page from Jassar

Should try dropping one of your strikers to a Defensive Midfield role, will tighten up your defence much more and seems to enable me to score tonnes!!

just gone 12 games without conceding, scoring about 40

 

[Mike :]]

Should try dropping one of your strikers to a Defensive Midfield role, will tighten up your defence much more and seems to enable me to score tonnes!!

just gone 12 games without conceding, scoring about 40

The tactic works okay it's just taking time to adjust to play against Premier League teams and the morale needs to be at a good level to get the best results.

 

[Mike :]]

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October 2014

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Only three games were played in October and I felt we could have won all three but I'll take two wins from them. It was great to get a win over our rivals Sunderland and then to beat Manchester City away was fantastic as they have some huge names in their team. The West Brom game was quite disappointing as we took the lead early on through Charlie Austin but collapsed after that and lost 4-1.

Squad Stats

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Player of the Month - Faris Haroun

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Faris has put in some excellent performances recently and has been dominant in the centre of midfield. He also scored the winner against Manchester City.

League Table

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We are now 10 points off the relegation zone which is great as it means we can relax a bit now and not worry about anyone catching us in the near future.

Club News

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Emmanuel Ledesma signs a new three year deal with the club as he has done well recently and at this stage I can't find an English replacement for him as Wilfried Zaha rejected a loan move to us.
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[Mike :]]

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November 2014

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A very poor month for Middlesbrough as we didn't win any of the four games played in the Premier League with two draws and two defeats in November. The first game saw us get destroyed by Chelsea before we earned a reputable draw against Tottenham but we did miss a penalty as well. We then lost by a single goal to Norwich before another draw against Everton finished the month off.

Squad Stats

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Player of the Month - No One

Very poor month for the team and no one impressed that much to be singled out.

League Table

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Even though we didn't win we still managed to gain another point on the relegation candidates and now sit 13th in the league.​

 

[Mike :]]

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December 2014

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It would normally be classed as a decent month but the 4-0 hammering at the hands of local rivals Newcastle means that it was quite a bad month for us. We won two games with wins over Brighton at the start of the month and over Fulham at the end of the month with three losses and one draw in between.

Squad Stats

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Player of the Month - Jerome Sinclair

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Jerome hasn't been a starter lately but he's pushed his way into the team with three goals this month as we look to move up the table.

League Table

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We've slipped a couple of places in the league but still 10 points off the relegation places which is good considering that we only won two games in December.

Club News

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I was in demand this month as I received four job interviews from sides in the Premier League including 5th placed Spurs. One job interview that made me laugh was the Sunderland one, why would I join a sinking ship?

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Centre midfielder Faris Haroun has been ruled out for six to seven weeks and it will be a big blow to us as he has been solid so far.​

 

[hera]

That 4-2-4 is a bit risky for the PL standards I see. Can't wait to see your youth intake this year.

 

[Mike :]]

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January 2015

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January started and ended well but the middle was totally forgettable as we lost three games in a row. We started the month off with a 2-0 win over Wolves in the FA Cup Third Round and in the next round we drew Chelsea who hammered us 3-1 on TV. There was goals galore in the defeat at Stoke as we came out on the wrong side of a 6-4 result and then finished the month with a 6-1 demolition of Leicester.

Squad Stats

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Player of the Month - Charlie Austin

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He has led the line well this month and scored four goals in the 6-1 win over Leicester.

League Table

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We are still ten points off the relegation zone but we've slipped down to 15th place. Hopefully we can start moving up a few places soon.

Transfers

In

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Giant centre back Dan Burn joins from Fulham for ?350,000 after a change of manager. I've been tracking him since the start of last season so delighted to finally get him.

Out

Two players left Middlesbrough on a permanent as Mustapha Carayol joined Leicester for ?250,000 whilst Grant Leadbitter joined Watford on a free transfer. Two young prospects joined Crewe on loan as Kristian Drench and Sam Cherry moved until the end of the season.

Club News

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I signed a new deal with the club until June 2019 and it was greeted with positiveness by the players.

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George Friend is likely to be out until the end of the season after he broke his leg in a training session which means that Ben Gibson will move over to left back.

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Club captain Jonathan Woodgate has announced that he will retire at the end of the season as he isn't getting into the team as of late.​

 

[Mike :]]

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February 2015

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Middlesbrough had quite a hard end to the month as we had to take on mega rich Manchester City and Chelsea and we got beat by both of them but managed to score in each game. That was one of the positives of the month as we scored in all five games that we played and even managed two wins against Cardiff and rivals Sunderland.

Squad Stats

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Player of the Month

I don't think any player stood out this month as we performed well as a unit going into the key part of the season.

League Table

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We're now 12 months off the relegation zone with 9 games to go so it could be tight down at the bottom if we start to slip up and lose the easy games.

On a side note..

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Yaya Toure needs to get out of my ****..XD​

 

[Mike :]]

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2014/15 Youth Candidates

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After last year's intake I had quite high hopes for this season but I've been left disappointed with the players that were brought in. I think part of it may be down to the fact that we lost Dave Parnaby to Arsenal and replaced him with a Brazilian who has not adapted well. Below are the two brightest prospects;

Micky Jackson - 4*

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Quite small for a left back but should turn out okay if developed and trained properly in the next few years.

Stephen Best - 4*

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We already have a few decent young strikers at the club so not sure if he'll break into the first team.​

 

[Mike :]]

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March 2015

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Due to the international break we only played two games in March and lost both of them to higher opposition and went down 2-1 to Tottenham and 3-1 to Everton but both are chasing Champions League football so not too disappointing.

Squad Stats

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Player of the Month

Can't really give a Player of the Month due to the amount of games played and no wins in March either.

League Table

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With seven games left we are ten points off the relegation zone and it looks like we could survive in the Premier League comfortably. Elsewhere in the table, Chelsea have wrapped up their second successive title.​

 

[Billy Bryant]

Great story, really enjoying it. Good luck with it, and staying in the Premiership. I like the idea of a full English setup but I don't think the youth is good enough in comparison to other nations. However, with a steady intake of regens I guess it's possible. Might struggle with champions league against some of the bigger nations and their incredible regens but that's a worry for the future I guess xD

 

[Mike :]]

Great story, really enjoying it. Good luck with it, and staying in the Premiership. I like the idea of a full English setup but I don't think the youth is good enough in comparison to other nations. However, with a steady intake of regens I guess it's possible. Might struggle with champions league against some of the bigger nations and their incredible regens but that's a worry for the future I guess xD

Cheers mate, thanks for following!

When I become a 'bigger' club I'm hoping I'll be able to snap up regens from other clubs for compensation. There was a striker from Chelsea who has excellent attributes at 15 but he accepted their offer instead. I'll cross the Champions League bridge when I come to it haha, won't be for another season or so.

 

[Mike :]]

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April 2015

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April was a solid month for us and it looked like it would be an unbeaten month before we lost 2-1 to Aston Villa on the 25th. We had two scrappy draws to start April off against Norwich and Brighton before two late goals from Kei Kamara and Kyle Waine secured a 5-4 victory over Swansea in Wales.

Squad Stats

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Player of the Month - Tom Ince

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His first player of the month award this season after he has been tearing opposition full backs apart and even got a goal in the win against Swansea.

League Table

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Three games left, eleven points clear of the relegation zone.
MIDDLESBROUGH HAVE SURVIVED!​

 

[Mike :]]

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May 2015

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It was quite a disappointing ending to the season for me as well lost the last three games including one against local rivals Newcastle. I changed it around a bit for the Manchester United game and we went 1-0 up and had two goals disallowed but two mistakes from Dan Burn cost us the three points. When we played Fulham they were already relegated so brought some youngsters in to play but they couldn't complete the job.

Squad Stats

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Player of the Month

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League Table

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We survived our first season in the Premier League comfortably in the end so we'll be looking to move on from that next season.

Club News

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[Mike :]]

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Middlesbrough End of Season Review

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Player of the Year - Charlie Austin

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At the start of the season he was struggling but he soon reached top form and finished third in the Premier League goalscoring list with 17 league goals in 37 appearances.

Young Player of the Year - Jerome Sinclair

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Jerome wins the award for the second year in a row for his performances throughout the season. There was a period of time when he was on the bench and Charlie Austin and Kei Kamara started as the two strikers but he bounced back and scored 11 goals.

Result of the Season

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I'm going to go with the 2-1 win over Manchester City at the end of October as we weren't expecting anything from the game due to their talented players but we sneaked at 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium thanks to Kei Kamara and Faris Haroun.

Premier League

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It was a positive start to life back in the Premier League as we survived our first campaign and we'll be looking to improve on our final position in 2015/16.

Capital One Cup

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I thought we might have done well in the Capital One Cup this season but we were drawn against Manchester City and were easily dispatched as we rested some key players.

FA Cup

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Similar to the Capital One Cup, I thought we might do well in the competition but in the Fourth Round we were handed a very tough tie against Chelsea who then went on to win it.

Aims

1) Win promotion to the Premier League
2) Qualify for European Football
3) Win the Premier League
4) Win the FA Cup
5) Win the Capital One Cup
6) Win the Community Shield
7) Win the Europa League
8) Win the Champions League
9) Win the Club World Cup
10) Complete a domestic treble
11) Have 10 or more players selected for national duty for the main team.
12) A Middlesbrough player to win the Golden Ball
13) Become the most reputable club in the world
14) Become the world's richest club
15) Become the most successful club in the North East

We didn't complete any more aims this season so that was disappointing but hopefully in the 2015/16 season we'll win one of the domestic cups.
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