BORO have announced the arrival of their new away kit, which goes on sale to season ticket holders next week.
Afonso Alves models the new black and blue striped shirt which will accompany black shorts and socks with a blue trim and the players will get to wear their new kit this evening as they take on York City as part of the BORO's pre-season warm-up.
Meanwhile George Boateng this week completed his move to Hull City after BORO accepted a £1 million bid for the Dutch midfielder who has been with BORO since 2002. In addition, speculation surrounding fellow midfielder Lee Cattermole's future has began to circulate as news of a bid from another Premier League club, reportedly Wigan Athletic, has emerged.
Ideally manager, Gareth Southgate, would be keen to keep the highly enthusiastic youngster at the club but it is believed that he would be prepared to let Catts leave provided a suitable offer was made.
Also this week, Gary O'Neil has committed himself to BORO after much talk of him being 'unsettled' on Teesside. O'Neil was on track to be nominated as player of the season last year after a spectacular start to the season, but following a dip in form and a bad injury ruling him out of the last few games of the season, rumours started to spread that he was finding life hard with BORO. He had this to say to the MFC official website,
"It's been a good pre-season for me so far and now that I'm happy and settled, it will get me back to where I want to be."
Friday, 18 July 2008
Check This!
Monday, 7 July 2008
Super Swoop
BORO moved fast after weeks of speculation to secure their first two signings of the summer in French under-21 star Didier Digard and Dutch forward Marvin Emnes, on Friday.
Both players sealed their moves to the Riverside in the space of 24 hours after it was revealed that talks for both players had been ongoing for some time.
Frenchman, Digard, followed the earlier arrival of the Dutch youngster Emnes, from Sparta Rotterdam, as each player put pen to paper on 4 year contracts and cited the attraction of playing in the English top flight as their main reason for choosing BORO ahead of other potential buyers.
Digard's arrival on Teesside, from PSG, may now clear the way for former captain George Boateng to leave the club as Celtic have stepped up their interest in the Dutch midfielder.
Meanwhile 20 year old Emnes has expressed his delight at his move to the Premier league,
"I am very excited to join Middlesbrough. It's a dream for any player to play in the Premier League, but it is a great opportunity for me when I am still so young.
"I had a good year with Sparta and there was a lot of interest in me but I was enthusiastic about the idea of joining Middlesbrough from the very first day I heard of their interest."
Pictures & Quotes courtesy of MFC Official Site (www.mfc.co.uk) & Skysports (www.skysports.com/football)
Thursday, 19 June 2008
BORO Blog is 1!
Catch Up
Well plenty has happened whilst I have been away, a four week holiday in Dubai and you struggle to keep up.
First up, BORO waved farewell to long standing Aussie goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer last month as he headed south in a bizarre move to Fulham.
Schwarzer had served BORO for 11 years and was BORO's longest serving player still with the club up until his move. He joined BORO from Bradford City and helped the club win their first major piece of silverware and made a memorable penalty save to ensure BORO's highest ever premier league finish and second season in Europe under boss Steve McClaren.
Schwarzer might well be sorely missed, but after arguably a less than impressive season last time out and at 35 years of age it was time to move on. Gareth Southgate has declared his confidence in stand-ins Ross Turnbull and Brad Jones, both of whom will now fight for the number one shirt, rather than the club bringing in a new keeper.
The UEFA European Championships are well in full swing now and whilst new BORO captain Emanuel Pogatetz's Austria have been eliminated from the competition they are co-hosting, BORO do still have an interest in the competition as Tuncay Sanli made it through to the quarter finals with Turkey after an extraordinary game against the Czech Republic where they overturned the odds to fight back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 with just 15 minutes of the match remaining. But that was not all, Turkish keeper Volkan was given a red card for pushing over Jan Koller with 4 minutes remaining of injury time and, with all 3 substitutes already made, BORO's Tuncay was handed the gloves and looked drowned in the huge Volkan's goalkeeper jersey. But Turkey held on and made it through to the last eight where they will face Croatia.
Finally, the closest thing to a new BORO signing I can see is that BORO appear favourites to sign PSG midfielder Didier Digard. However conflicting media reports suggest that the player has had a medical where other reports suggest a deal has not yet been agreed. BORO do look set to miss out on Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell as his proposed move to Aston Villa draws ever near.
Despite all this the MFC official website (www.mfc.co.uk) have published an ever growing list of players that we have been linked with, something for the fans to get a little excited about perhaps.
