Looking at the video, he offers something that we have seriously lacked this season, that being the instinct to arrive in front of goal at the right time. I sit in the North Upper and watch the six yard box for any sign of a red shirt in vain. We all need to trust Riga at this time.
If you consider our squad today, compared to three weeks ago, it does IMO look better. Moving on Pigott, Watt, Moussa, Vaz Te, and bringing in Sanogo and Fanni gives us depth in the right places. With Lookman and Vetokele both back from injury too, the attack, midfield and defence all have robust options, and with Diarra and Bauer hopefully both back soon, even more so then. If we can add Gnabry next week that would be even better, but even without him, picking our best starting XI is not as simple as it used to be, and with a full in-form squad to chose from, quite difficult!
There's been a big change in the last couple of weeks;
Vetokele and Bergdich have come in and looked up to standard straight-away.
Gudmonsson, Makienok, Cousins, Jackson and Fox and have just had their best games for quite a while.
Texeira has come in and given us a better shape at the back.
Lookman is back from injury and has already scored another goal.
Our new manager has a clear plan and has been able to add some depth to cope with some injuries.
We still have a chance to stay up if we can just put a run together.
Middlesbrough have Premier League ambitions. Look at the difference in their recruitment to ours. That's a club that hasn't benefited from parachute payments in recent years, just like us.
I'm not asking that we spend £11m on one player, but some long-term recruitment strategy wouldn't go amiss.
Wenger does not usually sign duds; therefore, I am hoping that Sanogo is not the exception that proves the rule. I am ignoring these tiresome gooners and sticking to the fact that there are only two geniuses in english football; that is the professor and Riga. Must have a word with my GP about the medication he has put me on.
Definitely underwhelmed, only reason we're not all in uproar is because of Saturdays win, would've been a lot different had we got spanked.
The difference is though is it appears, and yes i know its only one game, that Riga can get something out of this squad. Many of us thought we already had enough quality to stay safe, we just didn't have the direction or organisation of a good manager to put it into practice.
Definitely underwhelmed, only reason we're not all in uproar is because of Saturdays win, would've been a lot different had we got spanked.
The difference is though is it appears, and yes i know its only one game, that Riga can get something out of this squad. Many of us thought we already had enough quality to stay safe, we just didn't have the direction or organisation of a good manager to put it into practice.
Hope that is the case, whether it's enough or not remains to be seen. I'm not convinced Mak, Cousins, Fox and Bergdich have become good Championship players all of a sudden.
Definitely underwhelmed, only reason we're not all in uproar is because of Saturdays win, would've been a lot different had we got spanked.
The difference is though is it appears, and yes i know its only one game, that Riga can get something out of this squad. Many of us thought we already had enough quality to stay safe, we just didn't have the direction or organisation of a good manager to put it into practice.
Hope that is the case, whether it's enough or not remains to be seen. I'm not convinced Mak, Cousins, Fox and Bergdich have become good Championship players all of a sudden.
I think Mak and Bergdich have the ability to be decent Champ players. Cousins is already a good Champ Player. Fox.....not so much.
Always thought our squad was good enough, just too small and hopelessly managed and set up by Managers without a clue. This arguably makes us stronger as we have two committed players and got rid of two less committed.
Trouble is with RD that sides have gone up on tiny budgets due to shrewd management and everyone pulling in the same direction. We've had neither of those things in the past 2 years.
According to Wikipedia he's at FC Ufa in the Russian Premier League.
Ah. It is a shame that some players do not have it in them to realise there full potential; even though the Russian league is probably of a good standard. Wenger saw something in him along with Wolves and us. He will probably resurface in England at some stage.
Middlesbrough have Premier League ambitions. Look at the difference in their recruitment to ours. That's a club that hasn't benefited from parachute payments in recent years, just like us.
I'm not asking that we spend £11m on one player, but some long-term recruitment strategy wouldn't go amiss.
I agree. Steve Gibson's wealth is put at around £165m so quite a bit less than RD, but as a Boro fan he has invested considerably more of his fortune in his team. I guess their gate receipts etc, and total revenues might be quite a bit more than ours, so buying the kind of players they have, while undoubtedly costing them heavily, is not quite pushing them beyond FFP. However, Rhodes' wages at Blackburn were £33k a week and I don't suppose he has taken a pay cut. The reward of promotion will make it all worthwhile of course.
Definitely underwhelmed, only reason we're not all in uproar is because of Saturdays win, would've been a lot different had we got spanked.
The difference is though is it appears, and yes i know its only one game, that Riga can get something out of this squad. Many of us thought we already had enough quality to stay safe, we just didn't have the direction or organisation of a good manager to put it into practice.
Hope that is the case, whether it's enough or not remains to be seen. I'm not convinced Mak, Cousins, Fox and Bergdich have become good Championship players all of a sudden.
I think Mak and Bergdich have the ability to be decent Champ players. Cousins is already a good Champ Player. Fox.....not so much.
Don't wanna get accused of changing the subject in a thread, my feelings about this have been highlighted on the Jordan Cousins thread.
I am pleased enough with our business yesterday, would I prefer some long term vision, yes but that is why the fight is still for a change of ownership but right now I believe those two signings combined with not losing any more of our first team talent means we are a stronger team as we once again fight relegation.
Lets just hope this regime is gone by this time next year so we are not faced with more short term panic buying/loaning in the January transfer just to get us out of another mess that they will create in the summer, as they will do it again, no matter how much we may wish to believe Riga holds the power now.
I've been looking up Fanni on the Internet all morning, found quite a lot of useful information. Need to continue the research though before I make an informed assessment on CL.
Middlesbrough have Premier League ambitions. Look at the difference in their recruitment to ours. That's a club that hasn't benefited from parachute payments in recent years, just like us.
I'm not asking that we spend £11m on one player, but some long-term recruitment strategy wouldn't go amiss.
Gibson has bankrolled 'boro for years though. He is a fan and a wealthy owner that isn't afraid to gamble with his cash. Roland isn't a fan and will not gamble with his cash. Hence why 'boro get Rhodes and we get Sanogo. Obviously Rhodes and the like wouldn't come to us in our position, but we could attract good players if we showed some ambition. Until Roland goes, we are stuck in the Championship at best because he will not sign the quality of player we need to get out of it.
Middlesbrough have Premier League ambitions. Look at the difference in their recruitment to ours. That's a club that hasn't benefited from parachute payments in recent years, just like us.
I'm not asking that we spend £11m on one player, but some long-term recruitment strategy wouldn't go amiss.
Gibson has bankrolled 'boro for years though. He is a fan and a wealthy owner that isn't afraid to gamble with his cash. Roland isn't a fan and will not gamble with his cash. Hence why 'boro get Rhodes and we get Sanogo. Obviously Rhodes and the like wouldn't come to us in our position, but we could attract good players if we showed some ambition. Until Roland goes, we are stuck in the Championship at best because he will not sign the quality of player we need to get out of it.
Even knowing the core and majority of our squad will be together for at least a year would be something.
I do wonder if we ever really intended to or tried to make a permanent signing this window. It's interesting that Rotherham's local press completely denied we ever bid for Clarke-Harris.
Will Sanogo or Fanni be here this time next year? I highly doubt it. More short-term signings. Where are the Premier League ambitions in that? How does any football club progress that way?
I'd love to know who scouted Rod Fanni. Did anyone or was it a last minute call from an agent?
having slept on things and reconsidered last nights undertakings I would just like to retract my previous nights thoughts on proceedings. what I would like to ask, and what I think is the real question we should all be asking at this time is ' Will fanni show up well in front of a tightly packed covered end'?
We've had a weird window. The majority of what we brought in has already been stuck in the box marked 'not good enough' or 'return to Middlesbrough' and it's not often you sign players to meet a need, and then sign players to replace the players signed to meet a need all within the same window. The fact the window's only open for about four weeks shows just how rubbish some of these players have been to so obviously display how badly they aren't up to the task. It also shows the issue of our manager recruitment process; Fraeye happily nods his head to the signings of Williams and Johnson and then gets shuffled off, and Riga comes in and immediately identifies a new centre half to bring in, and drops all the other signings from the team.
Bearing that in mind you have to wonder about the new signings we got yesterday. Did Riga identify them? Going by the Oxford debacle it seems that Riga gets the final say on signings, so maybe he knew of Fanni and Sanogo already. If that's the case then maybe we're ok, but it's also possible that Riga was presented with a list of signings he could make and had to pick his preferred options out of that. If that's the case then the track record of our mystery scouting network hasn't been too great this month so there's really no telling how good this lot are.
It leaves us more or less in the dark about the last day's dealings, but the good news is that at least we are now looking at a nearly fit squad. Igor is back and raring to go, Mak had a great game and looks hungry, we have Cousins, Jackson, Poyet and Ba available in the middle who are all full of running and in Gudmundsson a player who just hit the top of the assist charts by getting three on Saturday. We have the resurgent Bergdich on the left with Harriott to come in for him if needed, and a central defence that doesn't have to include the word 'Sarr' unless Teixeira, Lennon, Fanni and Diarra all fall apart before Bauer gets back. If we can add Gnabry to all that then really the players will only have themselves to blame if they don't start picking up wins from now on. We need to keep people fit, keep them running, rotate them before fatigue sets in and start going at teams like we know we can win. Riga can instil that in them so we're not dead in the water yet as long as the goals keep flowing.
I do wonder if we ever really intended to or tried to make a permanent signing this window. It's interesting that Rotherham's local press completely denied we ever bid for Clarke-Harris.
Will Sanogo or Fanni be here this time next year? I highly doubt it. More short-term signings. Where are the Premier League ambitions in that? How does any football club progress that way?
I'd love to know who scouted Rod Fanni. Did anyone or was it a last minute call from an agent?
Diarra knows him well as does Riga
Didn't realise Diarra was also our chief scout now. How does Riga know him?
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You seem not to have noticed 3 assists from Gudmunson on Saturday.
Vetokele and Bergdich have come in and looked up to standard straight-away.
Gudmonsson, Makienok, Cousins, Jackson and Fox and have just had their best games for quite a while.
Texeira has come in and given us a better shape at the back.
Lookman is back from injury and has already scored another goal.
Our new manager has a clear plan and has been able to add some depth to cope with some injuries.
We still have a chance to stay up if we can just put a run together.
I'm not asking that we spend £11m on one player, but some long-term recruitment strategy wouldn't go amiss.
Must have a word with my GP about the medication he has put me on.
Trouble is with RD that sides have gone up on tiny budgets due to shrewd management and everyone pulling in the same direction. We've had neither of those things in the past 2 years.
The Fanni jokes have been great, especially liked the pussy galore one!
Lets just hope this regime is gone by this time next year so we are not faced with more short term panic buying/loaning in the January transfer just to get us out of another mess that they will create in the summer, as they will do it again, no matter how much we may wish to believe Riga holds the power now.
Bearing that in mind you have to wonder about the new signings we got yesterday. Did Riga identify them? Going by the Oxford debacle it seems that Riga gets the final say on signings, so maybe he knew of Fanni and Sanogo already. If that's the case then maybe we're ok, but it's also possible that Riga was presented with a list of signings he could make and had to pick his preferred options out of that. If that's the case then the track record of our mystery scouting network hasn't been too great this month so there's really no telling how good this lot are.
It leaves us more or less in the dark about the last day's dealings, but the good news is that at least we are now looking at a nearly fit squad. Igor is back and raring to go, Mak had a great game and looks hungry, we have Cousins, Jackson, Poyet and Ba available in the middle who are all full of running and in Gudmundsson a player who just hit the top of the assist charts by getting three on Saturday. We have the resurgent Bergdich on the left with Harriott to come in for him if needed, and a central defence that doesn't have to include the word 'Sarr' unless Teixeira, Lennon, Fanni and Diarra all fall apart before Bauer gets back. If we can add Gnabry to all that then really the players will only have themselves to blame if they don't start picking up wins from now on. We need to keep people fit, keep them running, rotate them before fatigue sets in and start going at teams like we know we can win. Riga can instil that in them so we're not dead in the water yet as long as the goals keep flowing.