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Reply | QPR thrashed, Boro run riot, night follows day, bear seen heading for wood
at 22:02 9 Mar 2026
If there was complete transparency and honesty the fanbase would be angrier and he would come in for more criticism. So better to lie.
Everything is about making Christian and Ben appear as good as possible. Issues you think exist? They don’t. Poor performance? That’s on the head coach. Dodgy signings? You need to give them more time? How can we afford this? Don’t worry we’re selling players for loads of money. Injuries? No we’re mid table for injuries, it’s the modern game.
Around and around we go. All that time and effort put towards making two people look as a good as they can.
Meanwhile where is the focus on actually doing the best for the club? That would involve owning and accepting mistakes to learn from them. It would involve making hard decisions. It would involve treating people well because that stuff pays back in the long run. It would involve fostering unity, not division. It wouldn’t involve all this social media nonsense.
But that isn’t the aim. The aim for Christian and Ben is to get themselves bigger and better jobs and bigger and better football clubs, as soon as they can. We’re a stepping stone to them, and it is all they can sell to any potential players, because it’s all they know and care about.
They aren’t custodians of our club; they are charlatans trying to use it as a stepping stone. Sadly they aren’t qualified for their roles or particularly good at them. [Post edited 9 Mar 22:27]
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Reply | So what are we going to do about it?
at 21:47 9 Mar 2026
He’s a ST holder who goes home and away. Missed something like only 3 or 4 games last season.
He also represented a fans group in the “behind closed door” sessions with Nourry.
He may not be a regular poster, but he’s a proper supporter who is far more aware of what is really going on than you are, Ned, as hard as that is for you to stomach.
Dismiss what he says all you want. Won’t make you right. |
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Reply | Boro Post Mortem
at 13:00 9 Mar 2026
I don’t think it was. Bosh has posted purely about the player trading being okay, but not enough generals being signed.
There is a lot more to it than just signing the right players. |
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Reply | Boro Post Mortem
at 12:59 9 Mar 2026
Probably need to change his appearance a little to really sell it to the players too potentially. |
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Reply | Boro Post Mortem
at 12:38 9 Mar 2026
Bosh, all due respect, I think you’re missing the point, mate. Player trading is just one part of running a successful football club. You can sign the best talent in the world, but put them into a bad environment, don’t get them fit, don’t keep them available, treat their colleagues badly…it’s not going to be conducive to success or them maximising their potential.
That is the problem. |
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Reply | Boro Post Mortem
at 12:30 9 Mar 2026
But it changed before he came in to enable that, remember. Amit took over. And Amit gave Warnock complete control.
We would need a change again for a Warnock type to come in. |
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Reply | Steve cook
at 12:28 9 Mar 2026
And what is the long term impact of this?
Players talk. They share agents.
When players hear about this sort of treatment of a respected, experienced pro, who has played at the top level, will they want to come here?
What’s Sam Field likely saying about the club to his Norwich teammates. Word gets out.
I’ve been saying this for 2 years. Football is a people business. People talk. People have emotions. You cannot treat people like sh*t and think it won’t come back to bite you.
To succeed, we need players at other clubs to want to come and play for us. We want players to be willing to sign for us for reasons other than cash or a promise of being sold in X years.
Our CEO does not have the slightest clue how to lead people to instill a good culture. You cannot player trade your way around that. |
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Reply | Boro Post Mortem
at 12:22 9 Mar 2026
The most obvious and expected social media play from a CEO who set up his own small advisory business about social media for 16-24 yr olds. Control the narrative. All about what’s best for him, not the club.
How many decent football coaches are going to look at what’s happened to Cifuentes here, and what is likely to happen to Stephan, and think “I’ll work at that club”?? The talent pool who would consider it will be so small, and by definition, weak. A modern day Warnock, for example, would never come into this set up. |
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Reply | Hoopsa on today's horror show
at 12:18 9 Mar 2026
Agree with all of that, Loftus. It’s why who they appoint to run the club is such a critical decision. And appointing a 26 year old, who had absolutely no relevant experience on his CV to make him a CEO seemed and who had no background in the playing side of football at all to be a DOF, utterly barmy at the time, and still does.
It was a gamble. It hasn’t worked. Pull up stumps. Get a new CEO in. Ask him to hire a DOF. Start again. You can still look to develop youth, progress with the Cat 1 plan, and try to buy low and sell high. There is nothing in that which is rocket science and it’s what the club was doing in the 90s. It’s what Les and Hoos tried to do. None of that strategy is tied to Nourry. |
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Reply | Steve cook
at 11:17 9 Mar 2026
That second paragraph is a point I keep making. What you do, is you sign a gnarly, experienced 30 yr old CB to replace Cook if you don’t renew him. You bring Field back and play him. You sign some more experience.
As I keep saying you must have balance in this league. 5 physical, experienced pros, and 5 younger “ballers” (plus your keeper). And then that needs to be reflected through the squad. You cannot build a squad with u24s, all of whom have limited experience and aren’t used to the rigours of this league. You have to create a stable environment for young talent to come into and succeed. |
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Reply | Boro Post Mortem
at 11:14 9 Mar 2026
Scott, the direction of travel points firmly towards the CEO. He binned off the previous guy. He hired this guy. And he employs someone else to oversee the players fitness, conditioning and availability. Oh, and he’s the one who’s done the squad building.
Fanbase needs to not let itself be conned here.
I have no doubt Nourry and Williams will try to put the blame at Stephan’s door, just like they did with Cifuentes. You’ll see stuff on social media attempting this misdirection.
No head coach will succeed here with these guys above and around him. |
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Reply | Hoopsa on today's horror show
at 10:55 9 Mar 2026
Personally not sure I agree with this.
The owners (both TF and then Ruben) have made terrible decisions for over a decade now. Of that there is no doubt.
Ruben’s absence is not helpful, but also overplayed.
In most businesses in the world the investors (be they private owners, shareholders, private equity, whatever) are not physically present to ensure the running of the club. He doesn’t need to be present nor should he need to be.
He pays people to run the club. Presently, we have a Chairman and a CEO being paid handsomely to run the club for him.
It is the people being paid to run the club who are failing. Ruben keeps the club afloat. Debt is converted to equity so the club itself has limited debt. Yes, his wife now has an option on the training ground, but, in essence that training ground was paid for, and our monthly running costs/losses are paid for. He’s given our current CEO what he’s asked for in terms of: money to spend on players, changing the head coach, implementing his own strategy and structure. As an owner, for a CEO, he’s a brilliant one. The problem is the CEO.
Now, you can rightly blame Hoos for installing him as CEO. I would agree. It was patently a ludicrous gamble at the time. But Hoos is not an owner. There are a few reasons why he might have wanted personally to get someone in as CEO.
The owners, and more recently, Ruben, have made bad decisions. But, as owners, financially, you won’t find many better. And everything else is irrelevant if the financials collapse, as you’re seeing at Sheff Wed.
Ruben is a good owner in terms of what he does financially for the club. There are a lot of sharks in football. I don’t think he is one. Now is his chance to start making some good decisions… |
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Reply | All A Hard Watch & Struggle
at 08:06 9 Mar 2026
Yep. 13 points from those 15 games. Everyone believing their own hype. Since then a ton of injuries and no standards. 2 of those wins against Coventry and Hull, because they can do it. More money spent on Edwards and Obikwu. Experienced pros sent on loan or dropped. Downright lies to fans about the state of some players. Season drifting. No better or different to last season, McClaren’s season, Holloway’s season, and more. It’s just we’ve spent significantly more than in those years and it’s effectively money spent against future years income given the amortisation. Now facing a situation where we have to sell well over the next 4 transfer windows, and sell far more than we buy, so squad building ability potentially reduced.
Ruben, Hoos, and Reilly has to take stock now and open their minds up to the possibility they have been hoodwinked and have backed the wrong horse.
Is it a Japanese proverb that says “when you think you might have got on the wrong train, always get off at the next stop”… |
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