The Middlesbrough 06/07 Thread. "lets get back into Europe!"

berra2k · 07-14-2006, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Middlesbrough have managed to tie down hot prospect Nathan Porritt to his first contract.

The 16-year-old is widely considered one of the best players of his age in Britain, and the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle are all understood to have made lucrative offers to tempt the youngster away from Teesside.

However, Middlesbrough-born Porritt has decided to remain with his hometown club - the most prolific in The Premiership for bringing through their own talent.

Porritt, a tricky winger who can play down either flank, has signed a scholarship deal with a two-year professional contract to follow.

"We have agreed and Nathan is delighted," his agent Peter Harrison confirmed to skysports.com.

"He is happy to be staying and is looking forward to working full time.

"He knows it will be hard work but he has a lot of potential and he decided Middlesbrough is the best place for him."

Slow news day.

retired_frogchickie · 07-14-2006, 03:51 PM

signing players is overrated anyway

retired_heidigoebel · 07-16-2006, 05:39 PM

Porritt is QUALITY!

I watched him a few times last season for club and country and he has the skills to pay the bills for sure, was on showboat on Soccer AM a few times whilst playing for England U16's i think.

Boro are a convayer belt for left wingers right now, Downing, Johnson and Porritt all future england players? time will tell.

retired_adsi10 · 07-16-2006, 06:06 PM

pity we dont seem to get decent players anywhere else

retired_wendyhiestand · 07-16-2006, 07:35 PM

The mail and Telegraph have reported us as been one of five clubs being investigated for bungs.

I'd be very surprised if anything comes off it. Gibson's distaste for agents is well known so it seems highly unlikely he would engage in offering bungs to them now will he.

retired_heidigoebel · 07-17-2006, 02:56 PM

mail and telegraph talk crap when it comes to footy!

retired_frogchickie · 07-17-2006, 03:43 PM

Huuuuuuuuuuth deal not dead? Wouldn't mind signing Distin tbh.

Quote:

Huth still onJul 16 2006

By Steve Brownthe Sunday Sun

Robert Huth's move to Middlesbrough will be back ON - if his ankle problem clears up.

Worried Boro officials pulled the plug on a £5 million deal for the Chelsea defender in midweek amid concerns over the injury, picked up during the World Cup.

But the Sunday Sun understands the Huth transfer is NOT dead, with Boro telling the German star they will sign him if he can prove his fitness in the next few weeks.

Huth's agent, Manfred Schulte, last night said: "Robert still wants to go to Middlesbrough.

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"He was devastated when the deal was put on hold but he now hopes the problem will clear up and he can become a Middlesbrough player in the near future.

"At the present moment, the transfer cannot happen. But in the future it can.

"How long? It will be before the start of the new season. I think the transfer may happen. We both hope it does. Robert would love to move to Middlesbrough."

Huth is now back at Chelsea, whose medical staff will assess the seriousness of his injury.

In the meantime, Boro have sounded out Sylvain Distin's representatives about a move to the Riverside Stadium.

Distin is embroiled in a contract row with City and would jump at the chance to join the big-spending Teessiders in a deal that would be worth as much as £40,000-a-week.

Jan Aage :cool:

Quote:

Super Plan, Fjortoft
NEWCASTLE'S UEFA Cup hopes could be dashed if Jan Aage Fjortoft get his way.

Former Boro record buy Fjortoft is now chief executive of Norwegian club Lillestrom who set to face the Geordies in the Intertoto Cup today and Jan Aage is hoping a bit of Teesside steel and an echo of his Riverside days can help the part-timers topple Glenn Roeder's outfit.

Because ambitious Fjortoft is using Boro's rise to glory as his blueprint for transforming Lillestrom, the club he now runs, into one of Norway's big boys and into future European contenders.

Articulate Fjortoft always stood out among Bryan Robson's team as an intellectual of the game so it is no surpise he is still in the game. He was a multi-lingual thinker who had a keen sense of the way the wind was blowing in the economics and culture of the game and was a perceptive observer of the dynamics of a club and a dressing room.

He was the author of one of my all time favourite football quotes when he showed excatly how integrated he was into the English mentality and into the Boro dressing room. Describing the collapse of Robbo's team into superstar import and pedestrian domestic factions he said: "It was split right down the middle between the foreign lads and the rest of us." Jan Fjortoft, one of us.

The deadline day record buy, a £1.3m signing from Swindon in March 1996, one has certaintly taken a little bit of Boro with him in his transition from player to administrator. As chief executive of the Nowegian minnows he is using the transformation he saw at Boro as his template to help Lillestrom punch above their weight.

"Lillestrom is a small club in Norway so, from a European point of view, it's never going to be in the top tier of teams," said Fjortoft. "When I took over a couple of years ago, I looked for a club that I could use as a template for development. That club was Middlesbrough.

"For me, the Middlesbrough story is one of the best in football. It is a small club, from a small town, but they have won trophies and been in the UEFA Cup final. If Lillestrom could even achieve even a small percentage of that I would be very, very happy."

"Ever since I left the club almost a decade ago, Middlesbrough have always been very, very good to me. When I took over at Lillestrom, I contacted Middlesbrough and asked if I could come over for a bit of advice.

"Since then, I have been back five or six times. I have met Steve Gibson and talked about how he likes to run a football club, and met Graham Fordy to talk about how we can maximise the commercial potential of Lillestrom.

"I have also been to some games just to remind myself of everything that is great about English football. I was at the second leg of the UEFA Cup semi-final earlier this year and I can honestly say that it was the best football match I have ever been to.

"It had absolutely everything and I remember closing my eyes and imagining a similar thing happening to Lillestrom. Some people will say it's impossible, but they were probably saying the same thing about Middlesbrough ten or 20 years ago."

Fjortoft scored 13 goals in his 50 games for Boro, including the second after Craig Hignett in the very first game at the Riverside. He was brilliant in Robson's first season in the Premiership and while the goals did not flow he formed a productive and often entertaining relationship on the pitch with with Boro's 'midget gems' Hignett and Nicky Barmby who played just behind him.

Arriving at crumbling Ayresome leaving the Riverside for Sheffield United in the middle of the crazy relegation/double Wembley heartache season Fjortfoft lived through what was a traumatic but progressive Great Leap Forward for Boro.

"When I arrived at Middlesbrough, there was great expectation but I don't think anybody really knew how far forward the club could go," said Fjortoft.

"In my first season, we won promotion to the Premiership and everybody's hopes got even higher. I remember driving to training every day and seeing the new stadium being built at the Riverside. It was an incredibly exciting time because you really felt a part of something that was just about to explode. It's strange looking back to see just how much it has exploded.

"I guess my transfer fee is proof of just how far Middlesbrough have come. I cost £1.3m and, at the time, I was the club's record signing. Now, Middlesbrough would probably laugh at players costing that price."