A rrogant, W asters, O bnoxious, L osers!

A rrogant, W asters, O bnoxious, L osers!

Following a welcome summer break from football after last season’s emotional battering I was hoping for Boro to get pre-season off to a flier with some decent signings and a positive reaction from the players in training.

Instead we got a 35-year-old League One goalkeeper in Danny Coyne from Tranmere and two of our so-called ‘star’ players deciding they would dictate when they will return for training as opposed to when Gareth Southgate instructed them!

To be fair I am not too despondent about Coyne’s arrival as the lad kept 20 clean sheets last season and is an experienced international who has been there and done it in the lower leagues. However, the blatant disregard for the manager, club and the fans shown by Afonso Alves and Mido is a different matter completely!

Mido’s decision to stay away didn’t come as a major surprise given his attitude in the past, while Alves’ antics came as a big shock given that he is the one who has the biggest point to prove this summer after last season’s shocker.

The outcome is the club are already courting negative press when we all need to be pulling in the same direction ahead of what will be a tough campaign. Therefore Boro need to stop pussy footing around and come down on both players like a tonne of bricks!

Alves – who at the time of typing is now reported to have made a return to Rockliffe Park two days later then instructed – should be given a maximum fine possible, while Mido should get the same and his wages stopped until he shows his face.

Why the hell should the club pay out big money wages for the Egyptian pie-muncher when he cannot be bothered to get his backside to training when he is supposed to?

True he is unlikely to feature next season, but if he wants a move away he is going about it the wrong way. What club in their right mind would offer money for a player who is refusing to turn up for training and has had more clubs than Tiger Woods in his career?

It could be we will have to make a huge loss on Mido but if that’s the case then so be it! He needs removing from the club as quickly as possible.

Alves might have a future if no club offers anywhere near the £12.7million we forked out for the Brazilian ‘Goal Machine’! But at the moment we would be lucky to get 2 grand for him on the government scrappage scheme so the chances are he will still be around for some involvement in the Championship!!

Therefore Southgate needs to get a grip of Alves now and show this mean streak we are continually told he has got behind the scenes. An apology to the fans would also not go amiss given that we are the ones contributing towards his silly wages and got very little back in return for his pay-packet last season!

Hopefully Boro can nip this in the bud before it blows up into a summer-long saga otherwise it looks a good football bet that it could be another long, long season on the horizon!

Written by Craig Smithson, a Middlesbrough season-ticket holder and a sports writer who blogs about football betting.

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