S25/26 | The Official Match Thread | Middlesbrough 1 Swansea 0 | Att: 26,035 (Away 685) | 3pm | Saturday 9th August 2026

[gerwyn.evans]

There are no more financial restraints now than two weeks ago.

As I said, it’s all about planning. It was obvious that the difference in our team last season was O’Brien. So getting him, or a player very like him, was priority number one for our limited budget (along with replacing Darling).

We dropped Pederson, Naughton, Allen off the wage bill (only talking about significant sums - about 10 in total have gone I think). That’s a significant chunk of PSR to spend on the key position. Get the spine right and others will look better. Franco was a different player with O’Bfien next to him. Galbraith looks tidy albeit anonymous today. Widell looks at the moment like a Charlie Patino. Nice player but lightweight. Inoussa looks good but as I said, central midfield was a priority above wide players for me. And we don’t have a striker.

I’m sure we will improve the areas I mention, but at the end of the season, if three or six points are vital in one way or another, we will regret not sitting the spine in advance.

Nice to see you posting again though… it must have been killing you.

Killing me ? Not sure what you mean by that. Planning it’s important but you need time to do so, and in fairness the current regime haven’t had a lot of time to do that. I may sound like an apologist for the current regime but I’m not, the jury is out, but it’s too early to judge I’d say.

 

[Copamundial]

Genuinely ludicrous post. He is an exceptional player at championship level.

Oh give over will you, went missing at the tail end of his loan period and didn’t do much today.

 

[cmajack]

Ok you’ve picked on one point, what about the others?

You tell me , what have we been doing in pre season to serve up a performance like that toda?. Absolutely no creativity or quality going forward whatsoever. As i said in another post, Widell was that good that we had to sign him in January and loan him back for fear of losing him to another club, yet he can't get in the team today ahead of Fulton, think about it. Posters on here say pre season results don't matter, and that's true, but our performances in pre season friendlies was replicated on the pitch today.

 

[gerwyn.evans]

You tell me , what have we been doing in pre season to serve up a performance like that toda?. Absolutely no creativity or quality going forward whatsoever. As i said in another post, Widell was that good that we had to sign him in January and loan him back for fear of losing him to another club, yet he can't get in the team today ahead of Fulton, think about it. Posters on here say pre season results don't matter, and that's true, but our performances in pre season friendlies was replicated on the pitch today.

Like I said before, Boro away is a tough fixture to introduce a new player, let alone to a new league. So Widell’s non selection is not a reflection on him but the situation i.e. a tough first away game, unless we want to start speculating that it’s for some other reason? Pre season has been poor no doubt but it has been disrupted by injury (surprised Cabango played today for one thing) and a non complete squad. What did you expect today? I would have snapped your hand off if you offered me a 0-0 before the game.

 

[gerwyn.evans]

Oh give over will you, went missing at the tail end of his loan period and didn’t do much today.

So you wouldn’t have wanted him back? I think he would walk into our team now and wanted to come back by all accounts it’s just we couldn’t afford to do it.

 

[cmajack]

Like I said before, Boro away is a tough fixture to introduce a new player, let alone to a new league. So Widell’s non selection is not a reflection on him but the situation i.e. a tough first away game, unless we want to start speculating that it’s for some other reason? Pre season has been poor no doubt but it has been disrupted by injury (surprised Cabango played today for one thing) and a non complete squad. What did you expect today? I would have snapped your hand off if you offered me a 0-0 before the game.

Tough? They were almost as bad as we were. We were saying the same last season when we lost on the first day up there, they finished 10th i think. You have the same mentality as Sheehan, he was more worried about them today than actually setting up his side to win the game.

 

[eteb]

Not sure how to feel after that performance. I liked some of our games under Sheehan last season and we obviously had the results, I was hoping we’d see a more definite style than what we did there.

Just hope we’re not here in 6/7 weeks saying Hellberg should have been appointed.

Trying to be positive…

Yes we were nowhere that bad last season, why's he changed to that shite?

 

[Copamundial]

So you wouldn’t have wanted him back? I think he would walk into our team now and wanted to come back by all accounts it’s just we couldn’t afford to do it.

I didn’t say that, in my original posit I said he was “ decent “ but that doesn’t make him irreplaceable.

 

[gerwyn.evans]

Tough? They were almost as bad as we were. We were saying the same last season when we lost on the first day up there, they finished 10th i think. You have the same mentality as Sheehan, he was more worried about them today than actually setting up his side to win the game.

I think Sheehan is a pragmatist, we were in the game except for a set piece goal that was conceded in typically infuriating fashion, I think he knew we weren’t ready to show our best but anyone expecting to see a sparkling attacking performance today I fear would have been disappointed even if we’d shown more ambition and probably would have lost by more. Question remains, what did you expect today?

 

[gerwyn.evans]

And them finishing 10th doesn’t mean they are not good at home.

 

[Swanjaxs]

Reveal yourself Gerwyn!

 

[cmajack]

I think Sheehan is a pragmatist, we were in the game except for a set piece goal that was conceded in typically infuriating fashion, I think he knew we weren’t ready to show our best but anyone expecting to see a sparkling attacking performance today I fear would have been disappointed even if we’d shown more ambition and probably would have lost by more. Question remains, what did you expect today?

We saw no attacking performance today. Get it right.

 

[Swanjaxs]

Reveal yourself Gerwyn!

 

[sit_down_jack]

The club had literally no choice other than to appoint Sheehan after the results last season.

I’m honestly not sure about that. I get his points tally was fantastic, I’d never dispute that and I actually was happy he got it after helping us stay up.

Having said that, if we had a style of play that we wanted to go for then we should have gotten rid of him regardless in my opinion, as going purely off of today, he doesn’t have one (which we already sort of knew). Fans wouldn’t have liked it initially, but they would have gotten over it.

Still plenty of time, hope we made the right decision

 

[cmajack]

And them finishing 10th doesn’t mean they are not good at home.

Yes that's right, except they won less than half their home games last season and lost 6 at home.