4 yrs ago we were trying to sign this lad and he chose Boro due to the wages on offer apparently and they coughed up £15 million.
He's set to leave on a free this summer at the end of his contract and is weighing up a move to Rangers in an effort to reignite his career.

We signed a certain Chris Wood that summer instead for the same amount and the rest is history.

Strange how things work out sometimes

Not often a player turns us down and goes on to do better things, not often someone leaves us and goes on to do better things

We obviously dodged a bullet there.

I’d hazard a guess that if he’d chosen to play for Sean Dyche, his career would still be on an upwards trajectory.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:13 am

4 yrs ago we were trying to sign this lad and he chose Boro due to the wages on offer apparently and they coughed up £15 million.

Did he choose Boro due to the wages or was it just press speculation that we were trying to sign him? From what I was told he was never a target.

Reliable journalist at Forest’s end reported our bid was turned down.

So glad he never balonga'd to us.

Did he choose Boro due to the wages or was it just press speculation that we were trying to sign him?

Exactly what I was thinking! We never really put ourselves in a position in the first place for a player to choose another team over ours.

Boro a very poorly run club these past few years, if you want a yardstick to judge Burnley success, look at Boro and Sunderland. They would give their right arms for Sean Dyche.

CleggHall wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:00 pm

Boro a very poorly run club these past few years, if you want a yardstick to judge Burnley success, look at Boro and Sunderland. They would give their right arms for Sean Dyche.

Boro wouldn’t. They hate him with a passion for some strange reason.

BigChaCha wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 26, 2021 11:49 am

Exactly what I was thinking! We never really put ourselves in a position in the first place for a player to choose another team over ours.

I have often wondered if those kinds of things are done to put others off the scent, our success with players procured in the Championship was marvelled by many and clubs like Boro seemed to think it would offer them a competitive advantage to get players we were apparently bidding for. Clubs like Forest in particular have appeared to think it is beneath them to sell to us but will happily tout our interest (real or otherwise) in a player so as to create a phoney auction in an effort to jack up the price. Of course most of our successful business of this kind sees the press find out when the signing is made public, which is the way it should be done.

Looked a good player at Peterborough and Forest but just hasn’t kicked on at Boro, pretty average at best for that level.

Being a centre forward at Boro could be classed as a thankless task.

A dull boring club, who play dull boring football and seem to dislike scoring goals

CleggHall wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:00 pm

Boro a very poorly run club these past few years, if you want a yardstick to judge Burnley success, look at Boro and Sunderland. They would give their right arms for Sean Dyche.

Gibson seems to have spells of spending lots of money, followed by a tightening of the belt, then another cash splurge.
I'm not sure if this reflects his income from other interests, or he just likes to build up a war chest. They haven't gone daft for the last 2 years so a new assault on the bank balance will be due soon. Apart from the stadium, you do wonder how much they have wasted on players over the last 15 years. It must be one hell of a negative equity. They've paid a lot of money for some mediocre players, and got practically nothing back. The only players that seem to make them money are players coming through the youth set up, which has been very successful so far.

Sunderland would need a book as big as the Bible to account for their mistakes.

Assombalonga looks a poor mans version of Andre Gray, if he couldn't make it here Assombalonga would have had no chance.

He's averaged almost 1 in 3 for Boro so whilst they might have overpaid for him his record is pretty good for a Championship striker.

Was going to say similar. Worth noting Vokes has 8 in 76 league starts for Stoke.

I’d hope our sights are higher. But we could do far worse than have him as our fourth choice on a free.

Vydra is miles better

If we want to progress we have to look at far better players than him.

Devils_Advocate wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 26, 2021 1:47 pm

He's averaged almost 1 in 3 for Boro so whilst they might have overpaid for him his record is pretty good for a Championship striker.

Maybe so but they paid the same for him as we paid for Chris Wood, plus naturally his high wages, yes he's a decent Championship striker, but there's no evidence yet that'll have make the leap to the PL, and I'll be surprised if any current PL teams show an interest in him even on a free.

And for all his early promise at Boro he's only notched 5 in 32 this season, which does suggest his best days might be behind him now, and he's never scored more than 15 at Championship level, which for the money Boro splashed out on him isn't a great return, he'll go down as their version of Gibson, a big money signing who flopped, however the difference for us is we'll at least recoup some of the Gibson money, whereas Boro will see BA walk away for nothing in a couple of months.

Papabendi wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 26, 2021 2:08 pm

Was going to say similar. Worth noting Vokes has 8 in 76 league starts for Stoke.

In fairness to Sam, he has only started 33 matches and come on as sub at various times in the other 43 matches.

Assombalonga scored 29 goals in 88 matches in his first two seasons at Boro but then had scored 6 in 20 games in his third season before getting an injury. That season was affected by the virus after he made 6 appearances in the February bbut then had to wait until almost the end of June when he made a further 9 appearances and scored 5 more goals.
Overall his scoring record is quite good in league football and if he moves to a club that suits his style there is no reason why he won't score goals.

tiger76 wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 26, 2021 4:56 pm

Maybe so but they paid the same for him as we paid for Chris Wood, plus naturally his high wages, yes he's a decent Championship striker, but there's no evidence yet that'll have make the leap to the PL, and I'll be surprised if any current PL teams show an interest in him even on a free.

And for all his early promise at Boro he's only notched 5 in 32 this season, which does suggest his best days might be behind him now, and he's never scored more than 15 at Championship level, which for the money Boro splashed out on him isn't a great return, he'll go down as their version of Gibson, a big money signing who flopped, however the difference for us is we'll at least recoup some of the Gibson money, whereas Boro will see BA walk away for nothing in a couple of months.

Im not comparing him to Wood, im pointing out those saying his career has gone nowhere need to look at is stats. He's been a first team regular for 4 season maintaining just shy of a 1 in 3 goals ratio.

There wont be many strikers in that division that have a record as good as him.

Devils_Advocate wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 26, 2021 7:47 pm

Im not comparing him to Wood, im pointing out those saying his career has gone nowhere need to look at is stats. He's been a first team regular for 4 season maintaining just shy of a 1 in 3 goals ratio.

There wont be many strikers in that division that have a record as good as him.

No I agree at Champ level he's more than useful, and I'm sure he'll have several suitors chasing him this summer, especially as he's on a free.

Getting released by Middlesbrough.

Has been a target of Dyche previously and Dyche doesn’t tend to stray from his target list too much.

Given that he’ll be a relatively cheap addition (being on a free), could you see this happening?

Yes, an obvious different option from the bench.

Du du du Britt Assombalonga

Jakubs Tash wrote: ↑

Sat May 29, 2021 10:52 am

Getting released by Middlesbrough.

Has been a target of Dyche previously and Dyche doesn’t tend to stray from his target list too much.

Given that he’ll be a relatively cheap addition (being on a free), could you see this happening?

I thought Rangers were after him? Gerrard seems keen.

Not good enough

Gordaleman wrote: ↑

Sat May 29, 2021 11:36 am

I thought Rangers were after him? Gerrard seems keen.

I think id think more of him if he took to chance to be a main man up at Rangers than potential 4th choice at Burnley

No.

Didn't we put a bid for him when he was at Forest, but he chose higher wages at Boro. Has had his share of injuries too

Good friends with a Boro ST holder who has a very low opinion of Britt.

dougcollins wrote: ↑

Sat May 29, 2021 12:03 pm

Good friends with a Boro ST holder who has a very low opinion of Britt.

Huddersfield fans had a very low opinion of Scott arfield though

It would be a very Nakhi Wells type of signing. We need to be signing better and we need to be signing younger with the age of the squad we have. A no from me!

Sums up Boro.. never fails to amuse.. on signing Assombalonga, Gibson bragged 'we're gonna smash up the Championship'.. yeah righto

claretonthecoast1882 wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 26, 2021 1:12 pm

Being a centre forward at Boro could be classed as a thankless task.

A dull boring club, who play dull boring football and seem to dislike scoring goals

Couldn't agree more always thought of 'Boro as just a boring nothingness of a club.

Yep! File with Birmingham City as major under achievers

Jakubs Tash wrote: ↑

Sat May 29, 2021 10:52 am

Getting released by Middlesbrough.

Has been a target of Dyche previously and Dyche doesn’t tend to stray from his target list too much.

Given that he’ll be a relatively cheap addition (being on a free), could you see this happening?

We need to get some important facts first.

Is he cheap?
How old is he?
Is he past his best?
Will no other premier league club want him?
Is he injured or had injury issues?

Then we can see

The best thing about him is that you can do the conga to his name...apart from that it’s a very big no from me