Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

[Guest]

There’s this two page spread in the WSC issue which reads “New Chelsea Boss” on the cover. One of those pictures shows players about to embark onto the pitch, being stood in the player’s tunnel. To the left in abovementioned picture is a huge circle shaped mosaic kind of Middlesbrough crest on the wall, which most obviously reads “Middlesbrough” as a heaven heading arch, “Football Club” as a hell heading arched combination, and then a year divided in half across a horizontal middle
(what a crap description that is!)

Something like this



Thing is, the Middlesbrough player tunnel crest reads “19…. 86”
1986!?
Boro were surely founded way before 1986?

What is that all about?

[Hot Orange]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

Well, they kind of very nearly went bust in 1986 before a last-minute consortium-led reprieve. Someone will know more, but it's something to do with that.

[Hot Orange]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

According to the ever-reliable Wikipedia:

"That summer, the club called in the Provisional Liquidator and shortly afterwards, the club was wound up and the gates to Ayresome Park were padlocked. Without the £350,000 capital required for Football League registration, a new rule, it seemed inevitable that the club would fold permanently. However, Steve Gibson, a member of the board at the time, brought together a consortium and with ten minutes to spare before the deadline, they completed their registration with the Football League for the 1986–87 season. Following the registration came both a change of club crest and a change of the official company name to Middlesbrough Football and Athletic Club (1986) Ltd."

[Guest]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

But the Boro crest I know is...



...and this one I mention doesn't say anything about "athletic"

Cheer's for your reply, mind.

[Guest]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

Oh, hold on!
The company name can be another.

Still, why install a different crest with a different year of foundation in the player's tunnel, unless you're a Roman emperor called Nero by your mother?

[Jon]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

The stadium they currently play at wasn't around in 1986. It was built a few years later.

[Guest]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

Here it is


´
What is that?

[born toulouse]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

Technically, Boro were "reborn" in 1986 as a new company.

The club had been locked out of Ayresome Park and were given a lifeline by their kindly neighbours Hartlepool who let them use the Victoria Ground for a couple of matches (not that any gratitude is ever expressed for this altruistic act by a smaller club that might have benefited from the bigger rival's demise). Once the new company was formed they got back into Ayresome Park, then built the Riverside, then flirted with winning things and then appointed Gareth Southgate.

Lots of clubs have done this sort of thing but most choose not to commemorate it. Many Boro fans do view '86 as a clean start though so the crest makes sense, not least for Steve Gibson who likes to remind everybody of his saviour status almost as much as he likes tolerating terrible managers for unfeasible periods of time.

[beak]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

ganja wrote:

Here it is


´
What is that?

That's their old badge, ganj.

I prefer it to the new one which is really let down (in my eyes) by the shitty scroll at the bottom. It's too thin, too insubstantial!

[sw2borshch]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

All the above is basically true (apart from some of born toulouse's sniping...most Boro fans are grateful to Hartlepool - not sure if the club has ever done anything to seem ungrateful) & the last badge is better than the current one, although as I've mentioned before I can see us having another new one soon.
We changed from the 1986 to 1876 (the year of the original founding of the club) as apparently Gibson got sick of foreign chairmen wondering how this brand new club was suddenly doing so well in Europe when we became the only North-East team to get to a proper European final. I guess there was also a few bob to be made in the rebranding too.

[born toulouse]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

Fair point about Boro fans SW2, the sniping stems from the lack of offers of fund raising friendlies, player loans etc when we've faced financial troubles over the years since '86. I suspect that the Riverside accounts department would want to let us die in similar circumstances, in fact ours would probably do the same nowadays. None of that can be laid at the door of ordinary Boro fans.

[Gangster Octopus]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

born toulouse wrote:

I suspect that the Riverside accounts department would want to let us die in similar circumstances

Ah, the ghost of Bob Lord walks abroad...

[born toulouse]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

What did I say to remind you of a fan hating, anti-semitic, Lancastrian butcher?

[sw2borshch]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

Sort of a West Coast Charlie Amer?

We do seem to play Darlo more in pre-season friendlies, never too sure why. Equal likelihood of bother etc.

[born toulouse]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

Ah right, get the reference now.

There is very little contact between Pools and Boro which is a bit odd given the proximity and the events of '86. There is virtually no bother at the Vic, even West Ham's visit became a love in, so I can't think of any better reason than that nobody at the top end of the club wants to be reminded of their darkest days. Personally, I don't want to be reminded of the sight of John Craggs playing at sweeper for you in the League Cup match. Even the biggest shirt you had was stretched to bursting point.
I appreciate that he was effectively a coach rather than a player by then but he made Fatty Foggon look like a supermodel.

[sw2borshch]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

Could be, but certainly Hartlepool get praise in "official" accounts of the dark days of 1986 - and I could certainly the Vic or the Riverside getting a little, er, lively if there was a match but certainly nothing like the old days.

Funny thing about when we went bust, the new club was made to pay off all the debts of the old club, had to get FA or FL (I forget which) approval before buying players until the debts were cleared and were generally made an example of. Some others have had it easy since!

And on shirts, I see from today's Gazette that we've dropped Errerrerrerrerrea and gone with adidas. Funny that, as a little bird told me we hadn't been paying our bills with our Italian business partners.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

Apropos of nothing other than there's a shocking example in this very feature, this month's proofreading is bloody awful.

[Guest]

Can you explain a Boro pic in the latest WSC?

Cheers for the replies