on trial for darlo wud be a good move if we can get him

Not for all the lads who have WAGS, they'll be a bit worried.

It would be a terrible move.

And there's no 'if' about whether we could get him, he's desperate for a club because everyone knows what a dirty scrote he is.

Didn't he ask The HITMAN on Facebook if he could join us?

Strange move by Cooper in my opinion, just another midfielder who would be no better than what we have at present and I see this as a waste of a signing if it comes off.Would of thought an out and out wide man is more vital to us at present.

he's recently been on trial with gateshead, so i'd have just thought he's doing the tour of the region like many end up doing.

maybe he's been brought in to have a look at while the club assess the injury to brough - if he needs knee surgery cooper might look to bring terry in on a 6 month deal if he impresses as cover - he does have plenty of conference experience for D & R & R & D

we've also got another young boro fullback on trial - theo furness

not for me i'm afraid . just a run of the mill journeyman.

A complete pikey like his brother. Money could be spent better elsewhere.

Hope his trial is short and sweet and he's on the next train to kings cross. Total mug, wouldnt want him in our squad, Cooper said he was impressed there were no big time charlies and the squad is blending well, but a rat like that in and it could upset a few.

To be fair, Paul Terry is a good player. He is not worse in my opinion than Gary Smith, Michael Brough, the unproven Gareth Waite and Jamie Chandler.

For me, the 4 centre midfielders that we already have should be enough, especially with Barnes and McReady there as well.

People are saying that we might consider signing him if Brough is out long term. No, it doesn't work like that, we only have a finite budget and we only want a squad of a certain size. You can't just keep on signing players every time you get an injury, because the squad ends up too big and messy and obviously you overspend too. At some point you have to work with the size squad that you have and make do, obviously there is the loan option if the budget is there, in desperate times of need.

So I agree with everybody else, that we do not need Paul Terry, and the last couple of squad places should be reserved for another defender (maybe Austin), and a wideman to give competition to Moore and Gray.

HOWEVER, although we all pretty much agree, we are basing what we thing we need on a standard flat 4-4-2, with two wingers.

It may be Coopers intention to play a 4-4-2 diamond, in which case you need more midfielders than widemen. It may be Coopers intention to play 4-5-1/4-3-3, both of these formations need THREE central midfielders, and to be honest if it is a fluid 4-5-1 which changes to 4-3-3 your widemen would not always be traditional wingers, they could be forwards like Senior and The HITMAN.

If we are going to be direct, then 4-4-2 with wingers may be binned in favour of 4-3-3/4-5-1.

If anybody remembers the Carlisle team that won L2 a few years ago and destroyed us 5-0 at home, they played 4-3-3 with Hawley, Holmes and Bridges up top, Holmes was the target and the other two played off him. They were very direct too, and did not start the match against Darlo with a winger, only bringing one on near the end.

Just some food for thought there.

never mind some food for thought that was a bloody banquet.

Q - what's the difference between signing someone on loan to replace brough and giving someone like Terry a 6 month deal if he's out long term? The players wages still have to be paid unless were very lucky and one of our northeast neighbours loan us a kid,in which case I'd rather see McReady given a chance.

Also do we have a finite resource?We saw last season that extra funds were given when needed.if cooper is smart like I think he is,he won't max his budget just yet incase of injuries like that to brough so he can bring in reinforcements if needed - it just might happen that this reinforcement is needed a lot sooner than expected.

Don't forget that Waite & Smith are coming back from mid term injuries and could break down quite wasily

I love the way fans go on as if it is a game of Football Manager. Oh just bring him in on a pay as you play then we lose nowt if he doesn't play, oh just sign him on a 6 month deal. Just like that.

The player has a say too you know.

If we sign Terry he'll want a 1 year deal.

Of course we have a finite budget - if we don't want to end up bust. As for loaning somebody to cover injury, it can be 1 month, 2 months, whatever, and often the loaning club contributes to the wages. Obviously if Brough is injured it'll be better to loan somebody as we already have loads of midfielders rather than signing somebody on a 6 or 1 year deal, why would you want to do that to cover for an injury?

As I said though, it could we'll be that we are going to play 4-5-1/4-3-3 and Cooper thinks he needs another midfielder, regardless of the extent of Brough's injury.

I remember he was a pain in the arse when he played for Yeovil, just the sort of player we needed in midfield around that time in 2004-5. Now I'm not so sure, with Chandler in particular showing decent form in pre-season, and he comes with a bit of baggage now.

I'm not so dismissive of Divas' point there, as I think Terry is getting a little short of options now, and has just been released by a conference side himself, plus we know he was angling for a trial on Hatch's Facebook account. Players in his position, if they want to play at a full-time club having been on a downward trajectory recently, may have to make the odd sacrifice to get themselves into a club. A short term deal, in those circumstances, could be good for both parties, obviously depending on Brough's injury and Cooper's plans for formations next season.

I take on board what Qz says about formations, by the way, but I would still regard it as an oversight not to bring in another experienced winger, to change the formation later in matches if necessary, or over the course of several games where necessary.

another flipping centre mid! Long term injury to Brough or not we dont need another one. Some managers have an obsession about have loads of cover in a certain area. Cooper seems to want surplus midfielders in a small squad, crazy.

Who'd have thought it eh, seems i called it almost spot on!!



As for the length of deal, nothings been said and it may well be a year, but like tdk says, he's running out of options now, and his reputation wont do him any favours so im sure he'd take a 6 month deal with the thought in mind that if he plays well he could maybe get a longer contract.

As for a plethora of midfielders i think its pretty obvious his preferred formation will be the 4-2-3-1 he's played during pre season, so there's plenty of room for at least 3 central midfielders - the lack of trialists he's had in wide areas (barring forbes who came in solely because he knew Dryden) and his reluctance to use Moore speaks volumes

Oh and you cant sign players on FM on pay-as-you play deals, at least you couldnt when i last played the game.

What the fook is a fooking 4-2-3-1. That is surely just a posh way of saying 4-5-1, which is another way of saying 4-5-1 defending and 4-3-3 attacking.

I want a diagram or the formation 4-2-3-1 does not exist.

"We played 4-3-1-2, with Senior cheating a little bit in front of the midfield," explained Cooper.

"We did that at Workington with Dominik Werling pushing up on the left.

"It's a system I like and it's difficult to play against as long as you have the right personnel out there." said Mark Cooper.

So 3 centre midfielders with a winger or forward type on one side or the other . My head hurts.

I can go one better - here's a picture, it seems to be 4-2-3-1 when we havent got the ball and 4-2-1-3 when we have. It is just a glorified 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 really, but you have two midfielders who stay disciplined and protect the back 4

struggling to display the pic here, but just click the link

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg338/scaled ... &ysize=640

Yeah they lined up slightly different last night by all accounts - a bit more attacking, it was just a flat midfield 3 with Senior given a free role behind Smith and Wright

Ah but Cooper said it was 4-3-1-2, with 3 centre midfielders, so back to the drawing board for you boyo!

This would explain the lack of a need for too many wingers, and would also explain why Cooper is pursuing another striker in the shape of Cook.

Oh dear.

last night it was, the rest games ive seen have been 4-2-3-1 as you can clearly see from the pic vs sheff wed.

i imagine against lesser opposition he doesnt see the need to protect the back 4 as much

Let's get really technical here - what shape is the drawing board?

The two trialists last night were at opposite ends of the pole.
One awful-Terry
One brilliant-Austin

Why oh why we are persuing Terry i will never know, must be better around than that, he looks slow and useless.

Have we officially signed him or is he on trial because on the Northen Echo it looks as if we have signed him

All but signed apparently...

Let's wait and see shall we, rather than write him off now.

He's got backs of lower league and conference experience, which is what we need and it will do for me.

I agree