A MISERABLE
TONY Pulis has ruled out a transfer market raid in January despite a lacklustre defeat on his Boro bow.
A late header from Robert Snodgrass capped a miserable day for the 59-year-old, who succeeded the sacked Garry Monk on Boxing Day.
His much-changed side struggled to create chances all afternoon and left the Riverside pitch to a smattering of frustrated jeers.
But with a £45m summer outlay reddening Boro’s balance book and more players than the Poker World Series, Pulis says he will not be begging Steve Gibson for reinforcements.
“The important thing to realise is that Steve spent an absolute fortune here in the summer,” said Pulis. “Out of respect for him, I’ve really got to be prudent and not make rash decisions.
“If it takes a bit of time, it takes a bit of time, but I owe that to him. And the fact is, the squad here is bigger than the one I left behind at West Brom.
“There’s a lot of numbers here – too many, in my view. If you’ve got more players outside the XI than in it, that’s more people unhappy they’re not involved.
“Normally, I like to bring one or two players over from the academy to train. Here, if we do a ten v ten in training, we’ve got professionals standing on the touchline watching. We definitely need to cut the numbers.”
Gibson’s generosity was, in part, why the majority of bookmakers made Boro favourites for the Championship title in August. Villa, who did the bulk of their business last January, weren’t far behind.
A fraught and frantic first half bereft of real quality provided an apt illustration of why both are instead scrapping for the top six.
Pulis will, in time, imbue this Boro side with up-and-at-em belligerence. At the moment, however, they remain stuck in neutral.
For all the pedigree of Britt Assombalonga, for all the class of Stewart Downing, for all their defensive obduracy, Middlesbrough simply do not create enough chances.
Assombalonga headed wide. Jonny Howson failed to connect