Think this deserves a new thread , a powerful and athletic calm headed all round midfielder that probably is the best we’ve had at ball retention and distribution with 90ms international football in his pedigree. Out bidding Bradford, Carlisle and Barnsley.

UTFM

Hope he does well for Town. No FL expereoince at Watford or Middelsbrough. Had loan periods at Braintree and Gateshead, so still making his way.

Looks an exciting signing  especially given we've seen off league 2 rivals to snap him up!

Some talk that Stockport were another club we outbid. Seems like we were very sure of this one.

this could be the best signing of the lot - matete like

a real statement

Seems to fit exactly what we needed last year, someone capable of shifting us up the pitch from CM. Really excited to see him playing along with the other new additions.

He’s got a great name, that instantly makes him decent…

Great signing.

Could be the ‘box to box’ midfielder we’ve craved. 🤔😂

Potentially the best signing of the summer

That clip where he invites pressure and releases the pass at the last moment is absolutely class.

Quoted from aldi_01

He’s got a great name, that instantly makes him decent…

Poor old Dave Smith had a lot to prove when he signed…

Quoted from thefish

Poor old Dave Smith had a lot to prove when he signed…

He did it though 😁

Hope we have put a big sell on clause on him because this guy is going right to the top

Quoted from Dave Gilberts Left Peg

Hope we have put a big sell on clause on him because this guy is going right to the top

We've bought him not sold him! Think it's boro that will have put a sell on clause on him

Hunt-Conteh-Clifton is a very tasty proposition

Quoted from Nutsy

Hunt-Conteh-Clifton is a very tasty proposition

I think they handled my divorce case.

Quoted from Nutsy

Hunt-Conteh-Clifton is a very tasty proposition

Don’t forget Khouri among that lot.

Even though I'd never heard of him until this afternoon, I'm very excited about this! Looks a real player.

Welcome Contehs

Just hope the weight of expectation doesn't manifest itself as frustration .Conteh and Khouri very young but both look excellent prospects .Hope we realise and support them not get on their backs if they have a bad time .

After doing some digging it seems like this signing could possibly be one of the best we've made in years.
Looking at his real alone he looks above this standard. Looking forward to seeing him play in black and white stripes. Utm

I hope Kamil gives the opposition teams and their fans the hump

After looking in danger of relegation at one point last season Gateshead went on an amazing run which shot them well up the table and also to a Trophy final. So if he contributed to such s dramatic turnaround it’s more evidence that he is a fabulous signing for us.

Quoted from Blundellite

I hope Kamil gives the opposition teams and their fans the hump

That was terrible ;D

Struggling to remember the last time we made a signing of intent like this.

His YouTube reels look great, but so did Paddy McLaughlin's and Moses Ogbu...but this lad is getting rave reviews not just from Gateshead fans but opposition fans.  I've seen quite a bit on Twitter of those analysis type accounts who identified as someone they wanted to see at their club, but believing they wouldn't stand a chance.

We all know Middlesbrough track record with developing young players, they saw enough in him a year ago to take him from Watford.  Having impressed whilst out on loan I can't imagine his stock decreased there.  We've gone in, identified him and then paid a fee for him - beating other clubs in the process of that.  

Just looking at those clubs.

Stockport - Throwing money at it.
Bradford - Always seem to throw money at it. Bigger resources than ours.
Barnsley - A league above us, resources that will dwarf ours.  Also a decent track record in recent years of developing young talent.

He's a London boy so I don't know if he's still based down that way or if he relocated to the North East, but regardless we're no easier to get to than either London or the North East than the clubs we were competing with.  We've had thread after thread about the difficulty of attracting players here, without dragging up old arguments I think we definitely need to applaud the club on managing to do some serious recruitment and selling of the place this summer.  Whatever their approach is, it looks to be working!

As for Conteh himself, genuinely excited to see what he can bring to us.  As others have said he looks like someone who can drive forward with the ball which we and literally every other club at this level craves.  Fair few comparisons to Matete  which look fair, but I was thinking more like Pelly Ruddock for Luton when they were at this level or thereabouts.  Composure, strength and ability to move things forward either with a pass or with the ball.

Competition in midfield is unbelievable now. As per the signing of intent, struggling to think when we last had this level of challenge and options in there.

Another long contract as well. It seems the 1yr contract is a thing of the past

Quoted from forza ivano

this could be the best signing of the lot - matete like

a real statement

I hope so, I thought Matete was a great signing and did really well in a poor team.

Quoted from lukeo

After doing some digging it seems like this signing could possibly be one of the best we've made in years.
Looking at his real alone he looks above this standard. Looking forward to seeing him play in black and white stripes. Utm

YOU WHAT?!

Oh sorry, misread digging.....

So do we go up then ?

I thought mid table or a bit above , but after the quality of player signed I am genuinely excited and think we could give it a really good go of getting to league 1 ,I am pretty balanced normally and try especially to be with Town ; head over heart and all that .But believe you me , there will be teams in that league fearing playing us ,especially if we can get up ahead of steam at BP and get it rocking .

Quoted from Blundellite

I hope Kamil gives the opposition teams and their fans the hump

I hope he never deserts us

Quoted from Mappers

So do we go up then ?

I thought mid table or a bit above , but after the quality of player signed I am genuinely excited and think we could give it a really good go of getting to league 1 ,I am pretty balanced normally and try especially to be with Town ; head over heart and all that .But believe you me , there will be teams in that league fearing playing us ,especially if we can get up ahead of steam at BP and get it rocking .

Of course we do.

Quoted from DB

Of course we do.

Well we do look stronger than last season when we finished one point away from ninth place.

The question is whether we can get the additional fifteen or so points to get us into playoff contention. Five more wins. Given our home form last season I think it’s certainly possible.

Quoted from RonMariner

Well we do look stronger than last season when we finished one point away from ninth place.

The question is whether we can get the additional fifteen or so points to get us into playoff contention. Five more wins. Given our home form last season I think it’s certainly possible.

With the squad Hurst has built I can't see that being a problem.

yeah, people keep saying, get home form right and we'll go up/make play offs, bit lets remember our away form last season, do you really thi9nk we can match or improve on that

If as said above, we would need 5 more wins, then we had that in the 5 FA Cups wins against higher division teams.  These very impressive cup wins could be “re-applied” to league form.

[tweet]1676356210570715138[/tweet]

Quoted from The_Laughing_Mariner

yeah, people keep saying, get home form right and we'll go up/make play offs, bit lets remember our away form last season, do you really thi9nk we can match or improve on that

   I agree the away form was incredible as was the support.

I think, for all the whining about home form, which we knew was average at best, away from home last season we were excellent. Especially for a team that had ten minutes for pre season and arguably lost two of its most important players early on.

Our improvement target this year has to be to improve home form, get more wins at BP but hopefully not at the detriment of away from.

Then, who knows.

In pre season, every team should have the ambition of promotion, surely?

Quoted from aldi_01

I think, for all the whining about home form, which we knew was average at best, away from home last season we were excellent. Especially for a team that had ten minutes for pre season and arguably lost two of its most important players early on.

Our improvement target this year has to be to improve home form, get more wins at BP but hopefully not at the detriment of away from.

Then, who knows.

In pre season, every team should have the ambition of promotion, surely?

Even Scunny?

Quoted from Poojah

Even Scunny?

Even Scunny…judging by some of the comments, and there’s plenty, they’ve fallen in the same trap they did last year and think next season will be a walk over…ignoring the fact the club is still teetering on the brink of existence and they went through the conference at the same speed a dodgy back street curry would…

In the interview Conteh says that the club first made contact with him two months ago.

More evidence that we have had a very different approach to recruitment this time round.

As in not done at the last second so you can get people on "take it, or leave it" deals and a few mercenaries on loan? I'm honestly excited by our recruitment so far as many of our signings stand out at this level and shows some ambition going forward. It doesn't feel like we are trying to be a passenger this coming season and our successful cup run and highest league finish in some time has undoubtedly provided the extra funds and reputation boost to start attracting some decent L2 players again after being seen as a team just coming out the NL or relegation fodder for years.  

I think Conteh has also shown some ambition with this move, not content to spend another season on the sidelines as a young prospect and wants a chance at first team football to show what he can do. Lot of Boro fans seem disappointed he's been let go on a permanent so he's clearly got something and if he can do well for us he'll no doubt be able to go higher.

The fans will love him ,watched various long length highlights of Gateshead last night . He was levels above the NL , Southend and Scunny (enjoyable) took some serious beatings off off 'TheHeed' and he was instrumental .

Cruises past people , shots off both feet and strong (which saw one of those low level Scunny players lash out and get sent off after getting out muscled ) we will get some good times from him I am sure about it - will be interesting how Hurst uses him and Khouri - both very talented but still young ; exciting time to be a Town fan , we deserve it.

Just saw this on Twitter. Thought it was worth posting.

https://twitter.com/HCfootball01/status/1677594975163367426

Nice vid but had to mute it just wtf are they going on about

Quoted from Blundellite

Nice vid but had to mute it just wtf are they going on about

exactly my reaction

god, he looks like a cracking player.music was shiite btw

Looked bollocksed after his cool down at HT today but might have been caused by Efete nearly accidentally decapitating him about ten mins earlier.

In truth he was the worst player on the pitch the first 30mins. Literally couldn't make a 5 yard pass  ;D
I'm not going to read too much into it. He's either unwell or injured because as mentioned above he was also copulated doing the box runs at half time.

Quoted from lukeo

In truth he was the worst player on the pitch the first 30mins. Literally couldn't make a 5 yard pass  ;D
I'm not going to read too much into it. He's either unwell or injured because as mentioned above he was also copulated doing the box runs at half time.

You're having a laugh pal, Essel and Tomlinson were v.poor...Conteh played some sublime balls through to Vernam, he was constantly looking to collect the ball and move it, yes not always successfully but this is a league 2 player nut Sergio Busquet, and as for the warm down, he actually did more shuttle runs than the rest, just very slowly!!..🤣

Quoted from lukeo

In truth he was the worst player on the pitch the first 30mins. Literally couldn't make a 5 yard pass  ;D
I'm not going to read too much into it. He's either unwell or injured because as mentioned above he was also copulated doing the box runs at half time.

Bizarre statement. He made loads of completed passes and was 'growing into the game' before losing the ball for their goal. Up to that moment he showed that he can be an effective link between defence and attack. Other players lost the ball in tight situations in other areas but with less immediate results. Were Efete, Holohan and Rose also the 'worst player on the pitch?'

Too much reading into individual performances at this stage of pre-season. Individually, very few seemed to stand out as having anything other than average games.

I thought Vernam in flashes looked good, Eisa definitely grew into the game and Mullarkey looked a class act in the centre of defence. It's more important to see how the team is gelling, in addition to shaking that ring rust off.

Pyke and Wilson looked to develop a decent understanding and the previously mentioned Conteh diag out to Vernam and/or the overlapping fullbacks is very encouraging.

The one player who really stood out for me was Aaron Braithwaite, playing out of position at right back but looked incredibly comfortable when both defending and going forward.

Never read much into pre season games bit unfair to judge anyone on one..just glad no injuries and another run out getting ready for 5th August

The only point of pre season is to build fitness. That’s it. Even results are irrelevant..though you’d rather win it really doesn’t matter. Mistakes..all part of learning. And you’d rather them now than when it matters.

Well all i will say is we will & need to be 200% better come the wimbledon game quite underwelmed at the moment but expect us to start improving come saturday

Quoted from fishcake63

Well all i will say is we will & need to be 200% better come the wimbledon game quite underwelmed at the moment but expect us to start improving come saturday

This wins the prize for most ridiculous post of preseason.

Quoted from LondonMariner43

This wins the prize for most ridiculous post of preseason.

.....so far .

Quoted from fishcake63

Well all i will say is we will & need to be 200% better come the wimbledon game quite underwelmed at the moment but expect us to start improving come saturday

I remember Akpa-Akpro scoring 4 in a 12-1 win over Winterton. We got relegated out of the Football League that season.

Quoted from fishcake63

Well all i will say is we will & need to be 200% better come the wimbledon game quite underwelmed at the moment but expect us to start improving come saturday

flipping hell, I bet you’re fun at parties.

It’s pre season, it literally means nothing, granted Saturday will be a better test but still hardly important. Christ, we had a decent pre season under Newell…that worked well…

Quoted from LondonMariner43

This wins the prize for most ridiculous post of preseason.

Phew! Lucky escape from me then. I best zip it from now on 🤫 🤐

Could Braithwaite be the next one to break through? Good reviews by all accounts, I wasn’t there Saturday but went to the Boro match and I thought Bramwell come across really well. Hope to see them get a good opportunity in pre-season and eventually get the nod some point this season.

Braithwaite grew up on the same street as me, I got on well with his older brother at the time, he was a superb footballer himself, but Aaron at the time only 5 or 6 year old had a shed load of ability himself and was more than capable of holding his own against people older than him!

Wouldn't surprise me if he went on to have a decent career

Quoted from GtfcGarner

Could Braithwaite be the next one to break through? Good reviews by all accounts, I wasn’t there Saturday but went to the Boro match and I thought Bramwell come across really well. Hope to see them get a good opportunity in pre-season and eventually get the nod some point this season.

Bramwell and Braithwaite were out at Whitby last season in the NPL, one level above Clee and Boro. Goundry struggled with that step up, but Bramwell and Braithwaite were highly thought of by Whitby fans.

The fact that they held their own at a higher level than any other young player last season suggests they are closest to breaking through. Bramwell looked big, strong and assured on the ball against Boro.

I was on the opposite side but Braithwaite looked good at RB on Saturday, getting himself involved in what looked like a feisty contest for the ball.

Whilst it's slightly concerning not to have offered anyone a deal this summer, Braithwaite, Bramwell and Essel look quite promising. Tomlinson has some good skills in his locker but he desperately needs a high protein diet and some time in the gym.

For me, Bramwell, Braithwaite and Essel need to go get some games at least a level higher this season.

I was on that side and Braithwaite definitely gave as good as he got.

It is important to remember who we were playing though.  He's a second year professional (I think) so if he's going to kick on and do something you would expect he'll stand out against a 7th tier side.  

I suppose the real positives are that he was out of position and physically matched up to some robust treatment from bigger blokes. I do think we only really saw him because Hurst wanted to take a look at Mullarkey at centre-back.  

We're well stocked at right-back (Efete, Mullarkey and Rodgers will all be selected ahead of him) and also in midfield too where his preferred position is.  I think if he gets game time it'll be in the cups, late on in games probably out wide.  

I'm torn on the level that we loan him and his peers out at.  Ideally they do go Conf. North and maybe even Conference but I'm not convinced anyone gambles on them (certainly in the Conference).  At Conf. North level will they get enough games to make it worthwhile?  At least with Boro, Clee etc. they might get more game time and give them the rough and tumble of mens football that they need.  I think we're in that odd position where we need to be up a level for Conference clubs to want to take our kids.

From what I’ve seen I do think Braithwaite is the furthest ahead out of him, Essell, Bramwell and Tomlinson. But I still think he’ll go out on loan again, hopefully we can try to get him a loan at Conference North level.

Quoted from Surrey97

From what I’ve seen I do think Braithwaite is the furthest ahead out of him, Essell, Bramwell and Tomlinson. But I still think he’ll go out on loan again, hopefully we can try to get him a loan at Conference North level.

Why not scunth…….. oh 🤦🏻‍♂️