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THE GREATEST BORO PLAYER OF THE LAST FOURTY YEARS 1-2-07
Harry Callaghan
I went to my first game when I was around seven years old. An older boy in the street I lived in took to a night match and we lost 3-0 to Carlisle United.
Dad was at the dog track and Mam was at the bingo so they didn't even know I had gone to the game. My mother would always be back by 9pm and at 9.30 she would shout me in. Invariably I would be in the street with another twenty kids playing Cannon, footy, cricket, marbles or anyone of a number of kid's games.
It was innocent in those days - so few cars about and everyone knew everyone so there was no chance of a whacko grabbing a kid off the street and kicking his back doors in.
There was a group of puffs living in the street and one guy had a Dusty Springfield hairdo. They also had a dog called Minstrel that me and my mates loved and would take for walks. It was a number of years later that my Mother told me that the guys who lived there were all puffs. That's how unknowing me and the kids in the street were. We just loved the dog.
Don Masson was playing in the first game I went to. Even at seven years old, I recognised that he was a classy footballer but the crowd didn't like him because he didn't go around kicking people in the air like the rest of the team so his stay was short. He did rather well in his career and I always remembered that at that the early age I could see he was a cut above the rest of the Boro team.
If you have heard about kids going in the Boy's End and then climbing over the wall into the more expensive - and closer to the pitch - Bob End, well that was the case in my first game. When the copper wasn't looking my mate scaled the wall. It wasn't a problem to him but me being seven it was like an army assault course.
I got over the wall and ran into a small crowd of fans to hide, terrified that the Bobby might have seen me and would come and give me a thick ear and a kick up the arse as he turfed me out.
The next day at school I told all my pals of my daring exploits in climbing the wall and getting one over the lone policeman who had now grown to a force of about twenty and were all made to look clowns by little old me. Years later I realised the policeman had obviously seen me and just didn't give a fuck.
Anyway I just wanted to paint the picture and show you that I have 40 years experience of watching my beloved Boro and sometimes not so beloved. I have marvelled at Grahem Souness, Gary Pallister, Johnny Hendrie, John Hickton, Ravanelli, the little fella, but the greatest of them all was EMERSON MOISES COSTA, the 1996 Portugese player of the year and we signed him in 1996.
To keep it short and sweet we were going to sign Paul Ince from Inter Milan who were going to replace him with Emerson from Porto. We nipped in and Porto, who were in danger of being wound up by the VAT man for debts of £4 million, had to grab our hands off when The Great One (Gibbo) hit them with a cheque for £4 million. All of this was done behind the back of the Porto manager who was none other than Bobby Robson.
Old Bobby was none too pleased, to say the least, about having his star player stolen from him. I don't know what wage he was offered at Boro back then. I will take an educated guess at £8,000 to £10,000 and maybe he was on two to three grand a week at Porto so Emo was well happy, unlike Bobby Robson who actually had the same agent as Emo and was well pissed at this skullduggery.
For six weeks Emerson was a collossus, putting even Patrick Viera in the shade. Souness came closest to him in my book as a Boro great. Premiership managers were raving about him because he was absolutely awesome.
I remember we played Arsenal early in the season, a game where we were actually the bookie's favourites to win, which is as rare as finding rocking horse shit. Viera hit him with a late tackle after a couple of minutes and two minutes later Ian Wright followed up. Shockingly neither got booked and Emerson had to leave the field of play. I hated Arsenal even more for that. We finally have a player who is a match for them so they fucking crocked him and the bastards got away with it.
Emerson actually carried that ankle injury for the rest of the season and not many fans are aware of that. After six weeks the wheels came off. Bobby Robson became manager of Barcelona, they offered Emo £28,000 a week and he went AWOL, citing the reason as his chick couldn't handle the weather, which was all just bollocks.
Our coaching staff knew how good this guy was and we were not going to let him go if at all possible. We all knew in our hearts that once a player wants out you can forget it, but he was so highly rated and we were so desperate to hang onto this great player. Unfortunately Emo's heart was in his wallet and not his boots anymore so we never got the guy back who played for us in his first six weeks at the club.
I am sure many of you will disagree with my choice of best player over the last fourty years, but on pure physical presence and talent he is my man.
My favourite memory of Emerson was the rocket launcher he scored at the Stadium of Shite in Boro's first game there. The Mackems had been giving him racist monkey chants when he was on the ball and he shoved them down their throats when he launched one that had their keeper making a pretend dive. No way was he getting in the way of that one as it could have took his head off.
So despite the fact your star did not shine for long at the Boro, for this fan it shone the brightest.
EMERSON MOISES COSTA - I SALUTE YOU.
BACK TO FANS INDEX
A GUARANTEED PROFIT OF AT LEAST £40.00 ON NOTTINGHAM FOREST v READING
Here we go again - the season is about to begin! And did you know that it is possible to win money on Sunday afternoon's Championship clash between Nottingham Forest and Reading, whatever the result?
The game kicks off at 1.15pm and we can guarantee you a profit of at least £40.00, whatever the result of the match. All you have to do is follow the simple instructions below and then sit back and enjoy the game. At full-time, you will be at least £40.00 better off, whatever the result of the match.
We must point out that if you want to take this bet, you should do it now because if the odds change, then the figures here will be invalidated. If they have changed, let us know and we will rework the bet for you.
You can still do this if you have a Betfair account but your overall profit will be reduced by £25.00 as you won't receive the £25.00 cashback as an existing account holder.
If you are unsure about this bet, you are most welcome to call us on 01642 223229 and we will help you as much as we can.
We're going to lay out a total of £89.00 on the Nottingham Forest v Reading match and we will collect £131.26 if Nottingham Forest win, £130.04 if Reading win and £129.00 if it's a draw. That's a minimum profit of 45%, a much higher interest rate than you will get in any high street bank.
Here's how it's done. Just follow these simple instructions.
1. Open an account with Coral. It is really important that you enter the bonus code of CORALTD when prompted. This is to ensure that you receive your bonus.
Open an account with Betfair. It is really important that you enter the promotional code of BFB425 when prompted. This is to ensure that you receive your bonus.
Open an account with Extrabet
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This shouldn't take you any longer than a few minutes.
2. Make the following deposits into your new accounts.
Deposit £22.00 into your new Coral account.
Deposit £42.00 into your new Betfair account.
Deposit £25.00 into your Extrabet account.
3. Now make the following bets.
Place £22.00 on the draw at 3.25 (9/4) with Coral.
Coral will now add a £10.00 bonus to your account. Place this on the draw as well. You will now have £32.00 riding on the draw.
Back Reading with £42.00 at 2.58 (or higher if available) with Betfair.
Place £25.00 on Nottingham Forest at 2.68 (13/8) with Extrabet .
Extrabet match your first bet up to £25 so you will now have £50.00 riding on Nottingham Forest.
The £25.00 matched bet will not show in your account but you can read all about how it works on the Extrabet site. It's the purple box that says '£25 FREE BET FOR NEW CUSTOMERS' on the top right hand side. Click here to visit the Extrabet site.
If you are unsure about placing these bets, please feel free to mail us or call us on 01642 223229 and we will talk you through it, no problem at all. There is no such thing as a stupid question.
You have temporarily laid out a total of £89.00 on the Nottingham Forest v Reading match. I stress, temporarily... Now sit back, crack a beer open and enjoy the match.
4. Here's what happens at the end of the game. All winnings are paid out on the ninety minute result.
If it's a draw, you collect £129.00. That's £104.00 from Coral plus a £25.00 cashback from Betfair.
If Reading win, you collect £130.04. That's £105.04 from Betfair plus a £25.00 cashback from Betfair.
If Nottingham Forest win you collect £131.26. That's £106.26 from Extrabet plus a £25.00 cashback from Betfair.
5. This means that the worst case scenario on the Nottingham Forest v Reading match is it is a draw and you make £40.00 profit. However, if Reading win you make £41.04 and if Nottingham Forest win you make £42.26. That's a minimum profit of 45%, a much better rate of interest that you would get at any high street bank or building society.
6. It is absolutely vital that you click on the links on this page to open the accounts with the two bookies and enter the correct bonus codes or you may not qualify for the bonuses.
Also, before you place your bets, you should check that the odds haven't changed. If they have, let us know by mail or phone us on 01642 223229 and we will rework the bet for you.
Please feel free to contact us or phone us on 01642 223229 if you have any questions at all about this bet and we will help you as much as we can.
Please note that the bonuses are valid for new customers only so if you already have an account with one or more of the bookies we are using, you won't be able to do this. If that is the case, mail us or phone us on 01642 223229 and we'll create an alternative bet for you using different bookies.
This method of betting was used very successfully during the 2006 World Cup and you can read all about how it was done right here.
We guarantee this bet
It's understandable that some people will not believe that it is possible to do this. "What's the catch?" I hear you asking. My answer to that question is that we have been publishing arbitrage bets for four seasons now and literally hundreds of people have profited from following the advice on these pages.
Only twice has our refund guarantee been triggered and that was when we did all the figures wrong and sent refunds out to those who had followed our advice and made a small loss.
Our refund guarantee works like this. If this bet doesn't work like we say it will and you end up out of pocket, we will refund your losses. Simple as that.
That means that you simply cannot lose on this, whatever happens and even if we messed up the numbers.
The only stipulation here is that you must click on the links on this page to be eligible for the refund guarantee, not that you'll be needing to claim anyway. Just enjoy the profit and stay posted for many more of these throughout the season.
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