That is the view of Boro first-team coach Colin Cooper who believes that the arrival of Willo Flood, Stephen McManus and Barry Robson has added some proper men
to a squad that boasted impressive technical ability but lacked traditional football values.
Gordon Strachan has labelled every game in the Championship as being like a war of attrition and Cooper is convinced the no-nonsense arrivals from Celtic possess an abundance of fighting spirit and leadership.
The coach regards tomorrow's trip to Cardiff City as a game that Boro must not lose and called on the players to show the same battling qualities that made Cooper such an uncompromising performer in his playing days.
In this league I think those old-fashioned values serve you well, he said. The manager used a perfect phrase the other day, he called it a war of attrition' where you grind out every single game.
That pitch we played on against Blackpool last month was like turning back the clock 15 years. That was a battle and we weren't strong enough on the night. By hook or by crook we must not lose at Cardiff.
Cooper described the type of characters that he feels the club has lacked in recent years.
I do think it's a generation thing,'' he admitted. You see less and less of the hardened professionals like I saw when I was a kid.
They were not as good technically as a lot of the kids you see coming through the academies, but they set the standards in terms of commitment.
On the training ground they would make sure that no one shied out of a 50-50 ball.
Nowadays you see people pulling out to avoid contact or confrontation in training sessions.
The lads like Mick (Stephen McManus), Barry (Robson) and Willo (Flood) all have that quality, they are what I would call proper men, proper footballers'.
Just look at Willo. What you see in him is a bit of a throwback. He may only be 5ft 6in but he plays like he's 6ft 4in. He is the type of lad who has an abundance of spirit.
You can see he is a hard little so-and-so but he's also a decent athlete and an excellent technical footballer. He has a lot going for him.
I think the lads who've come in, and I would also include Danny Coyne in there too, were brought up with the values of a different era where older players pretty much ran dressing rooms and ran football clubs if we are honest.
Managers used to put a lot of onus on older players to get things right in the dressing room whereas we have had a lack of experienced players.
Maybe not since Gareth (Southgate) retired, he was probably the last of that generation.'' He added: Younger players are not of that ilk any more.
Maybe it's unfair to tar all of them with the same brush.
You still find one or two but generally the younger players are quieter and go about their job.
Most of them we have here are very good, technically gifted footballers. But if they can add something to their game at the age of 19-20 and become a leader then you are setting yourself up to become what I call a proper footballer.
Source: Northern Echo
Source: Northern Echo