Nordic Saint

if a young analyst were sent from Middlesbrough to spy on Southampton for a couple of months, then returned to Middlesbrough with information he'd gathered to be used against Southampton, and then told to delete his linked-in profile on the day some of that information was made public, that would be OK, wouldn't it? Purely hypothetical, of course, because nobody could get away with it, could they? Anyway, even if it was possible, it couldn't have been Taylor as, according to online profiles, he was never at Southampton: Jason Taylor - Manager profile | Transfermarkt

You'd hate Sir Alex Ferguson then. He could be mean and nasty with youngsters. As for Brian Clough, he would often humiliate them. What you need is a warm, cuddly manager like Russell Martin.

Leeds United and Marcelo Bielsa win Fair Play prize at FIFA Football awards for role in Aston Villa game despite 'spygate' row | talkSPORT But, to be fair, Leeds are a bigger club than us, so they can do what they like. If they'd been in our position now, there's no way they'd have been thrown out of the play-off final. Instead of an ex-Boro player on the independent commission, there'd have been an ex-Leeds one.

Bielsa was given the FIFA Fair Play Award at the end of his spygate season, followed by the Championship Manager of the Year award the next season, when his Leeds team won the Championship. Yes, there is anew rule now, but all this moralising...

Hi Steve. It's Neil here. Everything going according to plan. So who do you want on this Independent Commission?

They had representation in both presenting the evidence with Neil Bausor on the EFL Board and in judging it. This would not be permitted in any other legal case.

Bielsa won the Championship with Leeds the following season, and was named Championship Manager of the Year: Derby training ground 'spy': Le:eds boss Marcelo Bielsa takes responsibility - BBC Sport Bielsa wins Championship LMA award | Football News | Sky Sports Even with the new 72-hour rule, the moralising and double standards are ridiculous.

Not really. Neil Bausor, Middlesbrough's Chief Executive, employed by Steve Gibson, represents the Championship on the EFL board.

Exactly. We've been punished enough as it is. The last thing we want to do is punish ourselves even more by getting rid of such a good manager. That would be stupid.

Will all of these members of the EFL Board be involved in the prosecuting case or only the EFL Championship representatives? EFL Board - The English Football League Anyway, no final decisions are going to be made until they've all had their lunch.

The first Southampton team to win the FA Vase since Sholing in 2014. https://x.com/i/status/2056007270056571218

They are trying to break the rules of an independent inquiry. That's like a player trying to get an opponent sent off, only on a much larger scale. They should be punished for it.

Hopefully, Hull will complain to the EFL that they've prepared to play Southampton, whereas Middlesbrough have prepared to play Hull, which puts them at an unfair advantage - more advantage than you'd get from some kid with an i-phone half a mile from a training pitch.

Judging from their local media, they don't want to play Middlesbrough, who beat them 4-1 at home, and they don't want their preparations and travel arrangements messed up by having the final postponed to a later date. They very much want the final to go ahead as planned, on May 23, against a Saints team they did the double over this season. Other Championship clubs Middlesbrough have contacted will be weighing up who they'd prefer to face next season: Saints on a long unbeaten run or a fading Middlesbrough team. Of course, they'll also be factoring in the effect of a possible points deduction. Meanwhile we have Pompey fans pretending to be Saints fans posting on local Teesside media, "we think you should be given our final place at Wembley." Everyone has their own agenda in this. 'The notion of Southampton being kicked out of play-off with Hull City is preposterous' - Hull Live

Who selects the panel?

Boro owner Steve Gibson has reportedly engaged the services of Nick de Marco, the sports lawyer with a record of delivering results in hearings involving the game's governing bodies. De Marco was recently heavily involved in making sure Sheffield Wednesday would start next season on zero points, when it seemed certain they would get a 15-point deduction. This time De Marco would be arguing in favour of a penalty, rather than trying to get one removed. If Gibson does not get the result he wants with the independent disciplinary commission, matters may not end there. In 2021, Boro launched legal proceedings against Derby County. They claimed the Rams' financial breaches had cost them a play-off place in 2018-19. The two parties eventually reached a "resolution", which BBC Sport believes resulted in Boro being paid £2m.

A song to greet the Boro coach with and to shut up their fans when they start the "You cheating bastards" song with which they greeted our coach up there: "You whingeing bastards, you know what you are."

Isn't the latest that he's currently employed by Aston Villa?

I was simply pointing out that they wouldn't have to cancel the play-off final if they did throw us out, Perhaps too simply 😄

They'd simply disqualify us and give our place in the final to Middlesbrough IF we beat them. That's what Middlesbrough will be demanding. They'll already have contacted every possible media outlet to press their case.

He must be the first Saints manager to win 3 consecutive Manager of the Month awards in any division.

If you're going together, he can just pass his phone back to you at the gate.

Anyone who's been to 1 Boro game, home or away, can buy 4 tickets. The problem is that you'd have to have bought the ticket from them. But, I guess it means a fair few will be going to ticket touts. Middlesbrough FC From 2pm this afternoon, supporters with 2+ Priority Points will be able to purchase up to 3 additional tickets per account. (You get 3 priority points for 1 Boro home game and 2 for an away game).

As we've shown this season against a quarter of next season's PL teams: Arsenal, Man City, Fulham, Coventry and Ipswich. The team that went up under Martin, were beaten 0-3 by Liverpool in the FA Cup, lost twice to both Ipswich (0-1 and 2-3) and Leicester (1-4 and 0-5) and finished 9 points off the automatic places. They never looked anywhere near good enough for the Premier League.

In reality, it wasn't better with the old setup. There was always an empty block behind the goal in the Northam, and that empty area just extended even more when the away team didn't sell their allocation. In the video clips and online photos of our goals at that end, it always used to look like the stadium was half empty. Attacking a goal with only empty seats behind it can't have been very inspirational for the players.