qwertyell

"You see that dock out there? Built it myself, hand crafted each piece, and it's the best dock in town! But do they call me 'McGregor the dock builder'? No!" "And you see that bridge over there? I built that, took me two months, through rain, sleet and scorching weather, but do they call me 'McGregor the bridge builder'? No!" "And you see that pier over there, I built that, best pier in the county! But do they call me 'McGregor the pier builder'? No!" "But you fuck one sheep..."

The way the club is run, I could certainly believe everyone has fucked off on holiday and they'll "figure it all out" when they return for pre-season.

Including ourselves, when further evidence comes to light of the other games we spied on in a six month period, and we can't try and mitigate any extra punishment on the grounds that we've taken the matter seriously, reset the culture, and cut ties with the people responsible - because the people responsible will still be working at the club. I don't think the damage caused to us has been fully accounted for yet. The FA investigation will turn up more shit. Cleaning house is the only way to draw a line and try to start moving forward.

Yes. I don't care about the morality of it, nor think spying on training is anywhere near the same seriousness of offence as doping, for example. We haven't been punished as though it were. What was your point?

This whole thing has certainly been a fascinating insight into some of our supporters. From the beginning, they were creating their own narrative where the charges against us were no big deal and laughing at the "deluded" Middlesbrough fans who suggested otherwise; getting angry at Middlesbrough for having the temerity to catch us bang to rights spying on them; getting angry with the EFL for charging us with multiple clear breaches of the rules; railing against the bloody rules themselves; inventing their own version of the rules where if you don't win the games you were cheating on, it doesn't really count; spreading unsubstantiated gossip that our mysterious spies were not even employed by the club; convincing themselves that we wouldn't receive any meaningful punishment as it was all a media pile on orchestrated by Steve Gibson; convincing themselves that the only reason we received such a meaningful punishment was due to a media pile on orchestrated by Steve Gibson; dreaming up conspiracies where actually we were the victims of some kind of entrapment that forced us to spy; imagining that everyone on the independent panel and appeals panel were bought and paid for by Boro; clinging to a meaningless "Leeds precedent" from 2019 when the current rules weren't in place; banging on endlessly about other leagues that have different rules as though that invalidates the rules in the league we actually play in. An endless stream of denial, deflection, and whataboutisms. Incredibly, these people who refuse to believe anything think it's entirely credible that the manager who worked at two EFL clubs under these rules had no idea he was sending people out to cheat when he was demanding they dress up disguised as Eastleigh players so as not to be rumbled absolutely not cheating while spying on Ipswich at Eastleigh's training ground - and that even after the objections raised by the interns he was sending to spy he still remained unaware that he was systemically breaching the rules for six months. It's an endless twisting reimagining of reality as a coping mechanism. There must be something in the water down here: Icke, Le Tissier, Lambert, 51% of saintsweb. Makes you think. It's really not complicated. Tonda oversaw six months of premeditated rule breaking, ran his operation so amateurishly that the "big secret" was not just openly known throughout the club to the point that they were sending around doctored pictures of their analysts as spies for jokes, but also known by people outside the club, with damning evidence on their devices to share with whatever regulatory body as and when they so decided. And it blew up in our faces, spectacularly. One charge of spying became three upon closer inspection. I'm not sure we've got the full tally in yet. We cheated, we got caught, we admitted it - although the club pretty disgracefully first tried to throw a lone-wolf intern under the bus, and the manager tried to weasel out of any responsibility with a pathetic lie about being ignorant of the rules - we got punished. That's it. Was the punishment deserved? Absolutely. Proportionate? Less clear cut, but if you put yourself in that position, you've got no-one else to blame when it goes tits up. And the manager (and his coconspirators) put us in that position. That's just the reality. There is no version of the club's statement to move forward with "humility, accountability, and determination to put things right" that ends up with the arsonist who burned down the whole season remaining in post with a fresh box of matches.

What will getting caught systematically breaking the rules for six months have taught him that he didn't already know? To cause such enormous sporting, financial and reputational damage by your deliberate actions can't be waved off as a "learning experience". The guy's a liability for us now. His conduct destroyed this season - and if there are further charges incoming when, inevitably, more evidence comes to light of our cheating on his watch, the only weapon we'll have to try and mitigate the punishment is to show that we've gotten shot of the perpetrators and installed a better culture. We've got to clean house.

Obviously he's got to go, and everyone that was part of the conspiracy. Couldn't really give two shits about the "morality" of it all - it's the breathtaking incompetence. Rule number one of being a sneaky little fucker: don't get caught. And if you do get caught, have a better defence lined up than "what is rules? I no understand English." He and his circus of Keystone Cops have torpedoed the entire season - with perhaps further damage to carry on into the next one. That degree of mismanagement shouldn't require any debate: get gone and stay gone. There's no moving forwards otherwise.

Dither and delay - it's the Southampton Way. The longer we take to clean house, the longer the repair job will last. If these cretins are even capable of repairing anything.

It's his general lack of active involvement that's possibly the problem - he entrusts the running of the club to a cavalcade of drooling imbeciles; writes the cheques and leaves them be to do their worst. Which they're astoundingly good at. Perhaps a more hands on owner would get a grip of this amateurish rabble and help navigate around the several rakes we've mindlessly trodden on during the last four years. Perhaps.

Can't help thinking this can all be traced back to Krueger not delivering his five pledges. Since he left us hanging, the club has been stuck in a pledgeless death spiral. Damn you, Krueger. Damn you to hell. Or Canada.

How are our lawyers even worse than our spies? I don't have faith that anyone associated with the club is competent in any capacity. Get them all gone.

Don't think I'll ever get over the fact that that was our best attempt at systemic subterfuge. Forget everything else: people within the club put their heads together and came up with a cunning plan to skirt the rules - presumably on the understanding that they were really careful so as not to get caught - and then just sent the fucking intern on a tour of the country to stand around in plain view of everyone's training ground. I'm surprised he wasn't wearing a hi-vis jacket with "SPY" in neon lights emblazoned across the front. Meanwhile back at HQ, we were passing round photos of him mocked up as a camouflaged soldier and having a good old chuckle at our deviousness, seemingly unaware that at least one ex-employee was out there with full knowledge of the shittest kept secret in the world. And now the cherry on the cake is the manager claiming he didn't know we were breaking the rules. And presumably all the people involved kept that information from him too. Honestly, what a bunch of dickheads. Get rid of anyone that knew and didn't flag it.

Is it the same legal team that were confident that Toby Alderweireld was signed, sealed, and delivered, with no possible loopholes that would allow him to join Spurs instead? No point being confident in anyone associated with this club to be anything other than useless.

In keeping with the Sport Republic era - every time it looks like we've turned a corner and starting to hint at some kind of organisational competence, rank amateur hour rears its ugly head again. The hilarious thing is, we weren't even good at spying. It was so pathetically half cocked that no-one could credibly believe it was a premeditated practice from a multi million pound company of, supposedly, actual adults. And of course we didn't win any of the games we admitted to spying on. Of course. Leave it to Saints to come up with a master plan that provides bugger all benefit and ends up costing us everything. Bunch of fucking clowns. Fire them all into the sun.

My two pennies, for better or worse: we'll get what we get and deserve it. I don't particularly care about the "morality" of spying on training, nor consider it cheating in any serious sense. 24 hours earlier it wasn't. In nearly every other league it isn't. It's not four Serie A clubs getting caught match fixing. It's not Marseille bribing Valenciennes to throw a game to help them win the title. It's not buying referees. It's not systematic doping. It's not financial doping. In just about any sport, such things would constitute flagrant, indefensible cheating. Some dipshit wandering around in plain sight waving his phone about shouldn't really be mentioned in the same breath. In the grand "cheating" pantheon it is probably akin to tapping up, in the sense that it's not allowed (in this particular league at least), but everyone does it, and it's seldom punished. But like tapping up, if you're stupid enough to get caught by being as subtle as a brick, that's on you. We can't blame anyone else for the situation we find ourselves in. Whether we were trying to be a bit cheeky, or devilishly underhanded, the execution was so inept and slapdash that someone needs a good kick. There's no point in whinging about Boro or their fans. This is our mess, and regardless of the outcome today (or tomorrow, or some other time, pending an appeal), is such an idiotic own goal for the sake of minimal benefit at best - if we really believed spying on Boro's training would give us a competitive edge, surely we could've sent someone other than the world's most conspicuous peeping Tom. Anyway, there's nothing we supporters can do. The club has dropped one bollock after another over the past few years - add it to the list. But if our season ends here, what a dumb way to go.