qwertyell

It's a doctored picture of Cyle Larin signing on loan in January. From the same shoot: You've got to be pretty sad to mock up a fake signing photo. Sadder still to believe it. Not quite as sad as bothering to do the work to debunk it, though.

It is what it is. I was hoping we'd try and upgrade our striker options in any case - Larin is a solid addition, but Archer and Downs are no good. Should focus our attention now we have confirmation.

Any takers for Illan Meslier on a free as back up keeper? Lost his way after early promise, but a good age, 26, with plenty of experience. Vaguely remember him supposedly being shown around Staplewood before opting to join Leeds, way back when.

Charles brings a different physical profile to an otherwise identikit midfield roster. We were supposedly very close to signing Issa Doumbia from Venezia last summer - that ship has sailed: he joined Sporting Lisbon for €20m last week - so seemingly recognised the need for some height, power, and dynamism in the middle of the park. If Charles leaves, those qualities need to be replaced.

From memory (everything's a hazy memory these days), I vaguely remember talk about Saints not considering Moody for the first team third keeper's slot last season because it would impact his availability for the U21s too much, and he needs games. I imagine that will still be the thinking this season. Ollie Wright might be an option now, with a season of League Two football, and around 100 senior games all told, under his belt.

I'm not certain there's much of a market for Ramsdale - he's a ten-a-penny keeper on huge wages coming off an underwhelming loan at a lower mid-table premier league side. You're not signing him for £15m+ and a big salary unless he's going to be first choice. Looking at that league, I can only realistically see Leeds perhaps trying to get a new number one in, and possibly a promoted team, if Coventry can't make Rushworth's loan permanent. He'll probably end up being loaned out again. No idea how there could be any market for Bazunu, after being consistently rubbish for us and two successive rubbish loans. Who's buying him, and why? The only team stupid enough to pay money for him already owns him.

Bree, Stewart, Conservatory.

He's floated a number of different versions of events over the last few weeks. I wouldn't take anything as his final answer just yet. He's still got a phone a friend and a 50-50. It really would be remarkable for us to have spied only three times and been caught bang to rights on each occasion. I hope there isn't more damaging stuff to come, but thought it was notable in his video the manager omitted to say the three spying missions were the only times we've done it - just the times we were charged for.

Less concerned about that than what the FA investigation might turn up, to be honest. If he admits that we spied on more than the three reported occasions - or the FA happen upon that information - then surely that gets passed back to the EFL and we get more sanctions.

Nice of him to pipe up eventually. I found it a bit grubby, though. After the CEO lied and tried to throw an intern under the bus, and then the manager lied about not knowing the rules, it's a bit sad that the owner has now doubled down on the manager's lies, and hand waved away the CEO's lies as being due to the time constraints placed on them to respond to the charges - and then later in the interview seems to imply that the intern should have been stronger in standing up to his bosses. It doesn't quite display the "humility and accountability" that the club's response to this shitshow had promised. Maybe that was another lie too. It might be lost in translation, but repeatedly downplaying the six month campaign of repeated rule breaking as a "mistake" doesn't fill me with much hope of any change in culture. It's not a mistake, it's a choice. At least he's bothered to engage - I love that the first he knew about anything going on at the club he owns was by reading it on twitter. What a perfect summation of his leadership. But he's clarified for everyone what the plan is moving forward: keep Tonda and hope he doesn't get banned. It's not a mistake, it's a choice.

"Our responsibility now is to acknowledge what has happened, take ownership of the lessons it brings, and use this experience to strengthen our judgement, discipline, and integrity moving forward together as a club." No longer promising "accountability" I notice.

Perhaps the club could set up some kind of Fan Advisory Board? They'd have to come up with a different name, though, as it's currently being used by the Fan Advisory Board.

Someone at Saints is writing this down. Wrongly.

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I was joking, by the way.

Ah, so there is another, more understandable, version of events - which they cunningly decided not to elaborate on during the actual EFL hearing and the appeal, which consisted of them admitting to all charges, and lying about the manager not understanding the rules. It's good that they've held back the real details until after everyone's had a nice holiday and it makes no difference whatsoever.

"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.