Ted Bates Statue

Still think anything more than a 3 match touchline ban would be overkill, and over 5-6 matches we'd be looking for a new manager. I disagree, as that would be classified as aggravated breach and come under rule E3.2. The reason for my relative optimism is that he's only been charged under E3.1 which would seemingly relate to the act of spying and not the miscellaneous innuendo around bullying.

Banned from the entire planet. But actually it's not for 10 games, it's 10 million seconds, which I grudgingly accept as a fair punishment

Exactly, all these examples were deemed as aggravated breaches of the basic rule which Tonda was charged under, so it would be really quite something for him to be slapped with a comparable (or worse) ban.

Surely even the Crook wouldn't be so stupid as to take that bait, not exactly subtle when it has his name on it?!

No worries, I'm sure loads of us on here flooded the mailbag with applications. Safety in numbers and all that, we'll be guaranteed to have at least one make it through and infiltrate the FAB.

I'll worry about spelling accuracy when he improves his shooting accuracy. Even his first name is misspelt, so I'm not sure it matters much. Either way, I'm not holding my breath.

As it's not an aggravated breach, I reckon it'll be limited to a 1 to 3 match ban and fine. Assuming that would cover all three charges and they won't be penalised on each individually. It's the same rule breach as the one they charged Tuchel and Conte for their handshake incident in 2022. Tuchel got a 1-match touchline ban and £35k fine for that.

Fun fact... Even in competitive fixtures, Portsmouth have failed to beat any team from Aldershot in nearly 50 years. And they bang on about us somehow being in their shadow... https://www.11v11.com/teams/portsmouth/tab/opposingTeams/opposition/Aldershot/ https://www.11v11.com/teams/portsmouth/tab/opposingTeams/opposition/Aldershot Town/

oh, I thought it was hair gel

We're clearly a long way off anything getting set in stone at this stage, but I think it's worth pointing out that signing him would put our squad on a solid footing going into the new season. I think it would put us right in the mix in the battle for promotion.

Sami Mokbel channeling Alan Partridge's The Day Today sports reporter, except instead of laughing I just felt sorry for him. He might pass muster for Radio 1 Newsbeat, not the fucking ten o'clock news.

At first glance, thought this was the outcome of FA's spygate conduct hearing. Mourinho's laundry basket would be an suitable workaround for such a verdict.

When Koeman used to manage us I used to find myself applauding defence-splitting passes almost before they happened, as you could see the runs our players were making to end up through on goal. I'd say that I've grown out of doing that sort of thing but I think the reality was a combination of Puel coaching them to go backwards and sideways, along with a lack of capable players ever since.

Must have a holiday booked for November already

There is footage of the last 20 minutes on youtube, but amidst the madness of the playoffs I totally forgot that Scienza had a goal chalked off for offside early on, so I've gone with the match highlights. Too bad we couldn't hold on, I'm certain we would have won the final if we'd made it.