Ted Bates Statue

They're talking about Steve Grant, the owner of some saints-related website, think it's called saintsnet or websaints. Without wading through the podcast, he's apparently deduced that one of the clubs that Boro tried to whip up to pile on us declined to help because they too are guilty. But just because they can't be arsed, it doesn't mean there's necessarily anything there. It would be great if Parsons actually had a reverse uno card to the rest of the division, which he alluded to in the creation of a 'working group' but I think it's safe to say we have absolutely no incriminating evidence that others spied, because even if we did, the idiots would have lost it. As an aside, the Ugly's "Field bindweed cannot flower in May" conspiracy theory about the Will Salt photo has definitely been one of the more unexpected diversions to this fiasco.

Oh great, so because we laughed at Gibbo today he's going to come after us again, but this time round up the other 22 clubs and hand them all pitchforks and torches, because who needs to play football and stick the ball in the back of the net when you can just sic your lawyers on Southampton instead? Is this why we're being quiet now, everyone's been sacked in the vain hope that we get away with getting sent straight to League 1 next season, rather than fumble around in the same division like Sheffield Wednesday did, desperately trying to achieve a positive points total?

Cheer up weepy Kim, Oh what can it mean, To a smug whingeing bastard of a shit football team Too bad they couldn't win their participation trophy in the end. Turns out you can't win football matches on a blend of just sanctimony, lawyers and lack of fitness

That would easily top hiring Koeman to replace Poch (and I was always surprised his name was never linked with us in that era - mind you, Tuchel was, and I hear he too could be available soon). Seriously, we might be in disgrace, but we're unbeaten in the league since January and how many jobs come up for a team in this kind of form? Granted that Scienza will leave, and I accept Charles, Jander and THB may well be off. Get Bielsa in a room with the rest of the players and his grenade and they'll be the perfect blend of being too scared and too awestruck to leave. Next season would be a banger.

I can only presume he's putting together a monster powerpoint presentation that would dispel all doubts for anyone who thinks that he's only had us performing because of some sort of Back To The Future almanac or Football Manager game cheat code. And he'll do it in English too. Just a thought - The club have clearly used him as the scapegoat to save everyone else's jobs (particularly Parsons), but they could probably tolerate an interim manager while he serves out a 6 month ban. It would be no different to this season as we were basically rudderless for the first few months anyway, so it would be no big deal doing it all over again.

Not only that but he had a paid role at Villa until recently which he chose to relinquish in favour of returning to us. No doubt someone will wring their hands and compare it to a domestic abusive marriage but when you think there were internal whatsapp memes of him as a camouflaged soldier, I get the impression that while it was certainly a high-pressure role, there might have been a lot more camaraderie and willing participation than he was letting on in front of the panel. The halfheartedness of the so-called "espionage" remains unbelievably galling to me and the image of him next to the tree dwarfs the original Ted Bates statue debacle in its ridiculousness and cost. We can never underestimate how shonky this club can behave. It sounds like internships in football are quite widespread and the phrase "pay peanuts, get monkeys" springs to mind. No doubt a future Panorama programme will delve deeper and perhaps other teams might consider how they treat their staff, under threat of potentially derailing their season. At the very least, Jason Taylor could have been handled with a NDA before he scurried back to Boro with his findings.

Immoral actions are rife in football, but I'm amazed by how whiter than white supporters of other teams have suddenly become as they clutch their pearls at what we've done. Just off the top of my head: Chelsea - Selling the hotel to the parent company; 74 charges Liverpool - Tapping up VVD; cyber crime Man City - 115 rule breaches; subsidised stadium Manchester United - Massive debt, Fergie time, Edwards family selling condemned meat to schools Newcastle - Sportswashing; falsely claiming covid to postpone our fixture during relegation battle West Ham - Taxpayers' stadium

Thank you for sharing your info but I'm not having this character assassination of him now. I have to question the players, obviously I don't blame them for Spygate but their performance for large parts of the season was poor, and that's a fucking understatement. We were basically shit for the entirety of last year, even in November on our winning run we were mostly lucky. If it wasn't Tonda who turned things around, then what? A good transfer window and suddenly the players sorted themselves out and actually bothered to show up for three months? If they want to sue the club, I'd like to counter-sue the players for what they've served up. I'm not surprised that they might not have taken to Tonda, the 'hungry eyes' thing sounded batshit. And I know everyone laughed when he shook hands with Phil Parkinson after the 1-5 Wrexham demolition but to me all it indicated was that he is an incredibly driven careerist who would not be hanging around long with us. The only thing that would have ensured his loyalty is if we protected him at all costs, when instead we let him speak at the hearing and put his foot in his mouth like Parsons. Being mindful that he may be neurodivergent, he's done very well to get where he is in football, and I would be a lot more sympathetic to him had he attempted to get his espionage done with a little more subtlety. But there are people around him who clearly knew what he was up to and encouraged his methods without providing the push-back that he badly needed. As a result we're going to let a talented manager slip through our fingers.

I feel the need to emphasise exactly where things went wrong for me, outlined in these paragraphs in an article by the Telegraph: Archive link for full story: https://archive.ph/1cCTp Parsons had no idea who he was dealing with and was totally outmanoeuvred by someone with over three decades of football experience. Professional football is not a cosy old boys' club, everyone's jostling for position and now everyone is going to rock up to the doors of St Mary's to pick the bones clean off our carcass. Let's be real here. There has been a major overreaction to our infractions and there's also the suggestion that we can't win without spying, which should be ludicrous to anyone who knows about the impact of changing formation away from 3ATB and a good January transfer window. Corinthian Spirit in professional football died a long time ago and nobody's hands are going to be clean at this level. Modern football is amoral and the nature of our punishment and other clubs' reactions mean I don't care much that we broke the rules off the pitch. Besides, I'm numb to the constant rife unfairness on and off the pitch. We have lacked a ruthless streak since Ralph Krueger proclaimed we were a small club, and our stance here was another instance of that. We needed someone at the top to deny and close ranks. Send Will Salt abroad for a couple of years to scout teams around Europe for Goztepe, smack Tonda in the mouth for being "unaware" but don't let him admit it in person FFS. That the "espionage" was so brazenly amateurish disappoints me more than anything else, but that can be discussed elsewhere. If you get in a car crash, it might well be your fault but don't fucking admit responsibility. Now we are sitting in a hurricane of shit and it could go on for months. Maybe it will get better but the fallout could take years to recover from. If heads need to roll, it's Parsons who needs to get out the door first. We needed an attack dog who would defend the club above everything else, but instead we got a puppy.

One of the most astonishing stories I've heard out of all this is that in 2019, Liverpool agreed to pay Manchester City just £1M for hacking into their scouting database some years prior. That's all it cost for cyber crime. Might as well have done the same and extracted other teams' own footage rather than sending Johnny English up there on his missions. We would've certainly saved on hotels, coffees and Eastleigh tracksuits. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11669/11815645/liverpool-paid-manchester-city-lb1m-settlement-over-scouting-complaint

Anyone but Lowe or Wilde. SISU must be up for a new challenge now they've moved on from Cov...?

You'll be pleased to know that the Ugly Inside has decided to use your original post as the basis of an article, kindly removing any identifying details such as your username so that you are not put in any danger due to the additional potential publicity, doorstepping and the brunt of any tantrums you may have to deal with as a result 🤣

Reminds me of the Paul Allen Takeover Saga from twenty years ago. It was always dickheads pretending to be ITK, secret private messages and something big happening on the 32nd of whatever. Some of it has to be coming from our own lot on the wind-up, doing the same old shit to them... if Boro are so desperate to lap it up, why not? We have had fifteen years of just Stephen and Lee Crump brandishing their season tickets for the Echo photoshoot, followed by barely anything until this. There's been an absolute torrent of memes and we need to preserve all of this for the internet history books.

Drove past a month ago before this all blew up, I was surprised to see it but it seems there are several facilities like this in the Championship, Bristol City and Pompey as a couple of instances, no doubt Wrexham too as Boro were keen to insinuate potential spying there too. Funnily enough they are constructing a new training ground in Kent, unsurprisingly one of the reasons being a desire for improved privacy! Karen FC take note. https://southwarknews.co.uk/sport/football/millwall/millwall-reveal-more-details-on-new-training-ground-plans/ I assume this 72-hour rule doesn't exist in the PL because the training facilities at that level are impregnable, there's probably a reason why Fulham and Arsenal didn't bother to jump on the bandwagon that we "must" have been cheating during our unbeaten run.