Ted Bates Statue

No one likes us, no one likes us No one likes us, we don't care We're Southampton, from the South Coast Fuck the EFL, fuck the rest

You've reminded me, the first sign that we weren't going to sack Tonda came from Alex Crook

I know Will Salt is only a kid of 27 years of age, but he really managed to drop us in it here, didn't he?

Good day to bury bad news by releasing our embarrassing Whatsapp messages, on the same day as HM Government publishing their own Whatsapps that are somehow more embarrassing than ours. Although if we're making parallels with political events, it's too bad even Russia managed to get sanctions lifted in the week we were hit with ours. So many wet blanket comments online, but it's going to happen with a sensationalist media and a brigade of other teams' bitter supporters who don't realise we're all living in the "peace prize" cesspit era of football corruption. Crabs in a bucket mentality at its finest. The Saints page on Reddit got mentioned the other day. One of the first comments in the wake of Hull's playoff final victory was, of all things, a Leeds supporter slating us, but when you clicked his profile you could see that one of his most recent comments elsewhere was that he would hypothetically cheat on his partner if offered significant money "like a shot". Most people on there are savvy enough to hide their post history but you get the idea, most of these internet idiots are virtue-signalling hypocrites who make the lunatics on here look normal. Their opinion should be taken with a very generous pinch of salt, if not ignored altogether. If keeping Eckert upsets those sorts of people, that can only be a good thing.

I personally really like the FA Cup Winners crest which omits the black background of the "Southampton FC" bit. Just feels a little more aerodynamic somehow.

I really hope you know something we don't, as we held fire during the first two weeks since the shit-storm began, to the point that most of us thought it was just a red herring and a bit of a joke, until it came crashing down with probably more to come. It's not fair to make anyone a scapegoat with the pitchforks and torches, just get the sense that numerous people have been taking this club for a ride and not taking their roles seriously enough while Bournemouth down the road achieve European football. How did we become the shit-show club of the south coast? Yeah I think some posters had been joking about this possibility earlier in the week, not much else to do seeing as this football club is screwed for the foreseeable

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. That was not great to hear, particularly the bit where the presenter tries to compare this point to Pochettino's departure and Peach just says, "No, because at least then we had good players coming in..." Blame laid at the feet of Sports Republic for lack of leadership, unbeaten run papering over the cracks. No surprises there.

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.