gio1saints

Alex - I think Eng have a good chance to make last eight - after that it’s a less easy. BUT how can you describe TT as both a “brilliant manager “ and “ just gone weird with his squad selection” at the same time? If I was asked what was TT main job as England Manager I’d say “ pick the team”. I think he’s doing a fairly good job so far overall. pacing the run to the Final I hope! All the winners don’t do their best stuff early in long tournaments.

I do not recognise any of those names. Have you just made them up? what about ; 1. Paul Naiswell 2. Ade bkumbu 3. Sean Rodrick 4. Lazarus condo. 5. giocanni scarachi 6. Mohammed halifa 7 Josh groblonk All great choices!

I’m confident that the Saints media team will be told not to do anything to potentially upset the League or FA further……BUT they really could have a lot of gentle fun this season on the topic of “SPYING”. Especially if it was done discretely so that it’s not immediately apparent. Everything looks normal except they’ve put in some “ Easter eggs” for those who know how to look. The announcement and ceremonial unveiling of new players could be via binocular vision / done in disguises, player interviews could take place secretively from behind trees at Staplewood, the stadium announcers could add a selection of James Bond themes. Id laugh if the team ran out to the classic bond theme each week. The names Bree, James Bree…😂

He is a known quantity for us. But also for himself. And I think this is possibly where his advisors are doing him a disservice regarding playing time and conditions- but not on what’s really the issue - £££££&. IF Tonda stays and RS signed up it’s a given what Saints tactics will be regarding playing time ie same as end of last year by rotating him and Larin. That “ playing time” will be a critical element of his longevity as a pro.. If you are looking at how many footballing weeks salary this lanky injury prone striker is going to get out of his legs it depends largely ( playing and training injury accidents aside) on how he’s used and what load he’s put under and how it’s managed. Saints already know this and would use him judiciously. R/S options look like Scotland or another Champ team, LCFC or as a back up EPL squad striker Other Scottish clubs? Bought a WC striker and will expect immediate goals and to play lots and lots of minutes as the main man in Scotland - he will get injured for sure. Championship? He plays 10 games in first month and will be damaged for rest of year. Back up in EPL? Seriously limited chances of that. We sent a better lad then him off to Everton and he never plays. MF, JWP and KWP all left for that all got relegated. He has gone for a sign on fee that will set him up for life. Simple as that. Given the above this is the last chance to get that jackpot whatever his legs do going forwards.We’d all do same.

There is also the thought that player reputations have been tarnished by the spygate issue. WHEREVER they go that will follow them like unwanted baggage. It may affect valuations it may affect wages offered and it may affect supporters propensity to bringing a “ cheat”into there club. We know the players themselves did not cheat but on the terraces that doesn’t matter. And owners may not want a controversial with supporters signing like that if there’s easier alternatives. One way to exorcise that ghost is to stay at Saints with essentially the same squad as last year and SHOW the world 20 odd games unbeaten was not down to spying but to there skills there effort sweat blood & guts. Get promoted then leave having got the monkey off their backs. Just a thought. Another angle has already been mentioned - this squad stays largely intact with manager we have got to be play offs at least. That means lots of wins. Alternatively they may go to relegation fighting EPL team and get beaten every week. More money - for a short while - but not such a smooth upward trajectory. Id like to think the whole team including the Manager will feel they have a point to prove and stay and play with extra vim accordingly.

Just my assessment on the video: That video was very revealing if you are a little proficient in “reading between the lines” and deciphering his tiny often unspoken physical cues ie from a body language pov. I have learned a lot about Tonda from it. Do watch it again closely observing his (many) facial gestures, consider the interesting timing of his language and his specific use of certain words in certain ways. Hear who he thanks - hear who he does not mention at all. See when he chooses to blink or not - and what is being said or happening when he goes full stare mode. Watch his breathing - and its intervals. Especially the bit when he talks about his own devastation and we see a mini well-up- fake or real? His facial colouration changes subtly at certain times of most embarrassment/shame - but not in all cases. Consider also the post production video - which appears at odds to Tonda’s own professed desire to appear “without pretification “ and there’s certainly a bunch of interesting and at times contradictory stuff on display that shouted at me. Im not going to divulge all here as will get murdered but i will say - IMO all is not what it might seem in certain regards - what Tonda believes and what he has said on the video are not necessarily 100% the same thing.

I’m glad he’s staying. He is a winning coach. Obviously Machiavellian when it comes to winning - whatever it takes. He is our best chance- along with retaining key players - and along with the fanbase staying behind him and team from the start - of us going up . And he is also, IMO, not telling the truth. He was disingenuous in that speech. This is the only thing I hate. He has probably lied to me and I don’t like it one bit. But am I such a happy clapper that 8 straight wins start of season I’ll be laughing it off? Probably, like most of us I expect. Saying that spying was common practice in Italy is not the same as not knowing there was a strict 72hr rule in place for the EFL. Saying he is a young coach is waffle bollocks. no excuse. But Saying he was unaware of the 72hr rule - this is stretching credibility past its break point. id 100% preferred he said I knew it was wrong but I just got greedy for more information / data and I’m dangerously obsessive about winning and I now regret it so much - than this “ I didn’t know” bollox.

I think next season home and away getting a free kick a penalty or a card given to opponents will be 10x harder. Fans will call us cheats every time player falls over. We in turn will do same when one of theirs falls over. It will be predictably boring as fuck. New black humour songs will be sung “ he cheats to the left he cheats to the right Tonda Eckert he cheats where he likes”……or “ OWTS…go marching in ….OWTS go marching in …..we’re gonna spy on your training ….OWTS go marching in” or the team go out on the pitch to the theme tune from James Bond films….our mascots carry binoculars all next season……Saints logo binoculars on sale in club shop …giant Inflateable binoculars…new signings vids all done via long zoom on an iPhone from behind a tree…the list is endless…I expect a Netflix series out of it!

our cheating is worse because The Daily Mail and BBC said so. And because Saints don’t cheat ever we feel ashamed and their g sackcloth and ashes over ourselves. NEWSFLASH : Footballers cheat to win all the time and it’s approved by all of US as long as we win and don’t get caught - ask Man City and Liverpool fans! you don’t get caught it’s called professional football, you get caught how good are your lawyers? Ours were shit. I hope to see wailing here next time a Saints player kicks the ball deliberately against an opponents hand in the penalty area or Leo deliberately runs into a player to get a free kick or our player writhes in agony from a nothing challenge or our gk falls over with a bad leg when we need a timeout….the list of CHEATING offences Saints been up to in plain sight is endless- except it’s not just us - it’s ALL of them. The hypocrisy I foresee next season of opposing fans calling US cheats when their own players practice these exact same cheating actions will be so ironic and tone-deaf as to beggar belief.

You are probably right - BUT - I seem to recall the FA are currently undertaking investigations into extensive FFP cheating. By League Champions, FA Cup Winners, League Cup Winners , even Workd Club Champions. The EPL Teams under investigation have gained x higher places worth tens and ultimately hundreds of millions of pounds in extra prize money sponsorship endorsement shirt sales etc from it. IF a precedent of enormous instant sanction is or has been created by this Saints verdict and the FA “ follows through two footed “ as you say on Saints then do you not think that EPL teams that finished behind / below or runners up or knocked out by the “ cheats - if it’s proven) might feel this means that the FA are going to be consistent in this get tough approach and argue that what these other clubs did was unfair, against spirit of the game, bringing its integrity into dispute etc - that it was in fact CHEATING - and ONLY the harshest sanctions SHOULD BE IMPOSED? The FA might fall into that trap if they go two footed on Saints. At present they have wiggle room. Not if they smash Saints though. Man City in Northern Premier League next season Chelsea in the Southern, big derby with Woking fc!

I keep returning to the double standards at play in all this. If the sanction for CHEATING OFF THE PITCH is what we are experiencing - then there’s a lot of upward mobility on the sanction for CHEATING ON THE PITCH. I will feel the EFL have reaped what they’ve sown when, say, a West Ham player falls over untouched in our penalty area next season claiming a penalty only to find he gets not only a yellow card but a red card plus we are awarded a 3-0 default victory on the spot after a three person independent VAR panel comprising Franny Benalli plus 2 advises on this insta-judgement.

If this were the USA then the EFL are gonna be bankrupt soon. We would be suing the pants off of them. NOT for being kicked out though - for the reputational damage to SR Brand - likely £100’s of millions. This is not over - it’s hardly begun. Every Championship club is going to want a piece of the action in one way shape or form. Pandora’s box has truly been opened by the EFL showing that in order to manage the league it has to do precisely what it says it is there to stop- CHEAT!

I really am astonished that this allegation came out as a main feature of a three panel jury sitting for a few hours. Bullied is an emotive word in employment disciplinary cases. It’s Oft-used and its mere mention casts a stain - true or false. That’s why it’s used a lot of the time. Our sympathies are always with the victims. “ Victim blaming “ in this instance basically means if someone contradicts or casts aspersions as to the veracity or the motive behind the bullying accusation they are a nasty person and should be ashamed of themselves and stfu. In this case it’s suggested Tonda bullied the intern. The panel cannot hear an allegation of bullying ( especially in such an hurriedly cobbled together meeting with massive time pressure to “ get a result” ) - and simply dismiss it. It has to be noted in the conclusions. And it’s such a delicious and extremely useful word to help justify the punishment. All the intern had to say was he felt pressured to spy. This is magically converted into bullying which in turn mobilises everyone’s support for the victim - and for punishment. I’d love to hear what Saints personnel manager has to say about their meeting with the intern who had raised a grievance regarding this ( and presumably other occasions). Because if you have a problem with your line manager that’s what you do . You speak with HR. Not the “independent” tribunal after the event when you been caught. This matter and its handling by EFL has more holes in it than my old football socks. I think a compromise agreement will happen in which agree we don’t sue the EFL and destroy the fuck out of them in return for be nice to Tonda and a suspended or little ban. If he’s banned for 12 mths I think Saints might go nuclear.

The reason we’ve heard not a thing is that this is a matter of life and death for SR. The brand is either fucked or it’s not. The next step determines that. It helps or it digs us deeper. It’s not just us it’s all the other SR clubs too which are affected by degrees. Why not send tonda to one of those in which it’s ok to do shit fucking stupid spying stuff? For me it possible that this spying practice is ok in SR clubs except at Saints in the ECL and this fucking obvious difference may be the reason he’s not gone. That and we want to see what the FA say first. It’s not impossible FA don’t ban him. But if we already sacked him who is the more stupid?

Good Morning. One of the lines in Parsobs statement made me wonder if this is just the beginning of a whole clusterfuck of similar cases about to be brought up by Championship clubs who believe they’ve been spied on. Parsons comment about proactive support in the matter bears more than a slight inference that it’s going on and others are at it - but not been caught and punished- not yet anyway. poetic justice would find that Boro did it earlier in the season to, say, Derby or Wrexham. I just get the impression that there’s a whole load of intern analysts ( spies) who could spill the beans at some point about what goes on. And the media will have a field day about the most corrupt league in the world!