Ralph Fastenbüttl

Respect for the epic profile picture, @AlexLaw76 😂

Fuck me that's good work.

*Fewer

Basingstoke?! Born and raised, though not lived there now for coming on 30 years. Will always be home, though x

Think I'm going to check out of this thread (even though this whole saga is all I can think about). I understand that folks need to cope, but this whole conspiracy whirlwind that's somehow engulfed this thread is unhealthy and, frankly, beneath us. Why aren't the club getting out and vocally 'calling out' Boro's actions? Because make believe stories about back rooms coverups would amazingly make us look even worse than we currently do. Read the report. We cheated. Systemically. On Tonda's direction. We can argue about the severity of the punishment, sure, but the idea that any force other our own stupidity is the cause of this is farcical. All we can do now is concentrate of fixing our own mess and the long, painful road to recovering from it.

How any of y'all can read that document come away thinking, "dear me, corruption is rife!" and not "fuck me, Saints are a fucking disgrace" is beyond me. This mess is of our fucking making, not Boro's or anyone else's. The sad truth is that Tonda's regime was rotten at the core.

So, as per the EFL's statement, Tonda explicitly pressured young staff (Salt) against their will spy against his will. He was uncomfortable about the moral ambiguity, but he went along with it because he feared for his job. Brilliant news all round. I am a huge Tonda advocate but sorry, it's just completely untenable. SR better fucking pay through the nose to hire in an absolute superstar replacement, I tell you.

Oh my god, this is fucking brilliant!

I hate myself for thinking this, but there's a big part of me that's desperate for us to keep Tonda. I KNOW he's been a fucking idiot, but it's not impossible he acted with ignorance as opposed to deception... although even if that were the case, it's hard to think the same of those around him. Wishful thinking, perhaps. It's just after all these fucking godawful managers, we finally had a good one. And a good squad. After the absolute bollock kicking that was our last season in the Prem, the second half to this campaign has felt like the reward for sticking through it all. And it's all been fucking ruined by idiots. For nothing. I just feel genuinely heartbroken. No idea how the summer will pan out. I think all this talk of being scuppered for a decade is the anger talking. I get it, but as shite as SR undoubtedly are, they have twice built Championship promotion squads. Of course there's every chance we'll do it again. But there obviously zero guarantees. And regardless, none of that makes throwing away the good thing we actually have going now any less bitter a pill. Football's the fucking worst.

There's a lot of understandable anger here being directed at the EFL, Middlesbrough, Gibson et al - but a lot of it is based on still unsubstantiated reporting and rumours. The only thing we do know is that the club cheated to try and gain an advantage. That's not OK, and we're not really in a position to demand anything of anyone right now. We are the bad guys. Even if we did somehow get the decision overturned by appeal, how exactly would it feel seeing the team walk out there at the weekend? To see us celebrating if we won? I honestly think it would feel largely awful. And that's of our own doing. My only hope at this stage is that Tonda was somehow not involved, that this was analysts gathering data and absorbing that into some sort of reporting mechanism that was fed back to the club. Because if that was the case, we'd be going into next year with an excellent coach and a group of players who'd be tremendously highly motivated to right a wrong. But that's feeling increasingly unlikely. You never know, but the idea of going into next season with a points deduction and some new SR-appointed sap at the helm fills me with absolute dread. I'm not gonna say that the club's "screwed for a generation" or anything else equally hyperbolic, but these do feel like incredibly dark days indeed. Fuck this club, seriously.

In the end that's worked out pretty well for us. Borough are surely going to be feeling a bit grim after throwing all that at us and coming away with nothing.

Dude...

I was literally about to say that I hope with today's excellent result, the fanbase finally buys in to Team Tonda. But alas... I, for one, am massively relieved. 5 wins out of 6 is superb and for long spells today we looked genuinely brilliant. That a seeming lack of depth means we look less good once the real talent gets a rest at the end does not change any of that. Tonda really could be the one (until he's poached in the summer). COYS!

I'm surprised (although perhaps shouldn't be) by all the Tonda negativity here. Yes, we were shite against Millwall, but when's the last time a new manager enjoyed any sort of bounce here? And four wins on the trot considering how awful we were looking under Still has not received the amount of praise it should have done. It's a big deal. I of course understand and share the total lack of faith in Sports Republic owing to their horrendous track record, but eventually one of their dice roles must inevitably work out. Will it be this one? Who knows... Certainly on paper Tonda isn't what any of us would have looked for, but for me the uptick in results is just so abnormally positive for our shitty football club that I just can't look beyond it. Seemingly, neither could SR. I desperately hope it all works out. Massive game tomorrow now. A win, and Millwall becomes a blip. A loss, and the bounce is already over and who knows what pain lays in wait. Very best of luck, Tonda.

Dude, this post is far too rational and nowhere near sensational enough to meet the requirements of this board. The Tonda bubble has BURST and the dream is OVER, got it? We are the WORST team EVER in recorded history. Understood?

Fuck me we've been so wank for so long that I haven't tried to stream us in ages and in the interim every single one of the sites I had bookmarked has been taken down! Anyone got a stream?

I mean, yeah, I'm not going to argue with you about the opposition. Dogshit. Tho QPR are above us in the table, so maybe we shouldn't be quite so sniffy? Nor will I argue that we're good or played well. We're not and, overall, we didn't. But what we did do was win, and that objectively is an improvement! Obviously lots and lots of improving is still required, of course. Nor did I claim any such thing! That's not really the thrust of my post, is it? Honestly not sure we would have gotten three points against Wednesday under Still, but guess we'll never know (thank fuck).

I'm not saying Eckert is the man or anything, but you lot are IMPOSSIBLE to please. Like, we NEVER enjoy a new manager bounce. Never. So two on the trot is actually pretty massive. Most of us would have creamed our pants if Still had taken off Downes and brought on youth. And for all the folk saying "yeah, well, we should be beating QPR and Wednesday" I'm like yeah, and we SHOULD have beaten loads of teams we've lost to recently! Obviously Eckert would not be my No.1 choice - I'd much prefer a far more experienced hire - but if he keeps winning (big 'if', of course) then the point will come when SR would be stupid to get rid of the one bloke who seems to be able to get results from our repeatedly disappointing players. It's like we've forgotten how to be pleased. We lose = we're sad. We're shit = we're sad. We win = we're sad, because it means we might stick with the winners who we're convinced are actually shit!

All you can do is beat the team in front of you. A win's a win. The great teams are the ones who still find a way to grab the points when playing badly. The only stat that matters is the scoreline. We got the job done. Anyone got any more gems tucked away in the Shite Pundits' Locker they can drag out to paper over the fact that we play like a poor Under 11s side?

I'm just so fucking exhausted at even the THOUGHT of RM returning. How the fuck can anyone have forgotten just how miserable that season in the Prem was? My worst as a Saints fan, without question. I honestly don't know if I'll be able to emotionally invest in the club if it commits such an act of wanton self harm. Fuck 'em, seriously.

Like many of you, I loved Ralph the bloke and I'll always be thankful for the great times we had with him. But it's easy to forget how bad it was toward the end, albeit with extraneous factors (but are there not always?). The big frustration with Ralph toward the end was the lack of Plan B, and that's something that's been a common a massively frustrating trait among most of the managers since. Still barely had a Plan A but certainly had no Plan B. And no, swapping from three at the back to ALL THE ATTACKERS most matches is not a Plan B. Selles was like a poor clone of Ralph, warts and all. Mad Nate had some tactical acumen but was rarely able to counter the counters of rival managers, although looking at him this season really does reinforce the argument that the managers are not the problem at all. Although I fear that we'll never make good under SR, I just long for a manager who is organised and has a solid tactical grasp of the game. They don't need to set the world alight - just someone who can set a team up in a way a squad can understand and adjust his tactics through the course of a game. Kind of feels like the bare minimum, but we haven't had this since fucking forever. No more gambles. Proven experience and an understanding of the game, please. And a bit of discipline, too - knock these lazy, hapless fuckers into line.

Well you can't possibly fucking know that, can you? There's every chance he would have.

I know the players are hardly doing themselves proud at the moment but I honestly believe their is genuinely a lot of ability in our squad, but this manager is now obviously very clearly not capable of getting it out of them. Time for a change. This is no longer knee jerk - he's had long enough. Only problem is there is zero evidence to suggest Sport Republic's next hire will be any better. Flop after flop after flop. We don't need a 'clever' appointment - we need a sensible one. Someone with proven experience and success and this level and above.

It would be an incredible (and very un-Saintsy) story if Ross were actually able to battle through two super frustrating years and emerge a goal scoring hero. His performance tonight was superb, and as @HarvSFC says, what he showed tonight was something very different to anything else we have in the team. A bit Lambert-like, perhaps. Obviously we all remain terrified about his fitness but certainly he looked physically comfortable and confident in a way we've never seen in a saints shirt tonight. We can but hope that's a positive sign. Best of luck to the lad - I'm rooting for him.

That's the question, really. It has literally been years since Saints had a positive impact on my mental state. It's fucking harrowing.