James

Yes, and based on that precedent presumably would be fined £200k which is irrelevant. It’s a moot point though as I doubt many Premier League clubs have training grounds that can be “observed” in the same way so there’s probably no way to even get an analyst in there!

Something like that would be a materially better solution than rolling with someone like Lallana or Garner. That said, if he’s banned for 3/6 months the club are going to have to wipe the slate clean IMO, no matter how highly they rate him.

An equally bad solution as with Lallana. Garner’s record as a manager is dreadful. If we are serious about promotion we can’t wait for Eckert to serve anything more than a nominal ban. If he gets anything other than a nominal ban we should move for someone like Parker IMO.

If he is banned for any more than a month I think we have to move on. We can’t afford to waste 3 months of the season with some random interim manager, let’s face it, probably Lallana. We need to go all out for promotion next season as, if we don’t, we are on the way to becoming Stoke or Blackburn (or worse) in my view.

It will also be self sabotage if we wait all summer for the investigation to conclude and then have to appoint Lallana or some other budget interim solution.

Agreed, if anything I’m just angry that these clubs we were miles ahead of, even recently, are now so much further ahead of where we are. The team we had at the end of this year was looking like a step back towards good times but this almighty cock up will set us back. I feel similar to when we lost to Derby in the playoffs in 2006/7, the disappointment of not getting promoted was nothing compared to the knowledge that the team we’d see the following season would be stripped of all talent. Feel similar right now.

The one thing that would p*ss off the fan base even more than the current debacle is to replace Tonda with Lallana. If we have to sack Tonda, it needs to be someone with instant credibility otherwise it’ll very quickly turn toxic.

Presumably Gibbo wasn’t able to persuade his mates to move the final. Giving them a free ride after they lost the semi was as far as they were prepared to go.

Maybe Gibbo would have been better off letting us beat Hull and then suing to replace us in the PL? 🤣

Only team to bottle the semi final and the final in the same season 😂😂😂😂

But he’s the bestest manager ever apparently 😂😂😂😂😂 bring on the home game next season. Let’s tell these morons what we really think of them.

God I am enjoying those Boro tears even more than I knew I would. See you next season lads!

Unlucky Karenborough FC 😂😂😂😂

I’m basically over it now in terms of this season/next season. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the media pile on and the sense that the EFL decided to throw the book at us because we are a small and less significant club. The sense of one rule for one and another for others will be permanent for me, the game and its governing bodies are absolutely rotten.

Given the way the panel handled the conflict, I agree that the only sanction they could have imposed (given they were minded to apply a harsh deterrent and not a slap on the wrist), was expulsion. Whether the panel could or should have delayed the second leg to give them more optionality is what is being debated. You act as if it was a given that no games could be moved and the panel had to move to a set timetable, clearly that is what they did but it wasn’t their only option.

Why not? Rather than just dismiss with an emoji, explain why that wouldn’t have worked.

Plenty of people have explained what could have been done, you just ignore it as “pony” because you don’t agree with anyone that doesn’t have the exact view you do.

F*ck off you patronising t*at.

Of course they could have, there will literally have been hundreds or even thousands of people they could have picked from. The whole thing stinks and if Saints didn’t due diligence on the panel members and raise objections then they are even more incompetent than I thought. It may not have made a difference but we will never know but being on the receiving end of a punishment which results in Boro being reinstated and the panel which decided that being comprised 1/3rd by an ex Boro player is just fucking shit.

Who knows but imagine for a second that a panel involving a random Saints player from the 90s (I’m going to select Tront Egil Soltvedt) and a retired partner from Paris Smith and Randall (who may not may not have been involved in a matter involving Southampton FC) had given us an unduly lenient punishment. Do we really think Boro would have been OK with that? Really?

In the same way that it didn’t matter whether we gained an advantage or not, it doesn’t matter that he only made one appearance. The guy played for Middlesbrough during the period of Steve Gibson’s ownership. There is no clearer conflict of interest than that. They only needed to find 3 people, surely there are other qualified people that haven’t played for fucking Middlesbrough. The whole thing stinks massively.

It takes literally five minutes to work this out with respect to both of them, two Google searches and you have found the answers…!

Member of the committee accused of not being independent, says he was independent. What a total non-story, what was he supposed to say? Another ball dropped by Saints IMO, should have pushed for both him and the barrister whose chambers represented Boro a few years ago to be removed.

I just cannot understand how an independent panel, which could presumably select from thousands of qualified people, is comprised of two people who have (however indirectly) a publicly identifiable link to MFC. I’m not saying it would have changed the outcome but it feels really naff.

Completely, but that doesn’t make it the right decision from the perspective of punishing a rule breach, it makes it an understandable commercial decision but not one that should be relevant if a fair procedure is followed.