coalman

Fair. And agreed.

The trouble with stupidity is that one stupid thing tends to lead to another stupid thing. Until all that's left are... stupid things. So if we were stupid enough to send someone to watch Karen FC training in the 72 hours leading up to the game (assuming no sane mitigation) we're quite likely to continue being stupid.

I do care what we say. As my mate's mum used to say "if you tell one lie you have to tell 1000". No sense winning the hearing only for it to turn up with did it nefariously later on. I'm also incredibly curious about what we're presenting to them.

Or it won't. Both sets of fans have a firm idea what they expect the sanction(s) to be. Either or both could be very wrong here.

Well, part of the regulations talk about how any punishment has to be perceived as maintaining sporting integrity. So influencing that perception is something they'd want to do. There's no contempt of court here as it's not a legal case. But it is run by lawyers so they may well look unfavourably on it.

It's an SEO play. This kind of article is written explicitly for the purposes of raising a company's ranking on Google in the hopes of attracting future business rather than as a statement of authority on the matter in hand. One of the signals that pagerank looks at is the amount of original content on the site. The legal firm in question don't even take on this kind of case according to their services offered.

Incorrect. This is page 86

The place to make that statement is to the independent tribunal. There will be time for public statements after they've decided.

#KarenFCForumWatch A lot of people are certain about a lot of things they couldn't possibly know for sure. It turns out that 2 + 2 = "Gibbo" in a shock reverberating with mathematicians the world over. As more KarenFC fans gather online the rage is reaching a fever pitch to the extent that Samaritans have cancelled all annual leave for the next few weeks. A nation watches on. Concerned.

#KarenFCForumWatch In news that will surprise no one Saints fans are vile, Fabrice29 has emerged as an unlikely hero and nobody messes with Karen Gibson, the Don of the northeast. A legal opinion agreeing with a forum poster has been taken as the final and conclusive proof that things are going their way. Many people are angry.

That is one of the many things about this case that we don't know and is being speculated about that we may or may not find out later. Ironically, had the person in question not deleted their footage - it would make compelling evidence either way as to whether that was the case. People who live in strawmen shouldn't throw straw. Or something.

It looks like an innovative use of SEO to expand a law firm's domain authority to me. Rather than a robust legal opinion that the law firm in question would be able to defend in court.

I would imagine we'll just shrug and get on with our lives if that happens. We broke a rule for which there is no clear punishment defined and were found guilty. While we may or may not agree with whatever punishment is handed out it doesn't get much clearer than that.

And bringing up the hypothetical case of a member of the public doing it is the kind whataboutery that would be harmful to our hearing if our lawyers brought it up.

One would fucking hope so.

According to the regulations then probably not. Just because a rule may not be well thought out or, indeed, practical doesn't mean it isn't a rule.

Thanks, Karen.

Pretty sure that at some point they're going to imply we're in cahoots with the EFL which is why they've been frozen out of the hearing as to why any judgement from it couldn't be trusted.

Maybe, maybe not. At this point we're naturally going to interpret everything we see on the basis of how we're feeling and what we want to believe to be true to fill in the many gaps in what we know. The human brain is riddled with blind spots in this kind of situation.

The EFL does have the right to expedite the case in exceptional circumstances. I would imagine we came to a compromise where we agreed to do it earlier as part of cooperating fully.

#KarenFCForumWatch Morning on the forum brings a certain eerie stillness as the breaking news thread goes quiet but for the chirping of posters whose lives are suffering under the weight of Spygate. An unlikely option has appeared for the next Bond in the shape of a certain Karen Gibson. The suave and in no way puce faced lumpen legal vigilante sat astride this case like an angry seething colossus. When does hero worship become delusion? What is truth on the Internet? Join us today as we explore the very basis of rational thought itself.

It would depend on if we could prove that either in this case or in the case of other analysts watching other teams. It would also depend on any other evidence that's available. And on how much the panel found it credible. It's easy to construct hypothetical situations in which it may be passed off as a misunderstanding. Doing so is grasping at straws. But, we only have the context of what we know. Which boils down to. A Southampton analyst was watching KarenFC training within 72 hours of an important match. Any information beyond that is speculation. For example KarenFC have said we sent a key member of our first team coaching staff. Yet if you read the job title on the screen grabs of Will Salt's LinkedIn his job title is/was "First Team Analyst intern" at Southampton. The university article oft misquoted to show he isn't a Southampton employee was published in January 2025 so it's clear he's a young lad at the start of his career. I'd argue the truth is somewhere in-between that. If the person in question is actually Will Salt which seems likely then the extent to which any analysis he has provided influences team tactics, preparation or performance is going to be much less than us being made out. We don't know how big a role our analyst team plays in our match day preparation. I would imagine that is something we are presenting to the panel. But, more to the point neither do KarenFC and the way they're casting his role seems like an exaggeration to me for the sole purpose of fanning the outrage they want out there. The press and social media then happily take that outrage and turn it into clicks. Due to Saints' stance of refusing to play this out in public the whole case is like that. Which, by the way, is the right thing to do. The people we have to convince are respected barristers. There is only downside to us not treating the panel and this process with the utmost respect. KarenFC's lawyers also know this and will have advised accordingly. Karen Gibson has acted the way he has despite that. As I see it, Karen Gibson wants to achieve two things from this. The first is to maintain his messiah status with the club's fans - he didn't stump up for the striker they needed and lets him be the hero. The second is to get some money. If Saints get thrown out then that's a bonus but the way they've attempted to win this in the court of public opinion suggests they don't see that as realistic. Even the attempt to get in on the meeting as the injured party was performative. There's no way the EFL or panel could allow that without opening themselves up to denying Saints due process. The only reason for doing that is to stoke up more publicity and outrage.

There's no call for that kind of accusation, dude. Like, ever.

But then do we lose his ability to prevent us from ever losing another game? Can we take that chance?

Failing to deal with the matter at hand sounds like an admission of guilt and / or defeat. Are we to conclude that miltonaggro is the premier poster on SaintsWeb?