OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Tend to agree but who does he take with him? Everyone will be trying to distance themselves from him, but was he really acting as a lone wolf? Which of the analysts went on scouting surveys? Who did the due diligence on his appointment? Did the players know? Who in senior management knew of his activities but didn't stop him? If anything, they're equally culpable.

Hey ho, he did us like a kipper. Let's just all lie down and take it! No, I haven't got over it. We have been cheated out of a spot in the play off final and we need recompense.

I doubt it. On the continent, I don't know but get the impression it's more or less accepted that teams scout other teams. But given the precedent with Bielsa, we know you can be fined if caught in this country so we should have at least told Tonda not to do it.

Exactly. Rules, as my father used to tell me, are for the guidance of the wise but for the obedience of fools. It is illegal to carry a plank of wood along a pavement unless unloading from a vehicle. You can't blindly follow illogical rules. This 72 hour no scouting rule (which is without a specific punishment) is nonsense. Yes we broke it but a good team of lawyers should rip this apart.

So in 2014, France accused Germany of spying on their training session. Makes you think it must be a German thing until you realise the Head Analyst for the World Cup was one Tonda Eckert. Then in 2015 Cologne were caught spying. Their Assistant Manager...Tonda Eckert! While I personally don't see this as such the crime of the century that others do, it does make you think that Tonda should have been given a quick lecture when he joined to say we don't do things like that here. It's highly likely that a lot of people knew what he was doing which might explain why Tonda hasn't departed yet. Can you make a scapegoat of one person?

Surely there is a legal argument to say that with such a conflict of interest, the panel's decision should be voided. And then you look at the EFL Board and lo and behold isn't there a Middlesbrough director? Some comments on this site remind me of Hugh Lawrie in Blackadder. He did us like a kipper, jolly good show. Hey ho... Maybe I'm in denial but I see a minor infringement followed by a stitch up has cost us a shot at promotion. If that's the £200m often quoted, then we should be claiming at least half plus other fallout (eg sponsors leave, if players leave that we would otherwise have kept) Dragan get top money lawyers on the case. Show them you don't mess with Southampton FC.

Don't deny we broke some half arsed rule multiple times but it's time for our media to get on top of this. It was scouting and the punishment dictated by Middlesbrough and excessive. Appreciate entrapment is no defence but it's becoming apparent that we're the ones that have been cheated and need to persue this in the civil courts.

But shouldn't our club make sure the whole football world know what Middlesbrough did? Add to that a dubious panel and this is more that being stitched up. This is surely grounds for a civil case. If I were Dragan, I'd be phoning Man City and ask to borrow some of their lawyers. Literally hundreds of millions could be at stake.

So true. If it had been called 'scouting' from the outset, do we think it would have had the same impact?

They will want to quash this mess as soon as possible. It's up to us to prove we've been cheated out of a chance to premier league football next year. We're not the cheats here. Having a drink with mates in London today, to a person they all said we have been stitched up. We can lie down and take it and put it down to experience, like we did to get expelled from the play offs, or we can seek recompense. I know what I want the SFC hierarchy to do.

And yes this is complete conjecture, but I understood that when this all blew up, young Mr Salt felt like he'd been hung out to dry. His LinkedIn page was deleted which suggests SFC wanted to distance themselves from him. What? I'd be doing the exact opposite. Bring him in closer to the fold. Find out exactly what he's been doing as a junior analyst for the last few months. Who's been advising him and telling him what to do? Does anyone remember the intern that Ashley Cole shot with his pop pop? It made news for a day or two then you never heard of it again. I wonder why. Depending on what Mr Salt says, his financial security could be helped or he could even be introduced to people who would be willing to pay for his story!

Yes, we missed the opportunity yo play in the final but it's not too late to screw the EFL for all they're worth. As I see it, we've been swindled out of a chance of premier league football and we need to make them pay. I see the FA are making their own investigations. They're seriously concerned about what we'll uncover if we do some proper digging. That this type of scouting is rife? That Boro unfairly influenced an 'independent' panel? We should be able to uncover a whole can of worms.

When Gibson is on his death bed, which is when most people tell the truth, and he is asked what has been his greatest achievement, he won't say building up his haulage business, he'll say getting Middlesbrough promoted in 2026. I don't know who I'm more annoyed with. Yes Tonda was wrong, but the way we handled it once the news broke was incompetence of the highest order. We were like rabbits in the headlights of a car...frozen. If I was Dragan, I would get the analysts and media team off their arses and start presenting our case. The BBC's coverage was biased. Look at the comments on the articles and check out where they've come from. I bet it was mass manipulation by Boro. Check out the EFL. What was a Boro member doing on the board? Check out the whistleblower. Who sent Will Salt to the north east? If this turns out to be one huge set up, we need to be adequately compensated. And let's get away from this self flagellation. We broke a half-baked rule but in reality it probably made little difference to any of the games.

But you had to answer it. For those who think that all the secret training for a match is done in the last 72 hours are living in cloud cuckoo land. There's so many other ways to get info on how a team will set up and frankly, if I wanted to do something secret, I wouldn't do it on a field so close to public land or at Eastleigh FC for that matter. Our media team needs to go in to overdrive. It's Middlesbrough that are the cheats. They've cheated their way in to this final. They cheated by their media campaign influencing the decision of an 'independent' panel. Even their manager bawling to the cameras looked fake.

We've all been completely let down by the club but I won't be leaving. It seems watching other teams practice was part of the pre-match preparations. I can't believe just Tonda and an analyst knew it was going on. It wouldn't surprise me if it turns out lots of clubs do it and players know it goes on.