CSA96

Josh Simons, Labour MP for Makerfield has announced that he is standing down in order to create the opportunity for Andy Burnham to re-enter parliament

It would only be new to us, though. They've been saying for a few days that he has an ex-employee willing to go on the record and so he has presumably shared that with the EFL for the hearing already. It's just being kept out of the public domain (presumably to protect whoever this whistleblower is)

You're right. They are just covering their arses in event of something unprecedented happening. The actual Ts and Cs will be pretty much identical to what they usually are

He does. They are claiming he has an ex-Saints employee with a written statement and proof of mandated spying at Saints that goes beyond the isolated incident at present

BBC Look North having some fun with Spygate from a Hull perspective

That's a holding statement by Hull, really. I wouldn't attach too much importance to it at this stage re: EFL trying not to sell tonnes of tickets before communicating the outcome, understandable. In an ideal world that would happen

Because Gibson's got an eye on preparing for what comes next. Once he doesn't get the EFL punishment he's stomping his feet for and demanding - Saints to be removed and our place at Wembley gifted to Boro - he'll take direct legal action against SFC to claim damages instead so that we have to pay him to fuck off. Just ask Derby.

Eckert walked out of the press conference apparently. Kept getting loads of questions on the spying investigation even after he'd addressed some previous questions. Club press officer told the media there's not much more to be said, Tonda has already addressed it, there's a club statement out and to move on and talk about today's game and Tuesday's game or they'd be leaving. Someone tried again and Tonda and the press officer left

Thought Hellberg came across well there tbf. Said that it's not a motivation because PL status is on the line and that's enough for the players. Then said he has no issue with the Saints fans or players because they didn't know what was happening and it wasn't them doing it. Said if anything he feels a bit sorry for them being caught up in the middle of everything and that our club shouldn't put its players and fans in this position

He has a speech impediment. Fair play to him for actually accepting interviews rather than refusing them (and he was actually quite reasonable with his response to the spygate baiting from Sky!)

First leg summary: Better performance? Boro Better result? Saints All that domination and they couldn't even score a goal One game shootout at St. Mary's now, win our home game and we're back at Wembley

Shea Charles getting ready

Well, complete and utter domination for Boro All over us on the possession stats. All over us on touches in the box. Had the most shots of any team this season in a single half ...and yet, they still are not winning. Disappointing for them

Boro fans booing our players already, sounds like Saints fans responding with 'We are Southampton, we'll spy where we want'

Classic BBC stuff. Lewis Coombes doing the same last night, bleating on about Saints damaging their goodwill and public perception as a result of employee misconduct. Err, you work for the BBC mate, you would know...

Matchday. Woke up at 5am here in Philadelphia and now anxiously awaiting team news and trying to find a way to watch the game On 'spygate' - I am disappointed we've been caught doing this but I really do feel some of the pearl-clutching is overblown. Is it cheating? Yes it is, but so is diving, so is pretending to have a head injury so the referee doesn't let the opponent keep coming up the field, so is selling your women's team to another company controlled by your owner to skirt the financial rules, so are a litany of other blatant financial doping methods Saints have not introduced skullduggery and cheating to football. Somebody went and stood on a hill in a public place and tried to find out what formation the other team was playing because they were told to (presumably) and they felt it would aid their career and their employer's performance. It's not the crime of the century. Clubs are at this stuff all of the time, we were just daft enough to get caught and not use a third party to create a larger grey area around what was going on and give ourselves more of a margin for error We've cheated, we'll be dealt with and rightly so, but I find it so hard to reconcile with the 'I can't get excited for these games' and 'our unbeaten run feels hollow' sentiments. This is small fry in the grand scheme of things and it'll all blow over Now, I hope we beat Boro and beat them comprehensively. I hope Finn Azaz scores a goal and goads their fans. I hope our supporters are giving them the binoculars celebration by the time the tie is over. It's certainly made the game more emotionally charged on the Boro side and, provided it's channelled in the right ways, I have no issue with that. These ties are meant to be spicy and this one no doubt will be UTS

My first reaction when the story broke was to laugh because 'Saints staff caught hiding in bush' is so silly. Yes, I do think it's poor form and the club shouldn't have done it, but I'm not going to clutch pearls over it. It will fire their crowd up a bit more, I don't think it makes a big difference to the mindset of either group of players to be honest That aside, I hope that we beat Middlesbrough over the two legs fair and square on the pitch, as our fans give Boro's away following the binoculars celebration as their season comes to an end at St Mary's while our support can sing about a second trip to Wembley this season A lot of the fallout / reaction online is pretty amusing and it's added some pantomime and spice to the fixture, which I really don't mind

Leeds got a £200k fine in 2019 for the same behaviour before their playoff semi-final and a formal warning to not do it again

Daily Mail: Middlesbrough have caught what is thought to be a Southampton first-team analyst allegedly recording their training session from a bush, in a sensational repeat of the Marcelo Bielsa ‘spygate’ furore. Daily Mail Sport can reveal that an individual was spotted and approached by club staff on Thursday morning at Boro’s Rockliffe Park training centre, 48 hours before Kim Hellberg’s side host Tonda Eckert's Saints in the Championship play-off semi-final first leg. It is claimed the male deleted video and pictures from his mobile phone and refused to identify himself. He then left the site of the training ground and made his way into the nearby Rockliffe Hall Hotel, owned by Boro chairman Steve Gibson, before changing clothes in a toilet and leaving the area. It is understood Boro have contacted the EFL, given spying on opposition training would breach the League’s rules. We are aware of the individual allegedly involved and his public profile pages identify him as a current employee of Southampton.

Yeah, sounds that way. Ties in with the reports of an unnamed club captain going to his chairman to tell him the players were concerned about the coaching they were receiving. Alfie House has also shared those thoughts too, saying that from what he knows, the players didn't feel like they knew exactly what he wanted, subs going into games not understanding what's expected of them when they come onto the pitch etc. And then when Tonda came in, I remember THB and many others saying that Tonda's coaching had 'clarified things' for them and given them direction. So can only conclude that they all felt a bit lost and unsure of themselves with his coaching and lack of direction, which led to the kind of directionless football that we were all watching where they'd default back to old habits, before Tonda told them 'I don't want you doing that, I want you doing this' and trained it into them more tightly

55:39 onwards is Southampton reflections for the last 25 minutes. He's very honest Basically saying he was too loose with the coaching and style of play and the players defaulted back to Russell Martin coaching principles and he wanted them to leave that in the past. Sounds like he tried to encourage them to have freedom but didn't give enough direction Interestingly also says he struggled with the size of the squad and the amount of activity during the transfer windows, as well as admitting that he should've used Jack Stephens - and others - differently to how he did

Really? People around us were commenting on how he was getting up close to Stewart when we had the ball and working hard to get back in between Bragg and Jander when we didn't have the ball. He won a bunch of little flicks and 50/50s by getting stuck in. Didn't think he was a passenger at all today, to be honest (although he does have days where the game passes him by, but I think that's most No. 10s apart from the very, very elite ones)