Bobsmith

The days when we had a competent and ruthless chairman. Personally think our priority should be getting the final delayed so we can litigate this properly

This club are fucked if we don’t win the appeal or we don’t get bought by the Saudis. The club need to throw the kitchen sink at that and the courts otherwise they are done

Its clear the commission wasn’t independent and has been used by middlesborough to overcome their inability to win on merit

We need to go scorched earth with the EFL over this. We’re like the nice kid that never complains and is constantly taken advantage of and middlesborough are the local bully boys. If Dragan doesn’t do something then they can all leave and take the legal and media departments with them

100% we need to go to war with the EFL over this and make them regret punishing little old saints to appease their mates up north. Reeks of corruption

Then he needs to pull his finger out and do something as this has been an absolute shit show so far

I don’t care about the crime, I care about the incompetence of the leadership, the PR/media team and the legal team. If we’ve been punished this harshly on weak evidence and no sporting advantage it shows how rubbish our defence was

They better take it all the way as we’ve allowed people to walk all over us. If Dragan doesn’t sort this out, he and his bunch of muppets can go

This club are just full of incompetent morons from top to bottom. The legal and PR teams in particular. They should all be sacked if they don’t win the appeal

This club is seemingly incompetent from top to bottom. But the EFL is corrupt as anything, reinstating a team that lost is using a legal loophole to bypass footballing merit. The only fair outcome if we were removed was for hull be to automatically promoted. I may give up on watching football after this

This guy just seems like a massive troll. If it wasn't for the 3k posts I'd assume he was a middlesborough fan

The picture of our intern doesn't prove sporting advantage at all. It proves that someone who may have been employed at the club was there

I agree they could do it based on intent, but that puts them on much weaker footing if we appeal due to the disproportionate punishement and they need this wrapped up quickly as much as we do.

Sure, if they can prove there was disadvantage, but based on the available information this will be very hard for them to do.

I think the starting point is pretty simple. If Southampton broke the rule, we should be punished. I don’t think many Saints fans would seriously argue otherwise. But the punishment has to be proportionate to what actually happened, how much advantage was gained, and how serious the breach was in the wider context. From what I understand, observing training is only specifically banned in the 72 hours before a game. So observing a training session in itself is not automatically “spying” under the rules. The issue is the timing, because the argument is that in those final 72 hours teams are doing their actual match prep. Even then, if the EFL are going to hand out a sporting punishment, surely they need to show that Southampton gained a sporting advantage. That feels very difficult to prove. Middlesbrough apparently made the guy delete the footage, and Boro then battered us in the first half at the Riverside. We didn’t win because we had some secret tactical insight. We won because we had better squad depth, more fitness late in the game, and ultimately stronger players off the bench. The Bielsa point is also worth framing properly. That case happened before this specific rule was introduced, so it’s not a direct precedent for punishment under the current rule. But it does explain why the rule exists. The EFL clearly wanted to draw a line after that controversy but that doesn’t mean every breaching the rule should lead to a major sporting sanction. That’s where proportionality matters. Financial breaches usually involve a club gaining an advantage across a full 46 game season, and even then we’re often talking about points deductions in the 2 to 6 point range. This alleged breach relates to one game, where there’s no clear evidence it changed the result or gave us any meaningful advantage. So for me, a fine feels like the fair outcome. If the EFL want to create a deterrent, I can understand them adding a small points deduction. But anything over 2 points feels massively disproportionate. My guess is they start higher to satisfy Boro and the media noise, then it gets reduced to 1 or 2 on appeal. The fair outcome should be punish the breach, but don’t pretend this is the same as sustained financial cheating or anything that materially distorted the competition.

Harwood Bellis shouldn’t be starting. Manager again clueless

Will Still’s style seems to be countless crosses to no one for 70 minutes followed by chucking on all our attackers for last 20. Seems very football manager

Will Still not demonstrated anything for us as a manager so far. Crap and laboured play every game, plus made Bazunu number 1 and thinks downs is good enough to start.

Assume this guy isn't ITK

Fair enough. I'd agree that Johansson isn't necessarily what we need permanently, but he would be an upgrade on Bazunu and a competent #2 in the PL.

Another keeper making a mistake doesn't mean that Bazunu is good enough to be our #1. Behave.

The reality is that we won't be getting a striker unless we shift AA and perhaps BBD. Likely will only be a loan, and only if a good enough player becomes available on the last day. Otherwise we're looking to shift Edozie, Smallbone, Bree and Aribo to bring in the new RB on loan and LW from Germany. Not sure why the Edozie deal is taking so long now Brugge have qualified for the CL but he needs to hurry up and go so we can get a replacement in. Otherwise I think that's it for transfers. Our CBs should be good enough to challenge top 2 in this league despite the performances so far, and most of our strikers again are proven at this level. The one position where we are weak is GK. Persisting with Bazunu who is statistically one of, if not the worst goalkeeper in the league is criminal. You know that 99% of the time, he won't save a decent shot, leaving us overly reliant on our defenders—while other teams can count on their goalkeepers to bail them out from one or two big chances per game. Just have to hope that it doesn't hurt us too much and we rectify in January either from a loan, or if possible by recalling Ramsdale.

McCarthy is perfectly adequate backup for the championship and stepped up when needed at this level previously. Plus we're not longer playing russell martin keepball each week. Bazunu on the other hand is terrible and needs to go. Worst GK in Prem, Champ and probably the french league last season too.

We’ve got, at most, 11 players who can genuinely compete in the Premier League. Yesterday, we were missing three of the best of them, which meant the usual ineffective replacements, like Armstrong, were forced onto the manager. Juric is far more accomplished than Martin at the top level (granted in Italy), and let’s not forget that Martin’s style led to game after game where we had all the possession but no shots. I reckon Juric will easily surpass the six points Martin managed and, honestly, I’d be happy with him in the Championship—provided he’s backed with the kind of signings his intense style demands.

A manager that plays Smallbone and Armstrong after their showings on Thursday clearly has no clue