DellBlockH

No. We need there to be no ban or, at worst, a suspended ban. The club has been punished already out of all proportion to the offence. Tonda has been punished, presumably, by not getting his promotion bonus or Premier League wage deal. Give him a telling off and we can all move on.

But he has been punished. I would assume he was on a large bonus if he had got us up and a much-improved contract once he got there. The FA should say they have looked at the situation and, in view of the punishment already handed out by the EFL, no further action is required other than a warning about future conduct. I hope the club and its lawyers are saying the same thing.

Just renewed. The purchase page offered me a load of "bolt ons" to buy without explaining what I'd get for the quite large amounts of money required. It's very unlikely I'd spend more than the basic cost of renewal, but it's definitely not going to happen if you don't tell me what I get. I've been back and checked the website and can't find any information there either. If it's not there, or hidden away, how do they expect to sell these extras?

OK, I don't like boxing. I don't like the idea of a sport where the aim is to injure your opponent and to inflict possible permanent brain damage. But, if I were a fan, would I want to watch it from the sort of distance likely (apart from the ringside seats) at St Mary's? Surely the whole point is to see the intricate hand and foot movements or, as a non-fan, have I completely got this wrong?

They are not saying that they didn’t commit the offence or that they shouldn't be punished (they were). They are saying that they cannot be held financially liable for Burnley's relegation.

It makes you wonder how any football club can plan for the future. Everton were punished at the time and, presumably, thought that was it. Any claim by Burnley (or any other club) should have been dealt with then. The same goes for our recent transgression. Deal with it summarily and move on. Having several goes at the same offence helps no-one. Moving on to any claim against us that Middlesbrough might contemplate, I think it would be difficult for them to show that our spying denied them Premier League football. They rather managed that on their own.

Back to when we all touched our forelocks to the likes of Rupert and Nigel.

All the talents, right there.

I've been away from this forum for a few days and have come back to find we're still arguing in circles from a position of, largely, ignorance. We don't know what the club is doing to defend itself in the event of an FA charge but I would imagine that one defence would be along the lines of "We've been severely punished by the EFL, are you really suggesting we ought to be punished further?" And to show that they've taken steps to prevent any reoccurrence. We don't know what discussions the club has had with Eckert. I suspect they want him to stay or he would have been gone by now in an attempt to minimise any FA sanctions. But I don't know. I'm suspicious of the report in the Sun, partly because it's in the sun but also because I would have thought that most players are away on holiday rather than having meetings at Staplewood. I'm still in the "keep Tonda unless the FA makes this impossible" camp.

As Sir N Holder said, it's only just begun.

Last season, we stunk up the Premier League and slipped out at a record earliest date after sticking with Russell Marin for too long. We followed that with the appointment of Ivan Juric and then Will Still. We stunk up the Championship for the first half of this season. But, somehow, we attracted a major shirt sponsor in the shape of P&O Cruises. This talk that sponsors will want out is nothing more than a feeling on the part of some posters here. I've seen nothing to suggest that any of our sponsors don't want to continue their deals. I'll repeat. We did wrong. We've been punished. Whether that punishment was fair or excessive is no longer the argument. It happened and is not going to change. We need to decide whether keeping the best manager we've had in ages has a negative impact on the club in the future. I'm firmly in the camp that says we keep him unless the FA decide that is untenable or if the players no longer want to work with him (and I've seen no evidence of that). Nobody outside Southampton, and perhaps Middlesbrough, will care once the new season starts about our observing other teams' training. There might be some banter and chanting but this can all be quelled by results on the pitch. It would, to my mind, be foolish to sack someone who has shown he is capable of getting those results. We've been punished. I've no doubt Tonda has been punished as he must have been on a bonus had we got to the EPL. Move on and stop the self-flagellation.

I guess it starts with accepting the punishment we have received but not adding to it unless forced to by the FA.

But we are allowed to compare with Formula 1, apparently. How about netball? Or rounders?

Ah, but what about Tonda Eckert?

Because of his actions, we moved from relegation fodder to the play offs. The decent side only came into existence when he took over. Before that, it was a collection of players who either didn’t know what was required or couldn't be arsed to do it. Some players will leave, but some players would have left anyway had we finished mid-table or, worse, got relegated. The only chance we had of keeping our best players was to get promoted and we looked nowhere near doing that halfway through the season.