Toussaint

Need to stick it right up them tonight, nobody likes it right up ‘em!

through the book and a humiliating defeat at them tonight!

Why not, play stupid games win stupid prizes. Although we’d be better doing what we are planning to do, beat them fairly tonight, beat Hull in the final and qualify for the champions league next season.

That’s it in a nutshell, I’m surprised more people aren’t onto it. Our “spying” was for minimal gain, they are trying to destabilise us, get entry to a playoff final by any means and potentially the premier league.

It is desperate, but not for sanctions, its desperation to distract and unsettle Saints. So preaching about good faith, spirit of the game etc is just hypocritical.

69 - dinner for two with a terrible view

We kind of started at square one, in that I don't know what huge advantage was gained from "spying" . The teams would have been announced over an hour before kick of, any formation tweaks or tactical changes would have become apparent within minutes and we have a smart manager and a depth of squad that could easily have adapted. As it played out, Boro had the advantage because we were like rabbits in the headlights for the first half. Conclusion, Boro can forfeit the game and pay me compensation for stressing me out, and all the journos and pundits who piled on will get sued for libel / slander / hate crime.

My legal experts viewed, aka chat gpt And I think your position — “innocent until proven guilty” — is actually the more rational one at this stage. A few things are getting conflated online: The presence of a staff member That seems increasingly hard to dispute. Multiple reports now say Middlesbrough identified a Southampton analyst via CCTV and staff profiles. What he was actually doing Still not fully public. Reports say “filming” or “taking pictures”, but nobody outside the investigation has seen: footage, timestamps, extent of recording, or whether anything useful was even captured. Whether the club directed it This is the massive leap many fans are making without evidence. People often treat “club cooperation” and “no public defence” as an implicit confession, but legally and strategically that’s very normal behaviour. Southampton are in an ongoing disciplinary process. Any competent legal adviser would tell them: don’t inflame it publicly, don’t contradict facts before disclosure, cooperate with the EFL, avoid turning a procedural case into a PR war. Especially in football, silence is often just process management. The other thing happening is classic football tribalism. Once “spying” enters the discourse, people mentally jump to: Bielsa, drones, espionage, systematic cheating. But the actual facts currently public are much narrower: an analyst allegedly observed and recorded a training session inside the prohibited window. That alone could still breach EFL rules, even without sinister intent. What is potentially damaging for Southampton is that Middlesbrough’s manager, Kim Hellberg, has gone very strong publicly — using words like “cheating” and claiming Southampton anticipated a tactical tweak Boro had never used before. That shapes public perception enormously, even though it still isn’t proof. And forums like SaintsWeb tend to polarise fast: one side goes full siege mentality, the other catastrophises and assumes cover-up. Reality is usually duller: an overzealous analyst, a breach of protocol, a fine, maybe internal disciplinary action, then everyone moves on after a month. The fact the EFL charged the club quickly suggests they think some rule breach probably occurred. But there’s still a huge distance between: “a staff member shouldn’t have been there” and “Southampton orchestrated systematic espionage.”

To be honest you were my first thought when I thought, who would do something like this?

No, but neither does almost everyone else on here.

It’s a serious question, I can’t imagine anyone of any seniority sanctioning this.

What do you think happened?

I am mental, we may be guilty we may not be guilty, we maybe guilty by association, or maybe something nobody has thought of. I don’t know, but nor does anyone outside those that do know, and they, quite rightly, are not giving anything away.

What do you know that I don’t? I don’t think working with the EFL is the admission of guilt you and others seem to see it as.

No mark wanbabee hacks are having a field day with this. Let’s hope, that when we are vindicated, they have slipped up here and there and face libel and slander actions.

I have been deeply affected, I think I’m going to have to go to a nice country pub, have three pints of strong ale and an afternoon nap. Totally out of character, but I think it will help me process the trauma.

You shouldn’t let that get in the way of a good old fashioned lynching.

I heard drones, satellites, AWACS and a submarine were involved.

I see, we should take are £billion fine and 50 point deduction with good grace on the basis of hear say!

It wasn’t intended as rhetorical, reading the match report and comments in the telegraph and the general noise it appears we have been hung drawn and quartered. So I naturally assumed I’d missed the smoking gun part. But having looked into it a bit more it doesn’t seem so.

Does anyone have any idea what actually happened, who it was and if they were acting alone?

I love the moral outrage In the immoral press, in an immoral game where the bigger you cheat the less it gets mentioned.

That’s what a spy would say 🕵️

Never in doubt, I remained stoic throughout, not wavering, not panicking

Today definitely