vectraman

I disliked fatty Corden when he was taking the piss out of Patrick Stewart at an awards ceremony. Patrick Stewart has more acting talent in his little finger than fatty would ever have. He’s just a dislikeable prick. * IMHO

And their 100% never won at Wembley in the playoffs record. #consistent losers

Southampton's Eckert authorised spying, panel says IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Eckert admitted authorising the spying on rival teams Published 1 hour ago Southampton's spying on rival clubs was authorised by head coach Tonda Eckert and was a "contrived and determined plan from the top down to gain a competitive advantage", an independent disciplinary panel says. The panel also criticised the club's "deplorable approach in its use of junior members of staff" to "conduct the clandestine observation". Saints were expelled from the Championship play-offs after admitting observing opponents' training sessions and have been deducted four points in the Championship next season. Written reasons explaining the panel's finding have now been published by the English Football League. Eckert "accepted that he had specifically authorised the observations", which had "seriously violated" the integrity of the competition, the panel said when explaining why it had applied such a serious sanction. In addition to the expulsion and point penalty punishments, a reprimand was also imposed on Southampton. This was not just because other teams had been spied on, but "because of the way in which junior members of staff were put under pressure to carry out activities which they felt were morally wrong", the panel stated. The whole matter only arose after a junior member of staff was spotted secretly watching Middlesbrough at their training ground. Spygate: Who is Tonda Eckert and can he keep his job? Published 15 minutes ago Southampton admitted spying on three rivals' training sessions – Oxford United and Ipswich Town earlier in the season, and then Middlesbrough before the first leg of the play-off semi-finals. Their expulsion from the play-offs meant Middlesbrough - who they beat in the semi-final – were reinstated. They will meet Hull City in Saturday's final, for a place in the Premier League. Southampton were unsuccessful in an appeal against the decision. In the club's initial response to the EFL, Southampton said the conduct was not part of the culture at St Mary's and that no video was captured, transmitted, shared or analysed. Southampton subsequently acknowledged this was inaccurate, said the panel, which stated the reality was that "the opposite was the case". 'A contrived and determined plan' The first determination is perhaps the most damning. It indicated a pattern of behaviour. The independent disciplinary commission said: "We have concluded that there was, on the part of the respondent [Southampton], a contrived and determined plan from the top down to gain a competitive advantage in competitions of real significance by deliberate attendance at opposition training grounds for the purpose of obtaining tactical and selection information. "It involved far more than innocent activity and a particularly deplorable approach in its use of junior members of staff to conduct the clandestine observations at the direction of senior personnel. "There was transmission and internal dissemination and analysis of footage and observations." Southampton made submissions which they said proved the information had not altered the team selection, nor had it resulted in sporting advantage, shown by the poor first-half performance at Middlesbrough. This was rejected. Eckert 'specifically authorised' the spying The most damning section for the Southampton head coach was in the second determination of the judgement. This said the German not only knew about the spying, but also had given his blessing. Eckert was shown to have approved spying on Oxford to discover their formation after they had just changed manager. In the case of Middlesbrough, he wanted to find out about the availability of a certain player - presumably Hayden Hackney, who had been out injured for several weeks. The commission said: "Mr Eckert accepted that he had specifically authorised the observations to obtain information about formation (in the Oxford incident) and about the availability of a key player (in the Middlesbrough incident). "Such information could only be sought in order to factor it into strategy, [and] whether the information confirms a strategy, is disregarded as unreliable or leads to a change of strategy does not, in our view alter the wrong which is committed when such information is sought. "It is inherent in having information which your opponent would wish to keep private that you have a sporting advantage."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cdepxek43gyo Tonda allegedly authorised to all…

Main shirt sponsors have a fab new opportunity…

I cannot for a moment believe that nobody on the playing/coaching staff would have not known that you can’t spy on the opposition team 72 hours before you play them. If anybody genuinely thinks the manager ‘didn’t know’ and that nobody at the club had said “we shouldn’t be doing this” to him then that is naivety of the highest order. Tonda must have known, coaching staff must have known, they chose to keep doing it because they didn’t think they would get caught. Quite honestly it was so amateurish and obvious that it beggars belief we hadn’t been caught before. Surely they could have given the lad camera glasses which would not be obvious at all. The whole sorry episode sums up the pathetic mess we now find ourselves in. Embarrassing, amateur, tin pot, naive, pathetic, disappointing, unprofessional. Take your pick I’d say all the above cover it.

I thought Smallbone was out of contract this summer? If so he’ll be gone.

If we are, we will be playing alongside Bolton and Stockport in the league 1 playoff… Could be interesting - Hull v Saints v Bolton v Stockport. Saturday was always our match day…

Next seasons kit is out with our new sponsor…

No. Everyone who knew this was going on should go. Anybody could have stopped this because they would know it to be wrong. But they didn’t. All culpable, all must go.. That is how real life work investigations go. You have rules, you break them, you are fucked. Somebody knows you have broken the rules and did nothing - equally fucked. I cannot believe a professional football club’s hierarchy did not know this was happening. Absolute amateur hour.

Completely agree, anyone who knew this was going on must be sacked for gross misconduct so no payoff. As a club it has been an absolute embarrassment. Not the fans fault, nor the players fault, just gross incompetence at management levels. I cannot believe this has happened. Explaining to my lad why we are now NOT going to Wembley has been difficult. Thanks Sports Replublic, you have ruined our and thousands of other pre-planned weekends. Incompetent, amateurish idiots. Solak must sack all those responsible to clear the decks.

Keep giving the ball away 😬. Jander and Charles not in the game at all.

Maybe they need to at half time. Players carrying too much weight with them 💩

Valletta. £60 return from Bournemouth on Ryanair. Beautiful city, full of history. Narrow streets with little bars, friendly locals, great weather, cheap prices. Love it 😄

I think regardless of result tonight, Ipswich home to “on the beach” QPR will be an easy home win. For me Ipswich will finish second due to their superior goal difference over Millwall.

Tired teams, 1-1 draw. Hope i’m completely wrong and we win 4-1. COYR!

Thanks Saints for a fantastic day at Wembley. Didn’t quite come off for us, but my God it was brilliant when we scored. Memorable goal. Whole team were fantastic and put so much effort in, on and off the ball. Very proud.

Gerard’s cross is a good station - straight into Wembley and a very large railway car park too.

Absolutely brilliant performance. Tonda take a bow, I was totally underwhelmed by your appointment - but my god you’ve made me eat my words - you have transformed this team - well done! Keep it going Saints - beat Derby and we are set fair !!

Win or draw happy days. If we lose it’s out of our hands to finish above Wrexham. 7 games to go, all to play for, 5th and 6th are up for grabs. No way can we get second place, not credible to even think that.

Atmosphere in the ground was brilliant. Went with my two boys and we were all buzzing. Came home and watch the BBC highlights. Twice. Now hoarse, but well worth it. To see St Mary’s rocking was fantastic. A memorable evening to be cherished. avoid Man City in the Semis and we could get to the final.

Knowing how Arsenal score loads from set plays, I’d like to think we will leave three players up on halfway to stop them bringing the big guys up at corners etc. Let’s not have 11 back for every set play. Please.

Need to take FA out of the second sentence!! Either that or I don’t remember the other two 😉

Peretz has won us that game. At least 3 fantastic saves that kept us in front. Brilliant.

Need Larin to stay up on halfway to give us an outlet and occupy a couple of defenders