vectraman

Why do we have to play Ghana again? I was expecting DR Congo next up…😉

Watching the two young greater spotted woodpeckers fighting over the peanut feeder. Like squabbling children (which they are!)

Thank god for Google. Never heard of that.

I agree with you. Another catastrophically stupid decision that costs us all dearly. Literally. I am not blue/red/green or whatever. I just see things as they are right now, and all I’m seeing is the decline of UK industry due to ridiculous policies. I have worked in the oil industry for 35 years and there won’t be one left in 10 years if policy doesn’t change. That would be a criminal disaster and loss of many highly paid jobs.

And Asia do not care and are not committing economic suicide by going down the ludicrous ’green’ agenda that mad Ed is allowed to propagate. I don’t personally hate Kier Starmer, I hate the Labour Party for the damage they are doing to the uk economy and industry in particular. Green taxes, carbon taxes, energy prices through the roof, reliance on foreign energy etc etc etc. They are killing industry and the proper jobs they provide. Loonies and mad Ed is allowed to continue. 😡

Gotta love the underdogs - brilliant. Uruguay somehow made the world’s most shit wall that the free kick went straight through. Awful defending but fair play 🇨🇻

I guess that rules Messi out then at only 5’7” 😉

Hayes is swaying about like she’s pissed 🥴

Good start to the 3rd quarter 😁

Be afraid, Turkey is and always will be Turkey! Turkiye my arse! If I was Turkish fair enough (as in from Turkey, not the legendary Saintsweb poster) but I’m English so it is Turkey. End of!

“It takes a while to learn the process”

It is Holland to me and always will be! If I get on a plane at Southampton airport to go to Amsterdam for a good weekend, I’m going to Holland. Nobody I know calls it the Netherlands in everyday speech. Iran will always be Iran because Persia was before my time. Ceylon became Sri Lanka and is Sri Lanka to me.

Thank you for that - you live and learn something new every day!!

Just watching some of the highlights from games on BBC - what the actual F**k - Aussies v Turkey - comms are calling Turkey, Turkeya. What the hell is going on? We are in England - they are Turkey and have been all my 58 year life. What the hell is up with our pretentious BBC gimps?

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.