Midfield_General

Who are the usual suspects?

So what did he say - can you fill me in?

How on earth can you know that? Are you on the panel? Have you heard the full mitigation case?

Will?

I don't think it's that black and white. The club can fess up to sending someone up to have a casual cheeky look because the training ground is in full view of some public areas, but can claim they otherwise told him to stick to the rules. If he then ignored that when he got there and went rogue in direct contravention of what he was instructed to do by the club, then it creates a greyer area where the individual takes more responsibility and probably gets fired, and the club pays a fine, but it's less serious overall because his specific, more serious actions weren't ordered by the club. That case is even stronger if the person in question admits that they were acting of their own volition and contrary to what they were told to do. Or if they were maybe somehow 'persuaded' to say that, to take the fall. Which is what I personally think will happen.

It was a false flag operation all along! They got scared they were going to lose so they sent their own guy in to do it just so they could start all this nonsense and try to get us chucked out I knew it

They're scared they're going to lose?

Fuck me do you think that's how it works It's obvious you lot are a bit special, but oh my god 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

They must have given it to three Middlesbrough women and they each asked their kids to sign it

In the same way that Boro's demands for what the punishment should be are absolutely meaningless as well. 'I found this urchin scrumping apples from my garden officer, I demand he be summarily executed by firing squad' Not really how it works is it, you thick northern divs

Smart and completely justifiable move. The more games we play/ win at this stage, the harder it is to expel us*. If we get to the final and win it, and the EFL then wanted to kick us out after that, then everyone else would effectively want to 'move up one', and they'd have all five of the other clubs clamouring for some sort of replay or compensation, plus Wrexham. It would be an absolute logistical, legal and financial nightmare for the league. It's too late for the games themselves not to be played, and Saints know that, so just need to push it back until after the final has been played to put as many barriers in the way as possible. The justification for that ('we need time to find out ourselves what happened') is a perfectly reasonable and valid request. (*Not that they will anyway, but let's just use it as the extreme worst case scenario)

I believe when today's exchange rate is applied, you actually get four Gibbos to the Drag these days. Inflation eh

Let's look at another incident. In 2007, West Ham were threatened with relegation and signed two of the best players in the world (Tevez and Mascherano), who subsequently played a huge part in keeping them in the Premier League. Tevez alone scored six goals in their last nine games to keep them up. It then transpired that their registrations were illegal, that West Ham had known they were illegal, and that they had knowingly fielded not one but two illegal players for a large part of the season, and those players had helped keep them up and relegate other teams instead. Different league but a way more heinous crime with a much more significant impact. They got a fine. No-one is chucking anyone out of any competitions when promotion and relegation is impacted by it. It means too many other clubs get involved and that's just too much of a legal and financial can of worms for the league and the governing body to want to deal with. As someone said above, they'll wait to see if we get knocked out anyway, and then if we don't, they'll give us a whopping fine and maybe a points deduction (potentially suspended) and that will be it. Regardless of whatever shite some kids pretending to be ITK might be saying on X.

When we go back for the wedding night I was rather hoping you'd hide in the bushes and film it

It's total Chinese whispers. Their local rag has led this morning with the headline 'Southampton face Championship play-off expulsion': https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/boro-southampton-spygate-play-offs-33929204 But when your read that article they have none of their own reporting in there, they are just re-hashing a story from the Daily Mail, which they link to, and which is the one from yesterday that someone posted upthread: https://www.dailymail.com/sport/football/article-15808703/The-key-evidence-sink-Southampton-Spygate-scandal-punishment-face-guilty-analyst-caught-watching-Middlesbrough-training-session-bushes.html And when you actually read that article, it's is full of the weasel words that the Mail is so fond of to create headlines that stir people up and get clicks, but on closer examination are purely their own conjecture with no evidence, sources or quotes whatsoever. 'Could', 'it is within their power to', 'Middlesbrough are pushing for', 'it is understood' etc. To give an analogy: I could write the headline 'MIDFIELD_GENERAL MAY SECRETLY WED SYDNEY SWEENEY TOMORROW' and because it's technically a thing that could happen, however unlikely, it wouldn't be factually inaccurate but there also isn't a shred of evidence that it will. Then you have the usual freaks and weirdos on social media pretending to be ITK and amplifying it with 'this is what i've heard' for attention and clicks on platforms where you can say literally anything with no evidence and some people will believe and share it, especially if it's something they're desperate to believe could be true. God knows we've seen enough of that on here over the years. Expulsion is one of the options available - that's the only fact they're amplifying because it gets clicks. That doesn't mean it is in any way proportionate to the crime or is in any way likely to happen. It's just the press and a load of simpletons online whipping each other into a frenzy.

God I hope they do. Imagine them still running around training, when everyone else has forgotten about it and been on holiday for weeks, desperately waiting for a phone call that never comes like a bunch of total dicks

There’s another charge/ rule as well - the absolute nonsense one about how all clubs must always behave ‘in the utmost good faith’ towards each other. Because that’s exactly how football works and no club, player or manager have ever got away with doing anything against another club that wasn’t completely in the spirit of fair play. Thank god these moral guardians are there to uphold these vital principles at all times throughout the sport.

And managers, don’t forget. Managers don’t matter either. So to placate the mob we should assume Tonda knew all about it, give him the boot and just let Jack Stephens take over for the play-offs. All that matters is what players you’ve got, so you can stick anyone in charge and you’ll get the same results. Unless you’re Rangers of course. Or Celtic. Or Man Utd. Or Norwich. Or Saints. Or anyone

I'm actually starting to think it might disrupt their preparations more than ours If their players start believing the deranged narrative from inside their club that they genuinely might not be out even if they lose, then that can have all sorts of weird psychological knock-on effects All I want now is for us to beat them 1-0 with the winner scored by Finn Azaz, ideally from a clearly offside position Melts

Deeney should remind himself what the rules are about kicking the shit of students before he starts taking the moral high ground about right and wrong Oh yes, I remember, the rules mean six months in prison, isn't that right Troy

Darren Bent on Talkshite laughing it off and saying it's deserving of nothing more than a small fine and that everyone should move on. Goldstein agreeing. It's obviously not the barometer of quality discussion but at least some people haven't lost their fucking minds

Tbf it's a little rich of us to accuse anyone of that, given the circumstances

Or alternatively, goad them incessantly for sport until they explode

But... but... no club has ever told a fib about which players may or may not be available for a big game have they? Because if so, that wouldn't be 'acting in the utmost good faith towards other clubs', and as we all know, the punishment for that is death by hanging for everyone involved. Football is clean as a whistle and everyone upholds every single rule at all times and just holds hands and sings kumbayaa, it's beautiful.

I could have told you that (*taps nose*)