hypochondriac

No but if there was a chance that this goes on for months before any decision then we won't be starting the season with it hanging over us. Much more likely in that scenario that he goes on gardening leave but no need to get rid of him if that doesn't happen.

Maybe they were fully aware of the spying. Maybe they share a commonly stated opinion from ex pros that everyone does it and that the punishment is ridiculous.

Because maybe the players have made their peace with it, many are happy to stay and they reckon it gives us the best chance of promotion next season. Really that's all that matters at the end of the day.

We will obviously be told a rough timescale. I doubt it will be more than a week or so.

Doing some snooping on his profile and the last thing he liked was a comment about Tonda being keen to speak. I wonder if that is a suggestion that he isn't as bang to rights or as clearly guilty as we may think? Also said that Larin will sign if we want him which is good news. Hope Stewart can too.

No because we have to sell to cover losses.

I hope so because I'd like Tonda to stay and the club must feel there is at least a chance of that happening. I'm surprised there haven't been more leaks from a couple of people about what our mindset is at the moment. I'm genuinely surprised they have said nothing for a week.

Yeah I was waiting for this too. The only true ITK on the forum.

Indeed. Doesn't actually mean the club have told him that. If Tonda leaves today it still doesn't invalidate that info.

True but if this season is anything to go by it will be a backup keeper who isn't great.

We will 100% have to sell more than one of our main players. May as well get used to it. I'm hoping we can restrict the sales to just three. THB, Charles and Jander. If we could somehow persuade Scienza to give us another year that would be huge but likely he goes as well. I'm hoping that we view our priority for this summer to be signing up those players who need signing. So that's Bree, Stewart and Larin if he's up to it. I presume Peretz has gone so a decent championship keeper is a must. If we came out of things with something like Charles Bree Stephens Wood manning Matsuki/fellows Downes Bragg/new signing Edozie/new signing Azaz Stewart/larin/new striker That would be four new signings to replace the likely departures of Archer, Scienza, Jander, Charles, Peretz and THB. Probably a 5th signing if Quarshie leaves too. We'd be weaker in midfield but I'd argue not massively weaker at the back where we had a terrible start anyway.

I'm well aware it wasn't a literal crime thanks. It was a figure of speech.

Yep. Once I accepted the appeal was done and that we can never reverse time and get in the playoffs then it was easier to accept. Nothing we can do now even if down the line magically they ruled in our favour. Just have to make a silk purse out of a sows ear and do our best for promotion next year which you would think we would still be in quite a good position for.

Isn't that the point of the appeal?

I thought the FA was just about penalising individuals rather than the club?

That would factor into my first scenario too. The likely FA ban would no doubt make things easier if they were going down the gross Misconduct route. Maybe an argument would be that we were at least partially responsible though if we hired him without doing the full briefing thing.

Firstly how would they manage that? We admitted to the crime and lost the appeal. What evidence could there be that meant we were not guilty of the crime we admitted to?

I'm not looking to argue about which crime is worse. My point is that loads of people on here have been droning on for days since the decision with arguments like that seeking to mitigate things. I took about 4 or 5 days off which was a great idea actually and I think some posters on here need a bit of acceptance and a realistic view about the best way forward.

Well we haven't really received any headlines because we are a championship club and it isn't interesting once we've been punished so there aren't any headlines to get ahead of.

I agree. The punishment I was referring to is the one that we have already received and the one that people are still arguing is a lesser crime than diving to win a penalty.

I think that whatever you think about the club, that is the one thing they definitely have failed to do so far!

Clickbait article. Says nothing of the kind.

Boring now. We cheated, it was systemic and we were punished. We can argue as long as we like about how it was unfair, too harsh etc. It doesn't change anything. All we can do is take the punishment and try to mitigate the damage for next year.

Agree with that. Just get a good solid keeper for this division. Nothing fancy just good enough and then we don't have to think about it again.

Losing THB, Charles, Jander and Scienza will make us weaker but hopefully we also wouldn't have the terrible start of last season. You'd think we'd be in a good place for the playoffs at least if we can get a handle on this. I think we should let those four go for good fees and then say that no one else (besides the obvious like bbd) will be leaving. Play a bit of hardball ffs.