hypochondriac

If/when we don't get booted out, the level of salt pouring from Boro fans is going to be glorious. Almost worth signing up to their forums for.

Some suggestion was a random Tuesday this month.

If we get kicked out they won't be playing the final on the 23rd.

It smacks of "We can't be directly involved in the case? Fine then we will release a public statement and attempt to influence things from the outside." Southampton have done wrong no doubt but since this happened, Middlesbrough have conducted themselves terribly.

Oh dear. It isn't going their way.

Even Cundy's mum doesn't think highly of him.

Yes but not sure how relevant that is here. It's not like it really mitigate any charge

Maybe submit that to the panel as evidence. There's no way we can be found guilty if these absolute fuckwits are saying we are.

If the efl get away without the game being cancelled they will no doubt breathe a sigh of relief and accept quickly.

Anyone know the answer? The case is about breaking the rules which we will admit to clearly. They will then look at mitigating and aggravating factors. Is the aggravating factor done on the balance of probabilities? Therefore if we deny it was systemic and that we routinely spy within the 72 hours and that the coaching staff knew but this ex analyst contradicts that will that be enough for them to say we are bang to rights?

Well if the oracles Ashley Williams and Cundy have spoken I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

They will be able to prove that the offence occurred. Will the balance of probabilities test apply to the aggravating factor or if being systemic without a smoking gun? Assuming we sack the analysts involved and deny that other members of the coaching staff had prior knowledge and Middleborough do not have proof of that beyond the statement of an ex analyst, I wonder if they would still go for it and look to boot us out. Unlikely in my view.

They are aggravating factors. Proper evidence that suggests this is systemic and a campaign of cheating to gain an advantage is obviously more serious and deserves a harsher penalty.

Someone reported a couple of days ago that he'd been given a few days off due to this but is now back at the club.

So if we look at some of the ITK posters on here I think we can make a reasonable assumption about where we are. 1) someone has clearly spied on Middlesbrough from Southampton and broken the rule. I think we can also assume that this isn't the first time this has happened based o na few posts from here and presumably a statement from an ex employee. Not good. 2) It is likely that some of the coaching team will have been aware of this and very unlikely Imo that nobody other than the analyst knew about it. Also not good. The key then becomes in this hearing can Middlesbrough's evidence prove with 100% certainty that not only has this happened before but that what has happened is systemic. Do they have evidence in the form of instructions from higher ups or tonda or spors perhaps instructing someone. Do they have footage from other clubs of this occurring. Imo this is unlikely. Will the club statement say that this was a problem with the analysts and that the other coaching staff were not aware? Or that we did send people previously but that it wasn't in the 72 hour window? Personally I think Middlesbrough are going to have a tough time to convince a panel that we did this repeatedly with the approval of the coaching staff and that we instructed the analyst to break the rules by spying in the period when it isn't allowed. In summary I think on the balance of probabilities we did spy on other clubs - or at least some within the analyst part of the club did, I think it's possible that some more senior people within the coaching setup knew it was going on but I think both of these things are going to be rather difficult for Middlesbrough to prove definitively. A statement from an ex employee isn't going to cut it unless they have some sort of smoking gun communication.

Boro won't be there at all. As I understand it they submit their evidence then Southampton and the efl have a hearing with the independent panel.

Another thought is that if you wanted to make an argument that the spying had no material affect on the games in mitigation, you couldn't have asked for the games to have gone any better than for them to absolutely dominate us in the first half of the first game with numerous chances to score and then a fairly even second leg with superior fitness winning out.

It's not in his interest unless we make it in his interest. They mentioned he had some time off and is now back at the club. I'm sure we've had discussions.

I wonder if Salt will make a statement in the evidence himself. Maybe he will say its not systemic and he did it off his own back or one other person in the coaching team knew about it. I expect something like that would counter any statement from the ex boro employee.

He left in January and joined us from Middlesbrough prior to that.

Eh? The offence was entirely wrong and they shouldn't have done it. Subsequent to that you are right they are being instructed by their lawyers, keeping quiet and doing exactly what they should be doing which is getting a case ready in private. There is nothing they could say prior to that that would do any good. Prevent expulsion and they have done their job.

Give it a rest. You pissed all over us for the first half of the first game and you couldn't finish your dinner

They've done exactly the right thing. Any meaningful comment at all would just feed the story and allow Boro to counter with more newspaper bollocks.

There will be plenty of complaint in the form of strong legal action. No one on the entire forum has suggested we aren't in the wrong or culpable but attempting to kick us out of the playoffs is absurd.

I imagine we'd protest in the strongest terms.