disconnect

BBC article is winding it up to be as damning as possible, but it sounds like these analyst lads "the manager loved it (geez)" sound like right tools, rather than any sort of major workplace bullying which the media seem to want it to be saying, to keep the story going. I imagine these same lads were smashing back pints and calling each other legends after these trips, not going home and worrying if they'd done the world's worst crime.

I think the whole thing with Boro was that it seemed completely inappropriate and unethical as a major business to be blatently feeding the media continually and creating a circus / witch hunt, but for some reason (I think we know why...) the EFL lapped it up. In the real world, you'd see this kind of behaviour and see them also getting heavy sanctions. It was probably right of us in a normal business situation to not be throwing stuff around the media, but with hindsight and now we know how the dodgy EFL work, we probably should've done things a bit different. I'm sure any lawyers involved will be telling them not to make any sweeping comments (/ cry / phone in radio shows / write endless newspaper and internet articles) until such time as things have been discussed properly with the authorities.

I can see JWP coming back. Stop pissing around on loan to bottom half premier league teams and just come back and lead us back to the Prem!

Thought this thread needed a bump as there's no way he could or should be getting another decent level job any time soon. Is there a chance of legal action against this guy? Sounds like a disgruntled ex-employee has caused massive damage to his ex-employer after he was let go for being very poor at his job.

Didn’t watch the match but did Hackney full on kick anyone after they’d knocked it past him about 2/3 seconds before?! Cry babies!!

Hopefully Hull have better local media connections than Blackmore, who seemingly hasn’t really backed us at all through this whole fiasco. Probably mates with Gibbo! 🤣

Then Hull should declare that they believe the match is null and void, and here's our legal case. Maybe they can get James Cordon on board to demand £75 million from Middlesbrough?! Meanwhile Hull (or Saints!) release a media campaign continually demanding the match is void, picturing and shaming the Boro player, phoning mates from the media and brandishing this player a cheater for life. That is essentially the same thing they did to us, so should be fine for them to have the same treatment?!

For years Saints have been the nice guys, happily developing players for other teams to be tapped up, with numerous outstanding youngsters moving for minimal fees following tapping up from bigger clubs. It's even happened blatently to our star players whilst in the premier league, and yet nothing has happened. Whilst we've towed the lined and been "net spend champions" numerous times in the past, that has got us nowhere, and we've seen loads of clubs find increasingly dodgy loopholes for their extremely dodgy financial dealings, whilst we get totally thrown to the wolves for something that most logical people see can only give a very minor edge (if any!), not fundamentally improve the quality of players on the pitch. If there's something that comes out of this, is that I really hope Saints do go back and raise complaints (publically!) and some big lawsuits whenever anything previously deemed trivial or minor comes along. I can see a massive tidal change in the way football is regulated now, as every single club will be raising things with the EFL, FA and Premier League (or at least, if promoted, Boro will!) every week and it's going to become a nightmare for them. Making an example of one club, and letting another club completely try to tarnish an opposition clubs name through the media (whilst having their own board members on regulatory boards) is all very dodgy, but now every club can see that's how the EFL let you get what you want, they'll be doing this continually.

If you get kicked out for such a minor thing, the next thing that’ll happen is the next time Boro (or another team) get in the ref’s face to get someone sent off, or dive for a penalty, or deliberately injure an opposing player (ie anything that actually affects the game being played) surely the league will need to forfeit the game! The potential punishment for someone on their phone is just ridiculously too severe for something that most level headed people can just see as someone being silly, that it’d create such a precedent that’d mean cases are being brought up every week. Essentially Boro have already got what they wanted - disrupting us and firing up their squad, but as that didn’t work, they’re really pushing it to these crazy levels. Nearly all neutrals I’ve spoken to now think the whole thing is ridiculous and we’re just left with Boro fed media and a few basic “celebs” / ex pros spouting off cos they want their voice to be heard for some reason.

Boro are embarrassing themselves now. Throwing this all around in the media is totally unprofessional, and is surely very similar to those "unsporting behaviours" they are trying to get us kicked out over. Life is not all about who cries loudest, but annoyingly it does seem like the EFL have been reeled in by this a bit. A larger fine than what Leeds got is appropriate (and I don't think anyone is arguing with that), but being kicked out of the playoffs is totally unrealistic. It may be that rules are changed in the future to state that expulsion / voiding the result if guilty, but in this situation, any expulsion would be massively more severe than anyone in their right mind is expecting, and cause the EFL a lot of issues. Saints aren't simply going to say "yes, we sent a lad to take some photos at training, and we accept that made us win the tie. We stand aside for (the holier than thou) Middlesbrough to go through". It had a negative impact if anything! In the end, they were some good games, which ultimately left with Saints (widely seen as having a stronger team / squad with better players) won the tie. I think sensible Boro fans do accept that and probably want to move on, but the powers that be at the club seem hell bent on effectively buying their way into the big time through any means possible.

If Boro had won, they wouldn’t care less!! (They’d of course feed all the papers with how it’s some sort of sporting miracle against the cheats etc). To put it into context, I was talking to a couple of Pompey fans last night at a works do who said that it was all completely over the top and anything more than a fine is ridiculously harsh. Also said they were sure most teams do this sort of thing (and a lot worse)!

Is it about time we start putting some of our own stuff into the media / to the authorities? Boro "You're not allowed to send someone to watch training. We've released his name and picture to the media to create a witch hunt against you and him" Saints "You're not allowed to release names and pictures without prior consent - hello authorities, I'd like to report a clear breach of GDPR" Boro "Sh*t"

You can probably tell you're alright when West "free tourist trap stadium" Ham start spouting off about getting other teams massive financial penalties. They've had their really dodgy stadium deal giving them a massive commercial advantage over loads of clubs for a decade plus!

The problem with all this #crygate is that it will set a precedent where every club will be filing law suits every week. Imagine if Boro got to the Prem, they'd be literally suing and complaining to the league every week!

I don't know how Ayling heard anything, he had completely lost his head (and was in danger of being sent off) before Harwood-Bellis even said anything to him. At one point the ref looked like he was reaching in his pocket to bring out a second yellow, but got talked down. Then went and said something which Tonda obviously thought was complete bullshit (and Hellberg must've said something), but like everything in the build up to the match, probably a mountain out of a molehill!

100% - this needs to be put into context. Someone observing a training session (and likely not gaining barely any info) is hardly comparable to financial doping, or in game cheating!!

Of all the cheating and corruption in football (Finances, tapping up, transfers / youth transfers, actual ingame stuff like dodgy VAR / refs, diving, the list goes on...) this feels quite far down the list and the overreaction is hilarious and quite pathetic. This almost certainly happens very regularly, and feels like (if true) Boro removed a person and then thought later "hold on, we can use this to whip up a media frenzy" as their own tactic. What we should get is a list of which other clubs security teams have removed people from the premises over the season, but obviously that won't happen as doesn't fit the narrative / other clubs don't care.

and that Villa have a long held interest in buying Middlesborough's star player, Hayden Hackney...

Southampton have enjoyed an impressive improvement since Eckert, a 33-year-old former Germany men’s analyst, took charge last November. They are unbeaten in their last 19 Championship games and beat Arsenal to reach the FA Cup semi-finals. Were any misconduct charges upheld against the club it would arguably become impossible for any of their recent results to be regarded as fair. This last line is absolutely hilarious. Impossible for any of their recent results to be regarded as fair as an intern may or may not have been in a bush before a single match?! You think about all the tapping up, financial bribes etc and someone is suggesting this is absolutely hilarious.

It seems like a very silly thing to do if true and not really sure we'd need to do anything like this as it's not like we're particularly fearing their incredible form or genius tactics. Now it's not the first team analyst but a junior intern... who obviously we're entrusting our promotion with! I'm guessing Tonda is just a front and the real brains behind the operation is this random kid who may or may not have been filming something zoomed in on a mobile phone (surely great quality for analysis). Next tactic will probably be to say something like how we didn't let Alfie Jones recover properly when he was in our youth team and that's why he's now out injured for them and that will be the only reason we could beat them. Or how we should've made Matt Targett spend more time in school so he could string two sentences together... 🤣

Didn't Senegal only walk off the pitch because of how corrupt the whole tournament was to try and get Morocco to win it? In the final (and through other rounds) the Morocco subs were constantly pushing the Senegal keeper, taking his towel and water bottle etc. Then a really dodgy disallowed goal for Senegal and a really soft penalty to try to get Morocco to win. I think most neutrals would've loved Senegal to win. I know the rules are there for forfeiting the game, but it should've been enforced at the time, not months later. This whole thing just makes African football seem like a joke, after so many years of them building their reputation.

Noticed that Bazunu got injured after his first game for Stoke and hasnt been seen since!

There does seem to be a bit of a reluctance to play players who aren't in the squad or who are low on confidence in the under 21s. None of Quarshie, Romeu or Robinson were in the squad last night, so (bearing fitness) could be getting practice with the u21s, and as others have said, could Archer have a few games in the u21 and we put Oyekunle on the bench?

Literally the only benefit we've ever seen, but I guess one hit in 10 swings is probably better than none! 🤣 He's a decent player and great option around the squad. Love the energy and tenacious play!

Be interesting to see how Ronnie Edwards plays tonight. Looks like he's played 3 games at right back and the last match at centre back for them. I thought he was pretty poor each time he played for us this season, but previously looked quite promising.