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There was definitely more at play - looked excellent in that pre-season where he smashed in a great goal, then looked totally avoid of any confidence. He didn't want to compete for headers and tackles and overall just looked completely overawed by the occasion, but with good experience in Germany and with the US, surely has some level of potential to come good. Sadly it didnt look like the loan went well either, probably needed to step back down a level and hit some good numbers to come back refreshed and ready. When we signed him there was talk of him having potential for the World Cup and that evaporated very quickly.

If that's true, that's really poor form on Stewart's part. He was barely available for us, should show us some loyalty or at least sign the contract so we can get some level of return on him when he hasn't been able to play for us.

I think the key question here is how much Middlesbrough would now be due from Burnley, for Burnley having the cheek to beat them when they were relegated into the Championship instead of PSR cheats Everton. Burnley should've stood aside, as Boro would've without doubt (according to the Northern Echo) smashed Everton, triggering an unstoppable march to the Championship title.

This reads like a goodbye to Captain Jack 😜

Well, the BBC have very recent history of desperately trying to trash someone's reputation for far less...!

They still have enough good players at present (and good youth coming through) that if they are able to keep a decent number will out pass most teams in the division. Just depends how many times he asks them to pass continually across their own box until someone decides to press them and they concede (another) stupid goal and lose or draw games they’ve absolutely dominated…

When will we hear of Blackmore being sacked? It's like he's deliberately trying to get the club (and fanbase?) to turn on him?

So is publically shaming and humiliating another team repeatedly in the national press, but nothing's happening about that is it.

I'm glad we won't let Boro just destroy the club in response to them not being able to win a game of football. It's all completely ridiculous fuelled by this cancel culture which seems to be the ultimate life goal of some people rather than just say being happy in yourself, or meeting up with friends, or just trying to enjoy life! The world doesn't need to exist to just punish and put people down, but I guess that's where we are as society, which is pretty sad. Hopefully the world can move on. Apparently there's a world cup starting soon?!

Not sure that's going to happen (as much as I'd like it to), but Larin's club will surely want to sell now they're relegated, and keeping my fingers crossed for him, as he was one of the best in the division the second half of the season.

I think he should. He was blabbering on like he'd been tapped up by Gibbo too...!

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!