egg

I'd like to see results and performances improve first. Hopefully we see that with the FA distraction out of the way.

Winnie played for them once on loan. They lost 4 nil, he was dropped from the squad, and sent back to his club. I'm not sure that's a history which will make him want to help Boro. That said, he'd have been impartial - not a great career move to be anything but. The Bannerjee connection is a wee bit more relevant. She advised them once and I think she should have declared that and recused herself. That said, I think she only advised them once, which suggests to me that it wasn't a commercial relationship which went terribly well. In short, sure there were brief historical connections and common sense says they shouldn't have been there to avoid this kind of discussion. To be fair to the club, they opposed their involvement. That all said, our biggest issue wasn't the panel composition, but our representation and approach. We didn't co-operate, we ponied up the kid to give evidence (he didn't show up at the FA hearing, fortunately) which didn't help, we used non sports specialist counsel (who was binned for the appeal - we got it very right this time) and most significantly, we approached it seeking a fine when a sporting sanction was bloody obvious (this time we were realistic). The only sporting sanction on the table was expulsion from the play offs, so I'm not sure what choice any panel had - it was literally that or nothing that would have hurt us.

They may think it's lenient (many of us probably do), but they'd have to argue it was unduly lenient. They have form for successful appeals though. I'd imagine this'll be it.

Ha!! The person who spoke to me is solid. His source was clearly a fuckwit.

Oui.

I'm not interested in debating it mate. It's all up there. Call me old fashioned, but I'd rather revel in the fact that our season can now get started properly rather than get all upset about MB.

Yep, and this highlights that it was absolutely mental that the club called the kid to give evidence before the EFL.

It's a wee bit sad if your first reaction to a result like this is to dig out MB.

I was told by someone I trusted that the club feared up to 2 years. Where that came from is anyone's guess given that the decision refers to a starting point of weeks. I don't doubt there have been idiots just making nonsense up, but duff info has been out there.

Possibly. The Times, 6 November 2024: “… the word from within the walls of the Premier league’s [disciplinary] case against Manchester City is that the man doing much of the work for the team in blue is Paul Harris KC… this makes Harris their Rodri…”

Them being so upset is the icing on the cake.

Yep, that's the gist of it, and they also had a very different opinion of Tonda, and essentially saw it as a double punishment of the club, fans, sponsors, etc.

Feck me, we've just had the best possible result on this, and the focus is on MB. Daft cretins, get a grip.

Nice that they had the impact on the fans in mind as well...banning him would be a further punishment on us, and club. Para 163 "In the unusual circumstances of this case, we consider that it is appropriate to have regard to the impact a ban on Mr Eckert would have, irrespective of whether or not he loses his job. That regard must include the impact on the Club, its supporters and stakeholders and what would, in the Commission’s view, unquestionably be the equivalent of a further sanction being imposed on them if their Head Coach was unavailable for a period of six weeks in the Championship season"

It's the decision. For Tonda, the club and us fans it was the right one. I think he's a lucky boy, but he's our boy.