S-Clarke

He's worth putting in the bin now, clearly influenced by the EFL/Boro in some way. How he can change his view in such an extreme way from Bielsa to Tonda is embarrassing. It's put his entire credence as a journo in the bin for me, not worth listening to. Easily influenced rather than coming up with his own view.

Well that was an eventful few hours - it's what we've all called for, direct communication to the fans from two key people involved. They've come out and pinned their views to the mast today, and sure it'll upset the 'football community' - but we can use this to create a siege mentality and truly allow football to 'win'. My emotions throughout all of this have been a rollercoaster, anger, frustration, acceptance. I'd say I'm at acceptance but with a newly found tinge of anger again - not anger at the club per-say, but angry at the media and Boro and how they manipulated this entire situation to provide them with the opportunity to get the biggest reward. I was waiting to read the full report and extracts, because we were told of bullying and 'deplorable' exchanges between the manager and interns - but that's not the case is it. Not even close. None of what we've seen released has made me go, wow, what a disgrace, instead it's made me go ''FFS, is that truly all it was?''. The onslaught from Boro and the media treating this as some kind of crime of the century almost certainly influenced the EFL. Let's remember, before the panel actually sat the EFL recommendation for them to consider was 'expulsion' - so before we even had a chance to talk our case, they'd already decided on expulsion. The entire way it played out in the media was wrong. From leaking the personal details and photos of a junior member of staff, to the story changing by the day - it was behind a tree, then an open field, then in bushes, then it was an organised 007 mission - it was none of those. The picture we saw is pretty much the full story, a young kid taking a photo of some training sessions from next to a tree. Nothing ground breaking, nothing that requires someone being hung. Of course I'll always be frustrated with the club in how they dealt with the entire thing in the direct aftermath, but the offences themselves - whilst daft - were so miniscule in the context of the dirty and murky world of professional sports, and I will always stand by the opinion that it was extremely blown of proportion. My anger will sit with the EFL/Boro though for how they strung us through the media, just to gain an advantage themselves. On one hand they can complain we tried to gain an advantage by spying, but they almost gained the ultimate advantage themselves by using dirty tactics throughout the media to get to the final. Two wrongs don't make a right, and they were as much on the look out for an advantage as we were. It's a shame they can't play football and had to resort to political tactics, and yet they still failed quite spectacularly when they had to play football against Hull in their 3rd chance. That probably tells you all you need to know.

Imagine letting SR anywhere near a club badge rebrand. No thank you.

This bloke is a total moron tbh.

A truly weak and washy statement, I assume Parsons wrote that. We start next season on -4 points, we don't know who our manager will be, how many players we will have, or who will want to join us. At some point in this entire sorry saga the club need to accept responsibility, own it, and make their own decisions to pave the way going forward - but it seems like they're waiting for others to do so. I never thought we'd have such incompetent business people running my club.

I read the appeal write up, and there's nothing new in there really. I was waiting for the 'text' releases to see the true horror, but I've come away thinking...is that really all this is? So it's not the crime of the century then? To sum it all up - firstly, why the fuck is Parsons still employed by us? Assuming he was the person who submitted the initial response to the EFL, and then went to tap Steve Gibson on the shoulder, then he should be out on his ear - as that response floored us before it even started. The apology from our lawyers to that initial response made me squirm, if you're trying to smooth over relations at that point you've already lost. Secondly, why was Middlesbrough's HoF part of this? Am I reading right that he submitted evidence directly, or was part of the initial hearing? The EFL 'invited' him to submit evidence makes me somewhat curious to, as didn't they reject Boro's plea to be heard directly on the hearing? The whole sporting advantage argument is nonsense from both sides though, if you 'spied', the entire point of it is to gain some form of advantage - so us using that as some sort of defence was pathetic. So we're as we were really. We were stupid trying it, we cocked up on our initial response trying to defend it, Boro and their lawyers jumped on our naivety and kicked us whilst we were down. Boro absolutley made the most of it and ensured they almost got the biggest benefit from it all, but thankfully footballing gods evened that bit out. It does still smell fishy to me though.

I thought Arsenal were horrendously bad, would have been a travesty had they won. All they did was hoof it long, at least PSG tried to play. I don't think PSG played particularly well either, as Arsenal pretty much closed them down all game, but you could tell that they had miles more quality. Not a great final though, one of the worst ever from a pure spectacle point of view.

Although doesn't cover off the Oxford game.....! Unless he was working for us unofficially before Jan! Tonda would have also clearly been advising on it though, I don't believe he was caught totally unawares to this! Maybe this new guy just stepped it up a bit.

I know, I meant to quote the one above - this was one of the guys Tonda brought in, so putting 2 and 2 together with Pilchards post.

Southampton add former Hannover analyst to Eckert's backroom staff | Daily Echo

A great player for us, a leader throughout all the teams, even before he was the captain. He was one of the players people felt would struggle with the PL step up, more so than Jos, but it was totally opposite. He was a cultured CB and matured into one of the best leaders we've had. I hated the way it ended, but he'll never have a bad word echoed about him at Southampton.

So they are basically waiting for someone else to make the decisions for them, as expected. I guess in a way that's good news, as they may be realising that their decision making is shit. But still, where's the accountability and taking responsibility? I won't ever get over our response to this. We were on the brink of the PL, had it taken away from us due to club individual stupidity, and they haven't set out anything to the fans about how they're going to rebuild the trust. Before we know it, Season Tickets will be announced before they've even spoken to the fans about this mess. They are hideous owners.

Not really, sure it's lower ranked European sides, but the accolades are similar to the Europa League. It's a major European trophy. Palace didn't have any trophies in 2024, but they now have an FA Cup, Community Shield and a European Trophy to boot. Credit to them. And they sold some of their best players during that period too. I'm with others in the frustration. We had Pele, Mane, Morgan, Wanyama, Toby, Fonte, Clyne, Bertrand, Tadic all in the same team at one point - sure, we finished 6th and 7th to get Europe, but our first effort was a shambles as we didn't even get to the groups, second time we didn't get out of the groups. A really poor showing all round. And don't get me started on our FA Cup opportunities under Poch....(Sundarland away...)

That's really sad, that's no age what so ever.

Which begs the question as to why the hell we decided to partake in this sort of activity in the first place. We already had legitimate advantage from a financial standpoint. I get all the 'try every angle to gain an advantage' bit - but that's only truly relevant when you don't have the money to compete, so you have to find other ways. We had the money to compete, we didn't need to find other ways.

Lessons are never learnt by SR, hence the absolute deafening silence for the last week. The same PR disaster is ensuing in front of our eyes.

You're losing your head Manji.

I must admit, I didn't know all the detail around what happened between them and Derby, but I've read up a bit and it just shines even more of a bad light on those morons. Derby in administration, hammered by minus points, struggling to get buyers, going to get relegated. So what does Steve Gibson do? Kicks them whilst they were down, launches a legal case because due to their admin he said their playoff place the season or two prior was 'false', and Boro should have been there. He came to some sort of financial agreement with former owner Mel Morris in the end, as Gibson was stopping any takeover happening until he had his compo. An Open Letter From Steve Gibson To The Joint Administrators Of Derby County FC What is this utter prick on?

I'll be honest - I don't think the club knew it was going to get much worse, I honestly think it caught the club by surprise as much as the players. That's not defending the club, because it shows they haven't been over this at all.

That's the key takeaway really. We didn't defend ourselves or offer any form of response to the EFL, we didn't even try to. Some of our antics when we were first charged was school-boy stuff, and the EFL probably made their decision right then. It's the worst defence ever. ''Hi Southampton, we've recieved this complaint - care to comment?'' ''Hi EFL - This isn't true! Us? No! We're good, we don't have things like that happening! This is not the Southampton Way. Nothing to see here" ''Hi Southampton, we have proof that you have done this'' ''Hi EFL - Oh, yeah I think you're right. To help mitigate I'll admit we did it at Oxford and Ipswich too. Can we get a fine and call it a day? I've already had a quiet private chat, outside of this process, with Steve Gibson regarding a financial settlement''

Oh sweet justice if Boro were also caught to have been doing the same.

Was one of our U14's for a few years, probably doesn't even remember being here!

wtf?

They will - prepare for it. We will once again suffer for their incompetence, whilst they bask in the glory of 'player trading' profit.

First comments from Peretz - I'll miss the guy, he was immense. Hope he gets a good top European move in the summer. 'I was there' when Southampton had a GK.