S-Clarke

Let's be fair, as it stands we are going to really struggle to attract anyone of note. Why would any manager want their name associated with a club who have just been hit with this sanction (no matter how unproportionate it feels). Don't forget that we start next season on minus points, will probably have former staff banned from football and have reprimands all over ourselves, the EFL will watch us like a hawk and pull us for anything. For us to appoint anyone of any level, there would need to be clear and visible structural change across all levels of the club to demonstrate that this is a 'different' machine. There is a hell of a lot of work to get there.

More like 2010-2017

AI Gets it. Can we employ AI? -------------------------------------------- For a lot of Saints fans, this probably feels like the final receipt for the whole Sport Republic era. Not just: “They made one catastrophic mistake.” More like: relegation failed recruitment manager churn identity loss poor football decisions trust eroded fan disconnect now a governance scandal Wembley ripped away next season damaged before it starts At some point, you stop seeing individual bad events and start seeing a pattern. And that’s why “we’re sorry” won’t cut it. Because fans are not just angry about the punishment. They’re angry because the club has been drifting, mismanaged, and now humiliated. The fans argument is basically: The ownership have lost the moral authority to lead the reset. And I think that’s fair. Because the same ownership group that presided over the decline can’t just say: “Trust us to rebuild.” Why would fans trust them? The trust is gone. A credible reset probably needs: Sport Republic to sell or bring in major new control board-level departures football operations rebuilt clear leadership structure new manager/head coach with authority fan reimbursement and compensation transparent investigation proper apology with consequences Not a rebrand. Not a “new chapter” video with emotional piano music. Actual structural change. Because if they stay, and just shuffle a few names around, supporters will see it as the same machine that broke the club asking for another chance to fix it. And after this? That’s a hell of an ask.

Thank you for this season Leo, you can certainly leave with your head held high and you do not deserve to be associated with any of this.

They have been a disaster, anyone sticking up for them at all in this mess needs to have a long hard look at themselves. They are the reason we were relegated from the Premier League after a decade due to incompetent scouting. They are the reason we were relegated from the Premier League AGAIN on a record humiliation due to incompetent scouting and management. They are the reason we have now been EXPELLED from the playoffs and face a 2nd year in a lower league. We have gone through Ralph, Jones, Selles, Martin, Juric, Rusk, Still, Tonda. We have gone through Joe Shields, Wilcox, Bitcon, Spors as DoF's. All of this in, what, 4 years? They have destroyed every inch of what this club stood for and have tarnished us in ways I never felt was possible. Dragan and everyone associated need to pack up, get the fuck out, and never, ever, ever work in Football again. I would implore the fans of Valenciennes and Goztepe to also join in this, as these people cannot be allowed to continue in football.

Yep, this is what we've all called for - goes way back, even to the Russell Martin days. We seem obsessed with going with youth in all aspects, trying to do this new modern approach to everything. Experience matters, as we saw in the second half of this season in relation to the likes of Bree, Larin and Peretz coming in down the spine. But the inexperience across multiple layers at the club has cost us here. Very, very foolish and naive.

Another SR DOF bites the dust I guess. What a record they've got.

It was way over the top, it's a ridiculous punishment and I don't think it's quite over yet - in terms of us going after the EFL again in the future. But I won't ever forgive those at the club who felt something like this would give us any form of advantage, and why they risked it in the way they did. They've seemingly been blatant about it, like it's all a big joke to them. They're the ones who need to be punished here, properly punished.

The first half of the season wasn't memorable, but the second half certainly was. I will always remember enjoying watching Leo, such a talented player. Jander is going to be top too, will be keen to watch his career. THB turned it around with us and became a really solid captain when required, bit of a shithouse - sure, but all teams have a shit house. Hopefully he gets into the England squad in the next 12 months. For the guys out of contract, I don't blame you for not wanting to stick around. Bree, Peretz, Larin, Stewart - thank you. We tossed Bree out in the summer, and then brought him back in to tarnish him over this - he didn't deserve any of this. But it's been a ride with some of these guys, the last few months have been fun. I'm sure they've enjoyed it too, but they must be fuming to now realise they've just played a season of friendlies.

This is the thing isn't it. The players, the staff, they can all head off tomorrow. They might get some bans from football (staff wise), but they've all got enough in their banks to probably never worry about money again. Whereas us guys, who just went to every game enjoying it, up and down the country, are left to hold this can for the the entirety of time. This is why it's not proportionate. They have punished the fans for something stupid individuals at the club have done. The losers are the fans in all of this, in so many ways. We don't need empty statements and weak apologies, they need to come out front and centre and complete a massive cull and tell all the honest fans what on earth the plan is next. That needs to start tomorrow. Will that happen? Absolutley fucking not, not with these wishy washy wankers in charge.

How can you say this? How can we keep anyone on who has been implicated by this? I don't care if he didn't know about the rule, I find that hard to believe. What I do care is that his actions have dragged my football club and all of our fans through the mud, into a situation which we will likely not recover from if I'm honest. This is the sort of scenario which needs a clear the decks approach, there's no other way to tackle it. And also, the FA will now get involved given the damming evidence of WhatsApp messages. If Tonda has any decency, he'll now walk and we'll probably never hear of him again. The mysterious hungry eyed spying moron.

They're incompetent, don't trust them to do anything. I wouldn't even trust them to put us in administration correctly. If their defence was really as loose as ''Tonda didn't know the rule existed'' and ''Well, Leeds got a 200k fine'' and ''Well, Chelsea only got fined £10m" then it's an utter joke. We have pulled Chelsea, Luton, Eastleigh, Hull, Leeds and Derby into our mess. We have put a stain on this club which will never leave us. Not just because of what we did, but because of how we've seemingly tried to weakly wiggle ourselves out of it by bringing other clubs into it. This is going to be a quagmire of a summer for us. I feel for the players who have given everything to get where we finished, blood and sweat, and the fans who have been left to carry the can for this for eternity.

There isn't, they've released a load of nonsense. Southampton Football Club has this evening been informed that the EFL’s League Arbitration Panel has upheld the sanctions imposed earlier this week. As a result, the club will not participate in Saturday’s Championship Play-Off Final. This is an extremely disappointing outcome for everybody connected with Southampton Football Club. We know how painful this moment will be for our supporters, players, staff, commercial partners and the wider community who have given so much backing to the team throughout the season and we apologise once again to everyone impacted by this. While we fully acknowledge the seriousness of this matter and the scrutiny that has followed, the club has consistently believed the original sporting sanction was disproportionate, a view that has been widely shared by many in the football community over the last 24 hours. We would like to place on record our sincere thanks to our supporters for the support, patience and loyalty they have shown throughout an incredibly difficult period. We will share information as soon as possible in relation to ticket refunds for those who bought tickets to Wembley. Southampton Football Club has a proud history and strong foundations, but it is clear that trust now needs to be rebuilt. That work begins immediately. The club will reflect carefully on the events that have led to this point, learn from them and take the necessary steps to move forward responsibly. While tonight is a painful moment, this football club will respond with humility, accountability and determination to put things right.

This 'due course' nonsense from the EFL needs to be NOW. We deserve to understand the severity of what has gone on here, as our entire club has been destroyed and we really need to understand exactly what we've done. Don't sit on this for months.

So yeah, we were incompetent then. If that KC bloke can't get us off, then we must have done some serious shit. There is a lot to come out in the water here, this isn't over yet. The people involved in this has ruined the name of this football club and dragged our fans through the mud. The EFL have made a mug out of multiple fanbases. The only winners in this are Boro.

But if you swap that logic to yesterday, it's the same argument. They allowed us to continue selling tickets up until 5pmish if i recall correctly. There's no logic to anything here, literally anything can happen.

I'm not betting on anything, could end up in L2 by the end of the night!

Boro 'ITK's (i say ITK's loosely), are claiming the decision is being overturned. 'Players relative source'. Smells bollocks, but thought I'd share. No idea how anyone would know yet.

Can we sub Shea Charles on to score a 9:50pm winner? He's good with these late show things.

Wishing you all the best Whitey - sorry to hear of what you're going through.

Hopefully these lawyers are no win no fee.

This is the same EFL who approved the takeover of that guy at Wigan, who bought the club, only to dump them into administration, and then promptly did over Wigan again by docking them loads of points. Wigan are now forever a lower league team because of it. Clueless bunch.

Depends how much said clubs will pay the FA/EFL to keep it on the hush though, as let's be fair - that's all it will come down to at the end of the day. Nothing is about sporting fairness or what's best for the fans, it's all about money, money, money.

It does stink because the punishment we've got is almost word for word what Boro wanted, which they even 'requested' on their website a few days ago. And somehow, lots of Boro ITK's seemed to know this was going to happen in the run up as well. The whole thing stinks top to bottom. No one comes out of this smelling of roses.

Wouldn't it be a plot twist if originally, when this whistle-blower was at Boro before he joined us, he was actually spying on us - so we employed him to protect ourselves so he didn't share anything with other clubs. That would be the ultimate mic drop moment in footballing history. So, so, far fetched, but this has all been far fetched.