S-Clarke

I think reputational damage is the big thing here, it's going to have a huge impact on us longer term. I see some fans saying we'll just crack on next season and win the league - but I don't think we can underestimate how much this charade is going to harm this club for many years. Player contracts, agent dealings, managers, scouting, sponsorships, media, hospitality, commercial, financial. Everything will be hit by this. Managers, players, owners will go - but the fans will still be dealing with this mess long after.

Just checked the OS. Ah, it's ok. We're still preparing for the play off final. I must have dreamt this. Fucking wankers.

I think this is where the EFL have tied themselves up in knots a bit. One angle is that this is a 'cup competition', but the other angle - and the fair angle - is that this is a continuation of the normal league season, so any punishment should be proportionate across both scenarios. By treating this instance in the same way as Swindon in a cup competition, they have muddied the waters by also including 'breaches' in regular season league games in the charges. So are we either being pushed in the context of a cup competition, or punished for the league context? It's all very confusing and I think they've made this up as they've gone along.

They truly are the gift that keeps on giving, when you think they can't get any worse, they do this.

Cone on, drop the 'he didn't know the rules act' - bullshit. We all knew, as fans. Everyone had front row seats to the Bielsa thing 6 years ago, it was everywhere, and even if he didn't 'know' there was a new rule in place to prevent it specifically, the 'good faith' rule was still there and given what happened to Leeds he shouldn't have been so dumb. Having people like Ben Reeves and Lallana in the coaching team, with very little coaching experience themselves, doesn't give much for 'corrections either'. Just amateur hour from everyone. If our defence is going to be 'we didn't know it was a rule', then I'm really at a loss as to where we go from here.

Slept on it and actually feel worse about it all this morning. Hearing us all over the morning news and on the radio for all the wrong reasons is so unfair on us fans. I also feel really bad for Hull City, a genuinely amazing achievement for them to reach the final after last season and their 'sanctions' - but they're being punished and this will undoubtably impact their buildup. And the lack of any communication from the club, the next fucking morning, shows that they are also handling this situation incredibly badly. Is there anything they can do right? Ok, we're going to appeal so it may change (It won't), but fuck me...at least put out a holding statement, at least try to appease the fanbase you're going to lose in droves. They can't do a fucking thing right at any level, at any time. They'd even fail in non-league, I'm sure of it. Incompetent morons, the lot of them.

Yeah, that's where it doesn't sit with me. If this happened in the regular season, I'd accept a points deduction and fine as a fair punishment if found guilty. The angle they are using here as I see it is that the playoffs are a cup competition, so separate from the league and must be dealt with differently (using the Swindon example). It feels like they've tied themselves up in knots, caught between two scenarios (this has never happened before) and made a right royal mess of it. One of the rules we breached, not acting in good faith, was around when Leeds did this. That was the rule Leeds breached and they had a fine. So, how has the 'not acting in good' faith charge resulted in this, given that Leeds just got a fine? I understand there is the additional 'Spying' rule now, but we were charged with both - I'm confused how the charges stack up and what punishment is tied in with which rule breaking.

Tonda, if found to be implicated - which looks fairly damming - will almost certainly be sacked by the club in breach of contract and it will follow up with an FA ban for a long period of time. We won't have a choice.

It's a bit of a weak defence if I'm honest, unless he was asleep when Bielsa did it. I don't buy that one, and even if it is genuine then it's embarrassing and shows up how weak the setup has been around him.

But they'd have left anyway had we not got promoted, and got that 40% pay cut back which they cry about. And the final wasn't this cut and dried result either, Hull could have beaten us. They'll be pissed, of course, but crying about not getting a pay rise on promotion feels a weird angle. They'd have known that when they signed.

Someone also mentions this - 2. It is likely that the sanctions already include a discount for the admission by Southampton of all charges. This means the starting point was potentially even higher - perhaps 1-2 more points or a fine as well. I appreciate the EFL for being so reasonable.

They probably saw the lack of £250m as a big enough financial penalty, I'm glad they went easy on us. In all seriousness, they should have just given us a big fine. And then every single moron involved in this should have paid it out of their own pockets.

I don't buy this as a reason for them to be unhappy, if we lost on Saturday there would be the same outcome - ditto if we didn't make the Top 6. This bit feels like nonsense.

It absolutley is extreme, but when the evidence stacks up against you there really isn't much to appeal against. You have to try, it's the default response. But believing anything would be reversed is daft. Although I thought us being removed would be daft, so who the fuck knows after this evening.

Oh totally, not saying it from a performance level. I was pretty vocal over the QPR game in particular, we were a mess. I was expecting and hoping we'd use the international break to put in a 'proper' manager, but it never materialised, we allowed him to continue, maybe with some help - no comment - and Spors got his wish to make him manager. It feels more orchestrated the more you look back.

His start was strong. We had a bad spell during December > January, but picked up after that.

As this content comes out in the light of day, you kind of aren't surprised at how badly run we've been for many years now. This level of incompetence seems to be the norm. Another angle I don't think anyone has mentioned - would Sponsors be calling up at this point, potentially tarnishing their brand? There is so much to come out of this, it's the national media mud sling that's going to really hurt us longer term. And Boro have played that almost perfectly up against our buffons.

The club are morons though, so there is that.

The appeal is just a default thing really, we were always going to do so. We'll probably appeal the severity, the game will be postponed, we'll get nowhere with it, and end up with a further 10 point deduction as Parsons admits to further occasions.

I've seen some Leeds fans applauding the EFL over this, and saying it was the right decision. I guess Bielsa doesn't count because he's Bielsa, and you know, he knows Pep.

Let's be fair, the club has been blown up already. This summer will be a mess, and next season isn't going to be stable.

TBF a postponement at this point feels inevitable, Hull will argue their prep has been damaged too. and Boro won't have enough time to sort tickets.

He's not been able to sort anything else out, so I don't expect anything different here. The bloke is sadly a buffoon.

Yeah it's posturing at this point, no more than that. We're bang to rights now, more so than I ever believed we were. I don't remember the last time we were on the news at 10 on a weekday. What a time to be alive.