S-Clarke

If he doesn't have the appetite to go again, then he needs to ditch us ASAP and find new investment who does have an appetite. He's caused this mess. He either fixes it aggressively, (doubtful), or he gives the keys to someone who can.

Other than him paying the 200k fine, no. In fact the media pleaded for the authorities to not even give him a touchline ban, as it would be so unjust (quote, henry winter). So he paid the fine, that was that. No bans, no sanctions. Laughed off. Same crime.

On the OS.

Oh yeah that guy was the worst of the worst with all this. The sheer justification in the differing responses is just stupid. Rule or not rule, it's the same crime. First time the crime is committed, laugh it off, silly billy Bielsa. Second time, now there is a rule for said crime, BURN THEM ALL. The media have taken this club to the cleaners and I want to know why.

All fair enough if he was in the dark, but he's been in the dark with everything which has been going on here. How long do we give him the slack to be so 'unaware' of the utter mess charlatans are making of his investment? He has had plenty of opportunities to be closer to the action, yet he still doesn't seemingly have a full handle over it.

Let him hoover up the mess first.

It stinks mate. I feel some sort of stich up, and funnily enough said stitch up has given Boro more of an advantage than we gained. Obviously that'll never be proven, but it all stinks to me.

The EFL can't punish the individuals, but the FA can bring sanctions upon them (such as bans etc). EFL can't do that.

This is now about bringing charges to the individuals. The EFL have punished the fans and players, now the FA will punish the individuals who actually did it. Feels backwards but there we are.

Doesn't this sort of thing go on more than we realise? What about those leaked teams to the media 24 hours before games, how have they been got hold of? You never hear the same sort of noise around those, just dealt with internally. There are snakes in football and clubs feed info between people all the time, I'm sure of it - just to try and gain a bit extra. Bit of money changing hands here and there for an inside scoop. But it makes how we approached it even more crazy, a camera behind a tree ffs. We were literally asking to be caught and beaten to a pulp by Steve Gibson.

I think there are probably mixed emotions internally. I'm sure the players, being closer to this than the rest of us, appreciate that 'spying' somewhat happens everywhere and I'm sure they've experienced it at past clubs, so hearing a few snippets in team interviews is probably par the course across most teams. So I'd suggest quite a bit of their anger will be at the EFL for ripping the world from underneath them for no fault of their own. But equally, I think they have every right to be angry with the club in relation to how we've conducted ourselves throughout this. The stupidity and blatantness of it, getting caught, trying to worm out of it and allowing the club and players reputations to be dragged through the mud in the aftermath. So my feel is that in the main the players anger will be with the EFL, as I'm sure they'll see this as hugely disproportionate as their careers have been damaged for no fault of their own, but also frustration and anger with their employers as to how they've dealt with it. It's an absolute mess.

Not with just 1 year left on his contract it won't be. We'll have to sell him cut price in relation to his value.

Bielsa?

There's a bit of a thought that the club uses this entire charade as fuel and 'anger' in the right way, to put right what they feel is unjust on the football pitch - But I just don't feel that is going to happen for us. let's be honest - We're too weak. We'll spend the next 6 weeks sat in silence dawdling.

Count me surprised, but if these idiots are still in power, they will avoid any public forums. When the going gets tough they hide. They only come out bleating when something has gone well.

Yeah he took it on the chin, but....pulled the media with him, dragged them into a conference to explain tactics and how he did things. He seized the control of that situation from the outset and controlled the narrative, his reputation and the size of the Leeds media-cohort muted any negative pull from Derby. Whilst we just sat back in silence, like stupid little school kids, went to the board room of the victim, tap them on the shoulder in secret and say 'sorry, we did it - but it's ok, it was a silly kid!'. That's how I describe it really, not much difference between both crimes, but one committed by adults, and the other committed by silly kids with no experience to deal with the aftermath. But I do think we need to see this full report sooner rather than later, for everyone's sake. If this is worse than we imagine than everyone needs to know, if it truly has been blown out of all proportion as we all believe, then we need to know as it is tarnishing our reputation - we need to get our story out ASAP.

Leeds were bigger, Bielsa had a bigger reputation. 'Pep' and 'Poch' loved him, don't forget - he taught them football. Pulling Bielsa through the ringer wouldn't have been allowed, that's why it was all laughed off and giggled about by the media journos. God forbid the media upset Pep or any high profile EPL people. Tonda, Southampton, who cares. What we've done is a disgrace, burn the whole place down.

I think there's a potential to be a little sensationalist with those sorts of things at this stage. We will certainly sell players, we still have a parachute payment, and we will still be one of the biggest revenue based teams in the league. So, we have more of a chance to bounce back from this than other teams - but at this stage it's really unknown how that bounce back is going to look. We've got one chance to make this right.

I think we've been a much bigger victim of Boro's and Gibons media machine. Proportionally what we did is probably not a great deal different to that of Leeds, but when you compare the media campain during Leeds and our events, they couldn't be more different. With Leeds, you had journos laughing about it and saying it would be harsh if Bielsa got a touch line ban. With us, sack everyone, ban the manager for 2 years, expel them from everything. I think we've been stitched up and thrown to the wolves, it's our fault because we were stupid, but all of this stinks and it goes deeper than we will probably ever know.

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.