Saint Pete

I imagine that might not be the last time we see Azaz employed up top late in games if we have something to hang on to. Seemed much more effective at holding the ball up and helping us see the game out than our other alternatives this season.

Only if Gibbo asks.

Well, we got the win which is really all that matters in these games so everyone rejoice and have a few beverages of your choice this afternoon. But clearly a few concerns and lessons to be learned as well. On the positive side, we got the clean sheet we've been looking for and by and large I thought we managed the second half pretty well with 10 men, limiting them to what you would call scrappy chances rather than clear goalscoring opportunities. Azaz has well and truly put to bed any accusations of him being a flat track bully in the early part of his Saints career, he has been immense in quite a few big games now including today, no one can accuse him of not turning up when it matters now. And the move by Tonda to put him up top when Larin tired was very smart, his intelligence on the ball and winning of free kicks really helped us relieve any pressure in the last part of the game. But we did of course make it much harder for ourselves than it should have been. I'm a big fan of Tonda and he's done much more right than wrong since he's been manager but I think there's been a few signs recently of him trying to be too clever when it's not needed. I couldn't see any need for changing the formation today, I can understand going to 3 in midfield if we are away to a strong side, but without being arrogant, man for man, we should be way better than Pompey's team so at home off the back of a great home run, why switch formation like that? I felt unsurprisingly it resulted in us taking time to settle in the first half and also introduced the inexperience of Bragg in a game he wasn't suited to. He clearly fucked up badly with the second challenge but I hope he is not slaughtered for this as he is a young player who has shown enough promise in a Saints shirt so far to think he has the chance to be a decent player if we manage him right. Hopefully he will learn from this experience and sure he will still have an important role to play this season, albeit it is great to see Jander back today and in contention for starts again now.

Definitely should not do that. We should know by now going to 3 CBs doesn't make our defenders more effective, in fact the opposite!

Got to say, it was strange from Tonda changing the formation in this game when we have been perfect so far at home. It looked like we took 25 mins or so to settle into the change which was unnecessary and now Bragg's inexperience in a game like this has put us at disadvantage for second half. Totally understandable that Jander didn't start after so long out, but we should have just picked Matsuki or Fellows and stuck with usual formation.

Utter nonsense.

Silly boy. Too slow on ball and clearly forgot he was on a yellow.

Peach of a pass from Azaz.

I agree if West Ham have a dip for a few games it is very likely the fans will turn on the manager just as they have with previous managers. So I definitely don't think then going up in the top 2 is the done deal that some seem to assume.

Save from the rebound was outstanding.

Good result to start the weekend. 👍 We can narrow the gap to West Ham to just 3 points if we win Sunday.

Thank goodness it's finally done and surprisingly a pretty sensible outcome from the FA, albeit has taken them a ludicrous amount of time to get there. Vindication also for the Dragan's decision to stick with Tonda, we have had a reasonable if not prefect start to the season given the distractions and now we can look forward again. Time to move on now, ensure that lessons have been learned and focus on what really matters starting at the weekend and then on to improving our poor away record.

My sources tell me we are now being linked with Frank Sidebottom. Might be bobbins though.

This is the main bit that probably explains the majority of the £900m quoted, "sponsorship" contracts that were basically a means of City's owners paying massive amounts of money into the club against the rules:- "The independent Commission found that Manchester City arranged ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees. The remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club. As part of the scheme, further ‘sham’ arrangements, funded by ADUG, were entered into to enable the club to record lower operating expenses than it actually incurred, as well as a ‘sham’ circular arrangement with Fordham, an entity that purchased the club’s players’ image rights, that was funded by ADUG."

On the face of it, they have to throw the book at them after what they have said there, you can't sweep £900m of artificial income and the advantage that has given them under the carpet surely! But let's see what the Premier League do next and what further legal hurdles City can put in their way. This bit in the PL CEO's statement made me properly laugh though:- “It is a key responsibility of the Premier League to ensure that the Rules, approved by the clubs themselves, are upheld to protect the integrity of the competition. It is paramount that the League remains competitive and fair for all clubs and for the fans. We take that role extremely seriously." If that is their responsibility, they have utterly failed in it as they have allowed this situation to continue and completely ruin any notion of fairness and integrity in the competition for a decade!

I think that's quite likely, think with City it was also mentioned there was supposed to be a non disclosure agreement on both sides (obviously not adhered to by someone in that case!), so there may be similar with Tonda until any appeal has been heard.

Portugal leave Ronaldo as unused sub on the bench tonight and lo and behold they beat Norway 2-1 away!

There's that but then why pursue them in the first place and bother to charge them 115 times? I think the Premier League wanted to go after them in this case, but the issue with the big rich clubs is the fear of litigation, which often results in them bottling out of implementing serious penalties on them.

Don't think that's what they want though, they want to be noticed! If anything, might mean they delay their announcement longer now?

BBC has picked it up now, main headline on BBC Sport and BBC news sites.

Yes, right decision to stick with him in my opinion. And I still think a more sensible ban length of say 6 to 8 games (which is still pretty harsh) we could cope with without getting rid, I'm sure the club knew a ban of some sort was more likely than not. If the worst happens and it's a ridiculously long ban, then I guess what happens next will hinge on appeals process and whether he can still continue while we appeal (if we do). Doesn't mean we have handled the situation well in other ways though.

Let's hope our guys are switched on enough to argue it that way if FA start using the Canada precedent and talking 12 months as if that is fair.

If he gets even a 6 month ban, it seems laughably extreme. It could have the EFL thinking they should review their punishment on the club again, as that starts to look lenient in comparison!

Absolutely. You would say we possibly had the best team in our league and one of the best managers in the 2nd half of the season. So why feel the need to take such a big risk? Crazy.

I think you are being naive if you believe that media and public opinion has no impact or influence at all on scenarios like this. We can all argue about whether the EFL punishment in the club was correct and proportionate (quite possibly there is a good argument it was) but the massive OTT furore that blew up around what happened I believe would have at the least emboldened the EFL panel that the option of throwing us out and giving us a points penalty was not going to provoke a furious negative reaction in the media. Think about how it might have played out if it wasn't little old Southampton in the dock but a much bigger fish with more fingers in the media pie. I suspect you would have seen much more public push back about how the offence was quite tinpot and almost comical in comparison to other cheating in the sport, with many useful pundits/ex players etc coming out to pressure the EFL saying it would be a ludicrous overreaction to go as far as expelling us. I'm not saying it would have been right if that had influenced them, but it certainly would have put in their minds that they may face a media backlash afterwards. Why do you think bigger clubs often get more lenient punishments than the smaller ones, it's a combination of PR/influence and the greater fear of litigation from richer clubs. Whether using the media at this late stage could have any impact on the Tonda outcome is another matter, it depends on what is happening today. If today is purely about giving him his punishment, it's too late, but if it's true the final decision's not coming out until later, maybe even after International break, we could still be doing more to push back in media about what a sensible proportionate punishment should look like.