Saint_lambden

And if you believe that you'll believe anything.

The whole in/out discussion is a mute point - he'll be banned for at least a year by the FA. Having said that, it completely baffles me that people think, regardless of some miracle that he avoids a ban, he should stay on as manager. It's as if Boro losing the final flicked a switch in some people and they completely forgot and forgave everything. The man who instigated a campaign of systemic rule breaking, brought the club in to national/international shame and who intimidated young interns in to cheating, then having the audacity to complain to them about the output they were providing. I don't want that representing this football club, and neither should any self-respecting fan. The club are just waiting for the internal review (being done by an external party) to be complete and then they will take action in terms of suspensions/sackings, which cannot come soon enough so we can at least try to move on from this whole sorry saga.

Speak for yourself. Bullying of young interns to pressure them in to breaking the rules and then pretending you don’t know what the rules are. I’d be calling for him to go even if we had been reinstated in to the final/weren't kicked out to begin with - otherwise we signal that this sort of behaviour is fine and that we as a football club have no morals, ethics or integrity.

Not a chance - he'll be gone imminently. The only question is when - whether it's before or after any FA ban which could make his dismissal more straight forward from a breach of contract/gross misconduct point of view. By the sounds of it, there was a growing sense in recent weeks that the success in terms of the unbeaten run was in spite of him and not because of him, which this whole saga just goes to confirm. A core of the players found his man-management style odd to say the least, and that's now three successive permanent managers (Juric, Still and Eckert) who have been emotionless. It's fair to say that the next appointment needs to have a bit of character about them to get the fans and players back on side and - in a way - embrace the siege mentality.

Absolutely zero chance.

Solak should put out a statement tomorrow: Announcing the sacking of Eckert, Spors and Parsons Formally putting the club up for sale A commitment to rid this cancer of a culture from the football club before any sale goes through as the very least he can do for us fans A committment to refund Wembley tickets purchased by Tuesday next week, including booking fee Announcing discounted season tickets for next season Committment to release full details of the internal club review insitigated last week for transparency

I think we've been fucked over enough for one night.

Absolutely convinced by this point that supporting this football club is some sort of social experiment.

Dyson dickhead.

The stuff about Spors not knowing is nonsense.

Of course they do, it’s their rules we’ve broken.

Snippet from the POC I used to get info from (left in August) but still knows people at the club: Players held a meeting with Phil Parsons this morning upon arrival to training. It got pretty heated, some them accusing him of a cover-up and putting their careers in jeopardy. He said he took the view, to not reveal full extent of the spying to them so they could concentrate on the semi-final/final. Said he didn't want them to find out the verdict at the same time as everyone else but the club had no control over the announcement from the EFL. Players wanted to know who would lead the team if (in the unlikely instance) we are reinstated and play on Saturday. He wasn't able to answer that. One player (no mention of who) made the point that it shouldn't be the case that Tonda takes the team if we're reinstated as if it's all okay then. Stephens has tried to calm tensions and be mediator. Even some of the training ground staff (not in Tonda's direct team) made their voices heard. No mention of if the manager was there and took training. What a clusterf--*k.

Has the vaccum cleaner salesman not fucked off yet?

All lovely blokes, top guys* *Will correct if we’re kicked out

Correct. What the Northern Echo reporter has put there is framing and not fact. It’s written for the benefit of the Middlesbrough readership.

The full written findings would probably take quite a while to write-up, be reviewed for accuracy by all parties to ensure no factual errors, redaction of sensitive material etc. whereas given the time pressure here - the immediate verdict/sanctions needs to be communicated way beforehand.

Sorry to ask if it's been covered before, but does anyone know in the scenario that we're booted out the PO final and we appeal, whether the that appeal is heard by the same commission or would it be a separate legal team considering it?

Would be the most Saints thing ever that we still play in the final and lose it.

They’re not going to cancel the final and promote Hull straight up. That’s why they have contingency plans in place for moving the final if the legal process extends beyond Tuesday. It’s the showpiece game of the EFL.

As I said yesterday, surely that’s an argument our legal team will be using - that we’ve followed due process and complied with the investigation whilst Boro have seeked to undermine it at every opportunity by leaking information/evidence to the media (which I’d be pushing for making it inadmissible as a result) and with that statement yesterday.

I don't know but I would be going with: Internal review shown that this is not a club-orchastrated tactic to spy, just one or two bad apples who will be dealt with internally through suspension or sacking Saints not denied the charge and complied with the investigation throughout Middlesbrough played out their case through the media, including leaking photo which has big ramifications from perspective of protecting identify of the individual involved and his wellbeing (whether GDPR has been breached is unclear) Ambiguity of the 72 hour rule, it suggesting that spying before this time window is okay Filming/notes collected by the analyst were deleted and therefore not used by Saints to gain advantage Committment that no spying will take place again in the future (if it does, stronger sanctions should come our way) Despite new rule being added since, Leeds were fined £200k despite admitting to spying throughout the season vs the one case in front of the commission here, so removing us from the play-offs therefore would be signifcantly disproportionate given the £200m+ windfall as a result of winning PO final

Yep, reads like they're shooting their last shot

I'd be surprised if we even appealed a points deduction (unless it was something ridiculous like 10+ points), especially a suspended one - purely out of the relief that we'd escaped being booted out the play-offs. Dragging this out unneccessarily will just make it worse for the club and act as a distraction to preparing for next season - whatever league we're in.

Edit: Already shared above