MarkSFC

Fair play. There will continue to be those who support the club and those who do not, who will want him hung drawn and quartered. Talking like that (without script as he says it was) is brave in this media world. Clearly there were one or two cuts (hence the video inserts) but actually thats a good thing as it meams he was speaking unacripted. I take people as I find them. This looks genuine, contrite and sincere. The club are drawing lines, putting their perspectives and position out there, and making it clear without actually saying it that they are angry yet accepting. This should galvanise everyone with enough time. ALL the actions over the summer obviously need to come from the club, from the leaders in terms of securing a squad good enough to compete for the title. Dragon has said it. Now he must DO IT! UP THE SAINTS!!!

We've seen that having 4 CMs is very useful. Losing two of the current 4 is too many. I suspect Jander will go and Charles will stay. But either is fine. Bragg will be better and more able to play more, more regularly and perhaps Moses Sesay will be the Bragg of this season.

Presumably then you still get the covid vaccine 🤦😂

I think its impossible to gues at who will stay, who eill go, and who we might bring in due to the complications surrounding Eckert and Spors. If TE is to stay we do not know if any of the first team squad genuinely and ongoingly have a new hate towards him. Equally, we do not know the opposite. If he stays will that make it harder to attract new players? Or will it actually help (due to his skills) or make no difference? The craving (from the fan base) for updates and clarity are completely understandable, but as it is becoming apparent, proving difficult. The complicated situation in many aspects means the club must take its time to make sure their next moves are well thought out. My hopes are that the vast majority stay of course. In reality I expect THB, Ramsdale, Charles OR Jander, and Leo to be sold. Azaz may be in demand too. I expect that Bree and Stewart will re-sign. I hope Peretz and Larin do too, but not expectant of either. Based on these happenings we will need a first choice GK, CB, and Striker. I expect Edozie, Robinson, Quashie, and Bragg to be more involved and important. I doubt much will happen for weeks so we will be in for a long summer of hoping for good oitcomes😂

Did he Cheat? Or did he simply break tbe rules? Or was it a combination of those things? As per regulation 127 observing another teams training session within 72 hoirs of a match with them is prohibited. Doing so outside of this time period is not specifically prohibited. Taking a throw-in and stepping over the touchline "breaks the rules". Is that cheating? Does that potentially have more of an impact than observation? Pulling someone's shirt is breaking the rules. Or is it cheating? Diving is breaking the rules. Is that cheating? Is that worse? Grabbing hold of opponents at a corner is breaking the rules. Is that cheating? Pulling soneone down very blatantly when they are through on goal is breaking the rules. Is it cheating? Normally it is regarded as so and a simple red card is normally advised. Is this worse? Most if not all managers and coaches, and players will break certain rules to attempt to gain an advantage on tbe field of play. Are any of them.worse than another? Is observing the worst of them all? Im not so sure it is. If the players can work with him then keep him. Hes the best we have had for quite a while. Other clubs will give us stick whoever the manager is so we may as well have one who has a good chance of getting us promoted.

Yeah very possible

My initial reaction was the sack the cheating c***. As the emotion has subsided and from reading this thread I may be coming round to the idea of keeping him. This is purely on a footballing basis, give the transformation he achieved. I do not and have never thoight that spying/observing other teams has much of an impact. Maybe it can do earlier in the season when teams are establishing formations ans systems of play and embedding new players. Halfway through the season and in the second half, I cant believe it has much impact at all. That doesnt make breaking a rule right but equally, its not the crime some are making it out to be. The question that needs to be answered - which perhaps we will never know in here - is what is the true character of Eckert. Is he intrinsically a cheat, pushing boundaries and stepping over boundaries in all his actions, or, was this cases of (very) poor judgement. I hope its the latter, and if it is, then there may well be a way he csn stay put. This may well be why he is currently still here; because the club know his real character. Football is a fickle sport most of the time and fans are certainly the same. If we win the first 5 games of next season all will be forgotten by our fans, most probabaly!! Other club fans will jeer us whoever is in charge!!

I expect others have already mentioned him but theres a guy called Pep who is apparently available and quite good, perhaps we should go for him? Hes also used to working at a club that has cheated along the way (alledgedly)...

I dont think that logic follows given that the expulsion is from the "Cup competition" outside the league season, and therefore Hull should win by default. The points deduction (presumably) is for the two incidents within the season. This does not permit Wrexham the 7th place team to enter the play-offs.

He was appointed on 4th January this year.

Well, its soaked in over night and now I feel calmer😂 My (less emotional) observations and thoughts about this whole situation and the actions ahead (fwiw) are this. Eckert smd all those involved are either outright cheats at worst or totally naive and guilty of ignorance and a lack of fully understanding the scope and rules of his role and football in this country. His time at Barnsley reduce this mitigation of not knowing the rules significantly, and there also meams that his boss has some culpability in not ensuring he knew a rule that is important. Internal Actions on personnel. Sack Spors for lack of control and for lack of ensuring his direct employee knew his job amd the rules. Sanction Eckert severely (final written warning if you like) if they truly believe he was unaware. Sack him immediately if they believe he deliberately broke the rules. Sack anyone else who was aware they or others were cheating. Having said that I find it very very difficult to believe that no one in the first team staff were unaware of the spying and also unaware of the rules. I find it extremely difficult to believe that Ben Garner (a former manager) was not aware. Moving forward, clear the decks of all those culpable. Employ a new manager and coaching team as quickly as possible. Secure the services of as many players as possible before the World Cup. This tournament always delays transfer business. I suspect though that these players will leave/not be signed; Peretz, Ramsdale, THB, Jander, Charles, Leo, Larin, and Azaz Others who knows. The club needs to provide the fans with as much goodwill and monetary pay back as it is possible to do. This should include at minimum - a discount for ST renewers - refunds for play-off tickets and travel costs to Boro away game - a refund or free tickets for those who went to any away game based on number - a refund or free tickets for those who went to any home game based on number These actions will take time to figure out and to action but should be of high priority. Dragon needs to remove Phil Parsons. He is ultimately responsible for the business as a whole on a day to day basis. Unwittingly perhaps he has been caught out by a employee (or group of employees) but also it seems acted poorly when faced with the situation and information. CEO positions come with high reward and also high responsibily. Also, there will be many people more capable out there. A fresh CEO, a fresh DoF, a fresh First Team Manager (and staff) is clearly a huge change all in a matter of weeks and summer break but I think this is the only way we can be seen to be taking this very seriously indeed and resetting the culture. Who knows who these people could be but I would go for DoF......Roy Hodgson (for a year or so) Manager....Scott Parker The summer will be very interesting (as it seems it always is recently) and at least we have the World Cup to distract us😂 Keep the faith. I love this club and always will even when things go very badly wrong!!

If Eckert and his fellow rule breakers are not sacked tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest, it will show even more weak leadership by the owner. Swift action is required to mitigate the damage which will take a long time to repair. After 4 exciting months, its all been ruined in a matter of days. Sad, gutted and angry.

This is the longest VAR check in history....

Probably a Skate fan...

People saying the "club cheated". This is not quite accurate from what we currently know. INDIVIDUALS within the organisation (hopefully) took it upon themselves, ie. Eckert and members of his team, to go and break the rules, unwittingly, but ultimately against the spirit of the game (and sport) and rules laid down. The CLUB need to take decisive action internally and publicly to detach these actions as much as is possible from the culture of the club, and publicly name shame and dismiss the culprits, whilst also confirming that such behaviour is 100% against the culture of our club and will not be tolerated ever. If the hierarchy cannot or do not do this they must also sell up and **** off.

If point 2 is happening, as in other clubs are saying we have illegally spied on them, my first question to those clubs is why have you mentioned it now, why not when it happened? If zi understand this correctly though this kid will Salt who is supposedly the man by the tree, is now working freelance for Villa and last Thursday was not employed by saints? This is all pretty messy and horrible and I hope Saints sue the arses off Boro and journalists/media outlets who have committed slander/libel.

Brilliant. Thanks for posting this. Ive been saying to my Saints pals that I cant imagine this will go very far as the potential legal wrangling could be very costly and lengthy, but that was just my gut instinct, and without any real legal knowledge or procedural knowledge. So your details are reassuring to tbe extent that we should not be worrying and actually may well come out on top after all is processed. 🙏

Just been told that Wrexham may well be subject to a points deduction.... My best mates colleagues mate is Michael Fenn (CFO). My mate is a CFO so moves in those circles and is the last person to gossip. Anyone else heard anything of this nature?

Awesome win. Tonda still needs to go away from our club. He is just guessing all the time.

Lets all pray that this IS his level. Can't be worse than DD or BBD or CA.....can he?🤷‍♂️😁

Now, lets be clear, this Larin guy does not excite me one bit. However, (unless I'm mistaken) his stats are for the top leagues in the respective country. Thats not to say that all of those leagues are better than the Championship but it has some relevance within the context. I am someone who will wait and see before properly judging so fingers crossed! I am pleased actually to see those leaving - including AA - leaving! It feels like we are finally clearing the decks and close to a reset. I havn't been a fan of Tonda and do think we should of gone for more experience but perhaps he is starting to show some ability with the change of formation in the last couple of games. We might make the play-offs still. Either way the end of the season needs to be as good as possible to take into next season. It would be great if we see someone else in addition to this Larin bloke today.

All this started with Reed and his public interview explaining why we "cant or couldnt" spend more than about 15m on players. This attitude or approach has just stuck and as player values have increased our spending has stayed put and even reduced meaning less quality for the same money. As you've stated those clubs like BHA and BFC etc have spent higher and so get better quality. If you do what you've always done, youll get what you've always got (or worse). SR and all the decision makers need to sort their heads out or get out. Otherwise and zi predict this will be be the reality, we will remain in this league for many years or at best become a yo-yo club.

Definitely not. He can fuck off even if he wins the next one...

Analyse this you SR Managerial twats.... Appointed Interim Manger W W W W L... 12/15 pts (80% win ratio) Appointed FT Manager W W L D L D L L...8/24 (25% win ratio over more games. Last 6 win ratio (0%) versus first 6 win ratio (83.33%) Xg means sweet f.a.. Goals and points are the ONLY stats that matter.

Ive never wanted this puppet as the manager, and thoight it was a little strange at the time when they moved Lallana to the U21s, because he was clearly the only person in that group of coaches with any significant playing experience/knowledge. SR / Spors (wrongly at the time and obviously wrongly in hindsight) must of thoight that the "team" of coaches who were doing ok for (what was it, 8 ish games) the U21s could translate their methods, procedures and processes to the first team. Theres a massive difference between a bunch of 18, 19, 20 years olds still learning and still trying to make a career and a bunch of fully-fledged and negatively experienced older professionals who even just at our club have seen more managers, better managers and more experienced managers. It was like putting an apprentice in charge of the business. SR, Spors, Eckert, the whole fucking lot of them need to fuck off now. Id even take relegation over them staying another season. I cant get to games any more but my passion for this club has never dwindled. Eckert looks like a man who has the passion of a dead man who when he was alive was the most boring person on the planet. He doesn't care like we do. Hes not even smart enough to bluff. Regardless of how he left, Lallana would of got more out of this team than Eckert. And hed look like he cared whilst doing it too. Hopefully whilst writing this hes been sacked😂