SfcPhil

He keeps putting his trust in absolute basketcases. Can't fault him as an investor, he putsoney into the club, but my god he must have the worst judgement going. I expect to see Tonda and Spors gone in the next day or two.

I could've taken being beaten by Boro over two legs, or losing in the final. I can't take this. Dragan needs to clean the decks tonight and start again. It's obviously that the culture inside the club is shambolic and not in keeping with most supporters values.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. This will have a lasting effect over the club for years to come and us fans will bare the brunt of it as usual. How can we be so incompetent? I guess this is Sport Republic that we're talking about. As for the people saying we should keep Tonda.. once our appeal fails today, he's gone, along with anyone else who was complicit in this whole saga, and rightly so. All of our results from the last seven months are open to scrutiny now, even if we didn't spy before them.

I think some context would go a long way as well. If everything that's been in the press is true, that an employee of our club has recorded/streamed footage of a Boro training session back to the club (reported that he was made to delete all files when the sorry first broke) then I'd like to know how long he was there and what did he witness. If it was the team taking penalties for example, then it bares no relevance to the tie, as no penalties were taken. If it was Boro playing a different shape to normal or build up play etc, obviously that changes how we set up, which gives us an advantage. What advantage if any did we gain over the two legs from what he witnessed? You could argue being caught and charged actually had a massive negative effect on our performance in the first half at the Riverside and first 30-35 mins at St Mary's. Obviously this has still broken the 72 hour rule and I gather we'll be charged accordingly for this. The main thing for me in this whole scenario is that the EFL have no time. They won't cancel the final, or play it at a different venue. It's worth too much to them, it's their showcase final. If we're kicked out next week, we'll appeal it to high heaven and the final won't take place next weekend. All in all though, it's an absolute mess that the club have created and I hope all persons involved in it are no longer at the club after the dust settles. We should be looking forward to another playoff final, instead it's clouded in controversy.

Isn't the whole point that this is the EFL vs Saints. It's completely irrelevant what club these breaches have been committed against isn't it? Old Gibbo doesn't like not being in control, does he.

I've just gone back and listened to the whole clips on YouTube (had only seen shorts on Facebook, which seems to have been heavily edited) and like you say he has been pretty consistent. The two parts of the videos I saw back to back were completely contrasting. Bloody clickbait 😂 For what's it worth, it seems most people outside of Middlesbrough believe it'll be a fine and possible points deduction. Even my skate mate (I know, those two words shouldn't go together) thought it was laughable that they were even mentioning kicking us out.

I used to like Simon Jordan (I know he's not everyone's cup of tea, but he's straight talking) but 2 days ago he was laughing off skygate 2.0 and he described this whole fiasco as "bad form on the part of Southampton" rather than seeing it as full blown cheating. Switch to yesterday, he went on an absolute meltdown like we'd shit on his doorstep overnight, saying we should pay Steve Gibson 10% of the money that we'd gain if we win promotion. Honestly I was embarrassed for him when I watched it, he didn't seem to take a breath for a minute. Obviously his mate Steve didn't like that he was so blasé the day before.

Like others have said, it all feels absolutely desperate from the Boro side, especially since last night. Seems to be ramping up, day by day. Leak more to their journo mates, trying to force the EFL's hand for harsher punishments. 99% of this didn't have to be in the media, they've decided it should be. All we should know is what we heard in the EFL statement and the corresponding Saints statement that were complying with the investigation. That's it. They've attempted to drag the club and this young lad (leaking his name and picture to the tabloids) through the mud to try and gain an advantage over the two legs, and it didn't work.

Can't wait for tomorrow night. Let's get behind the boys like we did against West Brom and I can't see Boro winning. Worry about the off the pitch issues after the game, but before and during let's give it our all. COYR!

Thing is, I think we would've won over two legs anyway. But now if we do, it's because we spied on them. Definitely taints this season, as we must've done it previously and got away with it.

Why oh why Saints.. just why. Makes you wonder, is this why we're on an 19 game unbeaten run? 😂 Jokes aside, shocking decision from the club. We need to get promoted even more so now, as we'll have a hefty fine and a points deduction next season if not you'd imagine.

We could win this

I'd take Azaz off and put Larin on and continually cross the ball into him and Stewart for the last half an hour. Could be fun.

It's alright, we're winning on xG. Think Archers chance alone was more than Leicester's three goals combined.