Saint86

2 points on this. Is that an actual fact that it happened re the Eastleigh kit - i.e., is it in the official record? There was a lot of rumour and media sensationalism at the time of the story breaking - but the official line seems to be that we were sent CCTV footage, not that we sent an undercover intern in Eastleigh training gear? If that was official there is no way the club could argue there was a confusion over rule breaking... And as has been said to death - the scouting and analyst team are the ones responsible for conducting scouting and for any internal management of their team (or any bullying and coercive behaviour)...there has been no evidence in the official report which shows messages or communications from Eckert to the analysts. There were messages from members of the analysts team directly encouraging the junior intern (which could be argued as pressuring him). But as far as I am aware, that is what all the messages show? So no evidence of guilt for bullying against Eckert and he has never accepted responsibility for bullying? I also find it incredibly unlikely that eckert micro managed the analyst team, he would have told them who to scout, what to watch for etc... but not specifics on when to do it, what undercover gear to wear, how to travel etc etc. They are a fairly large team themselves that report their analysis into the first team 🤷 So all of that was down to the internal management of the analysts team - they knew and broke the rules, and it's not a surprise the team head left promptly after this all happened (the only person to leave I believe). Or put another way, the first team manager of a side playing and travelling every 3-4 days post the international break, didn't have time to do the micro management of the entire analyst team and it's management structure.

If we take legal action, that is exactly the kind of argument we can make 😅

Shows we haven't learned from our handling of the EFL charges though. Really isn't rocket science from the club to respect the overseeing organisations FFS 🤦‍♂️

Slightly worryingly, I don't think Scienza hasn't looked particularly happy in any of the preseason footage so far? Considering he is also one of our star players and the fans' favourite, I'd say coverage has been fairly Spartan of him to date. Could be reading into it too much, but when combined with the news of potential moves to Italy / prem / Brazil (I.e. no smoke without fire) it's not clear that he'll be here come October. Edit... Saying all that, it's surely a good sign that Jander and Leo are 8 and 7? You would like to think they will both be here come October now!

Agreed. Seems a sensible move for him. Hopefully we include a good sell on fee as I can see him doing well there and then earning a bigger move in a couple of seasons.

I know right, and the best part is that we're not in the running for it 🤣😂

Eh? That's a significant ban and would likely derail the entire season. I would hope the club take legal action if he receives any kind of meaningful physical ban.

The backpedaling generally from Boro is fairly amusing to see. They knew about salt in advance, had their media team there ready and waiting with high powered lenses to snap a young lad (who was down the other end of the training ground on his mobile), managed to magically identify him (a junior intern from a club 500miles away) and have evidence of him spying at Oxford 5months earlier (all within hours) for them to report it to the EFL that sane afternoon... The club were stupid and broke the rules, but there is no denying that Boro basically just engineered the entire thing for an advantage in the playoffs and with a long shot of getting a bye to the playoff final... I.e., cheated. And then (despite losing to saints over 2 legs and surely not being oblivious to all the above shenanigans), their entire fanbase was entitled enough to assume they had a right to take Hull's playoff spot... Thankfully they did an early Argentina and failed to register a shot on target. Now, after all of that came to naught, they are trying to row back on it (hellberg) and their fans are trying to play it down and make it all about our fans. But the reality for them is, like it or not, they have got it coming from saints this year and they can't row their way out of it... Reap what you sow etc. 😂🤣

Molina is on video punching one of the Spanish players in the chest as he ran past him - this started the entire brawl.

They will absolutely walk the league with that kind of budget and Nuno at the helm. Very unfortunate.

They have a net circa £16M coming in, which will be in installments as per the Rodgers transfer. So assume £4M per year for the next 4 years... So they can likely outbid us should they want to drop it all on 1-2 players.

Yes, but there is no guarantee that if Leicester go pop (which is not that unlikely), anyone will cover their substantial debts (£100M) and counting. At this point, I will be surprised if they don't go into admin - they have taken out advance payments on next season's parachute money and future transfer installments. All they have coming in, is effectively the league 1 tv/prize money payments, merchandising and commercial deals, and gate receipts. Against that they have their outstanding transfer fees that they owe, legacy high wage players with no league 1 relegation clauses, a rumoured £15M per year maintenance fee for their ridiculous training ground, and feck knows what other skeletons in their closet. Selling to them is a risk.

The head of the analyst team left the club pretty promptly following that debacle.

I would be very concerned over whether they ultimately go bust and we wind up getting pennies on the pound.

Very sad but not unexpected given his illness. All the best to his loved one.