Saint86

Son in law approach is a good summation. Having cocked up the handling of the entire thing, we now seem to have allowed Blackmore to become our public face and conscience... Which sadly is another error as he's just running around attacking the club, condemning Eckert for bullying (with no actual evidence as yet), and calling the club morally repugnant in seemingly every interview / peice he does. None of which is helping the club and is in fact doing the opposite - we need to stop feeding the media scrum and try to stabilise the club and take our own action. The media has already had more than it's pound of flesh, and the club's BBC correspondent doesn't need to keep feeding it with more negative takes about the club.

Mate, are you serious? He has 46 games to watch players etc., by the end of the season - all the data in the world. You've just highlighted his impressive attention to detail and analytical skills to counter players... But apparently you think that's happened without any credit given to his analytical skills 🤦‍♂️ There are some seriously gaslit people at this point tbh. For the love of god, would you lot snap out of the media blitz and realise how out of proportion this has all got, and how warped your perspectives have got. Southampton is your club!!! We broke the rules and scouted opposition training inside an arbitrary window that doesn't exist anywhere else in major European football. A bit naughty, cheating for the EFL rules sure, but fairly minor in significance to many offences that go on inside football, and absolutely amateur hour by the club re execution and handling... but then equally Woop de bloody do - bielsa did it for an entire season (rule or no rule) and he got a 200k fine and no ban. Nothing has significantly changed in terms of the advantage gained in 7years - we have just been stitched up horrendously and given a ludicrous punishment. We should have received a fine and small points deduction and the whole world knows it. But outside this, Eckert remains a class coach on the pitch. And how anyone can dismiss his analytical skills, attention to detail, and his drilling of the side is beyond me. Some people are making out like analysis of players and team tactics offers zero useful evidence until it's the last training day before the game, and then that's the only data that matters... And then trying to say that tonda's run was due to that? So what - hes a superb analyst for that last training session, but then completely useless for the other 99% of data available? (I.e. the actual matches) 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ I guess it was a bloody good job those last sessions showed that all the teams we scouted suffered against 4-2-3-1 formations with target men centre forwards! That was a close call, we'd have been stuck doing 5 at the back with AA up top for the rest of the season if it wasn't for these secret spying sessions - tonda far to clueless to have figured that out without cheating right? 😵 If he is guilty of bullying it's a separate issue. 100% not acceptable. But telling staff to buck up the quality of their work is not bullying. I am yet to see actual evidence of bullying, just more media blitz against the club and further trial by media that our own fans are quite happy to jump onto the bandwagon of. What I've seen is a reference to salt expressing morale uncertainty, and an unrelated reference to Eckert saying to improve the quality of the scouting reports. And ultimately, even now, everyone involved is due a fair hearing on what's actually happened - even parsons 🌚😐. Besides, with this media shit storm, the fa will ban him, almost certainly. The EFL and the fa have to look tough on smaller and vulnerable clubs because they do absolutely sod all to the real cheats.

You'll have to bear with Lighthouse I fear, reading his earlier post I can only assume he's on his way to fratton to grovel for an apology from the fans of our fishy friends over what some of you rapscallions have been writing on here. After that he's likely heading to Wembley to repeat the feat to Boro and Hull fans tomorrow. 😛😝 Said in jest lighthouse, please don't ban me for committing acts of bad banter on the forum (I think we've all had enough of Draconian sanctions this past week 🥲)

I agree with your overall sentiment. Although I am struggling to read 3 and 4 and wonder how on earth parsons is still here.

There appears to be a Phill parsons sized hole at the top of the club. Funnily enough, I'm not even sure that sacking him would change it... We might even be in the territory of "no leadership is better than bad leadership"... Regardless, we need someone serious in at top level, be it as CEO or elsewhere.

The EFL, media, and other clubs smell blood and will want saints to be as weak as possible so that they can keep making hay themselves. So obviously to appease all of those parties, our parsons-esq section of fans will happily prostrate themselves before all an sundry in the hope that they'll stop saying hurty words and start being nice to saints again (albeit when we're in turmoil and plummeting down the football league).

I was pretty proud of our 2nd division side knocking out the champions elect of England, premier league Fulham, and being 82min and a deflected shot away from knocking out man city at wembley - none of which were influenced by any illegal scouting... Did you not enjoy that, were you not proud of it? Those results weren't fake. This was a fantastic team and tonda is a superb footballing coach. We're being hammered in the court of public opinion for scouting opposition training inside an arbitrary window that doesn't exist in any major leagues. Yes it's a bit naughty, yes it's beyond stupid and amateur, but it's not the big deal the press have made it out to be. Bielsa did the exact same thing and didn't get banned by the FA... Let's see what happens in today's world of social media echo chambers and people that struggle more and more to think for themselves rather than doing what they're pressured to do/think. If Boro can gaslight our own fans into comparing Eckert to mason greenwood, i dread to think what the FA will feel empowered to do. The whole thing is a superb example of how readily most people can be manipulated by the media and social media, and the dangers of echo chambers.

I'm not wanting to go down the rabbit hole too far, but I do think labelling it as just "suspicions" is being very very kind to Boro. According to the official report. The same day they first encountered and caught/snapped salt, they also had evidence of him (someone the were yet to encounter) being at Oxford united months earlier in December. So for this to be fully innocent and as it seems - boro had evidence of a junior intern/analyst (that they were yet to encounter, didn't know, and had to go through a process of id'ing) being at another clubs training ground on the very same day that they encountered him, (and before they even knew who he was). See points 15-17 of the report. This is before they allegedly tracked his banking card, before parsons went to Gibson and admitted anything etc. To be true, they would have had to have id'd salt first themselves, then written to all clubs including Oxford, gotten Oxford to track back through their own CCTV from 4months earlier to find someone that looked like salt from the Boro image, and successfully identified Salt and provided that evidence back to Boro for them to present the evidence to the efl - all in a matter of hours on the afternoon / evening of the Thursday 7th. All of which was before this story broke and was in the media etc. I would say that sequence of dates/timings is very unlikely and looks like a smoking gun which hull could potentially use - i.e., would it stand up to a legal scrutiny if Boro were required to supply evidence / messages etc. (in the same way that saints were as part of this charge). It effectively implies that Boro knew who he was and that he'd be there (presumably from from the "whistleblower" (presumably Jason Taylor?)), and that their "media team" was there, ready and waiting with high powered photography equipment to get a snap of him. Which means we were never gaining anything from scouting that training session, and that Boro weren't therefore disadvantaged in the semi final - i.e., result should stand. Hull should be promoted or we should have played the final - but with a hefty fine and -4 points. Sadly, I think Boro will get away with all of this and likely get promoted. But the reality is they really do look to have used saints' indiscretions as their own extra life in the playoffs. Nothing in that excuses us for being idiots and illegally scouting clubs training sessions for an advantage, but the punishment we've received is well OTT... sadly Parsons and co. have committed suicide for the club after the fact on that front. You can probably make the case that Boro being pre-prepared for all of this is part of why their media campaign was so effective as well. They have absolutely hammered saints off the pitch. Parson heading us up was like sending a lamb into the lions dens.

Surely heads start rolling soon..

Don't think they can seriously do that before any legal proceedings with saints are closed. But the rule should obviously be scrapped. If boro are in the league next season, we should do surveillance on their next opponents before every fixture. See if we can catch them at it.

Isn't he one of the ones on here that always starts Character assassination rumours when stuff starts going wrong? Take it with a pinch of salt if i were you. THB was basically ready to have Eckert's babies he was so impressed with him. Players absolutely loved playing under him - you don't go 20unbeaten in the league and beat Arsenal/Fulham if you hate your manager.

Any ban the FA give him will be for England only. If SR let him go, he will be in budesliga next season. He looks to be a top top manager in the making.

Has merits tbf.

Why detonate the club entirely over what is in reality a common place occurrence in the world of football, and for which (in this case) we were set up for, and which we've been trialled in a kangaroo court. The damage has been done to saints regardless of whether we get rid of Eckert and Spors - but our chances of having a good summer transfer window will be a hell of a lot worse without spors, ditto our chances of hiring a good new manager. And similarly, the only reason we were even in the playoffs is because of Eckert and 20 game unbeaten run in the league. The FA may ban Eckert, the players may not want to play for him after this... But the whole league will be desperate for us to sack the best manager in the league for only one reason - because it means we are weaker and will take us out of the picture - What Guan has said on this is absolutely spot on. If we can keep him employed and conduct a reasonable disciplinary process, it should be considered. It is not the time to detonate the entire club because emotions are still raw and the media are saying hurty words.

If the players will play for him and he isn't banned. We should keep him. But those are 2 big ifs. He's a young manager with only half a season's experience who made a bad error. But the buck doesn't stop with him. No supervision or compliance above him, and in reality what we've done is commonplace. Saints are damned now whatever we do, but the league and media smell blood in the water and would want nothing better than to see us sack the best manager in the division.

Sheaf, most clubs do it - if not basically all clubs. Its not even a rule in any other major league and is common practice. Its not a big deal ffs. Step outside of the media narrative. On this one occasion, we've been setup specifically by the whistle-blower and Boro, and then rinsed in the court of public opinion in an orchestrated media frenzy / witchhunt. The punishment is extreme, a potential (slow) club killer. Yes we were a little bit naughty, but more importantly we were spectacularly stupid and our handling of it was beyond incompetent to boot. Saints (fans/media/club) need to stop the self flagellation/prostrating ASAP. Blackmore more than anyone else. I love his passion for the club, but he's hurting us every time he goes on air to give lip service to the establish boro narrative calling us morally repugnant etc. That is not going to help us. There is blood in the water, every club and the media all see it - and being weak now is the wrong course of action. There is a narrow window where we can mitigate the impacts of this and try to rebuild effectively for next season. It is time to close ranks, shut out the noise, and sort ourselves out. Take steps to repair the damage with the fans, the staff, and the players - and forget everything outside the club. The world will move on - spurs/west ham relegation, the CL final, the world cup, new city manager, 115 charges etc... This summer and next season is what matters to saints... Repeatedly going on air and giving oxygen to the idea that we're morally repugnant because we sent a kid with an iphone to a few training sessions is just furthering Parsons' self harm mantra.

The NO.1 signing this summer should be Peretz - if there is any way/shape/form its possible, the club should do everything they can to make it happen. He has won us more points than any other player IMO.

Interesting thought, would we potentially try and send any of Salt, Tonda, or Spors to Goztepe... Depending on what ultimately comes out, i am not sure any of them could ever work for saints again... but the SR group may try to keep them on.

You only have to look at the club trajectory under Cortese and after Cortese. He saw us to back to back promotions and a Wembley final win in the 3 seasons post his arrival. He bought in Poch, and the squad, coaching, and scouting setup he oversaw gave us the momentum in the following years to break into the top 8 and europe. He spent other people's money is the most common criticism levelled at him re the football club... all i can say is that can you imagine where we'd have been if he'd been spending Solak's money...

I suspect emotions are very raw and will remain that way for a while. But right now nothing can happen as the window is shut. The club have to move very quickly to reset the coaching and backroom setup, and to try and assuage / mitigate the toxicity and anger that is building. Fundamentally, it was (until this point), and amazing season. The bond between the players doesn't go because of this, nor does the bond with the fans. Get rid of the back eggs that have caused this furore, get rid of those that really don't want to be here, then close ranks and try to go again. IMO, we need to go out right now and get a proper name manager in. A bit like Koeman during the summer of discontent. In many ways, the on the field impact is like we lost the playoff final - the same players will want to move as in that eventuality. The rest can be healed - if the club get it right. What matters now is that the right decisions are taken, and that the club does all it can to make amends with the fans, the players, and with the media / public perception. There is a scenario where they pull this out of the fire, and we're sat here next may having rebuilt the club and righted these wrongs... but i reckon its about a 10-20% chance, and there is a higher risk that we slip to mid table obscurity or lower, with a poor squad and money wasted, lose the parachute payments, and start sliding quite quickly to oblivion. Its imperative that they sort out the DoF position asap - i.e., if Spors is going, from a purely sporting perspective that needs resolving almost before anything else can happen squad/coaching side.

Could we see JWP returning? 1 year left on his contract and our midfield is about to be decimated.

Leicester have won the premier League, the fa cup, and the championship in recent years 😅.

This is superb.

The sad fact is that he is a very good manager. So silly what has happened. I just cannot see a way for him to stay on sadly.

What chance do they have. They were told until yesterday they were playing Saints, now they have 2 days to prep for the EFL board members club, who conversely have been preparing to play Hull since last tuesday. Shocking. Hull should obviously take their own legal action against the EFL if they are not promoted.