saintwbu

A decent player with an injury record on par with Ross Stewart

Jander would be top of my list to keep, maybe on a par with THB, Scienza close behind. However I also think Jander most likely to leave, to a decent German club i’d expect.

Presume that Stewart was due a pay rise on promotion like most players, and maybe we’d have re-negotiated down to his current rate if we got promoted with perhaps an extra year, or stuck with the current terms if we didn’t. I have to say, for a guy who’s spent most of the peak of his career injured, and is now over 30, it’s a hell of a gamble to leave yourself out of contract whilst heading to play more football over the summer. I hope he knows what he’s doing, for his sake!

Ah, I see, you were one who wanted him sacked. That explains it.

There’s no frothing at the mouth that I can see, and it doesn’t feel like it’s the fringes of the story when it seems to be the main aspect of why others want to see Tonda sacked - because he’s a ‘bully and the club shouldn’t employ someone who is such.

That’s a long post just to say you didn’t read a word of what I wrote. We can all think and assume what we want, but the reality is that the facts of the case as far as we know do not support it. Whether the known facts are the whole story, I suspect not, but whilst on here we can theorise all we like, in my opinion the media have a responsibility to report the known facts accurately. Seeing journalists suggest it’s a crime for Tonda to not be sacked because ‘he bullies interns’ is not fact based, it’s purely based on some headlines that circulated in the midst of the investigation. Now those headlines have taken hold and as most people don’t read the detail themselves, it’s the predominant story I see regarding Tonda’s character online. There is absolutely nothing in those EFL details, that I have seen, that shows Tonda Eckert to be a bully.

With respect, i’m not. I’m not aware that any of those messages came from the manager? Also like I said, they weren’t pressured to deliver by their boss, they were asked to do something by their colleagues and the supposed pressure was that it was something desired by the manager. We can all draw conclusions that Tonda might have been exerting pressure himself, directly or indirectly, but the facts of the EFL notes do not provide examples of this - suggestions of such from the EFL and the media do not seem to be backed by facts but more by optics.

Feeling under pressure to do something, is not the same as being pressured to do something by the manager, and is not the same as being bullied. From what I read in the EFL notes, the analyst felt ‘under pressure’. I’m sure a lot of people feel ‘under pressure’ when someone senior to them at work requests something and it’s put upon them to deliver it - that’s the nature of hierarchy, feels pretty natural. I don’t recall anything in the notes to say Tonda had put anybody under pressure, and certainly not that he’d bullied anyone.

He does seem to have struggled when it’s a three game week, as was the case at Leicester. But for almost all of the unbeaten run he was superb, there’s a reason he started against Arsenal and City and Shea didn’t, just watch the Azaz goal against City to see the role he plays. Presumably you don’t rate Downes either if you care about goals and assists.

It must just be me who doesn’t really see it - the ‘moments’ he’s had this season are what will get him a big move, but i don’t think we’re much weaker without him at all, he feels like a passenger too often to me.

We also sold Edwards and Armstrong in January, without buying anyone, so we have brought a little bit of money in already. With Ramsdale and Sugawara likely to bring in fees this summer, maybe the need to sell isn’t quite so severe as we think. Charles is the obvious sell, not a regular starter but still seemingly in demand, whilst THB being linked away back in January makes it feel like it’s inevitable he goes this summer. Jander is the one i’d most like to keep, but equally given all the suggestion of being homesick for months, it feels like he’s probably off back to Germany.

Suggestions that we’ve ’done it every game’ probably need to bear in mind that for most clubs it just wouldn’t be possible. Do you reckon you can stand by a tree at Arsenal or Man City’s training ground? The three we’ve been charged with have been an open training complex (Boro), a team training at a local club that we were able to infiltrate (Ipswich/Eastleigh) and whilst I don’t know what Oxford’s training ground looks like, going by their actual stadium i’d imagine it’s not particularly sophisticated. I too was of the opinion it’s likely to have been more than 3 games, but given that we had a whistleblower and an intern saving his own skin, and yet none of them brought up more than these 3 games then i’m starting to be convinced that maybe we really were only able to do it on these occasions. Whether we would’ve liked to have done it more than that, the answer is probably yes, but there any many clubs where it just would not have been possible at all (thankfully).

I guess the question is, was it really not possible to find a panel of 3 individuals who did not once play for, or legally represent, one of the two clubs involved? Doesn’t feel like it would be that difficult to do so, but maybe it was.

That’s the thing though, this isn’t any other industry - Football is probably the industry to be in if you want previous transgressions to be forgotten

When we promoted our unknown U21 manager to replace yet another terrible SR appointment, as we sat just above possible back-to-back relegations, who would have thought he’d make such an impression that the majority of people still want him despite him single handedly costing us promotion due to spying 😂 Funny old game! (I’m in the majority)

Premier League teams might beg to differ

Google suggests FA opened an investigation but he and Leeds were just warned and it would be further investigated if more came to light. Sounds like a precedent to me…

The reality is, if the situation allows (players happy, FA go easy) and the club think Tonda really is the real deal, then he would stay. This is football, it’s not the real world, an individual’s value dictates the consequences rather than the outrage - look at Suarez, Greenwood and plenty more. However the reality is that the players won’t be having him, the FA will ban him, and he will be sacked. I hope Spors stays, if you’re going to lose the manager then you don’t want to also lose the guy that has to pick the replacement, otherwise it’ll be a very long summer.

He might see the results in the sense that he sees the dossier the analysts prepare on the opponent - it doesn’t mean he knows how that information was gathered

For me the thing that stood out is that I don’t remember a single game where I thought we were good for the entirety of it. Some will mention Swansea at home, as he does in that interview, but I remember leaving that game thinking yes we should have won but I still didn’t think we looked a good, cohesive team who were in control. Under Tonda we were the better in all of those first games he won, and every single one of them was better than any game under Will Still.

He was brilliant before his injury, Manning had been terrible and our uptick in form started with Welington coming in for him. However, fortunately, Manning has looked better than ever since getting his place back. Was really impressed by Welington on Saturday, he handled Cherki in particular brilliantly.

For all that they’ve got wrong, Sport Republic do seem to have an eye for a good central midfielder; Lavia, Alcaraz, Fernandes and now Jander.

Incredibly composed for someone who’s probably barely into double figures of senior appearances

Lack of midfield control whenever he plays - i’m sure someone will have some stats to say otherwise, but it feels like we often don’t play that well in games he starts, even back to the last Championship season.

I am surprised he’s been charged only on the basis that the referee saw it and gave a free kick at the time. Wasn’t aware that underestimating the severity was grounds to get involved, otherwise you’d think there’d have been tonnes of these intervened on every season.