sadoldgit

I take it Tonda Eckert comes under the “hipster” bracket? Would you prefer him or some old has-been who has been sacked from more clubs than he cares to remember? Being a “hipster” doesn’t preclude you from being a decent coach. Any coach who wins a lot of matches will win the fan base over. As for the current radio silence from the club. Although the comms dept. have gone quiet you can imagine that there are plenty of lawyers for the club, the players’ agents, the coaching team etc. all beavering away in the background.

Alex, you have been on this forum long enough to know that as soon as you site tenuous links between various family members, family member’s friends and/or tradespeople, your post loses all credibility.

Given that the number of votes cast hasn’t changed a great deal, a lot of people have changed their minds from yes to no now they have some time to digest the situation. We live in the age of cancel culture. Make a mistake and you are sacked, out of here, a Pyrrha. No question of any other outcome. No question of rehabilitation. Gone. It was suggested by one poster that Boris Johnson was sacked over a piece of cake. He wasn’t. He lost his job because he was totally incompetent. He cocked up so many times that he was unable to form a Cabinet because he had lost the support of his party. Tonda Eckert is not incompetent. Far from it. He is guilty though of carrying out a practice that some people think is the worst crime in football and others just laugh at because they can’t believe it is such a big deal here. We have done the arguments to death and as with most threads are down to circular arguments again which is a shame because, for a time, this was the best thread here for many years. As with most things there is no right or wrong, just differing opinions. It would make a pleasant change though if we all accepted that he had done wrong and has caused the club huge anguish, but with the club at heart rather than personal gain. He dragged us from a dispirited team fighting a relegation spot into a team fulfilling its potential and to the cusp of promotion. He gave us a team playing some of the best football we have seen in years. In doing so he broke a rule so unimportant that no other league in the world has. He employed an analytical technique that is commonplace in his own country and in many other leagues in the world. It is called scouting the opposition. Strangely this isn’t seen as a problem in the EFL either, depending on when you do it. So then, proportionality. Do you fire the best coach you have had in years, who has done his all to give us what we wanted, a team to be proud of and a real shot at promotion? Or do you take the PR hit, eat a large slice of humble pie and stand by your man instead of throwing him to the wolves? Ask yourself this, if you go for the former who actually gets any benefit? Us or our opponents? Does the need to find someone to blame and to punish extend as far as seeing the club possibly end up with another dud manager (given our track record, a real possibility) What point does it serve to sack him? As has been said, there is zero integrity in football. All clubs cheat in various ways. No one is going to suddenly have a higher opinion of the club if we do because a “crime” has been committed and our name is currently in the mud anyway. The idea that no one will want to sponsor us or play for us is frankly risible. Of course they will. Professional people make professional decision and will see this for what it is, a situation that has been blown up out of all proportion. If it were multiple errors of judgement, fine, get rid. It wasn’t though and clearly the those at the club involved in this decision thought that it was no big deal if caught, which would have been more than just one man. Spors and Eckert have shown that they are both good enough at their jobs to be worth fighting to keep. Maybe it is worth parking your need to add further punishment to the club, accept that people can make a big mistake but still be worth keeping faith with, swallow pride, find some level of forgiveness and stand by them. Just an opinion.

The players love him (possibly) He took a team with a frail mentality and took them to the Championship play offs with a 20 match unbeaten run He is a winner He is a top analyst We could be losing a gem only to sign another dud I am sure I could think of a few more but the pub is calling…

Sponsors want their names plastered all over the place. Players get booked if they take their shirt off when they score because the sponsor wants its name up front. There will be a lot of extra interest in the Saints next season. We should be thinking about charging more, not worrying about not getting any sponsors.

Yep, so the poll and over two hundred pages of opinions have been a complete waste of time. 😉

I’ve just seen it too, on the Newsnow Southampton site.

We have all seen his pressers and his demeanour on the touchline. He is not a touch feely guy and tends to keep his emotions in check. As I have said before, texts can come across as a bit full on, hence emojis. Eckert doesn’t strike me as an emoji guy either, so imagine that this has more to do with how he comes across rather than bullying.

You constantly demonstrated that you have overblown the severity of the “crime” in the same way Steve Gibson did. All of the things you mention are available to scrutinise on every match that the opposition play on video. Every throw in, every free kick, every corner, everything. If it was such a heinous crime, as has been pointed out endlessly on here, it would be banned around the world. The only reason it is banned in the EFL is that Leeds did it and they had to do something in response. If Bielsa hadn’t done it we would not be having this conversation and SFC would probably be back in the EPL. If it then came to light that Eckert had been spying on the opposition in those circumstances, how would you react?

If we had been given a large fine along with a suspended points deduction but had been allowed to play in the final, would we even be having this discussion?

The point is that the punishment should fit the crime.

He wasn’t sacked for eating cake. The issue here is not whether a rule was broken, it is the lack of proportionality to the crime. Break a very important rule, get a big punishment. Break a minor rule, get a minor punishment. Get it yet?

If you are referring to Boris Johnson, then this just might qualify for the dumbest post of the thread.

Why would the prospect of challenging for promotion deter anyone from signing for us? If he stays the practice will not continue. Eckert has proved that he is a very good coach and has turned players fortunes around. I don’t think it will be an issue. We are talking about footballers here after all!

That’s not the point, as you know full well. The point is that it is a ridiculous rule and although rules shouldn’t be broken, some transgressions are worse than others. Do you honestly think what we have done is worse than diving for a penalty or rolling around on the ground trying to get an opponent set off?

EPL - spy/scout on other teams whenever you like? Knock yourselves out. EFL - spy/scout on other teams whenever you like? Knock yourselves out (unless it is after 72 hours before a game and then you become disgusting cheats and are the scum of the earth). This is what this is all about. For God’s sake, get some perspective. We broke some dumb rules. We shouldn’t have done. We have paid a disproportionate and very heavy price. Why throw away something positive just because an administrative body is bloody useless?

Of course I do. Do you realise how much he changed things around so that they got into this position. I’m guessing no.

From a relegation fight to challenging for promotion. Players underperforming to back to their full potential. Frail team mentality to full on self belief. Whatever they think about “Spygate,” I’d be very surprised if they didn’t want to play for him again.

Happy with that. My neighbour is an utter knobhead and he is a big Wet Spam supporter. Might just break open some bubbly tonight!

Given that he seemed keen to talk about it before it all went nuclear I imagine that he is wanting to have his say. I also imagine that the club are telling him to keep quiet until they have got all their ducks in a row and comms agreed. The FA involvement doesn’t help but they can still do club/Tonda stuff before any further action comes forward.

I have only seen an exchange of texts but they can come across as a bit terse sometime, that is why we have emojis. Perhaps Tonda was in a hurry and forgot to add a 😘 to his text?

Maybe Dragan told him to keep quiet? It seems very odd that there was so little from our side. A Head of Comms, you would assume, would have been gagging to respond.

I’m not so sure about Cortese!

Interesting that it was originally about 2/3rds wanting him gone but now the anger has died down a bit it has moved closer to 50-50. As others have said, I think it is down to the players. If they want him to stay, SR need to back him to the hilt. As a message of goodwill (and penance) I also think that SR should give the players their promotion bonuses.

They released a statement in 20th May and sounded confident that they would overturn the sanction on appeal. We all know how that went! Nothing since but given that there is an internal investigation going on, decisions are being made about how to deal with it and move on and that the FA are also involved, it is crucial that the next club statement is spot on. Every is gutted and deflated. Put out the wrong system and things will only get worse, if that is possible. The last statement a few days ago said that there would be another in due course. I would prefer full chapter and verse rather than another holding statement and now that the final is over and out of the way l’m sure we will see something soon.