Tonda Eckert - Official: Contract until 2027

[Toussaint]

20 minutes ago, stknowle said:

I’m going to nail my negative colours to the mast and say this is going to turn out to be another massive mistake. And yes I really do hope I am wrong. Sorry!!

It may turn out to be a massive mistake, but with our history that could apply to any appointee. If there is a mistake it’s in making it permanent at this stage. 

[stknowle]

3 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

It would be amazing if you had the ability to have a debate and articulate your points or views clearly with people, but I don't think you have the brain cells for it. 

You purposely miss the point with most posts, to justify throwing your voice around at the fans of the club you supposedly support.

You spend more time attacking the clubs fans than you actually do talking about 'football'.

Plus 1. Proper oddball.

[Charlie Wayman]

His appointment at least brings much needed clarity for him, for Lallana and the U21's and for the fans. Our chances of recovering enough to challenge for promotion this season are low anyway so if this doesn't work out not that much has been lost.

Edited yesterday at 14:42 by Charlie Wayman

[Matthew Le God]

6 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

His appointment at least brings much needed clarity for him, for Lallana and the U21's and for the fans. Our chances of recovering enough to challenge for promotion this season are low anyway so if this doesn't work out not that much has been lost.

Why? 🤔 28 games left, 84 points to play for and only 5 points from the playoffs!

[Willo of Whiteley]

We’ll get promoted 

[tdmickey3]

43 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

We’ll get promoted 

When

[stevematthews635]

So many pathetic, whiney brats on here.  Still, Birmingham are crap so that's the only reason we're winning

I'd hate to be in the trenches with most of you.

 

Pathetic

[Singapore Saint]

3 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

OK so you clearly haven't actually read and understood my point then, and have resorted to a pathetic straw man argument instead.

I wouldn't have minded losing so much if we had put in a good performance and been unlucky. But that's not what happened is it. It was men v boys as we got schooled all over the pitch by a technically limited but well organised team.

The scoreline and the fact that we only lost in the dying moments don't tell the whole story. We were incredibly lucky to take the lead from that penalty because up until that point Millwall had completely nullified our attack and we had created nothing.

That's why I have my doubts that Eckert will bring us anything better than mid-table this season. With the resources we have, there is no way we should be settling for that.

Are Saints not allowed to have an off day? Even Man City has off days 🙄

[Matthew Le God]

2 hours ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Our chances of recovering enough to challenge for promotion this season are low 

 

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Why? 🤔 28 games left, 84 points to play for and only 5 points from the playoffs!

Only 3 points now

Edited yesterday at 16:57 by Matthew Le God

[washsaint]

Weren't Birmingham terrible?  If we'd played a decent side we'd have lost.

Tonda doesn't know what he's doing and we should have a proper manager in place.

[tdmickey3]

Game management is very poor

[Baird of the land]

12 minutes ago, washsaint said:

Weren't Birmingham terrible?  If we'd played a decent side we'd have lost.

Tonda doesn't know what he's doing and we should have a proper manager in place.

Birmingham are above us in the table and we should have scored 7/8. We also got to rest 2 key players for last 20 minutes, ahead of Tuesdays game.

[Osvaldorama]

I was one that wanted a more experienced coach. 
 

But you can’t argue with the results or the improvements. We look like a different team. Long may it continue. 

[Wade Garrett]

Good response to last week.  Also astute to bring Edwards on to shore up our right side.

 

[saintant]

18 goals scored in 6 games is very impressive. Next job is to make us more secure defensively. If Tonda can do that we'll be a reaĺly decent team. 

[Mboto Gorge]

5 hours ago, stknowle said:

Plus 1. Proper oddball.

.

Edited 22 hours ago by Mboto Gorge

[pimpin4rizeal]

Kinda mixed feelings on him myself results are good so far so credit for that. But I think it also rewards sports republics stupidity and probably sets the tone for them to do stuff like this in the future wouldn’t be  at all surprised to see lallana as our next manager.

also feel like we actually have a fantastic for the level attack that is carrying us a lot more then his tactics . Let’s be honest scienza azaz Armstrong and fellows looks way better then the attack we got promoted with.  Which begs the question was will still really that shit or is eckhart a great manager ?

[Lighthouse]

1 minute ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Kinda mixed feelings on him myself results are good so far so credit for that. But I think it also rewards sports republics stupidity and probably sets the tone for them to do stuff like this in the future wouldn’t be  at all surprised to see lallana as our next manager.

also feel like we actually have a fantastic for the level attack that is carrying us a lot more then his tactics . Let’s be honest scienza azaz Armstrong and fellows looks way better then the attack we got promoted with.  Which begs the question was will still really that shit or is eckhart a great manager ?

What stupidity do you feel is being rewarded? They gave him the job because he won four out of five games and had us playing some of the best football we’ve played since Ralph. There are many valid criticisms of S.R. But this seems like a reasonably sensible decision based on solid evidence to me.

[St Louis]

10 hours ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Brighton's manager is 32 so a good benchmark for Eckert in a higher division.

9 hours ago, Badger said:

He had managed a promotion at his previous club. 

Correct, the previous club (St Pauli) took a risk on him at 29 years old, and it worked out well for them. Winning 10 games in a row and promotion to the Bundesliga... so you never know!

Edited 22 hours ago by St Louis

[pimpin4rizeal]

4 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

What stupidity do you feel is being rewarded? They gave him the job because he won four out of five games and had us playing some of the best football we’ve played since Ralph. There are many valid criticisms of S.R. But this seems like a reasonably sensible decision based on solid evidence to me.

If we go back to before he got chance as interim manager not one person on here would have wanted him to be giving the job . Every other time we have promoted youth coaches wigley gray selles etc they have all been terrible on paper he should have never have gotten the chance . 
 

imo sports republic have kinda lucked out on idea that’s gonna fail 9 out of ten times . They will now probably see this as their smart out of the box thinking is  ahead of the game . =rewarding stupidity 

[Harry_SFC]

38 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

What stupidity do you feel is being rewarded? They gave him the job because he won four out of five games and had us playing some of the best football we’ve played since Ralph. There are many valid criticisms of S.R. But this seems like a reasonably sensible decision based on solid evidence to me.

Don't often agree with you but I do here. I was a bit sceptical after the Millwall game and wasn't sure if we would bounce back but we did and the credit has to go to the manager. He's really turned us around so far. 

[Dark Munster]

44 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

Kinda mixed feelings on him myself results are good so far so credit for that. But I think it also rewards sports republics stupidity and probably sets the tone for them to do stuff like this in the future wouldn’t be  at all surprised to see lallana as our next manager.

also feel like we actually have a fantastic for the level attack that is carrying us a lot more then his tactics . Let’s be honest scienza azaz Armstrong and fellows looks way better then the attack we got promoted with.  Which begs the question (i) was will still really that shit or (ii) is eckhart a great manager ?

(i) Yes.

(ii) Far too early to tell.

[Dusic]

1 hour ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

If we go back to before he got chance as interim manager not one person on here would have wanted him to be giving the job . Every other time we have promoted youth coaches wigley gray selles etc they have all been terrible on paper he should have never have gotten the chance . 
 

imo sports republic have kinda lucked out on idea that’s gonna fail 9 out of ten times . They will now probably see this as their smart out of the box thinking is  ahead of the game . =rewarding stupidity 

In what way is it rewarding stupidity to have taken time to assess how someone does in a role you might give them, and then when they have clearly shown they are highly capable, giving them that role?

Rather than rewarding stupidity its actually rewarding recruiting strong people into the club in the first place and then rewarding not making a knee jerk decision, either to give him the role without seeing how he handled it or to just get in <insert generic manager who has been in the championship lots of times before> because thats what some fans thought they should do.

[S-Clarke]

The Birmingham win was a big one for me, showing that he's been able to lift the squad after a defeat is something other managers have struggled with.

Now this is his gig, his team. I want to see how he handles January and what he does with the squad, I think we're still missing 1 or 2 - but you cannot argue with what he's done since he came in.

QPR - A really poor showing in terms of game management, but got the win

Wednesday - Decent, not amazing, but comfortable.

Charlton - totally blew them away. best we've played in many years.

Leicester - again - blew them away in a short burst. Game was done.

Millwall - We let it slip, poor game management in the second half. Similar to that QPR game in the end.

Birmingham - Our toughest test because they played well I thought and are a good team, but we still came out comfortable winners.

The two best teams, on paper, that we've played in this run have been Leicester and Birmingham - and we won both, scoring a combined 6 against them.

It's a pretty impressive 6 game repertoire, you have to say.

The biggest thing he's changed is by playing our best players. Getting the best out of our best players. Playing our best players to their natural strengths. Still was lost at the end and couldn't put an 11 together if it hit him in the face.

[pimpin4rizeal]

29 minutes ago, Dusic said:

In what way is it rewarding stupidity to have taken time to assess how someone does in a role you might give them, and then when they have clearly shown they are highly capable, giving them that role?

Rather than rewarding stupidity its actually rewarding recruiting strong people into the club in the first place and then rewarding not making a knee jerk decision, either to give him the role without seeing how he handled it or to just get in <insert generic manager who has been in the championship lots of times before> because thats what some fans thought they should do.

The consensus on here was we all hoped that sports republic would have instantly gone out and got us an experienced manager by the end of that international break .. it’s extremely results based thinking by so many on here regarding ekhart .. if Doris the dinner lady was given four matches as interim and won all four it’s still a stupid idea that she got the chance in the first place right ? 
logic over results 

Edited 20 hours ago by pimpin4rizeal

[Hoggins]

He knows his XI and has got us playing good football & winning games 

 

what’s not to like?

[AlexLaw76]

His hoof made me laugh, followed by the disdainful look he was giving to the ref 

 

[Harry_SFC]

31 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

The consensus on here was we all hoped that sports republic would have instantly gone out and got us an experienced manager by the end of that international break .. it’s extremely results based thinking by so many on here regarding ekhart .. if Doris the dinner lady was given four matches as interim and won all four it’s still a stupid idea that she got the chance in the first place right ? 
logic over results 

At the end of the day the players are playing for him. If this set of players actually like someone who isn't Russell Martin then that counts for a lot. 

[Fabrice29]

10 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

It would be amazing if you had the ability to have a debate and articulate your points or views clearly with people, but I don't think you have the brain cells for it. 

You purposely miss the point with most posts, to justify throwing your voice around at the fans of the club you supposedly support.

You spend more time attacking the clubs fans than you actually do talking about 'football'.

None of this is true, I’ve debated many things, including this topic in this thread. Most of the time I get called a club plant, Corteses laundry man or Lucy Pinder though. 

That said, you’re right I’m very happy to call out fans on here when they post nonsense.

But when the tone of your post is we shouldn’t continue with the guy who has just lost 1 game, then I am going to respond by pointing out the simple fact that would be the 6th person in charge in a year and that doesn’t seem like normal logic or club behaviour. We can debate why if you like?

[saint michael]

I thought we did well today. Bit of a telling moment after last week’s loss to see how they recovered. good result and so many good chances created. I have to say I was a bit worried before game as Bhm seemed to be building some momentum with their home form. 
 

must sort defence out and must sort game management out to become a successful team. 
 

im not sure the defence is training and tactics for us,  think we have a similar group of very average players incapable of making a solid base for defence. 
 

 

[egg]

58 minutes ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

The consensus on here was we all hoped that sports republic would have instantly gone out and got us an experienced manager by the end of that international break .. it’s extremely results based thinking by so many on here regarding ekhart .. if Doris the dinner lady was given four matches as interim and won all four it’s still a stupid idea that she got the chance in the first place right ? 
logic over results 

They didn't get the unspecified bloke that you wanted, but they hired a bloke who's won 5 from 6, and who plainly has the players support.

It's a results business. That's it. 

Whining about someone who's delivering results isn't logical. 

[Gloucester Saint]

11 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

It would be amazing if you had the ability to have a debate and articulate your points or views clearly with people, but I don't think you have the brain cells for it. 

You purposely miss the point with most posts, to justify throwing your voice around at the fans of the club you supposedly support.

You spend more time attacking the clubs fans than you actually do talking about 'football'.

Wonder what dry cleaning requirements Tonda has?

[Fabrice29]

1 hour ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

The consensus on here was we all hoped that sports republic would have instantly gone out and got us an experienced manager by the end of that international break .. it’s extremely results based thinking by so many on here regarding ekhart .. if Doris the dinner lady was given four matches as interim and won all four it’s still a stupid idea that she got the chance in the first place right ? 
logic over results 

Experience of winning games as manager for Southampton isn’t the experience you want basically? 

[Dusic]

1 hour ago, egg said:

They didn't get the unspecified bloke that you wanted, but they hired a bloke who's won 5 from 6, and who plainly has the players support.

It's a results business. That's it. 

Whining about someone who's delivering results isn't logical. 

You are just another one of those pesky results based thinkers. Just like presumably Sport Republic who at the same time are being rewarded for their own stupidity having appointed a manager who has won 5 from 6. 

Desperate times, would have an extra two points with <insert generic experienced manager who must not be named>

Edited 18 hours ago by Dusic

[Lighthouse]

2 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

The consensus on here was we all hoped that sports republic would have instantly gone out and got us an experienced manager by the end of that international break .. it’s extremely results based thinking by so many on here regarding ekhart .. if Doris the dinner lady was given four matches as interim and won all four it’s still a stupid idea that she got the chance in the first place right ? 
logic over results 

None of that makes any sense. We sacked Still, Tonda was going to be in charge for the first two games at least. We won them both, no obviously superior candidate was immediately forthcoming so we gave him the next three. He ended up winning four out of five, including a couple of thumpings of reasonably decent teams, so we gave him the job.

None of that is stupid, it all seems fair enough to me. We could have gone out and signed someone with 'experience' of the Championship, with different players at different clubs at some point, instead we went with the guy who has experience of winning games with Southampton, right now.

[Singapore Saint]

4 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

The consensus on here was we all hoped that sports republic would have instantly gone out and got us an experienced manager by the end of that international break .. it’s extremely results based thinking by so many on here regarding ekhart .. if Doris the dinner lady was given four matches as interim and won all four it’s still a stupid idea that she got the chance in the first place right ? 
logic over results 

Of course Doris gets the job if she wins four on the trot. It's not results over logic, it's results and logic.

All the so-called experienced managers available to us are out of work because they failed at their last club. How is it logical to hire a failed manager?

[Wsaint]

Haven't been on here in a while and my god this thread was a wild ride, some of you really are insane. Highlight was @Gloucester Saint begging for heavy defeats against Wednesday and QPR just to stop tonda getting the job, 5 wins in 6 must be killing you bud 😂

 

Tondas earned his shot with some of the best form and performances we've seen in a while, good for him.

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

The most notable difference I can see from my untrained eye is the speed of movement from defence to attack which is a pleasure to watch. Millwall closed us down quickly but we didn't have Scienza or Downes that day, and they made a huge difference against Brum's press.

A couple of training ground drills:-

1) Tom Fellows (who is getting better by the game) need to practice  shooting along the ground;

2) Ryan Manning needs to break the habit of a lifetime and practice getting closer to the attacker without pushing or fouling him.  

[tdmickey3]

11 hours ago, saint michael said:

 

must sort defence out and must sort game management out to become a successful team. 
 

 

 

This is spot on

[Badger]

16 hours ago, tdmickey3 said:

Game management is very poor

Isn’t that a reflection on the players and subs he has available to him rather than Tonda ?

Although bringing Aribo on is a very poor choice after last week 

[Dan Johnson]

I'm really enthusiastic about him as manager.

For the first time in however long, I look at the team sheet at the beginning of every game since he's taken charge, and think "Well thank fuck, he's picking the best players in the best positions" It's been so long since that's happened.

We have a settled 11, every one of us could predict the line up for Tuesday night, injuries aside, and that's been a massive reason for his success so far.

Our intensity and tempo is exactly how I want us to play, I absolutely love it. 

For those mentioning his game management...

We have, however, gone to pieces in a number of the games while he's been in charge, once substitutions are made, we lose our shape and our momentum, but thankfully by that point in the last few games we've been 2/3 goals to the good because of how Tonda has set out the team, I also think he's doing the right thing and protecting our most important players for the next games.

He is\was, at the moment, hampered by the fact that a few players are injured who would make our bench stronger.

Aribo has made us weaker every time he comes on, but once Charles is back I expect Aribo to lose his spot and that substitution to have less of an impact on the game.

Romeu is still gaining match fitness, making that sub will eventually be less risky.

Roerslev and Jelert coming back will improve the options we have to change our wing backs, as the game draws on, with 5 at the back Fellows and Manning tire and invite pressure, at the moment we are having to rely on Robinson taking that position and I think he makes us substantially weaker defensively, so once he has other wing backs available I think those subs will have less of an impact. 

Archer back means we don't have to rely too much on Damion Downs anymore, and we can stick to the style of play we start with, when Armstrong is replace rather than having to adapt our game to play with a less mobile\taller striker, so I expect that sub to have less of an impact too.

Potentially we could also look to utilize Edozie to replace Leo later in games too.

So while I do worry about how performance levels drop in the second half, I do think that's because we play such high tempo stuff that players tire and we need to utilize our bench which is considerably weaker at the moment than it will be in a few weeks when we have everyone back, so Tondas hands are tied at the moment, but i expect that to improve as players return.   

Edited 7 hours ago by Dan Johnson

[Hawkswood]

17 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

I was one that wanted a more experienced coach. 
 

But you can’t argue with the results or the improvements. We look like a different team. Long may it continue. 

Yup I was the same. Fair play really and more than happy to be proved wrong 

[Gloucester Saint]

3 hours ago, Wsaint said:

Haven't been on here in a while and my god this thread was a wild ride, some of you really are insane. Highlight was @Gloucester Saint begging for heavy defeats against Wednesday and QPR just to stop tonda getting the job, 5 wins in 6 must be killing you bud 😂

 

Tondas earned his shot with some of the best form and performances we've seen in a while, good for him.

Grow up sunshine. Most of us have watched more SFC matches and seasons than you’ve had hot dinners. 
Yes, he has earned his shot and I don’t begrudge it whatsoever. Wasn’t difficult for me to say it whatsoever as adults can admit they are wrong sometimes.

Just enjoy the much better football and results without needing to have a pop at anyone like a 15 year old kid.

Frankly, anyone trusting SR with their appalling track record with our club was the insane one, so most of the comments will have reflected that rather than anything specific on Tonda himself.
But the time to post this shite with justification on behalf of your beloved SR is when Saints snatch second place on the final day of the season. Delighted with how Tonda has done so far but let’s leave the champagne 🍾 for when it’s warranted. Far too early from an ownership who nearly beat Derby’s low points record last season. 

Let’s re-assess in May.

Edited 6 hours ago by Gloucester Saint

[E_H_Saints]

You can't deny what he has achieved.  He has brought back the old Armstrong by playing through the middle and keeping the ball low.  Azaz has shaken off the new club nerves and now is walking taller with  goals behind him and so much more to like.  My only thoughts currently are:

- who's going to be his support staff.  Be good to have some experience around him.  I know he has Reeves but surely needs more.

-Scienza needs competition, nobody can match him if he needs to come off.

-Aribo needs to go otherwise he is going to be the downfall of Tonda.

-Need a new keeper

-Need a strong minded leader to teach our defence how to actually organise a defence and people can stop looking to Stephens.  He's a great servant but not the leader we need on the pitch. 

-Need to get another striker so we have an option B.

 

But love that we have the excitement to watch the team again .

Edited 6 hours ago by E_H_Saints

[Jack]

Really enjoyed Tonda hoofing the ball into the stand in injury time. The more calculated shithousing we can add to our game, the better. We’ve been too soft for too long. 
 

…as long as it’s not Stephens tasked with the shithousing as he’s too likely to get sent off 

[Lord Duckhunter]

Fair play to the bloke, he’s done better than any of us thought he would.

It also shows how completely out of his depth Still was, forget Lego, Jones or even Seles in hindsight his appointment was SR’s biggest fuck up, and with their record that’s saying something. The transfer window is looking better and better now the new signings are being managed properly, and we’re building some momentum. 
 

Clearly we don’t know if he’ll be decent long term, but it’s a short term business and we’re now looking at the right end of the table. 

 

 

[sadoldgit]

33 minutes ago, Jack said:

Really enjoyed Tonda hoofing the ball into the stand in injury time. The more calculated shithousing we can add to our game, the better. We’ve been too soft for too long. 
 

…as long as it’s not Stephens tasked with the shithousing as he’s too likely to get sent off 

He said that he didn’t intend to do it. It was just an instinctive reaction to kick it. 😂

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

2 hours ago, sadoldgit said:

He said that he didn’t intend to do it. It was just an instinctive reaction to kick it. 😂

He's evidently been coaching Tom Fellows on how to kick a ball judging by high it went.

He was trying his best not to look sheepish after he kicked it which suggests he didn't put a lot of thought in to what he was doing!

[Fabrice29]

6 hours ago, tdmickey3 said:

This is spot on

Genuine question but what do people want in terms of game management? Aribo sub poor and doesn’t help so happy to accept that as criticism but I thought recognising we’d lost control and bringing on physical players to defend the box and break quickly was actually quite good? We aren’t going to keep control for 90 minutes every game, not least because we’ve evidently moved away from that as an attempted tactic so we will have to soak up pressure to create the transitions everyone is enjoying so much.

[Badger]

1 hour ago, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

He's evidently been coaching Tom Fellows on how to kick a ball judging by high it went.

He was trying his best not to look sheepish after he kicked it which suggests he didn't put a lot of thought in to what he was doing!

Bit of a contrast to Strachan ball juggling on the touchline when it went out of play once.