Tonda Eckert

[saintant]

Tonda must be on Liverpool's radar right now 🙂

[Midfield_General]

17 hours ago, CB Fry said:

Which former Page 3 girl do we think he'll end up banging?

I'm thinking Keeley Hazell.

 

Kathy Lloyd. Kick it old-skool. 

[lambtiss]

31 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Kathy Lloyd. Kick it old-skool. 

I raise you Linda Lusardi and Maria Whittaker 

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, saintant said:

Tonda must be on Liverpool's radar right now 🙂

Probably a bit too early in the guy's career for the Scousers or himself to take a punt.

We should take comfort from the fact that Frank was not tempted away from Brentford even after promotion. My gut feeling is that Eckert is cast from a similar mould, if he sees Saints as his project he'll probably want to stay with us to try his hand at the Premier League with a group of players he feels comfortable with. Young hopefuls willing to learn form a far different proposition from a bunch of millionare prima donna's who think they know everything there is to know already.

Edited 10 hours ago by Charlie Wayman

[Charlie Wayman]

I'll await Wade's take on us stepping into the Lion's Den but after recent perfomances it's hard to see past a Saints win, just a matter of how many we can score. I'll stick my neck out and say 6-0.

[Number9]

3 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Probably a bit too early in the guy's career for the Scousers or himself to take a punt.

We should take comfort from the fact that Frank was not tempted away from Brentford even after promotion. My gut feeling is that Eckert is cast from a similar mould, if he sees Saints as his project he'll probably want to stay with us to try his hand at the Premier League with a group of players he feels comfortable with. Young hopefuls willing to learn form a far different proposition from a bunch of millionare prima donna's who think they know everything there is to know already.

Not necessarily from a first team manager perspective but may be from a U21 / Assistant manager point of view. 

That would certainly be a bigger draw for Tonda than staying with the Saints with no guarantee of promotion to the premier league.

[washsaint]

1 hour ago, Midfield_General said:

Kathy Lloyd. Kick it old-skool. 

Cor blimey, I had a real crush on her back in the day (same age as me).  I just saw a recent picture of her.  WTF has she done to her face?  Looks like she'll melt if she goes near a fire/heat!

[Ted Bates Statue]

19 hours ago, CB Fry said:

Which former Page 3 girl do we think he'll end up banging?

I'm thinking Keeley Hazell.

 

Lucy Pinder would be the logical choice because she is well known for supporting us

[Miltonaggro]

20 hours ago, CB Fry said:

Which former Page 3 girl do we think he'll end up banging?

I'm thinking Keeley Hazell.

 

Christopher Biggins, safari sogoody! 

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, Ted Bates Statue said:

Lucy Pinder would be the logical choice because she is well known for supporting us

I think a certain former manager might have something to say about that 

[Turkish]

4 hours ago, saintant said:

Tonda must be on Liverpool's radar right now 🙂

He’s going to be our Alex Ferguson 

[Weston Super Saint]

53 minutes ago, Turkish said:

I think a certain former manager might have something to say about that 

Nah. She only likes men with jobs.

[Rivers]

I kept my powder dry, and held off on committing to a final decision on Tonda for a while. I was guilty of nailing my colours to the mast of the impending glorious Selles revolution far too soon. And that didn't go so well.

It was driven by emotion, and the feel-good-factor of finally ridding ourselves of that fucking nail-munching bellend. You know, the one from the small Welsh mining village. The fittest human being in history. Ruben came in, and his positivity and exuberance immediately lifted the deep-seated gloom that weighed so heavy over the whole city for so long.

Tonda Eckert has imparted a similar effect upon us, albeit without the cult of personality, and by consistently actually winning football matches, which is nice. 

I needed to be sure that there was some genuine substance behind the uptick in form. The first two wins did not convince me.

But then came Charlton away, and what a day that was. The obnoxious toxic cunt that is Nathan Jones, was clearly sooo very desperate to get one over on us. I'm pretty sure he was smugly confident of the sweet revenge he'd been seething for. What a joy it was, to blow him away with twenty minutes of scintillating attacking football!

Finger-tips taped up to the max. Gnawing away at the flailing threads of his failing dream, as the Saints away support gleefully taunted him all game long. 

It seemed pretty clear by now, that Tonda was making swift headway in his task of constructing the proverbial silk purse out of the steaming pile of shite that had been our beloved Southampton Football Club for far too long.

But -- still -- it was emotion that was leading me. Relief. Joy. Celebration.

Tuesday night was something else entirely though. It was a masterclass, that showcased extreme attention to detail, and tactical understanding. I am struggling to remember how long it must be, since I actually enjoyed watching Saints play football. For years now, even when stringing a few wins together, it has been like slow water torture.

I love to see my team keeping the ball, but not for the sheer fucking sake of it. Possession should be maintained in and around the edge of the opposition's penalty area, patiently probing to pick the lock of a packed defence; not endlessly and dangerously recycled around in our own. It should be a form of attack, rather than a mind-numbing spirit crushing vanity project.

And after another supremely confident first half blitz of that same Leicester City that always blow us away, that second half display from us was simply pure tactical control of the game. It was calm, measured and authoritative. And it was a joy to behold.

It was understandable as a fanbase, who are frankly sick to death of seeing our wonderful Club being dragged through the gutter of abject humiliation -- wrought upon us by Sport Republic's revolutionary "if it ain't broke, then clusterfuck it up royally" brand of decision making, to have absolutely no trust left in them to make a quality decision.

But on this occasion, it sure seems like credit must be given where due. They obviously wanted Tonda, because behind the scenes, in the training environment, they could clearly see what we as yet could not. 

He is very quickly putting together a quality attacking football team, out of a clearly talented squad who just a few weeks ago were "not fit to wear the shirt". He has unleashed the creativity we've been crying out for. Set our players free from the shackles of all that endless footballing negativity. Shunned the excruciatingly cautious approach, and is sending us out to actually attack from the first whistle, and try to score as many goals as we can.

Now that's what I call football! 

Keep up the good work Meister Eckert. It has been a joy to watch.