Tonda Eckert

[Farmer Saint]

Just now, CB Fry said:

Sorry no one ever one told me is was wrong to rant on a football forum

Because I don't think it is, is it? See, even you don't know the rules and I assume you've been on here a loooonnnnggg time.

[coalman]

5 minutes ago, The Wyvern said:

A ban obviously takes it out of our hands, but why was no-one calling for Tonda to be sacked this time last week?  By that point it was clear we’d done something wrong and he’d have been involved in it, but we thought we were still going to Wembley so no-one cared. 

Because we didn't know what Saints would be presenting at the hearing. Everyone deserve a fair hearing. If you're the manager it's your job to know the rules in your league.

[St. Ciervo]

11 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

So, was he assistant manager in the year it took place? Again, why would he know.

For instance, do you know it is illegal to gamble in a British library?

I am confident that if I were a librarian, I would be aware of this rule. But even that rule is a push. This would be more like, "Did you know it is illegal to spy on people using the toilet when in a British library?"  Fun fact, we all - I hope - know that to be true already. 

[SaintNate]

I find it really hard to believe that not a single one of these twats had the backbone to tell him that it was against the rules when the idea was brought up.

Which makes them all complicit.

Sack the lot of them. Including the Nivea boy, fucking leech. 

God it's depressing being a fan of this fucking club. 

[LVSaint]

2 minutes ago, The Wyvern said:

A ban obviously takes it out of our hands, but why was no-one calling for Tonda to be sacked this time last week?  By that point it was clear we’d done something wrong and he’d have been involved in it, but we thought we were still going to Wembley so no-one cared. 

Because we're humans and thought that it'd be handled with a fine and docked points, as it should have been. As it all comes together now, it hits home just what the fuck were they thinking, sinks in. At an attempt to move on from this cunting clusterfuck, tonda has to go even if he's not banned.

[Farmer Saint]

2 minutes ago, St. Ciervo said:

I am confident that if I were a librarian, I would be aware of this rule. But even that rule is a push. This would be more like, "Did you know it is illegal to spy on people using the toilet when in a British library?"  Fun fact, we all - I hope - know that to be true already. 

Yes, and that is probably illegal in multiple countries, so he would have been brought up with that rule. He's also not the equivalent of a Librarian - that would be the FA in that analogy.

However if it was legal to do that in every other country and he had done it in Germany, Italy etc, apart from being a massive sex pest, why would he come to the UK and think it's illegal?

Edited 6 hours ago by Farmer Saint

[CB Fry]

1 minute ago, Farmer Saint said:

Because I don't think it is, is it? See, even you don't know the rules and I assume you've been on here a loooonnnnggg time.

Sorry at the moment I am busy having a wank in the Horticulture section of the British Library which i understand to be fine because no one has ever told me otherwise.

I'll reply to you when I have washed my hands.

[The Wyvern]

1 minute ago, coalman said:

Because we didn't know what Saints would be presenting at the hearing. Everyone deserve a fair hearing. If you're the manager it's your job to know the rules in your league.

But we all knew one of Tonda’s coaching team had been caught spying. Nothing has changed since then apart from the severity of our punishment. That is what this is a reaction to. 

[The Wyvern]

1 minute ago, LVSaint said:

Because we're humans and thought that it'd be handled with a fine and docked points, as it should have been. As it all comes together now, it hits home just what the fuck were they thinking, sinks in. At an attempt to move on from this cunting clusterfuck, tonda has to go even if he's not banned.

That’s my point, it’s an emotional reaction to the severity of the punishment, if we’d been found guilty, got hit with a fine and be playing at Wembley in a couple of days most of our support would still be singing his name. 

[Saint_clark]

1 minute ago, The Wyvern said:

But we all knew one of Tonda’s coaching team had been caught spying. Nothing has changed since then apart from the severity of our punishment. That is what this is a reaction to. 

There was a possibility before the announcement that this was the data analysis department working on their own steam to cheat and get extra info to feed back to the coaching staff without them being aware of where it was coming from. 

[Farmer Saint]

1 minute ago, CB Fry said:

Sorry at the moment I am busy having a wank in the Horticulture section of the British Library which i understand to be fine because no one has ever told me otherwise.

I'll reply to you when I have washed my hands.

I get that you are struggling with the analogy, but what you have written above would be illegal in all countries, whereas spying is only illegal in one country, and not even in the top division.

[The Wyvern]

Just now, Saint_clark said:

There was a possibility before the announcement that this was the data analysis department working on their own steam to cheat and get extra info to feed back to the coaching staff without them being aware of where it was coming from. 

I don’t think anyone believed that did they. 

[CB Fry]

1 minute ago, Farmer Saint said:

I get that you are struggling with the analogy, but what you have written above would be illegal in all countries, whereas spying is only illegal in one country, and not even in the top division.

The analogy is bullshit. He should know and I will say he did know.

[Farmer Saint]

1 minute ago, The Wyvern said:

That’s my point, it’s an emotional reaction to the severity of the punishment, if we’d been found guilty, got hit with a fine and be playing at Wembley in a couple of days most of our support would still be singing his name. 

There are a lot of people on this forum and thread who just can't control their emotions, @CB Fry is struggling with that at the moment.

Unfortunately levels of emotional maturity don't follow peoples age.

[Farmer Saint]

Just now, CB Fry said:

The analogy is bullshit. He should know and I will say he did know.

 

Bullshit because you don't seem o understand it, demonstrated by your analogy that doesn't work.

But anyway, let's not bury the lead, CB Fry said he did know, so it must be true.

[AlexLaw76]

If Tonda did not know this was against the rules, I would suggest he was not 'over the detail' anywhere near to a level we were led to believe.

He knew, he admitted it and he will leave the club in the near future.

Anything else is pure wishful thinking like we witnessed in many posts on the SpyGate thread, where some suggested this lad (Salt) was not even working for Saints and randomly went to Boro for his own entertainment.

Edited 5 hours ago by AlexLaw76

[Saint_clark]

2 minutes ago, The Wyvern said:

I don’t think anyone believed that did they. 

I didn't say they did, I said it was a possibility. Now it's been confirmed that Tonda was largely responsible for dragging our clubs reputation through the mud to try and progress his own personal reputation. 

[Farmer Saint]

Just now, AlexLaw76 said:

If Tonda did not know this was against the rules, I would suggest he was not 'over the detail' anywhere near to a level we were led to believe.

Agreed.

[CB Fry]

1 minute ago, Farmer Saint said:

 

Bullshit because you don't seem o understand it, demonstrated by your analogy that doesn't work.

But anyway, let's not bury the lead, CB Fry said he did know, so it must be true.

Let's pick up again when the FA take that mitigation and definitely don't ban him.

[Farmer Saint]

Just now, CB Fry said:

Let's pick up again when the FA take that mitigation and definitely don't ban him.

Not sure anyone has said he won't be banned, as I said above this is all devils advocate.

Hope you manage to calm yourself and have a good day 👍 

[Toussaint]

24 minutes ago, benjii said:

Absolutely not, if he has been involved in this (which it seems he has).

Tonda needs to be sacked (along with any other coaches involved), Spors needs to be sacked - unless his role had no first team oversight duty - and Parsons needs to be sacked. Ideally Dragan and his band of idiots would also piss off, but there's no one who can sack them.

 

Unless there is some hugely wealthy saints fan, or body, with our best interests at heart, waiting in the wings, I think Dragan owes it to us to get us out of this mess. This event could send us into free fall, the club in reality is the fans, everyone else is temporary. We are stuck here. 

[The Wyvern]

2 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

I didn't say they did, I said it was a possibility. Now it's been confirmed that Tonda was largely responsible for dragging our clubs reputation through the mud to try and progress his own personal reputation. 

If he’d been found guilty but the punishment was a fine no-one would really care and no-one would be suggesting he or SR should be sacked/replaced.

Probably be taken out of our hands anyway, but this is all a reaction to the punishment not the crime. 

[CanadaSaint]

Thanks to the performance of whoever represented us in the hearing, the ship has sailed when it comes to any kind of plausible deniability.

Our only hope revolves around challenging the totally disproportionate punishment, especially given the fact that the very same rule book allows “spying” to exist in a legal and acceptable form, and the fact that the punishment handed to Leeds, who did it far more extensively than us, was far less severe. And there were not many clubs out there, if any (other than Boro), ready to cast the first stone.

We deserve to be in a very hot seat, but so does the EFL. They can still make their point without taking a chainsaw to a 141 year-old club.

[die Mannyschaft]

Tonda cant stay as its a ban under FA rules. Or sure EFL stated he will be banned.  Plus Saints underestimated the fact Boro are on the EFL board.

Sports Republic,  Tonda and his team, PR, legal all need to go as ruined this club and reputation.  This will stick for 25 years or more all because Saints couldn't be honest enough from first hour this was raised and deliberately stitched the fans up. 

[James]

Tonda will have to go for this sadly. It’s an absolutely catastrophic error of judgement from Spors, he was the one pushing for a young and inexperienced manager and this is one of the consequences. He should go as well. The club is clearly run incompetently, how are we in a position where the manager doesn’t know whether his pre match prep is in compliance with league rules? It’s absolutely mind blowing.

[Saint_clark]

4 minutes ago, The Wyvern said:

If he’d been found guilty but the punishment was a fine no-one would really care and no-one would be suggesting he or SR should be sacked/replaced.

Probably be taken out of our hands anyway, but this is all a reaction to the punishment not the crime. 

But we don't live in that fantasy alternate reality, we live in the one where we're the only team to ever be booted out of the playoffs and as such our reputation is tarnished, and those who are responsible should be removed from the club.

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, Farmer Saint said:

Playing Devil's advocate here, if Tonda didn't know it was a rule and genuinely thought it was fine, then a ban seems massively harsh. The club should have told him it was a banned practice in the Championship.

I've got a horrible feeling here that this is more a mistake than anything malicious, hence why we've admitted to it so quickly and cooperated.

The Telegraph reports that Eckert accepted responsibility for the surveillance operation involving opposition team selection and tactical analysis.

Tonda Eckert is a three-time Championship Manager of the Month (Image: Southampton FC)

READ: What happens next at Saints after being thrown out of play-offs?

The German is said to have argued he was unaware the EFL had introduced regulations in recent years prohibiting the spying on opposition teams.

[die Mannyschaft]

9 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

Agreed.

All coaches know its must part of coaching badges. Even courses for refs would cover integrity and cheating. The club are total idiots to have gone along with it for so long and then backed him up.

[The Wyvern]

1 minute ago, Saint_clark said:

But we don't live in that fantasy alternate reality, we live in the one where we're the only team to ever be booted out of the playoffs and as such our reputation is tarnished, and those who are responsible should be removed from the club.

You are unable to follow a simple logical example, so we’ll leave it there. 

[Saint_clark]

1 minute ago, The Wyvern said:

You are unable to follow a simple logical example, so we’ll leave it there. 

My logic is working from the real life example that has actually happened, not a hypothetical one. 

[Farmer Saint]

2 minutes ago, die Mannyschaft said:

All coaches know its must part of coaching badges. Even courses for refs would cover integrity and cheating. The club are total idiots to have gone along with it for so long and then backed him up.

It's definitely not part of the coaching badges. Coaching badges are done by the FA, and it's not illegal in all British Leagues, including the PL.

Edited 5 hours ago by Farmer Saint

[The Wyvern]

Just now, Saint_clark said:

My logic is working from the real life example that has actually happened, not a hypothetical one. 

Yes, I know 🤣

[Willo of Whiteley]

Anyone who was aware needs to be gone.

Do you really think the club want to keep people who were involved? People who have brought the stain on this club? Tarnished the fans, the good staff that work there?

People, and I mean innocent people will lose jobs over this scandal, payouts and legal fees have to come from somewhere.

[Middlewordie]

His position at Saints is untenable - ban or not. He and others have planned, organised and sanctioned activities (we only know about those events so far) to "dope" Saints' data analysis, solely to gain an advantage over other teams. The players all bought into his "preparation" without realising he was cheating. The out turn result, fair or not, is huge. He's let the fans, players and the club down, so it's a tough ask for anyone to trust him - or anyone else knowingly involved in this - again at Saints. The expected ban will make his departure much easier, I just hope Dragan realises he needs new management from the top down too.

[Toadhall Saint]

Me I’d keep him - he’d be stupid to do it again and everyone deserves a chance to write a wrong. If he loses the first x games a the start of next season then bin him.

[James]

10 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Anyone who was aware needs to be gone.

Do you really think the club want to keep people who were involved? People who have brought the stain on this club? Tarnished the fans, the good staff that work there?

People, and I mean innocent people will lose jobs over this scandal, payouts and legal fees have to come from somewhere.

The only way the club can restore any credibility after this is to immediately remove anyone associated with this sorry affair. 

[The Wyvern]

I'll probably be in a minority of one here, but I actually feel sorry for him.  A very talented coach who has fucked up and made a stupid mistake that will ruin his career and follow him around for the rest of his life. 

[Farmer Saint]

1 minute ago, The Wyvern said:

I'll probably be in a minority of one here, but I actually feel sorry for him.  A very talented coach who has fucked up and made a stupid mistake that will ruin his career and follow him around for the rest of his life. 

Nope, I'm with you.

[SNSUN]

Anyone involved should be gone. Tonda fit us perfectly but he's been found out. Sack anyone that is involved in the spying and get rid of the rot and the reputation. But as has been said, I suspect he might get a ban anyway. 

The challenge is finding someone else that fits us as well as he did. When I read the article about Tonda earlier in the year it seems he lives and breathes football, he's meticulous in his planning for each and every fixture. Obviously, as we know now, a little too meticulous but even so, finding someone that commits that much to football is rare, especially someone in his first full management job. 

Nonetheless, even though he held his hands up he still did what he did. We will have to look for new management. If Spors remains at the club, we can only hope he finds another gem.

[AlexLaw76]

2 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

Anyone involved should be gone. Tonda fit us perfectly but he's been found out. Sack anyone that is involved in the spying and get rid of the rot and the reputation. But as has been said, I suspect he might get a ban anyway. 

The challenge is finding someone else that fits us as well as he did. When I read the article about Tonda earlier in the year it seems he lives and breathes football, he's meticulous in his planning for each and every fixture. Obviously, as we know now, a little too meticulous but even so, finding someone that commits that much to football is rare, especially someone in his first full management job. 

Nonetheless, even though he held his hands up he still did what he did. We will have to look for new management. If Spors remains at the club, we can only hope he finds another gem.

How can you say Tonda fits us perfectly....how?

[tdmickey3]

19 minutes ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Me I’d keep him - he’d be stupid to do it again and everyone deserves a chance to write a wrong. If he loses the first x games a the start of next season then bin him.

The players will not be happy with him and his staff as it has cost them the chance to go to the PL .

Whole new set up needed

[die Mannyschaft]

24 minutes ago, James said:

Tonda will have to go for this sadly. It’s an absolutely catastrophic error of judgement from Spors, he was the one pushing for a young and inexperienced manager and this is one of the consequences. He should go as well. The club is clearly run incompetently, how are we in a position where the manager doesn’t know whether his pre match prep is in compliance with league rules? It’s absolutely mind blowing.

This was pre planned and someone at the club should of had a role to make sure the club is compliant with all matters,financial rules, HR, contracts. H&S, FA regulations.  Where are the audits for these areas, regular checks? The club are happy to constantly remind fans to not bring smoke flares in and around ground and no cans of beer yet they are nicely breaching FA Laws behind the fans back. Then dont admit it immediately and sell final tickets all while having already admitted it but not put anything out on Web site to fans.

Sports Republic Out

Coaching responsible Out

PR Out

Anyone else involved Out

Free season tickets next season as club can afford it after I suspect most players will want to leave so £120m in profit. 

If Carling did a worst managed football team that tried to get away with breaching  FA football rules it would Southampton FC. And web site still says we are playing Hull at Wembley at 6.30am today.

[AlexLaw76]

1 minute ago, tdmickey3 said:

The players will not be happy with him and his staff as it has cost them the chance to go to the PL .

Whole new set up needed

How much faith do you have in Sports Republic getting it right in the summer?

Whoever the manager will be probably be 'replaced' by xmas. It's what we do

[tdmickey3]

2 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

How much faith do you have in Sports Republic getting it right in the summer?

Whoever the manager will be probably be 'replaced' by xmas. It's what we do

Yep but chances of a sale a minimal 

[die Mannyschaft]

26 minutes ago, James said:

The only way the club can restore any credibility after this is to immediately remove anyone associated with this sorry affair. 

Sports Republic,  PR, Legal, coaches all need gone. Don't bring beer into ground it breaches rules and club get fined, what a joke club Saints are. Complete and utter idiots managing club. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

If he was aware of it, it’s inconceivable he won’t be fired. 

[SW11_Saint]

6 hours ago, OzzySaint said:

Like many fanatic Saints fans around the world I’m in shock – not so much about the punishment – I was expecting it which is why I cashed out my bet last week for Saints promotion – but about the stupidity of the action.

I am angry and deeply deeply disappointed that this was allowed to occur – where is the governance in this club. The board has a duty to ensure that the team does not break the law or breach the rules. You can shoot the manager, shoot the director of strategy and shoot any other individual but it matters not, it is the board that is culpable. They set the culture and moral behavior of the club.

The board would have completed a risk assessment at the start of the season on best / worst case scenarios, when we got into the playoffs they should have revisited this and performed a risk analysis against all possibilities including breaching regulations. Its not about being wise after the event but any company that has a deal on the table for $millions is going to analyse what could go wrong and mitigate it. Instruction/ reminders  should have been given about what was allowable and what wasn’t including “No attending training sessions prior to 72 hours before game”. ! I feel for Tonda and the team – if he made a judgement error I am sure that he would not have foreseen the likely repercussions.

Forget the punishment – it was always going to be expulsion – what else could they do? Give a mickey mouse fine that we would have paid the first week in the EPL  or give future points deductions that mean nothing??  - we got a punishment that was designed to stop this happening in the future and we deserve it.

I love the Saints and have been waking up early in the morning most weeks to watch them from Melbourne for years – my house is even called The Dell. I feel for all other fans (and sponsors) who like me were looking forward to being in the premiership next year and regaining respect for our performances given last seasons debacle. I feel for all the players who will quite rightly feel angry and aggrieved for being let down off the pitch.

Unlike many of the posts I am not calling for Tonda’s head – I believe he did what he was tasked to do, get Saints into a promotion position. The fact that no one was overseeing the compliance with the leagues regulations is not his issue – it is the boards and they have to answer for this.

I hope im wrong but I see us losing many players, being a pariah club new players wont want to come to and as importantly tarnishing our academy development. Be careful not to throw Tonda out with the bathwater as we will need him next season – he’s a very good manager and we should all remember how hard these are to come by. 

He is a good coach but his position is simply untenable. He will likely get a long ban, but he should resign anyway. If he doesn’t resign, he should be sacked, along with anyone else who is complicit in this. He has brought this downfall on the club. 

Talking of downfall… how long before someone produces one of those Hitler spoofs on us?! 

[SNSUN]

15 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

How can you say Tonda fits us perfectly....how?

I refuse to believe that the spying had much to do with our excellent recent run in 2026 and I will back the player's efforts to that effect. Tonda shouldn't have done it, and yes, we probably did have an advantage or two because of it, but I still think he is a good manager that lives and breathes football and he slotted in perfectly when we were struggling because of Still. 

He should be sacked because of what he did, but I still believe he is a good manager and he will go on to have a good career in the game. (Sadly we will miss out on any compensation we may have got from him being head hunted because of it.)

[O_Lord_Marian]

Dark days for the club, cannot envisage how they recover from this. Tonda needs to go, there is no way he thought this was okay. The club might save some face if they fire everyone involved, should they stand by them, the optics would pile on the shame.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Needs to go, along with anyone else who had knowledge of it. Am not buying the line that he or anyone at the club wasn't aware that it was banned. Am pretty sure Garner would have been aware of the rules, he has spent his entire career kicking around the lower leagues.