Saints Expelled from Playoffs

[trousers]

33 minutes ago, BH_Saint said:

I'm not sure what the date of this article is but in the interview, Will Salt has completed his placement with Southampton and currently has a paid role with Aston Villa.

https://www.derby.ac.uk/undergraduate/sport-exercise-science-courses/wills-placement-year-is-key-to-success/

So is Will Salt currently on Southampton's books?

 

28 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

This is crucial. At the date of the event was he actually an employee of Southampton FC? Hayden Hackney has previously been linked with transfer interest from Aston Villa as well as several other Premier League clubs.

This lad is the key to the whole affair and I am surprised that no self-respecting sports journalist has managed to track him down. 

 

24 minutes ago, Ekelund said:

The Tyler Dibling stuff dates it. Reckon he’s back at saints with Tonda post Villa.

I intially thought when I found and posted this Derby University article a few days ago that it indicated that Salt was now with Villa, having been at Saints previously, but, on reflection, given Salt is in the Februray manager of the month group photo with Tonda, it does indeed seem that he has since returned to Saints. That said, I guess this article could have been written in, say, March, having potentially left Saints for Villa shortly after the February photo, given Salt reportedly doesn't appear in the subsequent March and April manager of the month group photos....?

Is it possible to deduce the first publication date of a webpage? 

Edited May 13 by trousers

[Turkish]

1 minute ago, trousers said:

 

 

I thought when I found and posted this Derby University article a few days that it indicated that Salt was now with Villa, having been at Saints previously, but, on reflection, given Salt is in the Februray manager of the month group photo with Tonda, it does indeed seem that he has since returned to Saints. That said, I guess this article could have been written in, say, March, having potentially left Saints for Villa shortly after the February photo, given Salt reportedly doesn't appear in the subsequent March and April manager of the month group photos....?

Is it possible to deduce the first publication date of a webpage? 

Maybe because in March he started the spying so they didn’t include him in the MOTM photos to keep his identity secret to avoid alerting opponents security teams? 🤔🤔🤔

#theplotthickens

[Patrick Bateman]

1 minute ago, trousers said:

 

 

I thought when I found and posted this Derby University article a few days that it indicated that Salt was now with Villa, having been at Saints previously, but, on reflection, given Salt is in the Februray manager of the month group photo with Tonda, it does indeed seem that he has since returned to Saints. That said, I guess this article could have been written in, say, March, having potentially left Saints for Villa shortly after the February photo, given Salt reportedly doesn't appear in the subsequent March and April manager of the month group photos....?

Is it possible to deduce the first publication date of a webpage? 

Got to love Gemini .. 

The article "Will’s placement year is key to success" does not have a visible publication date displayed on the page itself.

However, based on the internal content and current events mentioned in the text, it was written in late 2024 (likely September or October 2024). This is indicated by two specific details:

• The article mentions football player Jayden Meghoma's move to Brentford on "deadline day for about £10 million," which occurred on August 30, 2024.

• The student, Will Salt, is described as being in his "third year" and currently balancing his studies with a role at Aston Villa, which corresponds to the 2024/25 academic year.

[Farmer Saint]

Just now, Patrick Bateman said:

Got to love Gemini .. 

The article "Will’s placement year is key to success" does not have a visible publication date displayed on the page itself.

However, based on the internal content and current events mentioned in the text, it was written in late 2024 (likely September or October 2024). This is indicated by two specific details:

• The article mentions football player Jayden Meghoma's move to Brentford on "deadline day for about £10 million," which occurred on August 30, 2024.

• The student, Will Salt, is described as being in his "third year" and currently balancing his studies with a role at Aston Villa, which corresponds to the 2024/25 academic year.

Booooo

[Patrick Bateman]

Just now, Farmer Saint said:

Booooo

Meh, it's "AI" innit, never wrong, right? 😂

[trousers]

2 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

Got to love Gemini .. 

The article "Will’s placement year is key to success" does not have a visible publication date displayed on the page itself.

However, based on the internal content and current events mentioned in the text, it was written in late 2024 (likely September or October 2024). This is indicated by two specific details:

• The article mentions football player Jayden Meghoma's move to Brentford on "deadline day for about £10 million," which occurred on August 30, 2024.

• The student, Will Salt, is described as being in his "third year" and currently balancing his studies with a role at Aston Villa, which corresponds to the 2024/25 academic year.

Ah, fair enough... so looks like he returned to Saints after his stint at Villa... bang goes the "he wasn't employed by us anymore" theory then.... hey ho...!

Edited May 13 by trousers

[Matthew Le God]

If we all buy match tickets tomorrow and then get kicked out, refuse getting a refund and keep the ticket 😉 😇 

[S-Clarke]

That picture is absolutley hilarious, it's just like I said it was - a kid with an iPhone on a public hill/behind a public tree taking some pictures of a training session that is on full view to any member of the public. That is it.

Now tell me, please, what kind of sporting advantage anyone is going to gain from grainy IPhone footage? I know the 17 pro max has a decent zoom, but this is no 'professional grade video equipment' by any means.

As every day goes on, Boro make themselves look more desperate and more idiotic by the hour. 

I listened to their managers press conference earlier, he was almost crying. Crying that all the work they do, so many hours, doesn't see his family, and it can all be undone by cheating. Hang on a fucking second. You battered us at your place in the first half, you had 17 shots on goal in the first half. You hit the post. You missed a chance right in the centre of goal, you had a shot cleared off the line. You were second in the table for 217 days, and finished 5th. How did we cause any of that to happen? We didn't. Simple.

It's still funny, but they're really starting to wind me up now - and all the media cronies too. If you look, it's only the North East reporters who have such strong views - listen to neutral views and it's very much 'over reaction',  'it's a bit of poor form, that's all'. 

I can't wait for the crying when they find out their season is actually over, and no - it's not because of us, it's because you bottled the Top 2 and can't finish for dinner. Now STFU and go back to bed.

[RedArmy]

7 minutes ago, trousers said:

 

 

I intially thought when I found and posted this Derby University article a few days ago that it indicated that Salt was now with Villa, having been at Saints previously, but, on reflection, given Salt is in the Februray manager of the month group photo with Tonda, it does indeed seem that he has since returned to Saints. That said, I guess this article could have been written in, say, March, having potentially left Saints for Villa shortly after the February photo, given Salt reportedly doesn't appear in the subsequent March and April manager of the month group photos....?

Is it possible to deduce the first publication date of a webpage? 

He is in the April picture… that’s the one used in the mail article. 

[Thripp87]

13 minutes ago, saintant said:

Why?

We’re obviously guilty.

I think there is a potential problem here for us, the reaction has blown up a lot more than I personally thought it would do. Suits both parties and needs to be resolved quickly.

[Whitey Grandad]

17 minutes ago, kitch said:

He liked his own post as well. Definitely dodgy.

That's some euphimism.

[kitch]

1 minute ago, Whitey Grandad said:

That's some euphimism.

Must be very bendy

[coalman]

8 minutes ago, trousers said:

Is it possible to deduce the first publication date of a webpage? 

https://web.archive.org/web/20250201000000*/https://www.derby.ac.uk/undergraduate/sport-exercise-science-courses/wills-placement-year-is-key-to-success/

First posted in January 2025 give or take. I don't have access to a better web archive any more or I could get you a better answer.

[tdmickey3]

Same old Boro always crying 😭 

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

That picture is absolutley hilarious, it's just like I said it was - a kid with an iPhone on a public hill/behind a public tree taking some pictures of a training session that is on full view to any member of the public. That is it.

Now tell me, please, what kind of sporting advantage anyone is going to gain from grainy IPhone footage? I know the 17 pro max has a decent zoom, but this is no 'professional grade video equipment' by any means.

As every day goes on, Boro make themselves look more desperate and more idiotic by the hour. 

I listened to their managers press conference earlier, he was almost crying. Crying that all the work they do, so many hours, doesn't see his family, and it can all be undone by cheating. Hang on a fucking second. You battered us at your place in the first half, you had 17 shots on goal in the first half. You hit the post. You missed a chance right in the centre of goal, you had a shot cleared off the line. You were second in the table for 217 days, and finished 5th. How did we cause any of that to happen? We didn't. Simple.

It's still funny, but they're really starting to wind me up now - and all the media cronies too. If you look, it's only the North East reporters who have such strong views - listen to neutral views and it's very much 'over reaction',  'it's a bit of poor form, that's all'. 

I can't wait for the crying when they find out their season is actually over, and no - it's not because of us, it's because you bottled the Top 2 and can't finish for dinner. Now STFU and go back to bed.

It’s all getting very embarrassing for the media too. All these twats coming out with opinions that obviously don’t know any of the facts. The sky reporter live at the scene was absolutely laughable walking round the car park pointing out the tree, the training grounds which looked miles away and then walking through the golf club showing where he fled too, which toilet he used to get changed and how he exited the area, it was like they were talking about terrorist fleeing a bombing not a young kid taking a photo of a football team from 150 yards away on a phone. It’s got absolutely ludicrous and gets more ridiculous with every bit of “breaking news” like the cup of coffee he brought leading to a paper trail. 

[AlexLaw76]

5 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

That picture is absolutley hilarious, it's just like I said it was - a kid with an iPhone on a public hill/behind a public tree taking some pictures of a training session that is on full view to any member of the public. That is it.

Now tell me, please, what kind of sporting advantage anyone is going to gain from grainy IPhone footage? I know the 17 pro max has a decent zoom, but this is no 'professional grade video equipment' by any means.

As every day goes on, Boro make themselves look more desperate and more idiotic by the hour. 

I listened to their managers press conference earlier, he was almost crying. Crying that all the work they do, so many hours, doesn't see his family, and it can all be undone by cheating. Hang on a fucking second. You battered us at your place in the first half, you had 17 shots on goal in the first half. You hit the post. You missed a chance right in the centre of goal, you had a shot cleared off the line. You were second in the table for 217 days, and finished 5th. How did we cause any of that to happen? We didn't. Simple.

It's still funny, but they're really starting to wind me up now - and all the media cronies too. If you look, it's only the North East reporters who have such strong views - listen to neutral views and it's very much 'over reaction',  'it's a bit of poor form, that's all'. 

I can't wait for the crying when they find out their season is actually over, and no - it's not because of us, it's because you bottled the Top 2 and can't finish for dinner. Now STFU and go back to bed.

So much for the professional equipment live streaming it to someone in Southampton. They made out he broke in and was hiding in the bushes.

it is a kid on a public path hiding behind a tree FaceTiming, Whatsapping or recording something 150 meters away.

something any member of the public can do. 
 

where is the “bombshell” with this picture. What’s new?

[Whitey Grandad]

39 minutes ago, Ekelund said:

The Tyler Dibling stuff dates it. Reckon he’s back at saints with Tonda post Villa.

 

49 minutes ago, BH_Saint said:

I'm not sure what the date of this article is but in the interview, Will Salt has completed his placement with Southampton and currently has a paid role with Aston Villa.

https://www.derby.ac.uk/undergraduate/sport-exercise-science-courses/wills-placement-year-is-key-to-success/

So is Will Salt currently on Southampton's books?

The page source code contains this:

"datePublished": "2025-01-27T15:18:00+0000","dateModified": "2025-07-17T15:45:07+0100"

[saints1988]

Turning into the Gadget show on Middlesborough Forums:

 

That phones capabilities 

he iPhone 17 Pro Max features a 48MP Fusion Telephoto camera with a 4x optical zoom (100mm equivalent) and 8x "optical-quality" zoom (200mm equivalent) using a next-gen tetraprism design. It supports a total 16x optical zoom range and up to 40x digital zoom for capturing distant subjects

 

🤣

[coalman]

1 hour ago, badgerx16 said:

But in the case of other clubs, how do Saints prove it didn't happen ? I don't think there is much doubt that somebody was at Gibson's hotel, even so the inquiry does not have a legal right to personal data.

You'd have your own CCTV footage if he was at Staplewood or local transactions or even social media. The problem is all of these are spoof able. Though, if we're amateur enough to buy a coffee there then it's unlikely we've planned that far ahead. There's also the possibility we used other employees.

It's logically impossible to prove non-existence. But we can present evidence to shift the balance of probabilities in our favour. When they asked for time to gather evidence I assume that's part of what they're doing.

Again, Boro have shot themselves in the foot by publicly trying to broaden the scope of this. The broader the scope the more we'll have to provide and the harder it is for the EFL to expedite this.

[beatlesaint]

13 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

That picture is absolutley hilarious, it's just like I said it was - a kid with an iPhone on a public hill/behind a public tree taking some pictures of a training session that is on full view to any member of the public. That is it.

Now tell me, please, what kind of sporting advantage anyone is going to gain from grainy IPhone footage? I know the 17 pro max has a decent zoom, but this is no 'professional grade video equipment' by any means.

As every day goes on, Boro make themselves look more desperate and more idiotic by the hour. 

I listened to their managers press conference earlier, he was almost crying. Crying that all the work they do, so many hours, doesn't see his family, and it can all be undone by cheating. Hang on a fucking second. You battered us at your place in the first half, you had 17 shots on goal in the first half. You hit the post. You missed a chance right in the centre of goal, you had a shot cleared off the line. You were second in the table for 217 days, and finished 5th. How did we cause any of that to happen? We didn't. Simple.

It's still funny, but they're really starting to wind me up now - and all the media cronies too. If you look, it's only the North East reporters who have such strong views - listen to neutral views and it's very much 'over reaction',  'it's a bit of poor form, that's all'. 

I can't wait for the crying when they find out their season is actually over, and no - it's not because of us, it's because you bottled the Top 2 and can't finish for dinner. Now STFU and go back to bed.

Tbf Clarkey James Corden on Talk Shite is absolutely fuming 🤣🤣

[coalman]

5 minutes ago, saints1988 said:

Turning into the Gadget show on Middlesborough Forums:

 

That phones capabilities 

he iPhone 17 Pro Max features a 48MP Fusion Telephoto camera with a 4x optical zoom (100mm equivalent) and 8x "optical-quality" zoom (200mm equivalent) using a next-gen tetraprism design. It supports a total 16x optical zoom range and up to 40x digital zoom for capturing distant subjects

 

🤣

In the final accounting it'll be the next-gen tetraprism design that does for us.

[aintforever]

Surely that is way too amateurish to be part of a large scale operation sanctioned from the very top. Some geeky little twat just standing there, in plain sight, holding a fucking iPhone.  

[Miltonaggro]

3 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

Tbf Clarkey James Corden on Talk Shite is absolutely fuming 🤣🤣

[coalman]

1 minute ago, Miltonaggro said:

Cannot. Unsee

[31cc]

44 minutes ago, saintant said:

Have you seen the number of disguises he uses? He's the Scarlet Pimpernel of Interns.

[Gloucester Saint]

7 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

Tbf Clarkey James Corden on Talk Shite is absolutely fuming 🤣🤣

He’ll be 😭 and comfort eating at the weekend when his beloved Hammers get relegated at West Ham (I wouldn’t rely on Chelsea beating Spurs) still owing £160m in transfer fees. He’s got rather more to worry about there. 

[trousers]

22 minutes ago, RedArmy said:

He is in the April picture… that’s the one used in the mail article. 

The cropped photo in the Mail looks like it's from the club's the February MotM photo to me...?

 

https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/eckert-wins-manager-of-the-month-award

[Sheaf Saint]

5 minutes ago, aintforever said:

Surely that is way too amateurish to be part of a large scale operation sanctioned from the very top. Some geeky little twat just standing there, in plain sight, holding a fucking iPhone.  

I think this just strengthens our 'rogue analyst' narrative really. If the club had actually instructed him to carry out the mission, does anyone really believe we wouldn't have briefed him better on how to avoid getting caught? 

[hypochondriac]

26 minutes ago, Thripp87 said:

We’re obviously guilty.

I think there is a potential problem here for us, the reaction has blown up a lot more than I personally thought it would do. Suits both parties and needs to be resolved quickly.

I think worth reading that post by Miltonaggro. If they attempt to kick us out they could get themselves in a lot more trouble.

[Toussaint]

1 minute ago, Sheaf Saint said:

I think this just strengthens our 'rogue analyst' narrative really. If the club had actually instructed him to carry out the mission, does anyone really believe we wouldn't have briefed him better on how to avoid getting caught? 

And maybe given him some professional equipment? 

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, Sheaf Saint said:

I think this just strengthens our 'rogue analyst' narrative really. If the club had actually instructed him to carry out the mission, does anyone really believe we wouldn't have briefed him better on how to avoid getting caught? 

Maybe it's a double bluff and we told him to look really amateurish with shit jeans so no one could possibly believe that it was anything other than a lone wolf.

[Turkish]

11 minutes ago, aintforever said:

Surely that is way too amateurish to be part of a large scale operation sanctioned from the very top. Some geeky little twat just standing there, in plain sight, holding a fucking iPhone.  

Lucky our players weren’t distracted by it all like to claimed they were 😂😂😂😂

[Toussaint]

1 minute ago, hypochondriac said:

Maybe it's a double bluff and we told him to look really amateurish with shit jeans so no one could possibly believe that it was anything other than a lone wolf.

Lone Wolf, haven’t seen him posting in a while…. The plot thickens 

[aintforever]

2 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

I think this just strengthens our 'rogue analyst' narrative really. If the club had actually instructed him to carry out the mission, does anyone really believe we wouldn't have briefed him better on how to avoid getting caught? 

Given what is at stake, I would imagine if the club wanted footage of the training session at that location they could easily pay an agency to do it, get decent footage and have zero chance of any comeback. My mate used to do private detective work and spent most of his time going round covertly filming people.

[trousers]

7 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

I think this just strengthens our 'rogue analyst' narrative really. If the club had actually instructed him to carry out the mission, does anyone really believe we wouldn't have briefed him better on how to avoid getting caught? 

I'm still holding onto the theory that we routinely send these junior staff out to do this kinda thing, and tell them to not encroach on the 72 hour embargo period, but, on this occasion, he either unwittingly got his timings mixed up or knowingly visited during the embargo period without the club knowing. I can't believe we'd tell a lad to go and record a training session in relatively plain sight during the embargo period. If we did, then we deserved a proportionate punishment.... 

Edited May 13 by trousers

[Nolan]

I presume all this media attention on Sky news, the daily mail and the Telegraph is down to Steve Gibson. 

But everything more that's put out actually makes me think "is that it?"

A man with an iPhone by a literal gate. This is actually  #insecuretraininggroundgate

Not as below...

 

 

[aintforever]

4 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Lucky our players weren’t distracted by it all like to claimed they were 😂😂😂😂

And again, in English?

[saintant]

36 minutes ago, Thripp87 said:

We’re obviously guilty.

I think there is a potential problem here for us, the reaction has blown up a lot more than I personally thought it would do. Suits both parties and needs to be resolved quickly.

Even if we are we aint paying him anything like that amount.

[sfc4prem]

1 hour ago, LGTL said:

The case is clearly open/shut. But I honestly can’t believe that’s it 😂😂

Big fine and points deduction, potentially suspended, on its way. Talk of anything more is ludicrous. 

I'm still baffled as to how it warrants a points deduction? Is that just for the EFL to put a facade of holding teams accountable to their rules? It seems over the top.

[John D]

6 minutes ago, trousers said:

I'm still holding onto the theory that we routinely send these junior staff out to do this kinda thing, and tell them to not encroach on the 72 hour embargo period, but, on this occasion, he either unwittingly got his timings mixed up or knowingly visited during the embargo period without the club knowing. I can't believe we'd tell a lad to go and record a training session in relatively plain sight during the embargo period. If we did, then we deserved a proportionate punishment.... 

Perhaps he forgot about the away leg and was spying for the home game! 

[Saint NL]

5 minutes ago, Nolan said:

 

 

 

This is the biggest deception of the season, second place is thinking Damion Downs was an international striker.

[Whitey Grandad]

Just now, sfc4prem said:

I'm still baffled as to how it warrants a points deduction? Is that just for the EFL to put a facade of holding teams accountable to their rules? It seems over the top.

I suspect that the EFL want to get their fine money in before we officially become members of the EPL. At what point is that? When we win the playoff final or is there some set date?

[benjii]

 

If anyone wants to ask them on public channels why they are handing personal data over to newspapers without a lawful basis.

[Weston Super Saint]

44 minutes ago, trousers said:

Ah, fair enough... so looks like he returned to Saints after his stint at Villa... bang goes the "he wasn't employed by us anymore" theory then.... hey ho...!

A smarter man than me may put money on the result of our "internal investigation" producing a copy of his fixed term contract which expired at the end of the regular season meaning he wasn't employed during the playoffs.

Who knows, stranger things have happened

[Whitey Grandad]

49 minutes ago, trousers said:

 

 

I intially thought when I found and posted this Derby University article a few days ago that it indicated that Salt was now with Villa, having been at Saints previously, but, on reflection, given Salt is in the Februray manager of the month group photo with Tonda, it does indeed seem that he has since returned to Saints. That said, I guess this article could have been written in, say, March, having potentially left Saints for Villa shortly after the February photo, given Salt reportedly doesn't appear in the subsequent March and April manager of the month group photos....?

Is it possible to deduce the first publication date of a webpage? 

 

47 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

Got to love Gemini .. 

The article "Will’s placement year is key to success" does not have a visible publication date displayed on the page itself.

However, based on the internal content and current events mentioned in the text, it was written in late 2024 (likely September or October 2024). This is indicated by two specific details:

• The article mentions football player Jayden Meghoma's move to Brentford on "deadline day for about £10 million," which occurred on August 30, 2024.

• The student, Will Salt, is described as being in his "third year" and currently balancing his studies with a role at Aston Villa, which corresponds to the 2024/25 academic year.

 

38 minutes ago, coalman said:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250201000000*/https://www.derby.ac.uk/undergraduate/sport-exercise-science-courses/wills-placement-year-is-key-to-success/

First posted in January 2025 give or take. I don't have access to a better web archive any more or I could get you a better answer.

As I posted above, the page source code contains this:

"datePublished": "2025-01-27T15:18:00+0000","dateModified": "2025-07-17T15:45:07+0100"

So published 27th January 2025 and modified17th July 2025.

[SambaMaverick]

We've deleted Wembley ticket info...

[do i not like fizzy pop]

New intern training video just dropped 

 

[coalman]

Just now, Whitey Grandad said:

 

 

As I posted above, the page source code contains this:

"datePublished": "2025-01-27T15:18:00+0000","dateModified": "2025-07-17T15:45:07+0100"

So published 27th January 2025 and modified17th July 2025.

Whilst it may well be right you really can't trust self published metadata in web pages to be accurate. 

[trousers]

2 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

We've deleted Wembley ticket info...

[Toadhall Saint]

3 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

We've deleted Wembley ticket info...

Yeah - I can’t find the info anywhere