Should Saints sack Tonda?

[CB Fry]

On 26/05/2026 at 13:02, sfc4prem said:

Why do you think it will be that much harsher than Bielsa back in the day?

One of the reasons will be that Bielsa himself confessed and admitted to it within a day of it first coming to light v Derby and then went into detail at a press conference a couple of days after that.

He owned it, held his hands up, confessed, gave the press the quotes and story and it all moved on. Ha ha ha naughty boy.

Maybe there is another universe where instead of flat batting and defensive "no comment" stuff, we were actually on the front foot on the day of the first leg, owned it. Don't give Middlesbrough the chance to own it in such a moralistic way.

Maybe it makes no difference but the fact is we looked shifty and guilty from the start.

Maybe it would have worked if we'd looked bolder and more brazen but with a hands up approach - doing that "look, sorry we did it but it's a bit like diving and harassing the ref and not as bad as financial cheating" stuff. Yes it's wrong sorry but its common honest. Drop in a line or two to imply that we think someone might have been doing it to us this season. A bit of bullshit.

But Tonda hasn't got the personality to do that. Neil Warnock maybe, but Tonda isn't quite there yet.

Plus the rule change did us of course.

But Bielsa owned it in a way we never did. Boro owned the narrative and it helped fuck us over.