Tonda Eckert

[Fabrice29]

40 minutes ago, Jack said:

The more time I’ve had to think about yesterday the more annoyed I am about it. All that Tonda did well last season - round pegs in round holes, best players in natural positions, clear player roles, he threw in the bin yesterday trying to be clever. Yes there were individual errors leading to goals, but we were absolutely all over the place after the first 10 mins and it took another 50 to address it. 
 

Was he too proud to realise the mistake? We should’ve made the changes on half an hour and got Leo into his normal position and give them something to think about. Two of their defenders were on a booking and we made it so easy for them. Against inferior sides just put your best players in their obvious position, work hard and the results should take care of themselves. He needs to go back to what worked last season on Saturday. 

The two players on a booking were due to Scienza playing inside. So moving him outside would literally have been making it easier for them.

[Jack]

7 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

The two players on a booking were due to Scienza playing inside. So moving him outside would literally have been making it easier for them.

Are you trying to tell me that Scienza never drifts in from the outside and draws fouls from there, as well as being able to go on the outside and beat his man there too? Do you think he, and the team overall are more effective with Scienza playing through the middle? 
 

 

[Fabrice29]

25 minutes ago, Jack said:

Are you trying to tell me that Scienza never drifts in from the outside and draws fouls from there, as well as being able to go on the outside and beat his man there too? Do you think he, and the team overall are more effective with Scienza playing through the middle? 
 

 

 No I didn’t try and tell you that. Nor did I make any conclusions about how effective he or the team are based on his position.

I am trying to point out how hysterical people are acting over a slight change in player position though. Given a) you seem to think Watford wiping Scienza out at every opportunity in the first 20 minutes was not ‘something for them to think about’ and b) the actual thing that affected the game you have just glossed over with ‘yeh, but’. 

[saintant]

10 hours ago, Fabrice29 said:

 No I didn’t try and tell you that. Nor did I make any conclusions about how effective he or the team are based on his position.

I am trying to point out how hysterical people are acting over a slight change in player position though. Given a) you seem to think Watford wiping Scienza out at every opportunity in the first 20 minutes was not ‘something for them to think about’ and b) the actual thing that affected the game you have just glossed over with ‘yeh, but’. 

Haven't seen any hysteria just people pointing out that, in their view, it didn't work and was a contributing factor to a disappointing display and defeat.

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, saintant said:

Haven't seen any hysteria just people pointing out that, in their view, it didn't work and was a contributing factor to a disappointing display and defeat.

Pretty much this tbh. It didn't work and it was certainly a significant factor to our first half showing. Don't think much more than that needs to be said.

[Marsdinho]

Here's a scenario...

5 games into the new season, and we are still searching for our first win. The FA then give Tonda a 6 match touchline ban. Do you...

A) Stick with Tonda 

B) Sack Tonda

[Dark Munster]

5 hours ago, Marsdinho said:

Here's a scenario...

5 games into the new season, and we are still searching for our first win. The FA then give Tonda a 6 match touchline ban. Do you...

A) Stick with Tonda 

B) Sack Tonda

[die Mannyschaft]

6 hours ago, Marsdinho said:

Here's a scenario...

5 games into the new season, and we are still searching for our first win. The FA then give Tonda a 6 match touchline ban. Do you...

A) Stick with Tonda 

B) Sack Tonda

C) Revert back to spying but 73 hours before a game.

[danjosaint]

D, should of gone already along with Parsons 

[Weston Super Saint]

Has Tonda got a naughty brother?

 

A man from Melksham has been jailed after he threatened a woman in her 20s. He told her he was going to "pay someone to cut her head off, external", reported Somerset Live. Joe Martin, 28, pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour after he grabbed the woman from a Bath pub and locked her in his car.

[sockeye]

3 hours ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Has Tonda got a naughty brother?

 

A man from Melksham has been jailed after he threatened a woman in her 20s. He told her he was going to "pay someone to cut her head off, external", reported Somerset Live. Joe Martin, 28, pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour after he grabbed the woman from a Bath pub and locked her in his car.

Quote

Martin

Obsessed. He left us 2 years ago its time to let it go

[AlexLaw76]

No cheating, no party

 

[Gloucester Saint]

The FA might be about to do the club a favour seeing as Solak doesn’t have the backbone. 

[PJ]

The drop off from last season is so hard to explain. We looked fitter and sharper than everyone else. And we even had far more games than anyone else. But this season we look unfit and not mentally right. And that comes from the culture at the club, which starts with the manager. He's under pressure for sure. We don't have the luxury of a slow start.

[die Mannyschaft]

11 hours ago, PJ said:

The drop off from last season is so hard to explain. We looked fitter and sharper than everyone else. And we even had far more games than anyone else. But this season we look unfit and not mentally right. And that comes from the culture at the club, which starts with the manager. He's under pressure for sure. We don't have the luxury of a slow start.

I think its been a PR exercise in saying targeting top 2 and a campaign to get everyone onside with Tonda. I cant imagine everyone at the club happy with hime still at the club just as the fans are split too. The performances won't help in attracting the top players we need to bring the team level up to top 2 output. 

[Lighthouse]

12 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said:

The FA might be about to do the club a favour seeing as Solak doesn’t have the backbone. 

I don’t think you can accuse Solak of that, when we announced we were sticking with Tonda it raised more eyebrows than a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. It was certainly a brave decision, which caught me by surprise.

I thought he had to go and TBH I’m still not entirely convinced keeping him was the right decision. Maybe with two or three signings in key areas we will be rejuvenated and start looking like we did last year but right now it’s all a bit Will Still.

[hypochondriac]

1 hour ago, die Mannyschaft said:

I think its been a PR exercise in saying targeting top 2 and a campaign to get everyone onside with Tonda. I cant imagine everyone at the club happy with hime still at the club just as the fans are split too. The performances won't help in attracting the top players we need to bring the team level up to top 2 output. 

I don't think we will ever know but you'd imagine there would be a bit of resentment. Those players who maybe aren't quite good enough for a mega money move may feel that they gave everything and were denied competing fairly through his incompetence or recklessness. I think even subconsciously that may make you try less hard.

[vectraman]

Tonda’s actions brought the club into disrepute, drew negative media coverage across the world onto Southampton FC and cost them potentially ~£120 million in revenue by not contesting the playoff final.

Any other big business in the world would have fired him for gross misconduct and moved on. New manager, new start, media pressure goes away, team can get on with the new season.

For whatever reason we didn’t fire him, he still may get banned, so we‘d have to replace him anyway, but mid season, where the new manager can’t change personnel. Personally I think it is a seriously flawed decision, and we will struggle to shake off the negative stigma he brings until he does leave.

We will never know what really was going on, but my suspicion is we had been ‘spying’ on a lot more teams than the three we owned up to. I believe if we had said yes, we monitored these 17 teams, of which we had won 12 games, the points deduction would have been massive and almost certainly relegated us. My personal opinion based on no facts.

We are where we are, Tonda needs to sort the on field problems out (slow plodding football), whilst the recruitment team sort the player recruitment out. Big season, remain very unconvinced Solak made the right call not firing Tonda. 
We shall see….

Edited August 26 by vectraman
Autocorrect corrections

[wild-saint]

15 hours ago, PJ said:

The drop off from last season is so hard to explain. We looked fitter and sharper than everyone else. And we even had far more games than anyone else. But this season we look unfit and not mentally right. And that comes from the culture at the club, which starts with the manager. He's under pressure for sure. We don't have the luxury of a slow start.

hard to explain? How about no Shea, No THB, No Stewart and No Jander. not that hard to explain really is it? 

[Patrick Bateman]

6 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

I don’t think you can accuse Solak of that, when we announced we were sticking with Tonda it raised more eyebrows than a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. It was certainly a brave decision, which caught me by surprise.

I thought he had to go and TBH I’m still not entirely convinced keeping him was the right decision. Maybe with two or three signings in key areas we will be rejuvenated and start looking like we did last year but right now it’s all a bit Will Still.

I think the trouble is the main question is "who is better than Tonda?" and secondly, I think he got a general view from the players that they'd rather he stayed. I think it was the right call, all will be okay once the team has settled again and back on a roll. Jander and TBH are big misses though right now. 

[Dark Munster]

13 hours ago, vectraman said:

For whatever reason we didn’t fire him, he still may get banned, so we‘d have to replace him anyway, but mid season, where the new manager can’t change personnel. Personally I think it is a seriously flawed decision, and we will struggle to shake off the negative stigma he brings until he does leave.

Maybe it's because he took over a team in a complete mess, flirting with relegation, massively adrift from the top, and took us to 4th (including that unbeaten run), comfortably into the playoffs, (and not far off the autos), as well as knocking two PL teams (including the champions) out of the FA cup, taking the billionaire eventual winners all the way in the semifinal at Wembley?

Don't forget, we wouldn't have been kicked out of the playoffs if he wasn't the manager because we almost certainly wouldn't have been there in the first place.

[PJ]

19 hours ago, wild-saint said:

hard to explain? How about no Shea, No THB, No Stewart and No Jander. not that hard to explain really is it? 

My point was not the results - sure, losing those players makes it harder to win. The point (obvious in the following sentence) was that we have dropped off massively in fitness, application, and the mentality. This is on the manager and coaching staff in my view. Or is your explanation for looking unfit due to losing some key players? That makes no sense. 

[Teamsaint1]

19 minutes ago, PJ said:

My point was not the results - sure, losing those players makes it harder to win. The point (obvious in the following sentence) was that we have dropped off massively in fitness, application, and the mentality. This is on the manager and coaching staff in my view. Or is your explanation for looking unfit due to losing some key players? That makes no sense. 

Have we dropped off in fitness ? I don’t know, but against Stoke we finished very strongly. Admittedly we had a better bench than them. 

[John B]

10 minutes ago, PJ said:

My point was not the results - sure, losing those players makes it harder to win. The point (obvious in the following sentence) was that we have dropped off massively in fitness, application, and the mentality. This is on the manager and coaching staff in my view. Or is your explanation for looking unfit due to losing some key players? That makes no sense. 

Football is a funny old game if you had followed the Saints as long as me you would realise that there will lots of lows and very few highs with regard to results especially if our best players are not playing.

You have to be realistic the club apart from a few years ten years or so ago has been on a downward curve because it has never had continual investment in quality players who want to play for the club.

I am over 80 now I still follow the club avidly but accept we are likely to be a Championship club for the rest of my life 

 

[Gloucester Saint]

4 hours ago, John B said:

Football is a funny old game if you had followed the Saints as long as me you would realise that there will lots of lows and very few highs with regard to results especially if our best players are not playing.

You have to be realistic the club apart from a few years ten years or so ago has been on a downward curve because it has never had continual investment in quality players who want to play for the club.

I am over 80 now I still follow the club avidly but accept we are likely to be a Championship club for the rest of my life 

 

Things can change rapidly though - Sheffield Utd were the obvious favourites to win the playoffs a couple of years ago v a Sunderland side with some investment, a bright manager but no parachute. A very late equaliser and ET winner and two seasons later, one is fending off a points deduction and another is playing in Europe this season. 

[danjosaint]

Sunderland have ambitious owners, wr have ......... SR 

[Wade Garrett]

Wtf was he playing at today?  
 

That side should be capable of much more than they’re showing and that’s on the manager.

Said at the time that the club should have sacked him after spygate.  Another in a long line of shit decisions by Solak.  He really is a mug.
 

[Dman]

Based on what I’ve seen from us so far this season, he won’t be here come the end of it. 
 

not me calling for him to be sacked, but starting to look like the beginning of the end. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Dman

[Paul Chuckle]

We went full Thomas Tuchel Argentina tactics at the end, against Lincoln FFS 

[Disco Stu]

I would say there's at least a 50% chance Wrexham away on the 19th will be his last game for us.

Edited 2 hours ago by Disco Stu

[Osvaldorama]

Massive overreaction 

Hes been a revelation since he came in, spygate aside. Cant call for the manager after one or two bad games 😂

[Gloucester Saint]

4 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I would say there's at least a 50% chance Wrexham away on the 19th will be his last game for us.

Here’s hoping. Dreadful today. I turned off with going 5ATB as it was so obvious what was going to happen. 

[Disco Stu]

5 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

Massive overreaction 

Hes been a revelation since he came in, spygate aside. Cant call for the manager after one or two bad games 😂

To clarify, I'm very much Tonda in. He'll most likely receive a multi-month ban though.

Edited 2 hours ago by Disco Stu

[Wade Garrett]

23 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

Massive overreaction 

Hes been a revelation since he came in, spygate aside. Cant call for the manager after one or two bad games 😂

Spygate aside!  You mean our entire season being rendered meaningless.  He should have been sacked after that, no question.

I really don’t think he’s the genius he’s made out to be.  There are plenty out there that would do a better job.

[Saintinnot]

Maybe the drop off is because he can’t spy anymore ? 
 

i think he should have been sacked - no way he can get through this pressure and deliver what he did last season 

 

[Weston Super Saint]

2 minutes ago, Saintinnot said:

Maybe the drop off is because he can’t spy anymore ? 
 

i think he should have been sacked - no way he can get through this pressure and deliver what he did last season 

 

3 games unbeaten.  Every unbeaten run has to start somewhere...

[Baird of the land]

2 minutes ago, Saintinnot said:

Maybe the drop off is because he can’t spy anymore ? 
 

i think he should have been sacked - no way he can get through this pressure and deliver what he did last season 

 

Maybe the drop off is because 4 key players were taken away (3 sold and 1 injured) and replaced substandardly.. 

[benali-shorts]

Tonda’s biggest error has been acquiescing to Spors and Solak, and not kicking up a fuss about the dysfunctional squad he’s got after this window - on loan kid as second back up striker to a heavyweight CF who will never to able to play 46 games; no wingers to rotate Scienza with; CMs of the same type; bizarre use of £9m on a player whose role seems unclear; and distinct weakening at CB. Tonda shouldn’t have accepted that; and a more experienced manager would have rightly stood up to Spors and insisted on more from the window. Feels like SR have got the compliant coach any owner would dream of. 

[Lighthouse]

3 minutes ago, benali-shorts said:

Tonda’s biggest error has been acquiescing to Spors and Solak, and not kicking up a fuss about the dysfunctional squad he’s got after this window - on loan kid as second back up striker to a heavyweight CF who will never to able to play 46 games; no wingers to rotate Scienza with; CMs of the same type; bizarre use of £9m on a player whose role seems unclear; and distinct weakening at CB. Tonda shouldn’t have accepted that; and a more experienced manager would have rightly stood up to Spors and insisted on more from the window. Feels like SR have got the compliant coach any owner would dream of. 

This squad is stronger than the one that got promoted with 87 points three years ago. I can’t believe we’re talking weaknesses in our squad following a draw with Lincoln City. For all your complaints about our squad, I’m betting that around 17 of our match day 20 would start for Lincoln if they could afford them.

[RedArmy]

10 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

Maybe the drop off is because 4 key players were taken away (3 sold and 1 injured) and replaced substandardly.. 

But the front 4 is the same, and looks nowhere near the level of last season. 
 

It’s a question that needs to be asked. 

[benali-shorts]

6 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

This squad is stronger than the one that got promoted with 87 points three years ago. I can’t believe we’re talking weaknesses in our squad following a draw with Lincoln City. For all your complaints about our squad, I’m betting that around 17 of our match day 20 would start for Lincoln if they could afford them.

Is it definitively stronger? Do you mean that as a fact, or as your opinion?
I definitely think this squad has shortcomings in its makeup. I think the Martin squad had other shortcomings. My point really is that the window shouldn’t leave obvious deficiencies given where it was at the end of last season, and that Tonda shouldn’t have been so acquiescent to the Board post Window.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Just now, Lighthouse said:

I’m betting that around 17 of our match day 20 would start for Lincoln if they could afford them.

I very much doubt that 17 would be starting for a side that had ambitions to be promoted automatically.

[Lighthouse]

2 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

I very much doubt that 17 would be starting for a side that had ambitions to be promoted automatically.

No, I think 11 would be starting and 9 would be on the bench.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Just now, Lighthouse said:

No, I think 11 would be starting and 9 would be on the bench.

Whatever