Tonda Eckert

[Holmes_and_Watson]

On 11/10/2026 at 18:27, Sheaf Saint said:

I don't see Russ anywhere in this list 😉

 

You've pulled up the wrong PPG!

For the best managers you want the other PPG, Passes Per Game (defensive), where Russ will be right at the top.  

Quite the achievement for Tonda. 

[Cuddles]

3 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

You've pulled up the wrong PPG!

For the best managers you want the other PPG, Passes Per Game (defensive), where Russ will be right at the top.  

Quite the achievement for Tonda. 

Yeah yeah, try possession per game if you want to see a real gap between Russ and anyone else 😉

[CSA96]

 

[Ted Bates Statue]

That's according to Alex Crooks though, so I would be inclined to assume that this is not imminent after all. I think it will happen, anyone can see that, but not for a couple of months yet. 

Thanks to Crooks I was able to predict Tonda's job was safe very early on:

 

Edited Tuesday at 11:36 by Ted Bates Statue

[Midfield_General]

57 minutes ago, Ted Bates Statue said:

That's according to Alex Crooks though, so I would be inclined to assume that this is not imminent after all. I think it will happen, anyone can see that, but not for a couple of months yet. 

Thanks to Crooks I was able to predict Tonda's job was safe very early on:

 

Haha that's amazing. Let's break it down shall we: 

"Eckert faces sack" - not sacked ❌

"and FA ban" - not banned ❌ 

"Sporting Director under scrutiny" - still here ❌ 

"Fears sponsors will pull out" - none did ❌

"Angry players consider legal action" - none took any legal action ❌  

Wrong five times in a four-line tweet, that's pretty impressive even for that melt

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 12:34 by Midfield_General

[Secret Site Agent]

23 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Haha that's amazing. Let's break it down shall we: 

"Eckert faces sack" - not sacked ❌

"and FA ban" - not banned ❌ 

"Sporting Director under scrutiny" - still here ❌ 

"Fears sponsors will pull out" - none did ❌

"Angry players consider legal action" - none took any legal action ❌  

Wrong five times in a four-line tweet, that's pretty impressive even for that melt

 

 

But give him his due: There IS a team called Saints FC in the championship, with a manger called Tonde Eckert. 

So Kudos for getting that right.

[Willo of Whiteley]

2 hours ago, CSA96 said:

 

It’s such a non story.

Any football fan could’ve told you that. 😂

Then again that’s Alex Crook for you.

[danjosaint]

1 hour ago, Midfield_General said:

 

 

 

 

"Angry players consider legal action" - none took any legal action 

 

 

 

What i would say though is nobody would know this or if even the players effectively got compensation 

[Britannia]

7 hours ago, CSA96 said:

 

They should announce he’s signed a new deal just before kick off at the Boro match.

[Dr. Kucho]

31 minutes ago, Britannia said:

They should announce he’s signed a new deal just before kick off at the Boro match.

Or have him sign it on the pitch like Skacel did some 20 years ago. 

[Saint_clark]

7 hours ago, Ted Bates Statue said:

That's according to Alex Crooks though, so I would be inclined to assume that this is not imminent after all. I think it will happen, anyone can see that, but not for a couple of months yet. 

Thanks to Crooks I was able to predict Tonda's job was safe very early on:

 

It's amazing how literally none of what he predicted came to pass.

[Willo of Whiteley]

2 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

It's amazing how literally none of what he predicted came to pass.

Hardly surprising though is it 😂

[Mboto Gorge]

Alex Crook is a similar age to me and anyone who went to school throughout the 90s in the South will remember the type of kids who were born and raised locally but chose to support man Utd instead of their local team, as if it somehow made them superior to those who actually supported their local team. In reality these were the type of nauseating bell ends you’d avoid at all costs during your school years. This guy was 100% one of those. Born and bred in Pompey but a plastic United fan, sums that fat cunt up.

[Willo of Whiteley]

18 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

Haha that's amazing. Let's break it down shall we: 

"Eckert faces sack" - not sacked ❌

"and FA ban" - not banned ❌ 

"Sporting Director under scrutiny" - still here ❌ 

"Fears sponsors will pull out" - none did ❌

"Angry players consider legal action" - none took any legal action ❌  

Wrong five times in a four-line tweet, that's pretty impressive even for that melt

 

 

Don’t forget Ryan Bertrand and Danny Ings new contracts!

Must be any day now.

Guy is a fraud.

[Patrick Bateman]

Now we've got that away win sorted and it was a tough, gritty one at that, midweek, the club now have my blessing to offer Tonda a new contract 😂

[Badger]

Good interview on the BBC site.

Interesting thing I thought is his comment at the end that it was a long trek home arriving around 2.30 but they’d look at some games of the next opposition.

He’s really focused, and clearly players are expected to be too.

New contract asap please.
 

[gio1saints]

New contract or no new contract, promoted or not promoted, Tonda will not be our Manager next season. 

Why do I think that?

He’s not staying another year in the Championship if we fail to go up.  He is too good for that. It would be illogical. He needs to be performing at his highest level - that’s not a rinse and repeat third season in the second tier of English football.  So I foresee we will get a nice transfer fee for him - and start again. His loyalty to the club for not sacking him is him signing a new deal so we get a tasty fee when he inevitably departs. 
 

IF we go up he will be poached for sure. It will be a Hollywood fairytale getting promoted with our backstory. Germany will want him, Italy will want him maybe even a daring ( bigger than Saints) EPL club will want him. His days of Lincoln away will be long gone. And we will still get a tasty fee when he signs up for the reason previously stated. The higher his new contract deal the more compensation we will receive when he’s poached. So it’s going to be a biggie! 
 

So let’s enjoy him while we can! 

[Wade Garrett]

On 14/10/2026 at 07:56, Willo of Whiteley said:

Don’t forget Ryan Bertrand and Danny Ings new contracts!

Must be any day now.

Guy is a fraud.

Him and that Matterface prick are a pair of c~nts.

[Lord Duckhunter]

19 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

New contract or no new contract, promoted or not promoted, Tonda will not be our Manager next season. 

Why do I think that?

He’s not staying another year in the Championship if we fail to go up.  He is too good for that. It would be illogical. He needs to be performing at his highest level -
 

 

I can see loads of top teams saying to themselves. “Let’s get the guy in who was directly responsible for Southampton being kicked out of the play offs , who then failed to get them up the following season, that’s exactly what we need”. If the likes of QPR or Swansea finish above us, why would they bother with those chumps, when they can get Tonda….A bloke who nearly took a club with parachute payments and top championship players up, will be in demand. 

[SaintTex]

yeah, Tonda has the chops, but the stink on him is going to take awhile to wear off in terms of his attractiveness to other clubs.

It's really perfect for us. We have accepted the stink (we had no choice really) and we retain what is turning out to be a really really good manager.

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

14 hours ago, SaintTex said:

yeah, Tonda has the chops, but the stink on him is going to take awhile to wear off in terms of his attractiveness to other clubs.

It's really perfect for us. We have accepted the stink (we had no choice really) and we retain what is turning out to be a really really good manager.

I really don't think other clubs give a shit, especially those in Europe.

But yes, it'll be good if he carries on as he has and stays.

Edited 20 hours ago by JohnnyShearer2.0

[Willo of Whiteley]

6 hours ago, gio1saints said:

New contract or no new contract, promoted or not promoted, Tonda will not be our Manager next season. 

Why do I think that?

He’s not staying another year in the Championship if we fail to go up.  He is too good for that. It would be illogical. He needs to be performing at his highest level - that’s not a rinse and repeat third season in the second tier of English football.  So I foresee we will get a nice transfer fee for him - and start again. His loyalty to the club for not sacking him is him signing a new deal so we get a tasty fee when he inevitably departs. 
 

IF we go up he will be poached for sure. It will be a Hollywood fairytale getting promoted with our backstory. Germany will want him, Italy will want him maybe even a daring ( bigger than Saints) EPL club will want him. His days of Lincoln away will be long gone. And we will still get a tasty fee when he signs up for the reason previously stated. The higher his new contract deal the more compensation we will receive when he’s poached. So it’s going to be a biggie! 
 

So let’s enjoy him while we can! 

Bet you’re a barrel of laughs at dinner parties

[austsaint]

6 hours ago, gio1saints said:

New contract or no new contract, promoted or not promoted, Tonda will not be our Manager next season. 

Why do I think that?

He’s not staying another year in the Championship if we fail to go up.  He is too good for that. It would be illogical. He needs to be performing at his highest level - that’s not a rinse and repeat third season in the second tier of English football.  So I foresee we will get a nice transfer fee for him - and start again. His loyalty to the club for not sacking him is him signing a new deal so we get a tasty fee when he inevitably departs. 
 

IF we go up he will be poached for sure. It will be a Hollywood fairytale getting promoted with our backstory. Germany will want him, Italy will want him maybe even a daring ( bigger than Saints) EPL club will want him. His days of Lincoln away will be long gone. And we will still get a tasty fee when he signs up for the reason previously stated. The higher his new contract deal the more compensation we will receive when he’s poached. So it’s going to be a biggie! 
 

So let’s enjoy him while we can! 

You're not confusing Tonda with Caspar, are you?

[Holmes_and_Watson]

7 hours ago, gio1saints said:

New contract or no new contract, promoted or not promoted, Tonda will not be our Manager next season. 

Why do I think that?

He’s not staying another year in the Championship if we fail to go up.  He is too good for that. It would be illogical. He needs to be performing at his highest level - that’s not a rinse and repeat third season in the second tier of English football.  So I foresee we will get a nice transfer fee for him - and start again. His loyalty to the club for not sacking him is him signing a new deal so we get a tasty fee when he inevitably departs. 
 

IF we go up he will be poached for sure. It will be a Hollywood fairytale getting promoted with our backstory. Germany will want him, Italy will want him maybe even a daring ( bigger than Saints) EPL club will want him. His days of Lincoln away will be long gone. And we will still get a tasty fee when he signs up for the reason previously stated. The higher his new contract deal the more compensation we will receive when he’s poached. So it’s going to be a biggie! 
 

So let’s enjoy him while we can! 

At least the last line was upbeat, gio. 🙂

It's going well at the moment. While the scenarios are plausible enough, I'll just focus on the here and now and let it play out. 

Besides, I've got posts to write for any of our stand out players, who will all inevitably leave at some point. Even if it's through retirement. 🙂

[Toadhall Saint]

8 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Bet you’re a barrel of laughs at dinner parties

Do people still have those? 

[badgerx16]

It would be great to continue our form and for Tonda to be the leading contender for Manager of the Month.

[gio1saints]

8 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

At least the last line was upbeat, gio. 🙂

It's going well at the moment. While the scenarios are plausible enough, I'll just focus on the here and now and let it play out. 

Besides, I've got posts to write for any of our stand out players, who will all inevitably leave at some point. Even if it's through retirement. 🙂

 @Holmes_and_WatsonI realise now that what to my ( let’s just say “different” ) mind appeared a piece of objective analysis may have alternative explanation and landed badly amongst the readership, especially those new to my scribbling. 
 

That quickly knocked out piece of analysis on Tondas’ tenure obviously appeared unsettling to some. But I’m sure SR are fully aware (😎) of the likelihood of what I’ve written being accurate and are not that unsettled - but getting prepared. Or do I give them too much credit?

Is the heir apparent winning 6-5 away at 15th tier The Swan Arms really a good marker ? Is well groomed Adam up to it basically? He may be the stalking horse for another wunderkid from overseas I reckon. 
 

Normal service will not be resumed any time soon.

[Cuddles]

1 hour ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Do people still have those? 

Not with some of the geeks on here, that's for sure 😂

[Holmes_and_Watson]

1 hour ago, gio1saints said:

 @Holmes_and_WatsonI realise now that what to my ( let’s just say “different” ) mind appeared a piece of objective analysis may have alternative explanation and landed badly amongst the readership, especially those new to my scribbling. 
 

That quickly knocked out piece of analysis on Tondas’ tenure obviously appeared unsettling to some. But I’m sure SR are fully aware (😎) of the likelihood of what I’ve written being accurate and are not that unsettled - but getting prepared. Or do I give them too much credit?

Is the heir apparent winning 6-5 away at 15th tier The Swan Arms really a good marker ? Is well groomed Adam up to it basically? He may be the stalking horse for another wunderkid from overseas I reckon. 
 

Normal service will not be resumed any time soon.

SR have often said that they'd been tracking managers for a while. Often, as they've gone through quite a few. 🙂 Tonda was brought into the under 21s with an eye on him taking over at some point. So, there's planning there.

I couldn't say about Lallana. No doubt he dreams of doing well at it, and going onto bigger things, as he tucks himself into his Liverpool duvet every night.

Spygate will have certainly focused their attention on succession planning. Remember, the FA wanted an initial 6 month ban, before common sense/mitigation steps began to reduce it.

"It's nearly Swansea again," said Russell Martin, taking the Swan Arms through their possession drills. 🙂

But it's all in the timing, as I say in my award winning Comedy Workshop posts. As you'd not give a funeral plan as a birthday gift to a 6 year old, you'd not pop the highly emotional bubble of joy when things are going well at a football club. 

[Ralph Fastenbüttl]

23 hours ago, gio1saints said:

New contract or no new contract, promoted or not promoted, Tonda will not be our Manager next season. 

Why do I think that?

He’s not staying another year in the Championship if we fail to go up.  He is too good for that. It would be illogical. He needs to be performing at his highest level - that’s not a rinse and repeat third season in the second tier of English football.  So I foresee we will get a nice transfer fee for him - and start again. His loyalty to the club for not sacking him is him signing a new deal so we get a tasty fee when he inevitably departs. 
 

IF we go up he will be poached for sure. It will be a Hollywood fairytale getting promoted with our backstory. Germany will want him, Italy will want him maybe even a daring ( bigger than Saints) EPL club will want him. His days of Lincoln away will be long gone. And we will still get a tasty fee when he signs up for the reason previously stated. The higher his new contract deal the more compensation we will receive when he’s poached. So it’s going to be a biggie! 
 

So let’s enjoy him while we can! 

I really don't think so, personally.

While Saints took a big gamble standing by him through Spygate, the end result is a quality manager who I think may well stay loyal to the club for far longer than you're expecting.

Of course, a manager's life is a precarious one and the sack is only ever one bad run away and, yes, I do see bigger clubs sniffing about. And all the loyalty in the world isn't going to matter if a genuine dream role comes along. But I'd be very surprised if he wasn't here next year, and honestly I think it's very realistic to think his tenure could stretch beyond what we saw with someone like Ralph.

This genuinely is the biggest positive to emerge from all the bs of last season imo.

Obviously now I've said all that he'll have his head turned by an offer he "just couldn't turn down" from Grimsby Town on Monday...

[tdmickey3]

What the fuck was that formation today all about?

[Whitey Grandad]

9 hours ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Do people still have those? 

Laughs? Not that I've ever  noticed. 

[Gloucester Saint]

The side and formation isn’t what I’ve chosen but look at the video horrors on the sitters missed. Dobbin, twice, was bad enough, and Leo, but Bree’s belongs on a comedy clip.

The manager can’t micro manage to the point of ensuring professional footballers at elite levels keep their head over the ball in front of an open goal, no keeper, 5 yards out.

The same player who was so composed on Sunday with a harder chance. 

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

1 hour ago, Gloucester Saint said:

The side and formation isn’t what I’ve chosen but look at the video horrors on the sitters missed. Dobbin, twice, was bad enough, and Leo, but Bree’s belongs on a comedy clip.

The manager can’t micro manage to the point of ensuring professional footballers at elite levels keep their head over the ball in front of an open goal, no keeper, 5 yards out.

The same player who was so composed on Sunday with a harder chance. 

Yep, a frustrating watch with the misses compounding it. Need to practice shooting for several hours.

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, Gloucester Saint said:

The side and formation isn’t what I’ve chosen but look at the video horrors on the sitters missed. Dobbin, twice, was bad enough, and Leo, but Bree’s belongs on a comedy clip.

The manager can’t micro manage to the point of ensuring professional footballers at elite levels keep their head over the ball in front of an open goal, no keeper, 5 yards out.

The same player who was so composed on Sunday with a harder chance. 

Yep, 4 absolutely golden chances missed and a stonewall penalty not given. Take two or three of them and suddenly he’s a genius with 9 points and 3 clean sheets in a week. Today was disappointing but we should have won and 7 points out of 9 is a decent return. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

Questionable tactics today.

What was the Scienza/Matsuki/Fellows experiment putting them on opposite wings that they’re used to? We created little to no chances during that period.

Matsuki should’ve started and brightened the game when he came on.

Fellows has got to be up there as one of the worst signings we’ve made in recent years.

Bragg and JWP starting together I do understand after Jander played 75 minutes on Wednesday, but Bragg and JWP are basically the same players, playing too deep and not adding much going forward aside from sideways passing.
JWP was really good today, but tactically you do not need two players doing this job.

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Bragg and JWP starting together I do understand after Jander played 75 minutes on Wednesday, but Bragg and JWP are basically the same players, playing too deep and not adding much going forward aside from sideways passing.
JWP was really good today, but tactically you do not need two players doing this job.

I said before the game that I'd rather have the option of bringing Jander on than being forced to take him off and the game kind of showed why. If you start knowing that you're going to have to make a certain sub on circa 60 minutes, then you're limited in the tactical changes you can make. You're effectively down to one tactical sub opportunity if somebody gets injured, which is exactly what happened with Larin after 40 minutes. As it happened he subbed off Bragg on 70 minutes anyway but you don't really want that being dictated to you by fitness, before the game.

 

On that note, shout out to the mush behind me who get shouting, "get Jander on FFS!" when we'd already used all three sub windows.

[beatlesaint]

1 hour ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Bragg and JWP starting together I do understand after Jander played 75 minutes on Wednesday, but Bragg and JWP are basically the same players, playing too deep and not adding much going forward aside from sideways passing.
JWP was really good today, but tactically you do not need two players doing this job.

There was no alternative though was there with Flynn injured and Jander having played so much Wednesday. As a pair they were better than I thought they’d be. For me that was JWP’s best game since coming back.

[23rdSaint]

56 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

I said before the game that I'd rather have the option of bringing Jander on than being forced to take him off and the game kind of showed why. If you start knowing that you're going to have to make a certain sub on circa 60 minutes, then you're limited in the tactical changes you can make. You're effectively down to one tactical sub opportunity if somebody gets injured, which is exactly what happened with Larin after 40 minutes. As it happened he subbed off Bragg on 70 minutes anyway but you don't really want that being dictated to you by fitness, before the game.

 

On that note, shout out to the mush behind me who get shouting, "get Jander on FFS!" when we'd already used all three sub windows.

Is this three sub window still a thing? We had four on Wednesday. 

[Lighthouse]

6 minutes ago, 23rdSaint said:

Is this three sub window still a thing? We had four on Wednesday. 

Actually, you're right (and so is mush), that's my mistake. Fellows came off at HT, so technically we could have made another.

[Teamsaint1]

I wonder what Tonda sees that makes him think that Leo should be anywhere other than wide left. He looked so much more dangerous when he moved there towards the end.  And we almost always look better when Matsuki plays. 
against a team as limited as Bolton were, it is hard to see why you would do more than minor tweaks to the tried and tested system. The first half set up just seemed bizarre. But that said, we still created enough to win two games. 
 

[Willo of Whiteley]

In brutal honesty I think Tonda got lucky with a bit of team rotation during the week, today I think it bit him in the arse alongside his weird tactics: Scienza on the right despite being ineffective for over an hour, Matsuki not starting, Bragg and JWP effectively playing as holding midfielders within ten yards of each other.

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Willo of Whiteley said:

In brutal honesty I think Tonda got lucky with a bit of team rotation during the week, today I think it bit him in the arse alongside his weird tactics: Scienza on the right despite being ineffective for over an hour, Matsuki not starting, Bragg and JWP effectively playing as holding midfielders within ten yards of each other.

not playing Leo on the left crept in towards the end of last season. Despite the good results, it was obvious it was not a good fit...yet he returns to it.

The manager is clearly not having Mubama.....

[SouthWalesSaints]

Reading a lot of Tonda over complicated it tweets/messages etc. 

I’ll try my best to convey from a tactical view point why he has done this.  Again these elite managers are far advanced from me but i probably see it through their lens slightly more than the average joe. 
 

We’ve lined up today in a 4-4-2 because Bolton defend very uniquely. So they’ve condensed the pitch into a 15 meter pitch and aggressively high playing an offside defensive unit similar to that of the German Flick. I was really impressed with how high there line was, and credit them for that.  I’m presuming because of this Tonda has played strong sided wingers as Bolton wanted us to come inside where there was no room. Fellows and Matsuki from left and Scienza and Azaz at different times from the right.  Playing Azaz as a 10 is the same problem we can’t get three lines into their 15 yard defensive unit and they planned for this.  The other interesting thing was that Scienza started as a striker with Larin but kept getting to wide so they switched that in game but couldn’t work out how, fellows was poor he got caught far to many times.  First half it worked much better than second ironically as we were in complete control but we didn’t create enough clear cut chances. Scienzas aside. 
 

Losing Larin was an issue as we then couldn’t play more direct as the game progressed meaning they could stay higher from restarts and we couldn’t cross the ball late from deep as no one to hit, a big problem for the team and one I’ve called all season.
 

Was the same as wolves v Bolton midweek, no Jimenez and Armstrong the replacement, Bolton stopped them playing.  
 

Interestingly I watched Azaz for Ireland against Austria and he played in a deeper role something we’ve not seen loads of. I’d have preferred to see us start with him in with JWP and have two flying wingers on from the start. Edozie and Scienza with Larin + Dobbin. 
 

The biggest two misses were manning and Downes/Jander. We had no deep runners from midfield to break Boltons high line both Jander and Flynn would do that. And we really missed Manning’s quality to pick a pass.  Having no back up striker is an issue, we need to act on this in Jan.  I won’t stop telling anyone this.  Lincoln, Wrexham, Today - cost us at least 5 points so far this season. 

 

Positives for me - Dobbin and Edozie have had good weeks. Edozie should have had an assist for dobbin. Minus taking his chances I thought dobbin looked sharp. Can certainly play as a second striker. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

It was evident that Fellows was struggling inside the first ten minutes on that left hand side, yet he was left.

Equally it was evident Scienza spent more time passing backwards on the right rather than running at defenders.

Tonda’s tactics buggered it up today, unfortunately we have to just accept that.

You play your best players on their best positions, you play to your strengths, not try and counter what your opponent might set up as.

[SouthWalesSaints]

3 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

It was evident that Fellows was struggling inside the first ten minutes on that left hand side, yet he was left.

Equally it was evident Scienza spent more time passing backwards on the right rather than running at defenders.

Tonda’s tactics buggered it up today, unfortunately we have to just accept that.

You play your best players on their best positions, you play to your strengths, not try and counter what your opponent might set up as.

But Tonda is a data and Analyst man.  His skill set is exactly what you’re describing.  He’s done this the whole time we’ve been on these runs.  Coventry, Arsenal, Fulham, Skates, Norwich etc etc.  We’ve setup to play against the team we are playing. 
 

Fellows looks like a fish out of water on the right sometimes.  He didn’t get today all right,  but Bree playing advanced cutting back to Scienza central after 3 mins should have been enough for us to win the game. Also Scienza crossing of strong foot from the right for the handball … etc etc.