All Activity

Only thing I will say is that the argument of "they won't overturn it now, it's too disruptive etc" holds no weight. Throwing us out when we'd sold out, 4 days to the game, was disruptive and they still did it. You can argue that we have no chance based on what we did etc but to say they won't do it purely because it's too much hassle is wrong.

Think there are more twists and turns yet. It’s Wednesday morning, there’s an appeal Wednesday evening, I just can’t see that the losing semi finalists will be playing at Wembley on Saturday afternoon when their 38000 tickets have already been sold to the winning semi finalists, with the only legitimate finalists being punished by the shambles of the whole situation. It’s not right. I’m disgusted by the whole thing, angry with the club, but it doesn’t feel like it’s done yet.

I know it's still raw, but I'm honestly feeling like I won't even really be following the club from here on out. I'm thinking ahead to next season and trying to imagine watching the games or even checking the results and I just don't imagine myself giving a shit at all.

I’m obviously gutted about playoffs. But what really really hurts/makes me feel sick is the long term consequences, the ripple effect will be huge. - manager and staff sacked - no director of football - all of the players wanting to leave. - club reputation in tatters we will now be stuck in the championship doldrums for a long time (if we’re lucky). all for a totally pointless thing to do. Which gained us nothing. The risk v reward is inexcusable. Tonda great coach - but genuinely might have fucked the club for years and years.

The expulsion of Southampton from the play-offs is more than just an embarrassing sporting failure, it’s a textbook breakdown in internal controls and corporate governance. Basic compliance, oversight, and risk management procedures clearly failed somewhere within the executive structure of the club. At a professional football club operating at this level, there should be multiple layers of review to prevent exactly this kind of scenario. The fact it still happened points directly to incompetence or negligence at the executive level. Supporters, players, and staff are now the ones paying the price for failures made in the boardroom. Accountability has to mean something, and in any properly governed organisation, senior executives responsible for this mess should be removed from their positions immediately.

If the telegraph article is accurate, and we've got no reason to suspect it isn't at this point, then this is almost entirely on Tonda.

Lallana it is then…😳😉

TBH, It's desperately poor internal governance that's allowed Tonda and his coaches to carry on any suspect "spying" activities. The club exec's should have said - "sorry team, not allowed. Needs to stop immediately. " That's a failure of corporate governance, and those on the exec team, COO, CEO etc.. need to wear the responsibility - and lose their jobs as a consequence.

If it’s clear that Tonda made no direct instruction to sanction the spying then he should stay - I.e. I could imagine that the analyst team operate independently as a service to the coaching staff and report to Spors. Otherwise, yes, he should go.

A ban for Tonda aside, are players going to trust and respect him? Or even want to play for him? Are new players going to want to sign for him? Is he going to be any good now that he can’t cheat? I think the club needs to move those involved on asap and start to rebuild our reputation

Interesting reading through the thread. Many are saying sack Tonda etc., with others suggesting they’ll walk away from the club because of the ‘cheating’. The punishment is undoubtedly harsh and assuming the appeal is not successful, surely we the innocent supporters should feel a high level of indignation with the outcome? Surely now is the time to form a close huddle with the club and its staff in continued support and stick two proverbial fingers up at the EFL? “We will prevail” sort of position. When I look back over the stewardship of SR, I cannot help but reflect on one disaster after another. Lack of cohesive player and coaching appointments. Embarrassing season and relegation from the Prem. And now this, with potential further decline a result of sullied reputation, lowered morale, player departures and a further reduction of squad quality. If you wanted to fuck a football club over in a slow death process, SR have seemingly developed and executed the blueprint perfectly. Parsons head should role - he’s overseen much of the decline and his performance versus Gibson confirms his incompetence in a senior managerial capacity.

Sadly, I think those saying he will be banned are correct.

Yeah, that's where it doesn't sit with me. If this happened in the regular season, I'd accept a points deduction and fine as a fair punishment if found guilty. The angle they are using here as I see it is that the playoffs are a cup competition, so separate from the league and must be dealt with differently (using the Swindon example). It feels like they've tied themselves up in knots, caught between two scenarios (this has never happened before) and made a right royal mess of it. One of the rules we breached, not acting in good faith, was around when Leeds did this. That was the rule Leeds breached and they had a fine. So, how has the 'not acting in good' faith charge resulted in this, given that Leeds just got a fine? I understand there is the additional 'Spying' rule now, but we were charged with both - I'm confused how the charges stack up and what punishment is tied in with which rule breaking.

We've cheated 3 times by our own admission. Changes everything from a one-off to a culture. Fuck the final, fuck the points deduction, if I was a 1st team player I'd be telling the club to stick their contract somewhere where the sun doesn't shine. As it is it's 50/50 I'll re-new my season ticket. If our best players do leave over this, I won't be attending any more games. There is something badly wrong at SFC.

True and that will probably be the case - you can't do the "i was only following orders defense" but who was there to oversee the decision and was it actually his decision?

Tonda, if found to be implicated - which looks fairly damming - will almost certainly be sacked by the club in breach of contract and it will follow up with an FA ban for a long period of time. We won't have a choice.

We might not have a choice if the FA suspend him.

It's a bit of a weak defence if I'm honest, unless he was asleep when Bielsa did it. I don't buy that one, and even if it is genuine then it's embarrassing and shows up how weak the setup has been around him.

It seems insane. Sure we’re guilty. We cheated. But it’s like getting capital punishment for shoplifting. (Or shoplifting maybe 3 times).

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.

But they'd have left anyway had we not got promoted, and got that 40% pay cut back which they cry about. And the final wasn't this cut and dried result either, Hull could have beaten us. They'll be pissed, of course, but crying about not getting a pay rise on promotion feels a weird angle. They'd have known that when they signed.

Hasn't he admitted to not realising that he was cheating...? #subtledifference

Hopefully we can use this in the appeal.

It's academic, the FA will ban him. We're going to be destroyed over this.

They had a 50% chance at recovering 40% pay cuts... Which has been cost through no fault of their own, and despite frankly incredible sporting efforts... You can't see why they'd be pissed?