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I think that by now our interpretation of ‘Dragan is furious’ provided by the club fluffers means that he has had a couple of Teams calls with Phil and the gang, and have agreed to wait and see if the FA ban Eckhert before deciding whether to sack him. I am sure that Phil and Rasmus have reassured that the furore with the fans will ‘blow over’ in time for season ticket and new kit sales, just like it has in the past when there have been avoidable debacles. As a bare minimum, give what the idiots DO know, you’d think a genuine club would have refunded wembley and semi final (retrospectively two meaningless friendlies) expenses by know. Shower of shit!

All depends where you read. Some say yay and some say no. Same for Parker I suppose.

Think I’ve read that West Ham will keep Nuno.

Player admitting they were not good enough! That is the real truth!! Not spygate!!

That explains the club silence. Everyone is having The Catcher in the Rye read to them in the auditorium, with activated Manchurian Candidates then carted off.

Tell that to Sunderland.

That’s very feasible in terms of a person like Gibson storing that info away for a potential use, even if it came second hand from a more senior member of staff. As always in business, knowledge is power of course.

Boro new sponsors

Sladden: Yeah, I reckon this'll cut through pretty well anything that exists. I did steel armor plate with it six inches thick, just like that! Oh, it was legal. Bloke shut in a strong room, I got him out. Secret job, like this one. Col. Breen: Then I'm glad you don't talk about it. - Quatermass and the Pit

The few notable contributions of Middlesbrough to the world: Bob Mortimer Chris Rea Roy Chubby Brown Kammy Brian Clough and notably Captain Cook. No wonder he discovered Australia, he was probably looking for the furthest possible point from that shithole town.

Parker? More than likely that he'll be at West Ham before the end of next week. Unless Spurs really screw up today. We'll get someone we've never heard of.

Yup. If you breach our strict data communications processes you will be disciplined. Basically, you will be fired. Depending on what it is you've been stupid enough to communicate opens up a number of other painful avenues on both personal and corporate levels. So much money, so little competence.

If it is, then the very least they need to do is go public and say that. It would be the first step to getting a few people back onside, if they knew that someone was at least trying to hold people to account. But for as long as this silence goes on, and no-one knows what's happening (or not happening), the more it creates a vacuum which people fill with their own interpretations/ guesses/ rumours/ anger, and that means that the damage being done just keeps piling up. Where the fuck Sibley has been throughout this and what he is doing I just do not know. It's not just amateur hour, it's amateur millennium.

A freeze on season tickets is super lenient. There should be reductions. Entice people in, get bums on seats, they’ll make up the money in a buzzing atmosphere in terms of food, beverage and merchandise.

I can imagine he’s a very blunt manager who tells people in no uncertain terms if they aren’t doing what he expects. I can also imagine some people who aren’t performing getting pissed off by this and throwing a hissy fit.

The club have decided to recruit a new FAB over the summer, but now may not be the best time to go out for candidates. "The current FAB are happy to continue to work as normal until such time as the new Board is appointed." i wasn’t sure about this bit. A new FAB whilst at a time when the club needs to be held accountable. Sounds like a desperate attempt to change the guard avoiding any backlash from the FAB. Parsons is running scared of them.

It was the Daily Telegraph, 19th May. Written by Luke Edwards, who is of course their 'Northern Football Writer', so this whole account would have been briefed to him by Gibson's team. Excerpt below, link to full article at the bottom. Read it, weep, and consider how Parsons is apparently still somehow in a fucking job: The extraordinary messages and pictures that damned Southampton in ‘spygate’ scandal From an intern hiding behind a tree to expulsion from the play-off final, here is the inside story of club’s costly operation "Middlesbrough were so angry that they considered banning Southampton’s board members from the game at the Riverside, but decided it was better to face them. Observers kept a close eye on Gibson and Southampton chief executive Phil Parsons, ready for fireworks when the two spoke. Eyewitnesses* told Telegraph Sport that it was Parsons who instigated a conversation, grabbing Gibson gently by the arm and asking if they could go somewhere quieter for a chat. It was then, in front of senior figures at the EFL, that Parsons admitted what had happened, apologised and said the club would launch a full investigation to find out who was responsible. It was hinted that Salt may have acted alone, but they would protect the young man and would do everything they could to determine whether anyone had instructed him to travel to Teesside to record the training session. Parsons is then understood to have told Gibson that they would accept the punishment and pay the fine. The suggestion provoked the previously calm Gibson. His whole demeanour changed and the conversation became more barbed. Gibson made it clear that would not be acceptable to him and Middlesbrough would be seeking the toughest possible sporting sanction, which would mean Southampton’s expulsion from the play-offs. The atmosphere inside the boardroom darkened and worsened after Middlesbrough were held to a goalless draw in front of an angry and hostile Riverside crowd." Full article (it's meant to be behind a paywall, but it's the Telegraph, so fuck them): https://archive.ph/ZB2Gc#selection-3691.0-3711.471 (* Eyewitnesses who were in the Middlesbrough boardroom, I wonder who that could possibly have been)

Knowing Hackney wouldn’t be playing was an advantage for a start.

Presumably Gibbo wasn’t able to persuade his mates to move the final. Giving them a free ride after they lost the semi was as far as they were prepared to go.

I like this. I'm also looking forward to reading John Le Carre's Intern, Analyst, Manager, Spy

I'd say that this is the most important point. If they do and if he eats a huge amount of humble pie then I accept him staying. Football fans are very fickle and if he wins his first few games, it'll all die down.

That will obviously be coming but there is a process they will have to go through for that. I don't mind them taking their time now given there isn't as much time pressure and they need to do it properly (I expect over the next week or two.) what astounds me is that we haven't had any further communication from the club for the fans. I agree that we need some live interviews and proper contrition from those who aren't due to be sacked. Maybe the reason they haven't said anything else is because everyone with any authority is due to go.

The boro fans are still butthurt about this. Plenty of threads on Reddit with them going how bad cheats we are and its all thier fault. That we're so angry.

Including myself but there has to be a balance struck given that they are going to be losing a lot more money than they predicted had they simply failed to make the playoffs for example.

When Taylor left we weren’t even in the playoff race, nor would we have known we’d be facing then automatic promotion chasing Boro. Unless they sent an undercover intern to about 8 different clubs I think we can dismiss the sleeper agent theory. The notion that he tipped off Boro that we’d be sending a spy certainly is credible, but it probably wasn’t any more in depth than that.