I was surprised by the club's stance towards the EFL when the case broke. Admitting the accusation /causation, allowing two other counts, and then agreeing to an accelerated timescale for the hearing was an honourable if naive approach, certainly not what would have been expected of most of the clubs in our division in the mix for the mega money playoff on merit. I anticipated the crisis strategy would be deny, set up a lengthy internal investigation (pad out), internally mitigate with those accused, and then threaten litigation if the punishment set by the regulator was excessive (external scrutiny). Solak has repeat form for this in his business dealings. SFC only seemed to wake up to reality at the 11th hour in the appeal hearing with the desparate panic to mobilise David Pannick. Far too little far too late.
My gut feeling is that this time around the response may be different, and there will have been discrete communication between the club and the FA that excessive punishment towards the manager won't be accepted without consequences. We will find out soon enough.