Dman

excluding all of the spy drama - did anyone else notice the weird siren they had going on when Peretz took a goal kick. I thought the skate bell was annoying... how on earth could you sit next to that each week.

A shame really. There is noway someone who's been out for as long as he has would be 'match fit' in such an occasion.

what a daft thing to think.

if its on the public pavement off the the clubs property, how can they be held accountable?

Which, if I haven't been clear, is my point.

The EFL know better than to mess with Steve 'el chapo' Gibson. (as derby found out when he tried to claim for 40m and wound up with about 3m. NEVER MESS WITH STEVE GIBSON)

I'm told its an adapted version. Peretz brought it from his former IDF days.

For what its worth, I'd agree. I guess we don't and wont know those details until after the charge has been confirmed and closed. I'd be amazed if it was anything more than a iphone / small video camera (go-pro etc).

I've at no point suggested that we aren't at fault. I've been pretty clear in that I believe we as a club knew and that we will face a punishment for breaking the rule. Rightly so. My point being here, there is level of wrong doing and the punishment should take into account the level of wrong doing. Illegally breaking into a training ground is significantly more serious than being a touch opportunistic and looking over a hedge in a public accessible area.

I get what you're saying, but that is a ridiculously extreme example.

Bit of a broken drum about this, but there is a huge difference between rocking up to a public path and taking advantage of that vs breaking in and spying. Both are against the rules, but the threshold for punishment should be set considerbly different for each scenario. Much like it would be if you breach FFP rules by 100 million comapred to 1 million.

Asbolutely bonkers this is the set up for a professional, possibly premier leauge, football club. Simply put, they deserve it for being so stupid.

As shithouse as it would be, which I'd love to see, there is absolutely no way we will do anything to instigate a further complaint 😃

We also have a couple of ex boro coaches I beleive.

If i was to guess (perhaps head in sand), we have been tipped off by someone who previously worked at boro, that their traning pitch is visible from the public area. I'd like to think we aren't stupid enough to send someone snooping after illegally breaking into a training ground, like some sort of undercover mission. That would genuinely change my opinon on the matter. However, we've more than likley done it before to places that you can snoop on legally (in law) - I think you can see the Skate training pitch from a public area as well, for exmple. I very much doubt we're the only ones as well. Given, by the sound of things, the fella absolutely shit himself when challened, I doubt he has personally done it many times before.

So let me be clear. I firmly beleive the club knew about it. From the moment it broke, I thought it was pretty clear to be true. However, plenty of plausable excuses that would be difficult to prove against. Of the top of my head; 1. He works from home. We weren't aware he was AWOL. 2. Holiday. He was on holiday this day - dangerous game as there would be an audit trail behind that. 3. Sometimes they split between the training ground and stadium. It wasn't noticed he was gone. All pretty suspect excuses, but proving that they aren't true would be incredibly difficult

Knowing their line up, tactics, set peice routine etc. before a ball is kicked isn't a marginal gain imo. Knowing what to prepare for 2 days before a game is a pretty decent advantage. Obviously the players need to execute that plan and sometime they will just be better on the day (as seen saturday).

I'd love to get the opinon of someone who is legally clued up on these kind of things. If this was a criminal case, theres a strong arguement to have it thrown out for contempt, given their own manager has pubically said we are guilty and called us cheats before the investigation process has taken place. That's without factoring in all of the media leaks (clearly from them) coming from the North East Press. Have they essentially taken away our right and ability to a fair hearing? I'd argue yes. That's also ignoring the fact that they have a board memeber on the board of the EFL - I mean, talk about a vested interest (if we're booted out).

Its not a bad argument though. Almost impossible to prove, unless we're complete fucking dinlos and booked him a room under southampton football club or something (wouldn't be surprised). Given how lucrative the football industry is (and the fact our manager started as an analyst), its certainly plausable that a young man coming into the game might want to try and impress to climb the lader.

If that is where they're staying, the meeting rooms a generally on the same floor as the resturant. It'd be funny if a few waited and started putting ups up to the meeting room doors when they're in there 😂

On the punishment, we'll clearly get fined and will probably wind up with some form of points deduction for the next EFL season - weather that be next season or whenever (a bit like leciester). I personally think the call for kicking us out are; 1. Incredibly daft - ive seen people comparing to playing an inelgible player. You're comparing apples and oranges. To add to this there is no precedent to reward a team due to breach of rules by another. Its a punishment for the team who's broken the rules, not a reward for another. 2. Leaving the EFL to legal battles left, right and center. Hull / Millwall will feel unfairly treated if the game doesn't go ahead. Wrexham will feel like they deserved a spot if we're kicked out. We would clearly fight them. Generally speaking, the precedent for breach of rules is a a fine and points deduction. If this had happened during the leauge campaign, there is no way we'd be kicked out of the leauge 😂

I think you'd have to be incredibly niave to beleive this was a 'lone wolf' and noone in the club (i.e the manager) knew about it... However, proving that is a different story all together. Much like if you believe we sent an intern with spying equipment mossad would be proud of, you're also a bit of an idiot. If i'm honest, I'm pretty impartial about it all. Whilst its a little bit embarrassing for the club and I think its an own goal as its apply a shit ton of pressure on us, i'd be amazed if this doesn't happen all the time. If, being completely honest, if you have a training on a public accessible golf course or a training ground with no cover but a hedge, you absolutely deserve it. If we have illegally broken into their training ground and hid in bushes etc, then I think i'd sway towards the outcry being more justified. What I cannot understand is how stupid the club have been to even get caught / let the breadcrumbs lead back to us so easily. Employ someone off books (or at least don't let them have a fucking linked-in account) so that if caught, "they're a memeber of the public filming becasue they're intrested". So long as they aren't on private property / broken in, absolutely nothing anyone can do. In a round about way, it sums up the incompetance of sports republic.

He has far too many flaws to make it at any decent level imo, the main one being he doesn't save anything. I honestly believe he'd be just as good at CB / full back than he is in goal.

Another fantastic bit of captancy by Ben Brown. The pitch looks a belter to bat on, especially in these conditions.

yeah, that'll teach me for not reading the post.