trousers

Yep, agreed... Some people seem to conflate 'doing it surreptitiously' with 'knowingly breaking the rules'....

The penalty for breaking that one is peanuts though... #bielsa #200K

Whilst it's plausible, I wouldn't say it's "clear"... I've worked in the same line of business for 40 years and I'm buggered if I know all the industry rules and regs that we should be abiding by... Far from it... Day to day you just do what you feel is OK and get on with it I've been driving for a similar period of time, but do I know all 307 rules in the highway code? No, of course not... (Yes, I know, analogies were never my strongest suit... )

The headline attributes the claim to Tonda yet the article makes it clear that Tonda is simply relaying what he's heard Guardiola say about it. Most unlike the BBC to twist what people actually said...

Good to see the BBC in the North East using tax payers money wisely by reporting on something that's got f*** all to do them them now...

This seems to fit the bill...

I know where my vote would be going next week if I lived in Makerfield...

I'm not sure why this is being seen as such a revelation... I thought that's how socialism is supposed to work?

Source?

I remember the "wearing an Eastleigh top" being reported, but was it actually confirmed by the EFL enquiry, or was it just tittle-tattle (a bit like the initial reports of our fella using "sophisticated recording equipment" when it turned out to be an iPhone....)

😂😂😂 Very good 😂😂😂 #SaintsFC supporters have today confirmed that while they are broadly opposed to censorship, there are “one or two extremely specific exceptions,” most notably anything written by Henry Winter about Spygate. The veteran The Daily Telegraph journalist, who has made a late-career pivot into delivering moral verdicts with the tone of a disappointed school headmaster, has spent the past month handing down increasingly sombre ratings of Southampton’s conduct—each one somehow more sanctimonious than the last. Fans, however, have pointed out a critical structural flaw in Winter’s campaign: “You have to pay to read it.” “I’m being told I should be outraged by his latest column,” said lifelong supporter Martin Hedges, staring at a locked article like a dog trying to understand a magic trick. “But I’m not paying £2.99 a week to be patronised by a man who writes like he’s narrating a funeral.” Indeed, insiders at St Mary’s report a growing sense that if Winter truly wants to maximise his impact, he should remain exactly where he is—hermetically sealed behind one of Britain’s more stubborn paywalls, alongside premium Sudoku and people who think quinoa is a real food. Elsewhere, the online reaction has been less contained. Supporters of Middlesbrough - who were, to be fair, directly involved in the whole saga but still contrived not to benefit from Southampton’s expulsion—have taken to social media in numbers. “I understand their frustration,” said season ticket holder Martin Hedges. “If you’re going to be handed a situation like that and still come away empty-handed, you probably do need to log on and start typing in capital letters.” Meanwhile, fans of Coventry, who had already secured promotion and therefore have absolutely nothing riding on any of this, have also been energetically contributing their views. “Coventry’s involvement is my personal favourite,” said Hedges. “They’ve essentially turned up after the exam’s been marked, aced their own paper, and are now demanding a re-mark of someone else’s out of principle. It’s admirable in a completely unnecessary sort of way.” The resulting online discourse has been described by experts as “a rich tapestry of outrage,” combining genuine grievance, opportunistic indignation, and the timeless British tradition of having very strong opinions about things that don’t concern you. Back in Southampton, however, fans insist they are already fully aware of the situation without needing it narrated like a Shakespearean tragedy. “We know it’s a mess,” said Hedges. “We don’t need Henry Winter delivering a eulogy”.

If some deranged Middlesbrough fan hasn't publicly threatened to boycott them by now I'll eat my trousers....

I've no idea... personally, I'm not ruling out it being more than 3 occasions but I'm equally not ruling out it was only 3 occasions. But, to me, doing it rarely, for a specific targeted reason seems "more Tonda" than doing it willy nilly. What would surprise me more is if we're the only club to have 'observed' opponents training sessions since the new rule was brought in, especially outside of the 72 hour exclusion period.

Yep. If we're to believe Tonda's explanation to the context behind each of the three disclosed occasions (I personally see no reason to doubt him), there was a specific snippet of info they were seeking to gain each time, rather than it being something they simply did routinely on the off-chance they might stumble across some info. That, to me, is a reasonable explanation as to why there were no other incidents between December and April, and why there are only 3 cases of 'spying'...