trousers

That would be a logical conclusion... If it was, say, a 6 match ban and a fine, we'd have probably exhaled a sigh of relief and taken it on the chin...?

Would a club in this scenario be 'sworn to secrecy' by the FA, or could we have announced that we were appealing the verdict, if we chose to? Not sure why it would be in the club's interest to keep fans in the dark as to what's going on, IF they had the option of disclosing what was occurring...?

Yeah... Was a bit of a rhetorical question... 🙂

Hmm... I admire your confidence....

Do we know why they sacked him...?

Insider info @LeG, or just a hunch...? (If you're not at liberty to say, just blink once for the former or twice for the latter and your secret will be safe with me )

What's "hilarious" about stating a fact that a player's performances were mediocre at best at their previous clubs..? Surely, being significantly underwhelmed at the signing was the most logical stance to take... Unless you're taking hindsight into account of course...? On the flip side, I don't recall anyone predicting that Larin would become an overnight goal machine either...

Continuously what...?

Yeah... Probably wayward 'thinking out loud' on my part... 🙂

Alas, I fear you're probably correct, even though (in my view) it would illogical to treat them differently, given the EFL rule is nothing to do with the FA. Hence why Bielsa also faced with the same "disrepute" charge, surely? In other words, if a pre-requisite of the FA being able to accuse a manager of "bringing the game into disrepute" is the pre-existence of a rule they've broken in whichever league they happen to be managing in, then how were they able to bring a disrepute charge against Bielsa in the first place? (On reflection, I guess the answer to this is that he was in breach of the lesser EFL 'general misconduct' rule, which pre-dated the spying rule... Bugger... Just blown my own argument out of the water... Probably... )

Which, IIRC, is exactly the same FA charge that Bielsa faced, and got a slap on the wrist (from the FA). I still maintain that the EFL rule change should have nothing to do with how the FA deal with this. Both Bielsa and Eckert "brought the game into disrepute", regardless of what rules the EFL happened to have in place at the time, and that's all the FA should be focusing on. In my humble opinion of course.

Lallana on the touchline with JWP 'coaching' the team on the pitch could be a decent enough caretaker combo...?

Would surprise me if Downes' injury is significant enough to rule him out of this match. Didn't Tonda say in his post-match interview yesterday that Downes picked up a knock in the first minute, yet went on to play the whole first half, and was only then withdrawn as a precaution? If it was a significant injury, then he wouldn't have played the rest of the half, surely...?

And Hull bought a shed load of new premier league level players, didn't they...? Here's hoping Sport Republic are looking and learning, after our last Premier League debacle...