trousers

Whilst also picking up a FIFA fair play accolade along the way...

Aye... It has occurred to me that we could all be looking back at this in a couple of years thinking that we ended up better prepared for toughing it out on the Premier League than if we'd gone straight back up at the first time of asking.... Blessings in disguise and all that.... (And, yes, obviously getting massively ahead of myself with that train of thought!)

The Daily Mail have spoken... From a journo who just happens to be a Wrexham biographer.... https://www.dailymail.com/sport/football/article-15864985/Southampton-Eckert-Spygate-sacked-Middlesbrough.html

...

Jordan now having a pop at Talksport (and other media outlets) for fanning the flames on a 'non story'...!

And he's now having a pop at a rabid Middlesbrough fan: "What's it got to do with you how Southampton deal with internal disciplinary matters? Middlesbrough got what they wanted and still failed. Why the holier than thou attitude?" (Paraphrasing)

Simon Jordan on Talksport: "Did Chelsea do any 'bloodletting' when they were found cheating? No.... Will Man City do any 'bloodletting' if/when they get found guilty of cheating? No.... So why is everyone expecting Southampton to do so...?" Well said that man 👍🏻

I've always said @Holmes_and_Watson is a model member of the forum...

https://swissramble.substack.com/p/southampton-finances-202425

Just a gut feel really, plus a fair amount of 'reading between the lines'... I don't think anyone can say with any certainty that "a ban is inevitable"... Yes, we can't rule it out, of course, but the vibes to me are that the FA will deem that the club (and therefore the people that work there) have been punished enough. As I say, just a hunch and, yes, my hunches have been wrong plenty of times before! 🙂 Time will tell who gets the "told you so" medal...

I've still not seen an official statement from the FA outlining their scope and terms of reference for their investigation. All I've seen is media reports citing an "FA spokesman" that an investigation was underway. Anyone got a link today the official FA statement?.(I asked for one yesterday, but nothing forthcoming)

I guess they were waiting for the final EFL report in order to draw a line under the EFL side of things... i.e. best for the club to have the 'last word' in that regard...? Seems like the right chronology to me, in retrospect, despite my own clamour for a statement from Solak much earlier in the process.