trousers

"Coz there's a new EFL rule, innit?"

Yep, I've always wondered that too... Maybe that's something the FA could pursue retrospectively, once they've sanctioned the 'ringleader'...?

Yes, agree... It was something the EFL could've instigated between the legs, but they chose not to...

Yes, but thats already been covered by the EFL's separate punishments... i.e. chucked out of the play off semi-final for the Middlesbrough spying, and docked 2 points each (carried forward to this season) for the Oxford and Ipswich spying. I'm simply saying that (in my opinion) a more proportionate 'sporting sanction' option was available for the play off semi-final (i.e. forfeit the first leg 3-0 instead of outright explusion)

My thinking at the time was that a more proportionate sporting sanction would have been us forfeiting the game we actually 'spied' on, i.e. just the first leg. Award that 3-0 to Middlesbrough then allow the second leg to go ahead and the aggregate result stand. Seems reasonable to me.

Ha... That was another one of my 'conspiracy theories' at the time...

Yep, you've pretty much summed up my (and others') theory at the outset as to how Middlesbrough effectively engineered and scripted how it would play out, once they knew we were likely to be 'spying' on their training session (along with the general public). And, yep, totally agree with the bit in bold... How this part of the whole saga hasn't received greater media attention is beyond me... Yes, we were wrong... banged to rights guv and all that... But the 'subterfuge' that Middlesbrough seemingly deployed appears to warrant zero scrutiny by the world at large.... Hey ho...

Here we go... The "bigger clubs" getting away with resting players... Oops, sorry... Recalling 'injured' players... Whilst the likes of Saints have no choice but to risk their better players getting injured on international duty (in the build up to a "must win" match)...

Ah... The classic "I'm not person" denial... The plot thickens...

It's almost inevitable they'll promote from within, isn't it? After all, that approach turned out alight last time...

Ha! That needs to be on a Saintsweb t-shirt... Make it so @stevegrant

Yeah, I'm almost praying this happens (if they throw the book at Tonda).

Good morning Phil 👋🏻 😉

Have I left my webcam on again FFS...?