Lord Duckhunter

There’s zero chance we were going down once we got Larin, Bree back & Peretz zero. Even if you believe Tonda is the only man who could have got us into the play offs, we’re still 4 points worse off next season because of decisions he made. This wasn’t some tactical mistake or bad signing. It’s was a complete and utter balls up, which has resulted in a loss of revenue, standing in the game, and probably one or 2 players we may have been able to keep hold of (had we lost to Hull). He’s probably cost us sponsorship deals and season ticket revenue as well. I’ve seen nothing which suggests this goes higher than Tonda, but until there’s evidence it did, he needs to pay the ultimate price.

Because of his actions, a decent side will be broken up, we lost the chance of promotion & could face further charges & scrutiny. It’s unbelievable people think he should keep his job after that monumental mistake. Unlike Bielsa he didn’t take accountability for this from the off. It looks like he lied by pretending he thought it wasn’t illegal. Why did he think Salt objected to doing it against Ipswich, because he had a haircut that day he didn’t want to miss?

Thomas Frank

Had he even said anything, maybe an apology is in order. I thought he wanted to discuss this, but was unable to. Well now’s the fucking time. Even if he’s being advised by lawyers, surely some kind of statement to the supporters is in order.

I thought I was head over heart on this, wanting Middlesbrough to win as I think they’ll be better than Hull next season. However that soon changed when I heard the actual result, was actually more pleased than I thought I’d be. We’ve gone away for a few days & I was drinking with some northerners last night, mainly Liverpudlians of both persuasion and a random Blackpool supporter. Every one of them was pleased it was Hull, but what surprised me was how little they knew about it, apart from one Evertonian the rest really hadn’t paid any attention to the whole thing. The bloke who had paid attention was a bit of an anorak, he seemed to know every Saints Everton game going back to the 70’s. Anyway he made a point I thought was worth sharing. Whilst the Premier League don’t have a spying rule, they do have the “utmost good faith” catch all rule. He said if we’d been doing it in the Preimer League, they would have had us on this. As he pointed out, just because there isn’t a specific rule, doesn’t mean clubs can fly drones or any other sneaky ways to watch training. He made the point that this rule gives both sides a bit of wiggle room around punishment which the EFL one doesn’t. You have either broke the rule or you haven’t , there’s no grey area the “good faith” rule gives you

I think we need to make a big statement similar to when we took Pardew in league 1. He wasn’t one of my favourite blokes, but he was a Premier league manger. It made a statement and I’m sure it made players mind up if they doubted we were determined to get back up. Maybe Dyche isn’t ideal, but he’s got contacts with agents and other managers (important in the loan market), he’s got a reputation in the game and would send out a statement we’re not mincing about with hipsters. He won’t be affected by any outside pony and will buy right into the “let’s show the bastards”. This time round the job is for a man, not a fucking laptop merchant. This is going to be a tough league next season, with West Ham or Spurs, Sheffield Utd & Norwich won’t be as pony as they were this year, Middlesbrough (if they lose today) will be tough, Wolves & Burnley aremt going to do a Leicester. We can’t spend 5 or 6 games with a manager coming to terms with the league.

Good point 👍

That’s a shame, SAF was my choice to replace Tonda

I wouldn’t, she’s a 2 Pinter, so I show some respect

I’m meeting family in France next week & there will be a coach from a league one club there (we’re related through marriage). I’ll ask him, but never get much out of him, and I pretty much stopped asking after he told me I was “too harsh” on Baz after his first premier league spell.

If you take the emotion out of it, Hull will be an easier game next season. It’s a freak they’ve made the play offs, they won’t be anywhere near the top 6 next season. For the same reason I don’t want Spurs relegated, although West Ham will be tough, there’s no chance Spurs won’t take one of the top 2 next season. It’s going to be hard enough to get promoted starting behind everyone else, so we need the weakest league possible

What happens if we lose the first 5

The problem was they didn’t get ahead of this early enough, they were always playing catch up & because of that made a series of poor decisions. Life is full of fuck ups, and a rule of thumb is get it out there, because it’ll all come out in the end. Different industry/importance but only last year I sailed close to the wind with our compliance team at work, my boss said “tell me everything, and I’ll try and protect you”, (fair enough, she did). That’s what should have happened here, the day it broke Parsons should have had it all laid out to him, everything. It seems to me that he didn’t realise the extent of it when he spoke to “Gibbo” & we first indicated to the press it was a “lone wolf”. It seems to me that the facts had to be dragged out of us, bit by bit. It’s understandable that supporters didn’t comprehend the seriousness of it, but that’s Parsons job & he should have known every single detail from day one. If we knew that, our legal response may of been different. Could we have dragged it out, could we have agreed a speedy timetable which COULD have led to a 3-0 default defeat in the first leg. It’s very easy to criticise the legal team, but were we upfront with them from the off, or was their defence based on limited knowledge of the full facts. If it was my club, I’d want a full and through deep dive into this. Not the spying itself, that can be separate, but on the general response. Unbelievably, we’ve managed to look shady, unscrupulous and useless at the same time. And for what, the worse scenario.

Before you get into the morals, the practicalities mean it’s inconceivable he’s not sacked. He’ll face a ban, then what do we do, put Lallana in charge until he’s back? We’re starting 4 points behind everyone else, we need to hit the ground running. Im a big right man/right time type of Bloke. Claudio Ranerai right man at Leicester for that exact moment. Tonda did a great job getting very good under performing players playing to their potential, and he was tactically excellent. That’s not going to be the job this time. This is going to need a backs to the wall, those bastards are all against us, Manager who can get average players playing well. A manager who has seen it all and will not be put off by anything. Is that Tonda? Who knows. But this isn’t going to be the same club he took over from Still. You also can’t tell me there won’t be some resentment around the club if he stays, not just players, but support staff and supporters. If he loses early, things are going to get very tasty very early. So from a practical point, it’s a No. From a “is he the right fit”, it’s a maybe, and from the moral point of view, I think he’ll be damn lucky to keep his job.

Err, no