Saint86

It was always a gamble with respect to further punishment. Doesn't change the fact he is a very young and promising/good coach, nor that the club are entitled to handle disciplinary matters internally for their staff. Lets not for one second pretend that the punishment the club received was excessive, and anything more than a fine and a very short touchline ban for eckert would be similar... The one thing the club can't be blamed for, is being punished 3timess over a prolonged 6 week period, with each punishment being draconian. The absolute worst case punishment i think any realistic person could have anticipated is being kicked out of the playoffs (draconian - fine much more likely), and eckert being handed a 3-6month ban(again, extremely draconian given comparable offences for similar ban durations in the English game), it is not like he's broken the law (i.e., assaulted someone, utilized doping, or racially abused someone etc). But regardless, you plan for the worst case as a contingency, you don't operate under the expectation the worst case comes to fruition. The rational punishment for him is a fine and sporting sanction - ranging from a suspended ban to a short touchline ban of circa 4 games max.,

Will be good to get it over and done with at least - has been hanging over the club (and fundamentally the people involved) for far too long, let alone the fans as well.

Frank is an interesting name actually.

I don't actually think they are doing that badly, they are dominating games and only 2 points off playoffs... not bad considering they are early in their martin ball journey and have a horrible / disjointed / imbalanced squad

He's a total liablity - Solak should get ahead of this and just sack him immediately (has to happen after the decision regardless), and then use that to "apologise" to the FA.

Good question TBF, not an angle that I've seen discussed anywhere.

Who are we getting in as a stop gap manager then. The Hass(enhuttle), bielsa for some spy gate bants, Steve Cooper? Very outside chance of Eddie Howe - finally getting to see the home dugout at St Mary's... and with a view to his next premier league job being back on the south coast? Or maybe, just maybe, SR will surprise and delight us all (in equal measures) and promote Adz to first team coach?😆

Sunderland player handles the ball first? 😅

Agreed sadly - trousers down, cheeks spread, let the old boys at the EFL and FA take their turns. That SFC in 2026.

There is no evidence of bullying from Eckert (or none that we have seen). It was used as a jumped up and frankly slanderous charge (one that is nearly impossible to shift fully) to justify the extreme sanction. How we didn't appeal this was maddening. Maybe we are waiting for it to be all over and then take legal action, but I doubt it somehow. What's perhaps more likely is that we did spy more often, and so laid down and took the punishment to not face further disciplinary issues.

Everytime parsons has acted in this whole fiasco, it has made it worse. This will be the same. Absolute car crash from him once again, there is surely no way Solak let's it continue after this is all over?🤷

Is parsons for real? "It's about the people.... We've had to spend lots of money on legal fees"... Sure Phil, you don't want to play "the victim" in all this, but then you're making out that we're hard done by because we broke the rules but had to spend lots of money on lawyers to try and avert the due punishment 🙄🤦. Why is he allowed near the press? Absolute Muppet.

Please tell me you guys are joking... There is no scenario where Parsons should be let near the press re spygate prior to it being all resolved, let alone a couple of days before the hearing... His track record on this is worse than appalling... One last chance for him to bury us further I guess.

Well at this point, it's about sports resolution covering their arses.

I think it's just that we're playing the most physical sides in the league away (so far), and they're all being allowed to pick the crap out of us - makes it look worse than it is imo.