sadoldgit

I get the impression that Tonda is a bit of a perfectionist, maybe with a side order of O.C.D. He always seems so focussed on the next game you can almost see him thinking about that when the final whistle blows. Flynn Downes mentioned the amount of detail he gives the players. If so, perhaps he could use that in his defence. Play the mental health card? 😉

I take it Tonda Eckert comes under the “hipster” bracket? Would you prefer him or some old has-been who has been sacked from more clubs than he cares to remember? Being a “hipster” doesn’t preclude you from being a decent coach. Any coach who wins a lot of matches will win the fan base over. As for the current radio silence from the club. Although the comms dept. have gone quiet you can imagine that there are plenty of lawyers for the club, the players’ agents, the coaching team etc. all beavering away in the background.

Alex, you have been on this forum long enough to know that as soon as you site tenuous links between various family members, family member’s friends and/or tradespeople, your post loses all credibility.

Given that the number of votes cast hasn’t changed a great deal, a lot of people have changed their minds from yes to no now they have some time to digest the situation. We live in the age of cancel culture. Make a mistake and you are sacked, out of here, a Pyrrha. No question of any other outcome. No question of rehabilitation. Gone. It was suggested by one poster that Boris Johnson was sacked over a piece of cake. He wasn’t. He lost his job because he was totally incompetent. He cocked up so many times that he was unable to form a Cabinet because he had lost the support of his party. Tonda Eckert is not incompetent. Far from it. He is guilty though of carrying out a practice that some people think is the worst crime in football and others just laugh at because they can’t believe it is such a big deal here. We have done the arguments to death and as with most threads are down to circular arguments again which is a shame because, for a time, this was the best thread here for many years. As with most things there is no right or wrong, just differing opinions. It would make a pleasant change though if we all accepted that he had done wrong and has caused the club huge anguish, but with the club at heart rather than personal gain. He dragged us from a dispirited team fighting a relegation spot into a team fulfilling its potential and to the cusp of promotion. He gave us a team playing some of the best football we have seen in years. In doing so he broke a rule so unimportant that no other league in the world has. He employed an analytical technique that is commonplace in his own country and in many other leagues in the world. It is called scouting the opposition. Strangely this isn’t seen as a problem in the EFL either, depending on when you do it. So then, proportionality. Do you fire the best coach you have had in years, who has done his all to give us what we wanted, a team to be proud of and a real shot at promotion? Or do you take the PR hit, eat a large slice of humble pie and stand by your man instead of throwing him to the wolves? Ask yourself this, if you go for the former who actually gets any benefit? Us or our opponents? Does the need to find someone to blame and to punish extend as far as seeing the club possibly end up with another dud manager (given our track record, a real possibility) What point does it serve to sack him? As has been said, there is zero integrity in football. All clubs cheat in various ways. No one is going to suddenly have a higher opinion of the club if we do because a “crime” has been committed and our name is currently in the mud anyway. The idea that no one will want to sponsor us or play for us is frankly risible. Of course they will. Professional people make professional decision and will see this for what it is, a situation that has been blown up out of all proportion. If it were multiple errors of judgement, fine, get rid. It wasn’t though and clearly the those at the club involved in this decision thought that it was no big deal if caught, which would have been more than just one man. Spors and Eckert have shown that they are both good enough at their jobs to be worth fighting to keep. Maybe it is worth parking your need to add further punishment to the club, accept that people can make a big mistake but still be worth keeping faith with, swallow pride, find some level of forgiveness and stand by them. Just an opinion.

The players love him (possibly) He took a team with a frail mentality and took them to the Championship play offs with a 20 match unbeaten run He is a winner He is a top analyst We could be losing a gem only to sign another dud I am sure I could think of a few more but the pub is calling…

Sponsors want their names plastered all over the place. Players get booked if they take their shirt off when they score because the sponsor wants its name up front. There will be a lot of extra interest in the Saints next season. We should be thinking about charging more, not worrying about not getting any sponsors.

Yep, so the poll and over two hundred pages of opinions have been a complete waste of time. 😉

I’ve just seen it too, on the Newsnow Southampton site.

We have all seen his pressers and his demeanour on the touchline. He is not a touch feely guy and tends to keep his emotions in check. As I have said before, texts can come across as a bit full on, hence emojis. Eckert doesn’t strike me as an emoji guy either, so imagine that this has more to do with how he comes across rather than bullying.

You constantly demonstrated that you have overblown the severity of the “crime” in the same way Steve Gibson did. All of the things you mention are available to scrutinise on every match that the opposition play on video. Every throw in, every free kick, every corner, everything. If it was such a heinous crime, as has been pointed out endlessly on here, it would be banned around the world. The only reason it is banned in the EFL is that Leeds did it and they had to do something in response. If Bielsa hadn’t done it we would not be having this conversation and SFC would probably be back in the EPL. If it then came to light that Eckert had been spying on the opposition in those circumstances, how would you react?

If we had been given a large fine along with a suspended points deduction but had been allowed to play in the final, would we even be having this discussion?

The point is that the punishment should fit the crime.

He wasn’t sacked for eating cake. The issue here is not whether a rule was broken, it is the lack of proportionality to the crime. Break a very important rule, get a big punishment. Break a minor rule, get a minor punishment. Get it yet?

If you are referring to Boris Johnson, then this just might qualify for the dumbest post of the thread.

Why would the prospect of challenging for promotion deter anyone from signing for us? If he stays the practice will not continue. Eckert has proved that he is a very good coach and has turned players fortunes around. I don’t think it will be an issue. We are talking about footballers here after all!