@TheStatsSaint He will definitely get them back up to Championship, no doubt, and do well there too. Who knows he may of learned some lessons now? Do you think he will have a plan B now, or just do plan A better? 🤔. Leicester will need to be brave on the ball 🤣.
@XtraLeicester Really nice chap and very friendly with the players. Loves tippy tappy football at the back, but works well in championship and he will be great in League 1. Extremely stubborn, unless he has softened a bit. Has no plan B, just does plan A better.
@L1minus10 I’d love to be a fly on the wall if this happened? 🤣 However, business is business ultimately, and there should be no sentiment allowed when decisions are made. 🤔
@martinstarke Personally I just want to have a fighting chance next year of proving we deserve to go up. As long as the players support him, then we should back Tonda, unite as a club and grow some backbone.
#SaintsFC | Pep Guardiola on the practice of spying after Leeds’ Spygate in 2019:
“It is more difficult [in England]. It is private. But in all the countries I have been before, everybody does it. When we were training at Bayern Munich there were people in the little mountains with cameras and the opponent was watching what we did. Everybody did it. It is the culture of the clubs.”
[via @TimesSport]
@lucmac95 Today has just been awful at work Luce. People have been jeering at me all day. I work in a Pompey stronghold sadly. I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m just a fan. Plus I’ve been trolled repeatedly, just why 🤷♀️
No surprise with that verdict, decision was always going to be upheld. Devastated, heartbroken and just gutted that my lovely club has been broken. The players and fans deserve better @SouthamptonFC#SaintsFC
🚨🎙️Thierry Henry on Southampton expelled for spying drama against Middlesbrough:
“I have to be honest, this is a difficult one. Spying on another team’s training is wrong. Full stop. It crosses a line, it undermines the trust that should exist between clubs, and I understand why Middlesbrough are furious and why the EFL felt they had to act strongly. Integrity matters in this game.
At the same time, I find myself questioning whether expulsion from the play-offs is the right punishment. It feels… heavy. Almost like using a sledgehammer when a precise scalpel was needed.
Let’s be clear: this wasn’t match-fixing or doping. It was analysts pushing boundaries for tactical information, something that, sadly, has happened in different forms across the game for years.
Marcelo Bielsa did it openly at Derby and Leeds, admitted it, and people called him a genius, not a criminal. Drones, analysts in trees, whatever, in the modern game with data and marginal gains everywhere, clubs push boundaries.
Southampton admitted it, yes, and they deserve punishment. A heavy fine, points deduction, maybe even a ban for the staff involved. But kicking the entire club out after they earned their place on the pitch? That punishes players, coaches, and fans who had nothing to do with one or two analysts doing something stupid.
What troubles me most is the collateral damage. The players who battled through a tough Championship season after relegation, who went to extra time and scored that late goal to beat Middlesbrough on the pitch, they earned their place in the final through merit.
Now that achievement is being erased because of actions taken by a small number of staff members. That feels disproportionate to me. A significant fine, a points deduction for next season, and sanctions against the individuals responsible, those would be strong, meaningful punishments that address the breach without nullifying an entire season’s competitive work.
Sport has to balance two things: protecting fairness and recognising that human error and ambition sometimes lead people astray. If every rules breach in high-stakes moments leads to rewriting results, we risk turning the disciplinary process into something more powerful than the football itself. I’ve sat in dressing rooms where we prepared meticulously for opponents. Everyone does. The difference is getting caught.
I hope Southampton appeal and that the final decision finds a better equilibrium. Middlesbrough deserve respect, they were wronged but the players of Southampton also deserve not to have their legitimate efforts wiped away. Football is emotional, passionate, and imperfect.
The response to this should reflect wisdom as much as outrage. We need clearer rules going forward so incidents like this become rare, but we must be careful not to let one mistake destroy what was built legitimately on the grass.