Saints expelled from Play Offs by EFL

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Just heard that we will have to hand back the FA Cup winners medals from 1976 as we kept a clean sheet against a far superior team, so we obviously spied on Manchester United’s training sessions at least 48 hours before the match.

Rumours also that we’re expecting a 20 point deduction after our play off win against the mighty Leeds as that surely wouldn’t have happened without spying on training sessions, enabling us to keep another clean sheet.

Could be that we get a DOUBLE relegation from the EFL to league 2 where we will also get a record breaking 60 point deduction before the season kicks off, condemning the naughty naughty Southampton to the conference league for the 2027/28 season.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
 
Just heard that we will have to hand back the FA Cup winners medals from 1976 as we kept a clean sheet against a far superior team, so we obviously spied on Manchester United’s training sessions at least 48 hours before the match.

Rumours also that we’re expecting a 20 point deduction after our play off win against the mighty Leeds as that surely wouldn’t have happened without spying on training sessions, enabling us to keep another clean sheet.

Could be that we get a DOUBLE relegation from the EFL to league 2 where we will also get a record breaking 60 point deduction before the season kicks off, condemning the naughty naughty Southampton to the conference league for the 2027/28 season.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Let me just post that on Facebook so a wider audience will take it as fact. Oh and twatter and also I’ll post it on every comments section on Boro news.
 
Boro fans have resorted to checking out other teams training grounds. <laugh>

Just had a quick look through their results and they had the odd slip up against Hull, Pompey and charlton. So I checked out their training grounds on Google maps

Hulls training ground is tiny and has houses backed up to the back side of it, the front and right side are fully taken up by a main road and the training ground main building. The only spy access there seems to be some random field on the left side but there is little cover and seems far from the main pitch.

Pompeys is also small and again surrounded by a main road, houses and the training ground car park, almost no access I could see.

Charltons is in a much more open area though it’s surrounded by open fields rather than anything over grown. Much of it is also private land of other sports facilities. Looking at the pictures people have posted the whole pitch is also surrounded by a giant 8-10ft hedge. I’d say almost impossible to spy and stay hidden.

Pointless analysis but I did it anyway haha
 
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Boro fans have resorted to checking out other teams training grounds. <laugh>

Just had a quick look through their results and they had the odd slip up against Hull, Pompey and charlton. So I checked out their training grounds on Google maps

Hulls training ground is tiny and has houses backed up to the back side of it, the front and right side are fully taken up by a main road and the training ground main building. The only spy access there seems to be some random field on the left side but there is little cover and seems far from the main pitch.

Pompeys is also small and again surrounded by a main road, houses and the training ground car park, almost no access I could see.

Charltons is in a much more open area though it’s surrounded by open fields rather than anything over grown. Much of it is also private land of other sports facilities. Looking at the pictures people have posted the whole pitch is also surrounded by a giant 8-10ft hedge. I’d say almost impossible to spy and stay hidden.

Pointless analysis but I did it anyway haha

Wtf <laugh>
 
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So much of this depends. If this sort of thing is widespread (like we know tapping up players is) then I'm not sure they'd want to set the precedent of a points deduction. You could end up in a total farce with points deductions all over the place.
 
I am trying to remember an incident, I think it was in the 1980's where an Arsenal scout was caught out in the bushes at Staplewood, they didn't get any sanctions, just ridicule...
 
Just heard that we will have to hand back the FA Cup winners medals from 1976 as we kept a clean sheet against a far superior team, so we obviously spied on Manchester United’s training sessions at least 48 hours before the match.

Rumours also that we’re expecting a 20 point deduction after our play off win against the mighty Leeds as that surely wouldn’t have happened without spying on training sessions, enabling us to keep another clean sheet.

Could be that we get a DOUBLE relegation from the EFL to league 2 where we will also get a record breaking 60 point deduction before the season kicks off, condemning the naughty naughty Southampton to the conference league for the 2027/28 season.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Is that all?

Ok lads carry on, nothing to worry about!!
 
With reports that Southampton will not fight the charges applied by the EFL, it does make you think that they’ve been given a heads up what the charges and consequences will be?
 
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With reports that Southampton will not fight the charges applied by the EFL, it does make you think that they’ve been given a heads up what the charges and consequences will be?

You’d assume so, or the evidence is so overwhelming they don’t really have a case to appeal (and been told if they lose the appeal there might be further sanctions like when a player appeals a red card)

The club will want this done as quickly as possible from a PR point of view, so if they’ve been told there is a £1m fine they will just accept it to move on. Might also stop the “gathering evidence” from other clubs about us doing it previously
 
You’d assume so, or the evidence is so overwhelming they don’t really have a case to appeal (and been told if they lose the appeal there might be further sanctions like when a player appeals a red card)

The club will want this done as quickly as possible from a PR point of view, so if they’ve been told there is a £1m fine they will just accept it to move on. Might also stop the “gathering evidence” from other clubs about us doing it previously
I know I said I wouldn’t comment anymore , but I ( incorrectly ) assumed mention of other clubs was of them doing it as well , not ofvSaints doing it to them .
 
I wonder if anyone else had read the book "Inverting the pyramid?" I mention this because the book deals with tactics and how teams have used formations to gain advantage.

It is one aspect of football that really intrigues me. How do teams use formation and tactics to beat their opponents and just how successful is this? I am not just thinking about results but how the tactics employed go to plan - whether using a particular formation or putting a particular player in a certain position is effective. I can see how spying might be beneficial in certain circumstances yet I an intrigued to see whether this is actually a genuine impact over 90 minutes.

I do think that other clubs may use statistical data against Saints. I am sure that the use of statistics can be used to demonstrate that some advantage has been gained by spying. With football flooded with statistics these days, I feel that it might be possible to show that a team has a particular advantage which may come from being familiar with the opposition's game strategy. In my opinion, it is not beyond the realms of credibility to look at elements like set pieces, goal scoring chances from corners, possession or how opposition players are deployed to see whether we have been spying on other teams. I do feel that, whilst teams will all use this data, surely it is more likely to come from match analysis as opposed to spying on training. For me, the issue is just how much pre-planning actually has over the course of a match,. I would love to know just how much pre-match preparation actually has a bearing on a result. There are surely other factors at work?
 
I know I said I wouldn’t comment anymore , but I ( incorrectly ) assumed mention of other clubs was of them doing it as well , not ofvSaints doing it to them .

There was an article claiming other clubs had contacted M’Boro over Saints doing it to them and were “gathering evidence”. Only way I can see they could get evidence is, now Boro have an image of the Saints staff member spying, other clubs can check their CCTV and see if that person was there on the days leading up to our game with them. Seems like a lot of effort but I’m no expert on how easily that could be done
 
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