What Should Happen To Tonda Eckert Now?

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Tonda's future at the club

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If the players still backed him, and the FA don't ban him (highly unlikely unfortunately) then he could well mend bridges and stay on.

The biggest problem I've had is how he treated his staff, especially the interns he pressured into spying, and how 'toxic' that environment must have been.

I imagine the silence is due to an ongoing FA investigation, and the club waiting for the outcome so they have sure legal footing at not paying any compensation to him and his staff.
 
Like I said the other day, the longer this silence keeps up, the more likely we are to forgive him imo. If the club were minded to sack him, I think they might have done it by now so maybe they're waiting for the FA decision to see if they have to find a new manager. The problem with that of course is that it might take a while.
 
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I can only assume that an FA and Saints own internal investigation will come up with the complete truth of what actually happened.
If Tonda survives both without a ban and still in a job then I'll be very surprised but I guess that his conduct won't be judged as being as serious as I am thinking it is.
I'll still support the Saints with Tonda in charge but it would take a while to accept it fully, if any more charges are brought against the club which result in further points deductions then I don't think that Dragan will want him here anyway.
 
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Saints_Alive said:
I can only assume that an FA and Saints own internal investigation will come up with the complete truth of what actually happened.
If Tonda survives both without a ban and still in a job then I'll be very surprised but I guess that his conduct won't be judged as being as serious as I am thinking it is.
I'll still support the Saints with Tonda in charge but it would take a while to accept it fully, if any more charges are brought against the club which result in more points deductions then I don't think that Dragan will want him here anyway.
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If he stays the club are going to be in for a very ropey few months minimum.

Once they make that announcement expect loads of articles about condoning cheating, it being brought up in the coverage before every game, journos asking questions every press conference and obviously fans at the games singing.

This from a reputational point of view would be a disaster, and likely lead to loss of revenue (fans who don’t support keeping him, sponsors not wanting to be associated with the club who are being branded as condoning cheating)

Even if internally we don’t think it’s that bad or we think Tonda is going to be a world class manager I don’t think there is a media campaign the club can do to change the narrative now, and he won’t survive.

As we’ve discussed multiple times we didnt need a top top manager to get a tune out of this years squad and be challenging. Next year will be harder but we should still be in a reasonable enough position that not having Tonda in charge = absolutely no chance of going up
 
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Saintmagic said:
If he stays the club are going to be in for a very ropey few months minimum.

Once they make that announcement expect loads of articles about condoning cheating, it being brought up in the coverage before every game, journos asking questions every press conference and obviously fans at the games singing.

This from a reputational point of view would be a disaster, and likely lead to loss of revenue (fans who don’t support keeping him, sponsors not wanting to be associated with the club who are being branded as condoning cheating)

Even if internally we don’t think it’s that bad or we think Tonda is going to be a world class manager I don’t think there is a media campaign the club can do to change the narrative now, and he won’t survive.

As we’ve discussed multiple times we didnt need a top top manager to get a tune out of this years squad and be challenging. Next year will be harder but we should still be in a reasonable enough position that not having Tonda in charge = absolutely no chance of going up
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All good points and I still think he's 99.9% toast, I guess i'm just coming to terms with if he actually does somehow survive this.
 
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This is one of those things where people get puffed up with righteous indignation, then after a short passage of time realise that it wasn’t that big in the scheme of things. No one was bribed, no player was nobbled, no sexy siren convinced someone to throw a game. A rule was broken and we suffered greatly for it. We aren’t big enough to last long in the news. Tomorrow’s chip paper.
 
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Saintmagic said:
If he stays the club are going to be in for a very ropey few months minimum.

Once they make that announcement expect loads of articles about condoning cheating, it being brought up in the coverage before every game, journos asking questions every press conference and obviously fans at the games singing.

This from a reputational point of view would be a disaster, and likely lead to loss of revenue (fans who don’t support keeping him, sponsors not wanting to be associated with the club who are being branded as condoning cheating)

Even if internally we don’t think it’s that bad or we think Tonda is going to be a world class manager I don’t think there is a media campaign the club can do to change the narrative now, and he won’t survive.

As we’ve discussed multiple times we didnt need a top top manager to get a tune out of this years squad and be challenging. Next year will be harder but we should still be in a reasonable enough position that not having Tonda in charge = absolutely no chance of going up
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I agree with most of that but I still have a problem with the reason for the delay and the silence. The equivalent of what he did (both on the syping and the alleged coercion/bullying) would be considered gross misconduct in most other walks of life would it not? That alone should be enough to dismiss him without compensation I would have thought. Unless they are waiting for the FA or... it goes way deeper than first thought.

EDIT: ...or it's nowhere near as bad as is being reported?
 
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fran-MLs little camera said:
This is one of those things where people get puffed up with righteous indignation, then after a short passage of time realise that it wasn’t that big in the scheme of things. No one was bribed, no player was nobbled, no sexy siren convinced someone to throw a game. A rule was broken and we suffered greatly for it. We aren’t big enough to last long in the news. Tomorrow’s chip paper.
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It's not just the systemic rule breaking though, it's his internal conduct towards staff that will be investigated. It might be gross misconduct he is charged with we don't know yet.
 
Ronnie Hotdog (MLsfc) said:
It would be a surprise if Tonda got punished then given he is being investigated for the same action for which the FA let Bielsa off with.
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I think he will get a warning about future conduct. I hope the fa show common sense.hNot my view, but outside views hecost Soton promotion and likely to be sacked. Has destroyed his brand etc etc.
My view is he has been naive over the verge of being stupid. Won't comment on the bullying without context.i am generally on the side of he is young and needs to be mentored......but we should do everything to retain his services. When was the last time.e we had such a driven person to succeed, probably Cortese. They don't grow on trees.. We let the last o e slip away
 
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TheRealSaints said:
I agree with most of that but I still have a problem with the reason for the delay and the silence. The equivalent of what he did (both on the syping and the alleged coercion/bullying) would be considered gross misconduct in most other walks of life would it not? That alone should be enough to dismiss him without compensation I would have thought. Unless they are waiting for the FA or... it goes way deeper than first thought.

EDIT: ...or it's nowhere near as bad as is being reported?
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I don’t think the silence has much to do with compensation. I think it’s more that the club want to keep him and are weighing it all up and waiting for the FA decision

If the FA don’t ban him, and say “no further action beyond the EFL punishment” then the club still has a decision to make based on what I said above. The media backlash, Saints named dragged further through the mud will all happen if we keep Tonda now. The club had to decide if it’s worth it, and whether Tonda can continue being successful with all that going on in the background as well.

Another thing not mentioned is he might want to leave and get a fresh start to. He’ll know that by staying he will have to face all that **** week after week and he might not fancy it. Especially if other clubs are keen on him so he can get another job quickly
 
Saintmagic said:
If he stays the club are going to be in for a very ropey few months minimum.

Once they make that announcement expect loads of articles about condoning cheating, it being brought up in the coverage before every game, journos asking questions every press conference and obviously fans at the games singing.

This from a reputational point of view would be a disaster, and likely lead to loss of revenue (fans who don’t support keeping him, sponsors not wanting to be associated with the club who are being branded as condoning cheating)

Even if internally we don’t think it’s that bad or we think Tonda is going to be a world class manager I don’t think there is a media campaign the club can do to change the narrative now, and he won’t survive.

As we’ve discussed multiple times we didnt need a top top manager to get a tune out of this years squad and be challenging. Next year will be harder but we should still be in a reasonable enough position that not having Tonda in charge = absolutely no chance of going up
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Not sure I buy the sponsor thing personally, we'll get plenty of coverage and I imagine that's what most sponsors will care about more than anything.

As for fans not supporting him, they'll come back if we're winning games.
 
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Libby said:
Not sure I buy the sponsor thing personally, we'll get plenty of coverage and I imagine that's what most sponsors will care about more than anything.

As for fans not supporting him, they'll come back if we're winning games.
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There will 100% be some businesses when the chat on the tv is basically” Southampton cheating ****s who kept their scumbag cheat of a manager” won’t want their branding all over the kits/stadium and be seen to be in partnership with that.

How much of a factor that is I don’t know, but I think it’s a bit naive to not think it will come into the thinking when deciding to keep him.
 
Saintmagic said:
There will 100% be some businesses when the chat on the tv is basically” Southampton cheating ****s who kept their scumbag cheat of a manager” won’t want their branding all over the kits/stadium and be seen to be in partnership with that.

How much of a factor that is I don’t know, but I think it’s a bit naive to not think it will come into the thinking when deciding to keep him.
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There'll be conversations internally at sponsors I'm sure but you also have to accept they won't have the level of emotional input to the question that us fans do.

Just look at the wording of your quoted dialog - they won't be thinking in that direction, won't be using that terminology at all and won't feel the same as you do about it.

For them it will be an equation - is the impact to earnings and / or reputation greater or less than the cost and exposure of killing the contract with the club. All business will have a different level for what they'd accept here and what they'd be willing to take a hit for.
 
Saints_Alive said:
It's not just the systemic rule breaking though, it's his internal conduct towards staff that will be investigated. It might be gross misconduct he is charged with we don't know yet.
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If there’s a case of gross misconduct in the workplace to answer, that’ll be for his employer to deal with, not the governing body
 
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metalmonkey80 said:
There'll be conversations internally at sponsors I'm sure but you also have to accept they won't have the level of emotional input to the question that us fans do.

Just look at the wording of your quoted dialog - they won't be thinking in that direction, won't be using that terminology at all and won't feel the same as you do about it.

For them it will be an equation - is the impact to earnings and / or reputation greater or less than the cost and exposure of killing the contract with the club. All business will have a different level for what they'd accept here and what they'd be willing to take a hit for.
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They aren’t going to use that wording on Sky or whatever obviously, but that is going to be the jist of what they are saying.

If he stays do you honestly not see this rumbling on?
 
Saintmagic said:
There will 100% be some businesses when the chat on the tv is basically” Southampton cheating ****s who kept their scumbag cheat of a manager” won’t want their branding all over the kits/stadium and be seen to be in partnership with that.

How much of a factor that is I don’t know, but I think it’s a bit naive to not think it will come into the thinking when deciding to keep him.
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Some, yeah. Imagine majority won't be that bothered though.

This will all die down soon enough anyway, commentators aren't going to be mentioning it every time we're on TV right through to May.
 
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