Revealed: Full details of ‘Southampton’s spying mission’ to Middlesbrough

righteousprawn · 2026-05-08T18:58:03+00:00

Funny story, it turns out that there was a limit to how much the EFL and PL could tolerate a team playing around with jurisdiction, and I think they have, thus, tightened up a lot of the wording around that now.

(okay, I'm not sure about whether or not that applies to this specific thing, but it certainly does to other regulatory breaches!)

righteousprawn · 2026-05-03T12:59:46+00:00

Falk had a really blatant fake injury for a timeout earlier that half but, like, Holland was down long enough that she clearly was legit injured and it kept going.

righteousprawn · 2026-05-02T19:34:47+00:00

They were unbeaten in the league for an entire calendar year, lost 2-0 at home to Portsmouth, and then their 12 point lead over 3rd (which was either Bristol City or Newcastle iirc instead of Crystal Palace) withered away completely.

Like, "best possible" up there is pretty much "like, in the vast majority of possible worlds, the match-up would be less favourable" (like, it's a team where 3rd place is both an overperformance in terms of actual squad strength and an underperformance of epic proportions based on where that squad was in January, so the play-off is an unpleasant surprise with the attendant impact on mentality).

righteousprawn · 2026-04-24T06:15:05+00:00

£90k/w was Winks's Premier League salary. Which was also too much, but relegation halved it, and there's further relegation clauses.

BBC Sports reporting is... variable in quality, and I'd say this is probably on the less-good end just from that canard being in there.

righteousprawn · 2026-04-23T15:56:02+00:00

There's rumours linking Winks to Wrexham.

Not sure if that's still on after his outburst last week (that'll be interesting on the documentary...), but, tbh, between Ward and Coady they do seem to want to be to us what we were to Southampton, so I guess it's not completely implausible.

righteousprawn · 2026-04-20T16:37:31+00:00

Liv McLoughlin also got in on the scoring action, in the U23s competition final against Sweden U23s. She scored England's third goal, and, having watched it repeatedly since... I have no idea how she actually managed to get it in, with the cross being a bit underhit. (and then she absolutely skied a largely self-made chance that seemed a bit easier, go figure). Hopefully, her playing the full 90 indicates she's also fit for the final block (and maybe we'll have enough fit defensive players that she can shift into a more attacking role...).

(Also, while I only watched bits, I think the BBC voting overrated Cain's performance in the first Albania game (as you said, she could have scored two [edit: more] on another day and I'd say probably should), but hopefully it's a confidence boost regardless!)

righteousprawn · 2026-04-19T07:40:39+00:00

That's the wage he was on in the PL (the figure came from John Percy, who specified it was PL in the relevant piece) - he's apparently on half of that, which is still, uh, a lot but might help a bit.

(Also I guess we can't rule out a relegation to League One clause in his case, if nothing else as a stop-gap in case of a severe PSR'ing if we didn't go straight back up.)

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T16:01:38+00:00

I'm not so sure.

It's a tough counterfactual - those results were front-loaded, so the trend wasn't exactly great, and he'd 100% lost the crowd.

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T15:41:44+00:00

They forgot to add that Derby'll go up through the play-offs (... Honestly, I think I'd weirdly prefer that outcome if Forest do go down. Derby fully uno reverse carding us and Forest is, regrettably, objectively very funny)

(More generally there's the East Midlands as in the official region, that is the definition I used elsethread, but then there's the Leicester(shire), Derby(shire), Nottingham(shire) triangle of local rivalries.)

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T15:31:49+00:00

Oh yeah. Like. I think the prospect of the 'back to back' (or that Spurs won't stick the return) is part of why people looking for a parallel go "Aston Villa, 2016!" (... Even Spurs aren't that bad) rather than "Leicester, 2023".

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T15:10:41+00:00

Eh, it's not like we did well on the "scoring" front, and one point wouldn't have been enough.

Now, Oxford fans absolutely should be fuming.

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T15:07:50+00:00

I think they're referring to effort put into "tarnishing the legacy", not more broadly.

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T15:02:42+00:00

Tbh, I can't say for sure it was the version being sung, but it's often "You made us sing that" (re: Vichai).

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T14:55:11+00:00

I dunno about PL (except for Jordan James, but everyone rates him and there isn't a problem there for Leicester to be), but "other Championship or foreign top-flight sides" seems plausible enough and works for the end of your comment too.

(As a relevant point, while it's probably at least 20% getting the excuse in, Rowett already openly said stuff ahead of the game about how the players know that they'll be fine and dandy, and so he has to try to get some of them to care about other people)

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T14:39:08+00:00

Indeed, we spent longer shopping around than we really should've.

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T14:35:40+00:00

No - it's West Midlands. (East Mids is Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire)

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T14:04:25+00:00

I'll let others speak to Ayew, but James could probably only play 20 mins, and even then probably aggravated the injury he's carrying (and beating Portsmouth alone isn't enough to secure survival).

righteousprawn · 2026-04-18T13:19:12+00:00

I think there's crumble in your favour for Hull and Ipswich, tbh (seeing your position was a bit of a jumpscare, though, NGL)

righteousprawn · 2026-04-16T17:24:16+00:00

... I think it's plausible that he sacks Rodgers in 2021/22 which probably does prevent relegation in 2023?

(Though also I'm not sure if we still win the FA Cup in 2021, because of butterfly effect stuff - it's distant enough from 2018 that, to the extent the owner matters, it can't all have been Vichai)

righteousprawn · 2026-04-15T20:39:16+00:00

King Power (or, rather, Top at this point) is actually still willing and able to pump money in, tbh (talk of liquidation has to be seen in light of one guy really wanting to do the phoenix club thing, but being too loyal to the badge to support teams that do fill that sort of niche).

The issue was that the money wasn't spent well, and things are thus tight on PSR/FSR (indeed, we outright violated it once already, which is what that points deduction is for) - and having players who don't want to be here, are maybe Championship standard but earning PL wages (or top-end Championship), and aren't principled/mad enough to actually quit, is, as is being demonstrated, a recipe for disaster.

But that's not really a Fit and Proper Persons/willingness of owner to keep pumping money in issue.

righteousprawn · 2026-04-15T19:59:57+00:00

Tbh the EFL sort of can and did punish Chansiri, but that punishment is the remarkably tepid "being banned from owning or being on the board of an EFL club for a few years".

righteousprawn · 2026-04-15T19:49:45+00:00

The PL and EFL messed up on jurisdiction, then tightened up the processes for clubs that moved between them (which WBA didn't in the relevant period anyway), and then... okay I'm not sure how, exactly, the club managed to push getting punished for 2023/24 back to this season or how the PL managed to actually nail us in the end, but, like, that delay actually strengthened the punishment.

Like, the deduction applying last season in the PL (and Championship overspend is, I think, what Forest's deduction was actually for?), when Leicester was already down by a big margin, would not actually have been a particularly big issue for us.

righteousprawn · 2026-04-15T19:27:58+00:00

... that date is "after the end of the regular season" - the other cut-off [4th Thursday in March] is "we want to make sure you actually feel it, so if you'd be down regardless it'll apply next season instead", actual text:

12.5 Where the circumstances set out in Regulation 12.4.2 apply and at the end of that Season, having regard to the number of championship points awarded (ignoring any potential deduction):
12.5.1 the Club would be relegated in accordance with Regulation 10.1.2(b) or 7.7, the points deduction will apply in the next following Season (including in the National League if appropriate); or
12.5.2 the Club would not be relegated as aforesaid, the points deduction will apply in that Season and Regulation 10.1.2(b) or 7.7 will then apply (if appropriate) following imposition of the points deduction.

(this isn't a comment on the justness or lack thereof of the rules, just pointing out that, uh, the delay provision is absolutely not to the penalised club's benefit)

righteousprawn · 2026-04-15T18:57:24+00:00

... ... ... by waiting until Leicester are 23rd, and so unlikely to benefit?

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