Hughes

🚨🤓 Southampton Spygate personal view: 1. Expect the breaches will be straightforward to establish (ie liability) and almost certainly admitted to try and get some sanction credit/discount 2. Expect aggravating factors such as other examples of Soton spying this year to be raised 3. Fundamental question of how serious a breach of rule 127 and good faith is will be key. We know good faith alone was £200k in the Leeds case. The new rule makes it worse and spying obviously seeks a sporting advantage - why else do it? So that does point to sporting sanction of some sort 4. Being thrown out of the Play Offs appears excessive especially given Southampton finished 7 points clear of 6th and 9 clear of 7th 5. A 3-0 in the first leg would have been an option again excessive retrospectively unless 2nd leg re-playable (not feasible) 6. More likely sanction is points deduction next season in the Championship as much as that won't help Middlesboro 7. Unlikely that the PL will take a points deduction recommendation from the EFL (no fixed rule) - doubt EFL will push for it, so would apply in first season back in Championship (when and if) 8. My best guess is SIX EFL points in first season in EFL and £500k-£1m fine 9. Boro compensation claim can be dealt with separately subject to any claim brought by Boro - difficult claim to establish due to causation issues

Keep the page perfectly still, then the exact moment he's about to tap the screen, load an ad and shift everything down half an inch.

Huge fan of this 😂

Let's be honest, any talk of Southampton being kicked out off the final is ridiculous. EFL dragging this out is not a good look either

I hope once things are sorted, #SaintsFC absolutely go for @CraigHope_DM & @LukeEdwardsTele for trying to cause further damage to the club with their completely unfounded accusations. These two cunts said it was ‘high tech equipment’ when you can clearly see it’s just an iPhone

@BoroHarris @SkySports You're the Bournemouth of the north. Your two bigger neighbours aren't fussed about you. No Yorkshire clubs are bothered, either. Boro are at the top of the no-mark clubs in English football.

@SkySports Southampton in a few weeks have gone from a no mark club that nobody ever thinks about to the most insufferable club in the country by a mile. Awful owners, awful manager, awful players and awful fans.

Southampton captain Taylor Harwood-Bellis appeared to mock a Middlesbrough player with a binoculars celebration amid allegations that Saints were spying on Boro training before their play-off clash 😬

2019.....what changed Henry?

Well done #boro comms team convincing half the world that a nerd behind a tree 200m away can have a big impact on 210 minutes of football. 🤪 Same as us using our Academy U18 players and ball boys then not giving the ball back. Small margins - not £200m fines 😂🕵️. #SaintsFC

Pathetic if they remove them. Open field, using an iPhone. Shouldn't be removed from a promotion final lol

@nocontextfm1 You're a Leeds fan. And a gimp, clearly. You should go steal some more content because your own posts are embarrassing.

The general consensus is that the right punishment is for Southampton to be kicked out, right?

I'm a Saints fan, and remain embarrassed & mortified that a Saints intern spied on Boro. Pointless. Self-defeating. Cringe. But today's "bombshell" utterly subverts the totally fake news narrative of sophisticated spyware tech, live feeds to HQ etc. It's a kid. With an iphone.

@AdamCrafton_ You'll get the desperate Boro mob after you now.

If proven guilty #SaintsFC cannot argue with any punishment, what they're accused of doing is embarrassing & pathetic. Throwing them out, given two games which fans have paid for/travelled to have been played, is ludicrous. Fine & points for next season sends a serious message.

@TeleFootball @LukeEdwardsTele Is this legitimate or something new that you're inventing out of thin air?

🚨 The English Football League is considering postponing the Championship play-off final as it could need more time to review whether Southampton should be removed from it @LukeEdwardsTele has the latest ⤵️ telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/…

Let’s analyse @LukeEdwardsTele claims a few days ago. Read here (telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/…) And see snippet below of one of the main claims and then look at the picture. Telegraph Sport *can reveal*… 😂 A good reason why you shouldn’t read the Telegraph. #SaintsFC

@kevdodds @Kit_Shepard @rob_fletcher_ @TimesSport Wouldn't be against that at this point.

@CBAwithThisApp @Kit_Shepard @rob_fletcher_ @TimesSport Let’s all agree. Just promote hull and everyone is happy.

"Spygate" is my lowest moment in 20+ years supporting Southampton. The lack of clarity is troubling. Accusations of blatant cheating have been belittled. A lovely season feels tainted. This all creates apathy, and that's worse than losing. @TimesSport thetimes.com/sport/football…

“Nothing has changed,” says the man who made up/wrote/published all sorts of details to sensationalise a story that’s already sensational. #SaintsFC

Really can't work out the praise Kim Hellburg is getting at Middlesbrough. He adopted a team that were bound for promotion, sat in the top 2 of the league for over 200 days, managed to lose 55% of his games in charge of them, and then got them dumped out in the semi finals of...

-Cried about the tickets -Cried about the ‘spying’ -Cried about a ball boy telling Targett to use the ball nearest to him -Cried about us chanting -Cried about losing Now they’re crying to the EFL to get the result overturned, is there anything #boro won’t cry about? #saintsfc

I actually believe Saints are the ones hard done by, we’ve been made to look like supervillains through sheer fabrication of facts all for it to be a pile of shit