A few ramblings on Spygate:
- Firstly, itās embarrassing and, if Iām honest, has put a cloud over yesterdayās win and a brilliant playoff tie in my mind, along with several other things around the game. I expect better of my club all round
- Do I think the āspyingā benefitted us vs Middlesbrough? No, Boro were the better team in 1st leg and we were better in the 2nd leg, winning with a fortunate goal, thatās football. I think the build-up affected us negatively in 1st leg too. No evidence of āprofessional surveillance equipmentā either
- Itās frustrating that Saints or one individual have felt the need to do it. Theyāve proven they are absolutely good enough without doing this
- Either the intern has done this themselves through desperation to succeed or has been told to do this by a senior member of staff because he, as an intern, is dispensable (incredibly poor if true and intern then gets thrown under the bus).
Either way, it needs to make Saints look deeply at working practices
- Media coverage today and publishing a name is equally as poor as the incident itself. Give a name once an investigation is complete, particularly if itās a young intern at the centre of this. Heās human at the end of the day, but it seems The Daily Mail donāt see that quality in many people. The image itself would have sufficed surely? Everyone has a Duty of Care in this situation to not make the intern himself a target for abuse, particularly if heās been told to do this by someone else - we wonāt know that until the investigation is complete
- Hopefully this incident helps Middlesbrough improve security and visibility at their training ground. It seems any member of the public could have gained info by watching where the intern was and thatās quite unbelievable
- Final, wider reaching point is that football can stop these desperate moves by levelling the playing field between PL and FL. The gap is insane and unsustainable, and Saints will have decided to do something like this because they know how important financially it is to win and go back up. If we stay down, we will be reliant on player sales and cost cutting. When teams drop down from the PL (like weāve seen with Saints), their first year down gives them a huge budget to chuck at getting back up, and that puts other teams at a disadvantage. As a general football fan, I donāt want to see the same teams jumping up and down between the leagues all the time - teams like Middlesbrough do deserve a chance to break through the current glass ceiling
#SaintsFCļæ¼