The last couple of weeks has seen a media frenzy against Southampton FC & its manager Tonda Eckert, now the play off position has been sorted, where does that leave the situation overall.

There have been a lot of things said in the past fortnight and quite a lot of it has been either downright lies or shock media clickbait.

After the last 10 days or so it is starting to die down and parts of the media are already turning to the way Southampton were treated and the case rushed through with indecent haste with the EFL breaking it's own rules to force through a verdict.

A verdict delivered by a panel that clearly had members on it with connections to Middlesbrough therefore suggesting a conflict of interest.

This will come out in the wash in the next few days and the threat of legal action may be flying around, not just from Middlesbrough or Southampton but also aimed at the Independent Panel & the EFL itself.

Indeed add Hull to that mix and none of the five parties involved in Spygate come out of it smelling of roses.

The first question is whether Tonda Eckert can remain as Southampton manager, my own personal opinion is that he should, if football was squeaky clean then my opinion might be different, but it isn't and if Eckert is manager of Southampton next season, then he will not be the biggest alleged cheat in the Championship or indeed football in general.

I think Saints need to stand by their man and weather the storm, let's be blunt we have spent the last two weeks and since the verdict stating that on the grand scale of things our offence was of a low scale and with little to gain when compared to some of the other issues in football, not least the 115 charges outstanding against Manchester City, so how can we now change tack and now say it is a serious offence.

In truth if you ask me what was the biggest example of cheating in the play offs and had the biggest chance of influencing the result, then I would say that the cynical way that Cyle Larin was continually held by the shirt in the first leg up at the Riverside, we had one accusation of spying on them, there were at least a dozen cynical fouls on Larin, just as many on Leo Scienza, so I find it very hypocritical that Boro ignore this.

Sadly this is now football where the dark arts are seen as legitimate way of trying to win a game rather than cheating.

Stick with Tonda and move forward.

Secondly I am a little disappointed with the hysterical and hypocritical reaction by some Southampton supporters, whilst I defend their right to have an opinion and I respect that, it sticks a little in my throat.

just under two weeks ago I was in St Mary's with 30,000 other Saints supporters who taunted Middlesbrough throughout with chants about Spying where we want and making binocular motions etc.

Now some of our fans have got a conscience, they were happy enough when they thought we would just get a fine, but once that the verdict was given they did a complete turnaround.

Some of the claims of the end of Southampton FC etc by our own supporters are ludicrous, Leeds United were not finished as a club back in 2019, Marcelo Bielsa was not sacked, they just developed a siege mentality, all stuck firmly behind the club and the following season they were promoted.

The Leeds Spygate frenzy soon went away and was forgotten by most up until now, some will rally back at me and say that it is under different rules, that may be but the offence is still the same whatever you call the charge.

However there is rumours that the FA might intervene and ban Tonda Eckert etc, but that is far from clear cut, the issue here is that the offence of spying is not an FA offence, it is an EFL law.

The Premier League does not have that rule and it is legal for club's in that League to spy on their opponents, so the issue for the FA is two tier justice, how can they sanction a club or individual based not on the offence but purely on the competition that it takes place in.

I am no legal expert, but we have been tried and found guilty under EFL rules, so how can we be tried again and sanctioned for an offence that if committed by a Premier League manager would be completely legal.

The time is for Southampton supporters to rally around the club, that is not to say that questions should not be asked and answers given, but the club needs time to look into what was going wrong before making brash statements that may not be correct.

We need to circle the wagons and get on with things.

The next question is whether the players will all sue us and leave, that is ludicrous, these are professional footballers and they know that in sport there are many things that cost you victory and therefore money, you cannot sue against something that happens, especially when there was no guarantee that we would beat Hull City if we had played them at Wembley.

So I do not see legal action being taken or succeeding, but it is inevitable that some players will leave, but we have to remember that even if we had gone up that might have been the case.

In essence I think we have maybe 4 players who could improve their situation, by going to a club where they could earn more money and play at a higher level, as for the rest, most are on good contracts at Championship level and are not going to get better elsewhere.

As a player are you really going to demand a move to say Blackburn Rovers where they will pay you less and your chances of bonus's are less, just as a matter of principle ?

I think we all know the answer on that one, but still there are those Saints fans who claim we will have no squad next season.

Last summer we recruited well and by January the core of the squad had been at the club less than 2 -3 years, we can recruit well again and might well have a big chunk in the bank from those who will leave including Arron Ramsdale.

The time now is to stick behind Southampton Football Club, I understand that there will be those that cannot do that and will not renew season tickets etc, that will of course harm the club and make it more difficult financially, but if that is your conscience then stick by it, you won't hear me complain, that is unless you change your mind this time next year if we are back in the play offs lol.

Football is full of rule breakers, I am making no excuses for Southampton's indiscretions, I am angry that they happened and the way they happened, however everyone has to ask themselves whether their anger is more about the fact that we were caught and the sentence, rather than what happened.

So I stand behind Southampton FC & Tonda Eckert, cheating is rife in football, whether it is shirt pulling, throwing yourself to the floor clutching your head when someone brushes past you, spying on training or the real big boy stuff as the likes of Chelsea & Manchester City have allegedly done.

This is perhaps the nature of sport as a whole when we take the doping allegations in Athletics & the Tour De France and other sports, if we all held the moral high ground, then we could never watch professional sport.

So it's not a decision I take lightly, but if I want to support Saints I have to handle the fact that we have cheated, in the knowledge that we are not the worst offenders in a sport that is not recognisable from the game I first started watching as a kid, not even the same game as in the 1990's, 00's or even a decade ago.

I would actually love to walk away after this, but sadly it is not in my DNA to do so, I have loyally supported this club by attending matches for nearly 55 years, I have supported them through the good times of which I hoped the weekend just gone would have been one of them.

If I can't support them when they truly need that support then in my mind I have no right to support them at all.

I appreciate that is not the way that everyone thinks and we have to make our own minds up.

As in previous catastrophes, there will be many who think as i do and rally around and also just as many who choose not to go, that is fine, but for those that are Southampton through thick & thin, then now is the time to start the fightback.

All Photos Via Reuters