With the Spygate verdict looming after almost 5 months of speculation, all Saints supporters are nervously logging on to news sites on line on a regular basis today, but could the Longest Day spring a surprise and rather ironic ending.

If the latest news stories are to be believed and even The Daily Echo is buying into this, Saints have lined up Rob Edwards as interim manager, should Tonda Eckert receive a ban.

Obviously it would depend on the length of the ban as to whether Edwards would be a just a temporary stop gap or employed on a more permanent basis going forward.

The irony in this appointment should it happens is that the Welshman was appointed as Middlesbrough boss in the summer of 2025 and took Middlesbrough to the top of the Championship after winning the first 4 games of the season and continued that run which made Middlesbrough favourites for automatic promotion.

But in November he was approached by Wolves and after only 3 months of the season, he departed for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

That would prove to be a situation that he could not do much about, Wolves were technically only two places above Boro who were 2nd in the Championship with Wolves rock bottom of the Premier League and strangely he would be sacked in the summer after the club were relegated, when it was expected that he had been employed not to save the club from the drop, but to build for the following season.

In many respects is Middlesbrough fans want to point at the one thing that cost them promotion, it was not the fact that Southampton sent a young intern with an intern to wander aimlessly around their open to the public training complex, it was the day that Rob Edwards bailed on them.

They were never the same side after that and how ironic it would be, if his return to football on the day that Boro Chairman Steve Gibson and his scheming pals on the Teeside media, on the very day they will celebrate the sacking of Tonda, have to also report that Rob Edwards is his replacement.

It would be even sweeter if he guided his new team to victory over his former employers at St Mary's on 27th November, just over a year after he dumped them.

However it would be more sweeter if it was Tonda Eckert himself who is in charge on that day.

There are those who will say this is a case of Southampton making this move to try and get one over Middlesbrough for the way they have behaved in this whole sorry story.

But that would not be true, Rob Edwards has a solid coaching record where like Tonda Eckert he has worked his way up the ladder and earned his reputation.

After finishing his playing career he went into coaching with Wolves, first in their academy set up, becoming a first team coach in their set up in 2015.

After a season managing Telford United in the National League North, he went back to Molyneux as head U23 coach and after as season there joined the FA to work in their U20 set up.

In 2021 he was appointed manager of Forest Green Rovers and took the club to the League Two Championship and into League one for the first time in their history.

But by the start of 2022/23 season he was gone and now manager of Watford but with barely a month of the season gone he was sacked after winning just 3 out of 10 games.

He was not out of work for long though and within 2 months he was appointed manager of Watford's big rivals Luton Town where he found James Bree in his squad

He guided Luton to the Premier League, via the play-off final against Coventry City, through a third-place finish in the Championship.

As many clubs find out when they get promotion to the Premier League, the gap these days is far too wide and Luton were badly struggling and were relegated, after a poor start in the Championship, he left by mutual consent in January 2025 after a whirlwind 26 months in charge.

As mentioned above he then started his tenure at Middlesbrough in June 2025.

So if Saints were to appoint Edwards then it would not just be for the one upmanship and irony, it would be to get a manager who has the track record at this level, the only downside being that he seemingly does not like to stay anywhere for very long.

However if Tonda Eckert were to be banned for an extended period, say to the end of the season, that might not be a bad thing.

As I say this is going to be the Longest Day for Southampton supporters, we start it not knowing just what will happen in the following hours and where we will stand by the end of it, will it be carry on as before or will a major change have happened.

Via Reuters