The Curious Case of Tonda Eckert

Like most Southampton fans, when I first heard that we were being expelled from the Championship play-offs over ‘spygate,’ my reaction was one of raw, unbridled anger. This was an outrage, embarrassment and apocalyptic event all at once, and heads had to roll. Specifically, one head in particular; in all of the media briefings from local and national sources, there was one fact everybody could agree on: Tonda Eckert, our young German Head Coach, was responsible – and as such he surely had to go.

It didn’t matter that the punishment seemed grossly disproportionate to the crime, or that Eckert claims he did not know his conduct was against the rules or even that Saints had only made the play-offs in the first place thanks to a scarcely believable run of 21 league games unbeaten under his leadership. At the end of the day, Eckert was at least partially responsible for arguably the biggest punishment in English footballing history and perhaps the most humiliating day in 131 years of Southampton Football Club. Yet now, sitting bottom of the table before a ball has been kicked thanks to the points deduction Saints have been given, Eckert is gearing up to lead Saints into another season in the Championship, pending the outcome of an FA investigation. Eckert has received the full backing of owner and chairman Dragan Solak, whilst most fans, myself included, are excited and looking forward to the season ahead. How, in the space of a fortnight, has Tonda Eckert gone from persona non grata in the country of Hampshire to back at the helm at St. Mary’s as if nothing ever happened?

On the night Southampton’s appeal was rejected, reaffirming the independent commission’s judgement and definitively ending our season, media sources close to the club reported Eckert was expected to be sacked. This was, at the time, a seemingly obvious decision, given the final report condemned Eckert for authorising a “deplorable approach.” not only in the decision to authorise spying, but placing pressure on interns to partake in the espionage. A betting market was opened up on who the next man in the dugout at St Mary’s would be. The club went radio silent, but reports in the North East suggested Eckert’s sacking would be confirmed once the club decided how many people inside the club were also culpable and needed to depart with him – Eckert had taken full responsibility during the proceedings but this has been widely speculated to have been influenced just as much by Southampton’s legal strategy as it was the truth.

Reports of Eckert’s imminent departure were indeed accurate

Solak, who since taking control of Saints in January 2022 has invested a quarter of a billion pounds into what was a mid-table premier league club and received two embarrassing relegations in return, was said to be “furious” at anybody and everybody involved in the process. Not only was having the chance of an immediate return to the Premier League taken away greatly disappointing on a purely emotional level, it was also financially the single greatest punishment in the history of global sport. In the Championship, Saints’ revenue would remain at barely half the level they achieved in the top flight. Consequently, key players would have to be sold, and it was unclear if Saints had either the budget or the reputation to adequately replace them, thus making promotion next season harder still.

On the topic of the club’s reputation, concerns also existed over whether the playing squad could sue over not having a fair opportunity to earn their promotion bonuses and wage increases. Would key sponsors still be willing to associate themselves with Southampton – and if not, how much lower a fee would new sponsorships be able to command?

As such, it seemed obvious that Eckert’s position was untenable. The position of Johannes Spors, who effectively put his own job on the line to appoint Eckert in November after his initial choice of Will Still backfired horrendously at the start of the season, also seemed tenuous at best. Sports had headhunted Eckert in the Summer to be Under-21s coach with the explicit intention he would succeed Still as the first team manager. Yet as senior members of the Southampton hierarchy questioned each other’s, and their own, positions, a fascinating phenomenon occurred – time.

As the initial rage that had surrounded the club gradually subsided, fan sentiment on social media slowly but surely began to shift away from wanting Eckert thrown off of the Itchen Bridge and questions were raised about whether he should even be sacked in the first place. After all, hadn’t Eckert taken over a side sitting just two points clear of the relegation zone after winning only 2 of their first 13 games and immediately got Saints playing like the promotion contenders they ought to be? Had he or had he not taken them on a memorable FA Cup run, which included a last minute winner at Fulham, a famous win over eventual title winners Arsenal at St Mary’s and putting them within ten minutes of a place in the final itself after deservedly taking the lead late on against Manchester City at Wembley? And by the time the opening weekend of the Championship season rolls around won’t it have been almost 8 months since Saints last lost a league fixture (incidentally, a fixture they dominated and on paper should have won handsomely)?

Simon Jordan aptly summed up the views of many Saints fans on his morning radio show when he said firing Eckert would be “cutting your nose off to spite your face…why would you fire the manager? Who are you doing that for? Do your fans want him fired? Probably not. They probably think, well, you imbecile, you got us in this situation but you’re a bloody good manager.” Solak agreed, stating in a bombshell interview with the BBC nearly two weeks after expulsion that he would not sack Eckert, who as a “super-talented manager” deserved a second chance.

This approach speaks to the mindset most Saints fans have settled on.

Were we really angry at Eckert, or were we angry that we’d been kicked out of the play-offs after working so hard to get there, and being within just a few days of a final we most likely would win?

(Indeed this writer had already bought three tickets for Wembley). The answer is clearly the latter: if the punishment had simply been a points deduction, and Saints had won at Wembley, would Eckert have been sacked? Not a chance! Even if we had lost in the final there is little question that Eckert would have received the club’s steadfast backing going into next season – indeed the worry would have been if we were able to stave off interest from bigger clubs with just a year remaining on his contract.

Moreover, I had and indeed still have severe gripes with the punishment. Remember, at the root of this scandal is a 27-year old intern standing next to a tree, filming Middlesbrough’s training from a distance. Had he done so 24 hours earlier the act would have been legal within EFL regulations, and nobody seriously believes Saints gained any meaningful sporting advantage from the spying (whether they attempted to do so is a different matter). Indeed, the club appears to be incredibly poor at espionage, having put in the single worst performance since the beginning of the unbeaten run in the first half at the Riverside and picked up just one point from the two other occasions the club has admitted to spying (including a loss at managerless Oxford United, who would go on to be relegated). This is not to defend spying, which was an unacceptable act and deserved a meaningful punishment. With that said however, can it really be right that the punishment for such an act was the single greatest sanction in the history of sport, and as CEO Phil Parsons put it “manifestly disproportionate to every previous sanction in the history of the English game?”

Again, this is not to excuse Eckert or the club for their actions – but were we judging them, or the punishment inflicted upon them when we initially called for sackings? More importantly, what was more important – acting as most outside the club expected us to over spygate or succeeding on the pitch next season? On that, there is no question – Saints priority has to be promotion next season. If they fail to get promoted in the 2026/27 campaign, they will stop receiving parachute payments from the Premier League, effectively forcing them to downsize to the level of an ordinary Championship club and resulting in drastic cutbacks on and off the pitch. So the decision over what to do next shifted from ‘how do we respond to spygate’ to ‘what gives us the best chance of promotion.’ Eckert’s record speaks for itself: there is no better candidate to take Saints up. Tactically, he is superb – his ability to adapt his side and manage the squad’s minutes such that Saints seemed practically immune to injury is incredible and the results on the pitch did not flatter the performances Saints were putting on. I grew up watching Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman’s Southampton, and I can honestly say I would put Eckert at least on the same level as those two, and probably higher.

The question then was not as to Eckert’s ability, or to his previous conduct. Whether Saints should stick with Eckert came down to one final choice – was it feasible to keep him on? Arguably, the answer to that question is no, and Saints will have tremendous amounts of egg on their faces if the FA decide to ban Eckert for a prolonged period of time, forcing him out of a job and setting Saints’ preparations for the new season back weeks. More pertinent to the decision however was the question of whether he could possibly retain the confidence of the players and staff around the club. Solak himself flew in to speak to the players about their feelings at the club’s training ground, and amidst the aforementioned reports about players possibly taking legal action Eckert held a meeting the morning after expulsion was confirmed. Could this group of players bring themselves to play for the man whose actions ultimately rendered the last six months of their careers, at least in terms of sporting achievement, a waste?

The answer came not through words, but action. Shortly after the decision was confirmed to keep Eckert at the club, Saints made the signings of Daniel Peretz and Cyle Larin from Bayern Munich and Mallorca respectively on a permanent basis after arriving in January to address urgent needs in the squad on an initial loan deal. Peretz was drafted in to replace Gavin Bazunu, who is statistically the single worst shot-stopper in the history of the championship (he also broke the record for the single worst season a keeper has ever had this year in terms of post-shot xG prevented, which measures how many goals a keeper is responsible for preventing or allowing compared to what would be expected relative to the shots they faced. This is particularly galling when you learn that the previous record was co-held between Ryan Allsop and Bazunu himself, two years prior). The upgrade was obvious, with Peretz having the best save percentage in the league since arriving and winning numerous points on his own. If the Israeli international had been at St Mary’s since August there is no question Saints would have secured automatic promotion and avoided the play-offs altogether. Larin meanwhile was an unpopular addition, replacing Summer flop Damion Downs and leading scorer Adam Armstrong on deadline day. Despite initial fan skepticism over his signing, Larin scored with his first touch in a Saints shirt and would go on to score the most goals per 90 of any striker in the division. Shortly after, right back James Bree, who was essential to Eckert’s transformation of Saints (and having come to the end of his contract, free to join any club without compensation) agreed terms on a three year extension at St. Mary’s.

None of these players were obligated to return to Saints, and all three will have no shortage of admirers after their performances on the South Coast. Indeed, in the media releases following the signings, Saints confirmed both Peretz and Larin had concrete offers on the table from elsewhere, but chose to commit to Saints. Why? Since Eckert’s arrival, for the first time since the high points under Russell Martin, Saints players are enjoying coming in to work at Staplewood. Larin has directly credited Eckert’s “trust” with driving him to swap sunny Mallorca for Southampton, whilst Peretz has said he is “excited” to link up with the German again. Bree credits Eckert with coaching “really, really well” whilst the likes of Leo Scienza, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Flynn Downes all went out of their way to heap praise on Eckert during the regular season. Solak is on record as saying Saints intend to keep as much of last season’s group as possible, and (with the exception of a backup to Finn Azaz, which the club currently lack) will only dip into the market when a player departs.

Clearly then, Eckert has the ability to deliver the results Saints need on the pitch, the trust of the players he will put out there to do it

And now that proof has been demonstrated that the club is internally united – the conditional support of much of the fanbase. Eckert will be on a much shorter leash with both the fans and the board this season, and if Saints start the season poorly as they did last year it could turn very toxic, very quickly. But equally, if Saints can get anywhere near to the level of performances and results they showed under Eckert last season, all will be forgiven.

There’s no question that the coming Summer, and indeed season, will not just be sunshine and rainbows for Southampton. Inevitably, key players will leave. Aaron Ramsdale is a near certainty to go, and star midfielder Capser Jander’s agent could not have been clearer over his desire to see the German move on less than a year after joining. With Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Shea Charles entering their final two years at St. Mary’s, they also look like prime targets for Premier League clubs. But with how bleak things looked three weeks ago, Saints have emerged in a far better place than even the most optimistic of fans expected them to. Although the club will still have to reckon with the four point headstart the rest of the league, confidence is sky high going into the season to levels not seen in a long time. When was the last time Saints fans went into the season confident not only that their manager was extremely talented, but that he would be backed in the market and given a squad capable of achieving truly special things? It is hard to argue that both have been the case at any point in the last decade.

No doubt the external noise will be condemnatory and eager to see Southampton flounder. West Ham, Wolves and Burnley will all expect to come down and outmuscle Saints in any promotion push. Wrexham and Birmingham will yet again spend more than most EFL teams could dream of to fuel their Premier League ambitions. Eckert staying will only amplify that noise, but Saints have no choice but to drown it out. We will have a target on our backs, but this team knows it has the capability to do something truly special.