“I hope that in time you will understand and forgive.”
Those are the words of Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, speaking to his fans in an apology video published by the team’s internal media team on Tuesday, following the Spygate scandal that led to his team being kicked out of the Championship play-offs.
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The 33-year-old said he took “full responsibility” for the charges Southampton admitted during the English Football League’s (EFL) investigation into the club’s testing practices covering three games in the 2025-26 season.
But he doubled down on his earlier claims that spying was common in Germany and Italy, where he worked before joining the Saints initially as Under-21s manager last summer, and insisted that “nothing has happened that has affected the performance of the sport”.
In an exclusive interview with BBC Sport, Southampton owner Dragan Solak said his plan is to allow Eckert to continue his job, despite the controversy and the damage done to the club’s reputation.
The decision may be taken out of Solak’s hands, as the Football Association is currently investigating Eckert’s conduct. If he is charged and found guilty he could face a ban from playing in English football.
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But if the choice remains Southampton’s, should Eckert really be given the nod?
‘Many different people’
Since Eckert took over following the sacking of former boss Will Still last autumn, no team in the Championship has scored more than Southampton, who also reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup and missed out on a place in the final due to a late comeback from Manchester City.
But the debate over whether or not to keep Eckert goes beyond his ability as a coach.
“A lot of people are divided – the fans and I think there are people inside the club,” said Jo Tessem, a former midfielder who played 130 games for the club.
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“People’s kids wear Saints shirts to play and ‘cheat’ and get yelled at. That’s serious and it hurts people. A lot needs to be done to end that label.
“If I was a player now I would be very disappointed and very angry with the team and the staff. How do you change that? I haven’t got an answer to that yet.
“Dragan has said what he wants to do. Now the team has to sell.” [keeping Eckert] as an idea and try to build bridges.
“I think it needs to be fixed immediately. We need to move forward.”
‘Keeping him would be a big risk’
If Eckert were to be in the dugout when the Saints start their 2026-27 campaign in August, suffering a four-point deduction as part of their EFL ban, those in the stands will have to contend with the fact that the man who led them both to the play-offs and then lost them a place remains their leader.
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Would dragging the scandal into another season really be acceptable to the fans?
“Southampton see Eckert as a fantastic young manager,” said Steve Grant, host of the Total Saints fan podcast.
“Although these things happen, from their point of view I think it would be foolish to throw the baby out with the bath water.
“There is a real divide between people who say ‘let’s not overdo it, we have a high level manager’ and the opposite side takes a moral view and says, ‘we were caught cheating and crossed the line of acceptability’.
“Keeping him would be a big risk. But football fans are fickle and if he wins a few games at the start of next season people will forget about this.”
Eckert built an excellent relationship with Southampton’s players and fans after leading the club’s first team, but that has been damaged by his role at the center of the scandal. [Getty Images]
‘Southampton need to fix the damage they’ve done to themselves’
For those associated with the team, the desire to see a successful team next season is combined with the need to undo the damage done by Eckert.
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One of the worst conclusions of the EFL’s investigation into Southampton’s practices is that a young analyst who was caught spying outside Middlesbrough’s training ground raised concerns about the job he was given, but was put under “huge pressure” to do it by several senior staff, including Eckert.
In many workplaces, a senior employee pressures a junior colleague to do work that violates industry rules without being met with immediate and significant punishment.
But Solak told BBC Sport that the student was at fault for not starting the noise, saying: “I believe our young student saw that it was wrong, and he didn’t feel right about doing this, and I think he should have shown his strength.”
Solak stressed that he has since offered the intern analyst a full-time job with the team.
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But the behavior of young, inexperienced staff has raised concerns about the club’s culture.
“The team was not able to lead to the problem, and to solve its problem,” added Tessem.
“I hope they all learned a very hard lesson. If you are caught in the act, you must take responsibility for this situation.”
If Southampton manage to keep Eckert in his job, the question of whether the club has really learned that lesson will continue to be asked.
