Football Daily - The Debrief: Champions Arsenal & Saints expelled from Final

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

Mark Chapman is joined by correspondent John Murray and former Arsenal defender Matt Upson from the Vitality as Manchester City drop points, crowning Arsenal Premier League champions! On the other sid...e of North London, Spurs' troubles continue as they lose to Chelsea, taking the relegation battle to the final day. Jonathan Pearce and former Spurs goalkeeper Paul Robinson reflect on another loss for Tottenham. And finally, Southampton have been expelled from the EFL playoff final for spying on Middlesbrough. BBC Radio Solent Sports Editor Adam Blackmore reacts to the news.Timecodes: 0:44 On-the-whistle reaction to Arsenal becoming champions 16:13 Pep Guardiola reflects on the result 19:46 Spurs' troubles continue 25:15 Roberto De Zerbi post-match interview 26:47 Southampton expelled from EFL Playoff Final

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Starting point is 00:00:00 On the Football Daily podcast, The Debrief with Mark Chapman. Hello, welcome to the Football Daily Pod. Arsenal have been crowned Premier League champions after Manchester City drew at Bournemouth. Spurs still aren't safe. They lost at Chelsea. And on top of all of that, Southampton have been expelled from the EFL playoff final. Middlesbrough will take their place. So plenty to get into.
Starting point is 00:00:26 Let's start with Arsenal being crowned champions. Correspondent John Murray and the former Alps. Russell defender Matt Upton were at the vitality as Manchester City dropped points. Second, 22 years. It will not go to the final Sunday, Mikhail Arteta and his team. And everyone, you can reach fever pitch again. Arsenal will win the league in 2026. Wow, it's just incredible stuff here.
Starting point is 00:01:25 What a moment. You could sit here and talk about this. game but this isn't where it needs to be. It's all about what's going on at the Emirates stadium. It's all about the Arsenal fans. What an achievement. Mikhail Artaeta how badly has been desperate along with everyone associated with the football club and they've done it. They've done it in their own style. They've done it in a different way, but they've achieved something absolutely incredible. What a night for Arsenal.
Starting point is 00:01:58 Pep Guardiola is now going across there with the Manchester City players to the the traveling support and as anyone who follows football knows as a supporter it is the hard core it's the true true supporters that travel away and pep guardiola has gone over there and has applauded them and it is not staying long he's not lingering with the rest of the Manchester City players he's actually turning now and he's walking pep guardiola back across the pitch with his head bowed. He has had 17 seasons as a manager in league football as a head coach.
Starting point is 00:02:40 He's won the title in 12 out of 17 seasons. And yes, it won't be this season. It wasn't last season. It's the first time ever that he's not won it in two consecutive seasons. And as he reaches this side of the field, he has absolutely, and he's crestfallen.
Starting point is 00:02:57 And as he walks towards the side of the pitch, he slaps his hands together in frustration and disappears, head bowed out of our sight, down the Bournemouth Tunnel. He looked a bit upset, didn't he? I have to say, or I say upset, he looked deep in thought, and it's almost like what's going on
Starting point is 00:03:16 is kind of hitting him. And the fact that, you know, he may well be leaving the football club or the disappointment at the moment, but you cannot take away. The standing that that man has in the... game is the greatest ever. Also, that reaction to me
Starting point is 00:03:31 had a touch of he feels that what's happened in the last 24 hours has not helped his team's cause here tonight. Maybe. That's the body language I'm reading. Yeah, maybe, you may be right, John. I mean, I'm sure there's a mixture of emotions, but it certainly could well be the case.
Starting point is 00:03:47 There is a, you talk about Guardiola's demeanor. There is a real sadness on the faces of several city players, Matt. There are some in tears and And some of them are the new ones, the Ryan Cherkies. They're also, Phil Foden looked close to tears. Erling Harland as well.
Starting point is 00:04:08 Yeah, I mean, again, Chappas, there's a mixture of emotions there, isn't there? There's the disappointment of not taking this to the final game. There's the sadness that they've been working with, a great head coach that they'd be very close to, have a lot of emotion towards. And I think it would go back to John's point, doesn't it? About how much has that affected? this Manchester City team today.
Starting point is 00:04:29 And that's a really sad thing to think about, to be honest. I suppose we'll never know, will we, actually. And the only balance to that maybe is this had been singled out for quite a while as the most difficult remaining fixture. Yeah, it didn't disappoint them in that sense, did it? And a former hungry, snappy into the tackles, high-octane football. I think City started the game with probably a tank that was about three quarters full. I don't think they were quite, you know, at it.
Starting point is 00:05:04 It's so hard after an F.A. Cup final. Just the occasion, the build up, Wembley. I don't know. It just, it's a different requirement to play that game and then come into this fixture. And it was almost like a perfect storm that didn't go Manchester City's way. I mean, I had a thought, I need you will understand this, Matt, of course. But I had a thought for all those connected with Arsler when David Brooks went through and hit the post
Starting point is 00:05:32 in that even then, even in late second half going into Sobys time, Arsenal fans still weren't able to quite shake off the nerves. No, and it proved to be that way, didn't it? Because even when that goal from Harlem went in, I'm watching them run back to the halfway line and I'm thinking in my head, I'm thinking it can't happen, can it? You know, it just can't happen, but football has this funny way of having these moments that just look completely impossible.
Starting point is 00:06:04 And then it presents itself and it happens. I mean, it didn't happen. And Arsenal fans are celebrating, I'm sure. But I certainly sat here and just had a little moment and thought, oh, perhaps it could. Exactly. Just thank goodness. Thank goodness there wasn't a BAR in that. Oh, don't.
Starting point is 00:06:21 After it had gone to one or not. Don't throw that in as well. But enough over the last two or three weeks of those kind of things. Bournemouth are celebrating there and they are celebrating hard. I would guess the celebrations are going to be even noisier and even louder and more vociferous as we head to a pub. Good luck, everybody, for this section. As we head to a pub near the Emirates, Nestor McGregor is there with Arsenal fans.
Starting point is 00:06:47 Yes, Mark, well, under any normal circumstances, you know, you speak to any football fan. They'll tell you it's one club for life. But I reckon every single Arsenal fan adopted Bournemouth as their second team tonight. I watched the game in a pub a few hundred yards from the Emirates Stadium. There was tension, emotion and jubilation. There's horns blaring.
Starting point is 00:07:06 There are people running up and down the streets. And I've got Louis and Amy who've stuck around today. Guys, you've waited 22 years. I don't even know how old you are. I was two when we last won the league. I was three years old. There you go. So you've waited 20 years, two years to see our team win the league.
Starting point is 00:07:20 Some of the season in tonight for me, Louie. I think we deserve the season. The way we played, people might say the 1-0 wins, the 1-0 wins. We have played with passion. Emotion. We played. I feel like we have honestly deserved this title. The way we've been the season, we have scraped the wins, that's fine. We're just so happy.
Starting point is 00:07:39 We can't, honestly, we can't be in words. Was it ever in doubt? Because you've come second in the last three seasons. Was this one ever in doubt? At the start season, maybe. I thought after the last season, Liverpool winning, I thought he might have fell off, but after we won yesterday and night, I knew if I had to go to palace, we would have a place. That's what I knew.
Starting point is 00:07:56 Okay, now, Amy, I hope I'm not spoiling in the news for anyone. You're pregnant. Your baby shower is the day of the parade. Louis, are you going to the parade? I've got to go to the parade! I'm going as well! So the baby shower's cancelled? Yeah, we just don't tell my mum.
Starting point is 00:08:11 There you go, Mark. The baby shower's cancelled. Arsenal fans are now piling out onto the streets across the street from the Emirates, and I'm sure this party is that. going to go long into the night. They've waited 22 years. They're going to enjoy every single second. Back to the Vitality Stadium.
Starting point is 00:08:29 And I'm just looking as well, Matt. I've got pictures of outside the Emirates. They are in all the streets now outside there. That has felt for them like a very long 22 years. Yeah, I walk past that pub when I go home chappas. And I'm kind of glad I'm not there. It looks like absolute chaos. And rightly so.
Starting point is 00:08:53 They're going to have a great time. And they've done it in a way that is drawn a bit of attention, hasn't it? With a lot of criticism. But who am I to judge how somebody wins a Premier League title? The point is they've won it and they've done it their way. There's been some narrow wins. There's been some scruffy performances.
Starting point is 00:09:10 But that's what it takes. And if you can get it over the line against the quality that is in the Premier League at the moment, then it's a major achievement. Michelinette has been desperate through it. It's a big body of work, isn't it? To get it to this place. So I'm very pleased for him in particular.
Starting point is 00:09:25 It's a big body of work. And it's also been a patient body of work. For a lot of, you know, a lot of people connected to that club since 2020, really. And some people have come and gone in that time in various roles. But that has been a very, very patient. club. Yeah, and all the way from the recovery from Arsumenga, isn't it? You know, we've seen with Manchester United and the other clubs possibly where where it's had a huge dent and then it's got to reinvent itself,
Starting point is 00:10:00 it's got to pick itself up and he stamped his identity on the football club. And he was confident enough and brave enough and bold enough to go into that process. And it's been a lot of bumps along the way. It's big bumps this season. And to come back from the losses they had in that sticky period, I think a lot of people were really on their. case and understandably because there's been history of that. So I think the groups overcome it that the strength of the squad I think was,
Starting point is 00:10:27 has been unmatched in terms of the depth of quality. I was looking at them last night and thinking the options they've got in this game if they need defensive options, midfield options, attacking wide, they're all there at the disposal and credit to to the manager is utilized those those things right and got the job done. So it's been a long time. but so happy that they've won it. How do you view it all, John, in a considered way?
Starting point is 00:10:52 I think that, you know, it's been difficult for them because it's been such a long time and also because of the way that they've chosen and decided that was the best way to go about this. And, you know, it was almost like Mikhail Ateta thought that if we are going to do it, we've got to do it our way. And that was not a popular way.
Starting point is 00:11:16 So that's why they faced a lot of ridicule from the outside during the course of this season. Whether it was directed towards Artetta himself, remember the other week when they lost at Manchester City and Declan Rice was showing saying it's not done. He was ridiculed for that. But it was almost as if that fixture cast this huge shadow over them and once it was gone, they knew what they needed to do.
Starting point is 00:11:42 Yeah, and also the fact that they did actually find form in that match. and played well and they haven't lost since. In fact, they've won five out of six matches they've played in all competitions since then. It's been a great response from a game that you lose, but I think you come away from it realizing that you're good enough to do it. And I think the miss from Havert's was huge, wasn't it?
Starting point is 00:12:03 And they probably deserved on chances to get back in. But back to Artetta and him selecting this style to win the toll. It's probably not something that he may have thought himself ever playing like this. to be honest, or his preferred choice of how Arsenal would play. But the failure over the last two or three seasons of not being able to win the Premier League has led him to a place where he thinks,
Starting point is 00:12:27 I think we can do this and we can win it. So let's go for it. And it's been unapologetically physical, set played. You know, it's just had all that structure, defensive, stability. It's gone totally heavily in that direction. And it's worked. And I think, you know, you have to look at that and say it's quite a bold move from a coach to go down that road at a club like Arsenal.
Starting point is 00:12:51 Another thing as well, we don't talk about very much is it is his first senior job as a coach. And he's been given six and a half years in that job. It's like something out of the, you know, a previous age. Yeah. 351 matches. And, you know, they've stuck with him. He's had the time. You know, we talk all of the time, don't we?
Starting point is 00:13:13 about managers needing the time. And yes, they've spent a lot of money as well over the course of those six and a half years. But he's found a way and I feel that he has been different as a manager this season. In what way, by the way, I'm going to nick that for match of the day later. That's a really good discussion point in that.
Starting point is 00:13:29 So thank you very much for that. My pleasure. In what way do you think he's different? I think that... I think we've seen a different Artetta this season. And one example of that was when they lost at home to Manchester United and I went downstairs thinking he's
Starting point is 00:13:49 he's going to be prickly in previous years a result like that a setback like that was pretty he really came out punching that and I thought I thought that was an example of how he's thought how I need to approach things when we get setbacks and so that's one area where I feel he's been different this season just a final thing then we'll take the closing stages at Stanford Bridge and then we'll talk more before Tony lives here at Hartton. It's probably a good lesson for all football fans, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:14:18 That 2004 Arsenal won the league, the Invincibles won the league, Matt, and they probably thought there were plenty more league titles on the way. You never know when it's going to stop, and then you never know how hard it is to get back there. No, absolutely. You can lose track, you can go completely off course, you can derail. At any point in this game, it needs real. stability, it needs forward thinking. You're almost planning for the next situation to
Starting point is 00:14:48 happen, the next player that you lose, the next head coach. You hire one, right, where's our next one? That work starts probably the moment you bring one in. You know, football clubs that operate in that way tend to have that stability and are always in the conversation. I think that that's the bit that brings you back to how how long Mikhail Ateta has been at Arsenal. It's because they've never derailed under him, have they? They've had sticky moments and They've not looked like they're going to challenge for a title maybe, but they've always been in and around that conversation.
Starting point is 00:15:17 So to then get it to that place without having major drop-offs, I think maybe that's down to his kind of the way he's controlling nature a little bit and the requirements that he has to have in his team and he likes that and he's a stickler for it. He won't sway from it. But it's allowed him to have the longevity, John, because they've never looked like they're way off the pace, have they? He's not someone.
Starting point is 00:15:39 my perception is he's not well-loved. However, people do like winners. You mean externally, don't you? Externly. Yeah, externally. That's my impression. But, you know, once you, you know, he's now a couple of weeks away. He's got the Premier League.
Starting point is 00:15:57 He's a couple of weeks away from a Champions League final. Matt and John, we will leave it there. It's finished at the Vitality Stadium. Bournemouth won, Manchester City one. Arsenal are the Premier League champions for 2026. Let's hear from Pep Guardiola with George Cummins. First of all, congratulate Mikhail, staff, Akroma staff, the players are seven for this Premier League all deserve.
Starting point is 00:16:22 And today the fatigue was part in the game. The fatigue always is brilliant that we need the players and the final third and many things. Today, the fatigue from Crystal Palace and Brentford, especially the final, come back here. So they have 12 days, a team like is extraordinary well-managed and physicality, dynamic, good. So we cannot do that. But we play against many, many things we're going to control.
Starting point is 00:16:49 We didn't give up. We continue, continue in the toughest periods in the season. And at the end, yeah, it's obvious, it's a pity that we cannot bring the hopes until the last game against Astombila. But accept the reality. Congratulations, Arsenal. And you've been so good. Amazing since January. Semenio Gaii comes in.
Starting point is 00:17:09 Is there anything you look back at and just think something could have been different or you could have pushed us? Maybe your start could have been better? Absolutely nothing. There's something that many, many things we cannot control. It's simple as that. And when that's happened, you can give up.
Starting point is 00:17:21 I never ever give up. So people can say that, but we'll realize, you know, what happened this season. And despite of that, we were there. We were there. We were there. And that is really, really good. It's a good lesson for us. To have to do it better, do it better.
Starting point is 00:17:38 To try to the things that we know control, you have to win, you know, the big margin. Otherwise, always is more difficult. What did you make of the fixture, Liz? Because do you think after the cut final you could have done with another day's rest, that would have made a difference? Absolutely. But it's what it is.
Starting point is 00:17:56 We don't decide. We can play Thursday, right? I have no days, but it's, you know, that I've been tough in terms of fatigue and mentally. and everything so same with Chelsea chassis play seven days to prepare the final 12 days here Bournemus and of course sometimes we could be better yeah there even been 11 months working
Starting point is 00:18:17 how a World Cup short holidays and keep going keep going until the end so that's why it's said to the players so I've been managing maybe 60, 70 years in my career this is the ones the ones I've been by far the most proud because everybody making incredible contribution Okay, and just in terms of the last 24 hours, did that have any impact on the team or the performance, everything that's been spoken about? Absolutely. So I prefer like always and like like make everything. So I'm in crowd professional. And Rodry wants you to stay as Man City manager. What are you good at this?
Starting point is 00:18:52 I'm an exceptional manager. Thank you very much, pet. the domestic and international circuits. It's a fourth cricket and it's the huge one. Tisle-down, it's a song thing. Cricket on Five Live on five-life sport. Oh, I'm living every ball of this. Listen on BBC Sounds. On the Football Daily podcast,
Starting point is 00:19:37 The Debrief with Mark Chapman. Spurs are still in trouble then. The relegation battle with West Ham will go to the final day. Jonathan Pierce and Paul Robinson were watching at Stamford Bridge. They didn't deserve anything tonight, Totland, the way that they played in the first half. They huffed and puffed in the second half. That last passage of play there
Starting point is 00:19:56 sums up the way that they played this evening. Mateus Tell was so poor. Twice in injury time there in stoppage time. He had two opportunities at the bar post. That was a wonderful opportunity to play the ball into a box that was full of Tottenham-Hoxburgh yellow jerseys and it ended up in the goalkeeper's arms.
Starting point is 00:20:12 Too many bad choices, too many wrong decisions. The recent performances under Roberto Deserby weren't emulated tonight. Chelsea didn't have to do much to win that game tonight. They were in control for most of it. Once or twice, Tottenham showed him fits and starts that they had some attacking intent, but actually they didn't do enough to get anything tonight.
Starting point is 00:20:31 We go to the last game. Yeah, Tottenham 38, West Ham 36. West Ham at home to Leeds, Spurs at home to Everton on Sunday. What a dreadful night if you're a Spurs fan, Paul Robinson. I'm going now, Mark. Sorry, I can't leave. Yeah, not the ideal scenario tonight.
Starting point is 00:20:51 I was genuinely full of hope here. And I mean, you look at the record. Chelsea have won now 39 times against Tottenham. More teams than they've beaten in the Premier League of any of the other teams. And I think the record for Spurs coming here tonight, it was all against them. And I was of the thinking of the last four games, undefeated, two wins, better performances. And I was thinking, well, the due one. And they weren't due one, not the way that they played.
Starting point is 00:21:14 First half, they lacked the fight, they lacked the endeavour. and they lacked belief out of anything. They sat back. They were defensively passive. They allowed Chelsea possession. And as I said in the commentary there, Chelsea didn't have to do a lot to win this game. Tottenham weren't the way that they played under Roberto Deserby.
Starting point is 00:21:30 It'll be disappointed doing his post-match interview tonight. They seemed a little bit more like the spurs of a month ago, and they were techie and they were, I know it's a derby and everything, but tecci and niggly and complaining a lot. Was it like that? Admittedly, I was trying to watch two games at the same time. That's a really good way of putting it and explain it. Like I said to you, the way that Roberto Deservi's come in
Starting point is 00:21:56 and there's been that slow, gradual improvement. You didn't see anything at Sunland in his first game because he didn't have enough time, but then the Brighton game, then the Wolves game, the Villa game. There was slow improvement, there was a gradual improvement and you could see that it had time on the training ground with these players.
Starting point is 00:22:09 And the belief that the players had at Aston Villa, the way that they were taking the ball with each other. They were pressing high, they were winning the ball in the right, right areas and you thought right the manager having a real impact here you can see what they're doing then the leads game one I I will honestly admit I expected them to win that game and I think that's damaged them coming into tonight because I think a lot of those players maybe like myself and other Totten fans expected them to beat Leeds at home because
Starting point is 00:22:33 Leeds were safe but Leeds turned up and showed what a good Premier League side that they're slowly turning into and that game maybe dented their confidence and belief a little bit coming here tonight because you're right they look like spurs of four weeks ago tonight I honestly wouldn't like to predict Jonathan Sunday afternoon, would you? First goal will be absolutely massive. First goal in the two games.
Starting point is 00:22:56 I said in the commentary earlier, don't forget David Moyes will take his Everton team there and he's still got West Ham in his heart, David Moyes, from his years there and his European triumph there. He won't want to see West Ham relegated. And Everton won't go there and just like a team on the beach. And I think if you top and go one-nill down
Starting point is 00:23:13 and West Ham go one-nill up at home to Leeds, then the Tuttle Moxburgh Stadium will be very, very brittle. By the way here, Mark, this sums up Chelsea's season. The players are doing, well, euphemistically, what's called a lap of honour, I guess. Lap of appreciation and half the Chelsea fans have gone home. And it's the quickest lap ever. They've only done like an inside lap, haven't it? They're round and gone.
Starting point is 00:23:33 I'd say more. I'd say there's a third of the fans left in the stadium to applaud their team at the end of their season. That says it all. It does. It's been a miserable campaign for Chelsea, and yet they are still in with a... shout of a European place, whether Javier Alonzo would want that for them next season,
Starting point is 00:23:50 it is open to debate. Do you think perversely, Paul, the Spurs Stadium could well be more nervous than the West Ham Stadium on Sunday? Yeah, I do, because they've got such an awful home record. And you look at the way that they've played there this season and last season as well. Saying to Jonathan in commentary, you know, this is not something new for Totten. I think the European success masked a lot of struggles last year in the Premier League. and when you, you know, I say it to you all the time when you circle it drain long enough at some point
Starting point is 00:24:18 you're going to fall into it. You look at where they finished last season. You look at their home form last season. You look at the performances last year. And it's exactly the same. It's been replicated this season. And I think the nervousness at home and the expectation. I've been relegated from the Premier League twice. And when you go to that last day
Starting point is 00:24:34 and you know that you need a result, regardless of who you're playing, you can be playing the top of the league, you can be playing somebody in the bottom three with you. Pressure does strange things. Some people thrive under pressure. and you find out about different people and their personalities and what they're like under pressure.
Starting point is 00:24:49 You find out the true person when they're under pressure. Some thrive in it and some don't. You just hope in that situation that 75% of your 11 thrive in it. Paul Jonathan at Stanford Bridge, thank you very much. The relegation battle will go down to the final day of the season, the race for the European places will. The title won't. Manchester City held at Bournemouth this evening
Starting point is 00:25:12 and they needed a very late equaliser at that. that. We can hear now from Roberto Deserbie. He's with John Salfour. But tonight, I think we played a good game, not good enough to win the game. We created not many, many chances, but the beginning of the game with Matistele before the Enzo Fernand's goal and before the second goal, another big chance with Richards. If you analyze the two goals we considered, I think we could do better for sure. But anyway, we are alive. Now we have to prepare a final.
Starting point is 00:25:55 Last season, my players played a final, more prestigious maybe. Nicer to play because if you win a trophy last season, now if we win we win pride we win dignity we win something more important I think when we spoke last time after the Leeds game you said your players maybe felt the pressure at home so how important is it on Sunday that they don't succumb to that
Starting point is 00:26:27 listen there are some days in the life of everyone where you have to show who you are and Sunday is the day. Southampton have been kicked out of the championship playoff final for spying on Middlesbrough ahead of the semi-finals. Middlesbrough replace them and a set to playhole on Saturday.
Starting point is 00:27:00 Southampton have also been given a four-point deduction for next season. They admitted multiple breaches. So they also observed Oxford ahead of a game in December 25 and also Ipswich, ahead of a two-all draw last month. Adam Blackmore, Sports Editor at BBC Radio Solent, is with us. They are going to appeal, though.
Starting point is 00:27:26 Yes? Yes, Mark, good evening. They have submitted an appeal, which they hope will be heard tomorrow for sure. They didn't win any of the games they've admitted breaching the regulations on, which hasn't been lost on people this evening, as you can imagine, Mark, because the fan reaction is, what was the point? What are they appealing against if you go by the EFL statement,
Starting point is 00:27:55 which says they admitted multiple breaches? So the Oxford game, as you say, they lost 2-1 in December 25. The Ipswich game last month, which ended two all, and then Middlesbrough, I mean, I'm assuming they're sort of saying, well, they didn't win because they were spying ahead of the first leg, not the second leg. I'm assuming there's the argument there,
Starting point is 00:28:18 but which ended as a gold of straw. But what are they appealing, given that they have omitted those breaches? I think they are appealing the punishment and the size of the punishment that it's disproportionate to the crime. I don't think there'll be that much sympathy
Starting point is 00:28:36 from neutral observers mark to that argument. But I guess, If you think that this is possibly the biggest financial sporting punishment that I can remember in modern times, you can potentially what, a punishment that effectively could be 120 to 200 million pounds based on the playoff final being the richest game in football, then you can see why Southampton think maybe they've been harshly dealt with. Whether a new panel tomorrow who hear that appeal will agree with them, we will have to wait and find out. but there is a chance that something could change. If it does, we're all on tender hooks for what it will be.
Starting point is 00:29:17 They might actually get the points lowered, of course. Chucking them out of the playoff final and giving them points, seems like a... Some people would say fair, but I would say fairly brutal as well, a decision. I suppose the argument from Middlesbrough would be, well, by doing what you did, we could argue that you cost us that £120 million opportunity. Yeah, and you know, you understand that, even if Middlesbrough aren't actually technically an interested party in the proceedings, there is no doubt they have gone after Saints ever since this came to light. And rightly so, some would say, Steve Gibson has every right to do that. So it's just a situation that Southampton have to appeal. They have no choice, Mark. They have, this is the darkest day in the club's 141 year history. It is shameful what has happened. They've ruined, one of the
Starting point is 00:30:11 of the most dramatic, enjoyable seasons fans have had for many years. And you think about the FA Cup run as well, all the way to the semi-finals, beating Arsenal and Fulham, winning at Coventry in the league, 1921 games unbeaten, getting to the final, and now this. How...
Starting point is 00:30:27 And the owners must be absolutely aghast. How, I mean, we spoke many times other years. How many years have you covered, have you covered Southampton then for BBC Radio? I did my first commentary, my first commentary in 2005. Is this the most astonishing story that you have covered? And are you left thinking?
Starting point is 00:30:48 And I appreciate, you know, you will be close to the club and have a lot of contacts to the club and are there an awful lot. But are you left, as I'm sure most Southampton fans, thinking from whoever knew about this, what an earth may even come up with this as an idea? Yeah, when you're already one of the best, most, better off financially from parachute payments and talented squads already. Why? Just why when things were going so well? We're not even talking about, you know, at the start of the season.
Starting point is 00:31:22 We're talking about Christmas onwards when they'd already had got themselves back into a good situation. So just to pick those three games, what was the point? There's just no point. The incredulity I have, I can't even describe. And as a sort of neutral observer who's grown to love watching all the clubs I deal with, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Stampton, and the people that work at the club's market and the city, the staying goes beyond the people who are responsible. It will sit with the club for many years.
Starting point is 00:31:51 And that is something that they did not consider when they made their appalling decisions to put the club's reputation at risk. And boy, have they done that, because you've got an owner as well who's putting £100 million this year to keep to support the club with the hope that he might actually get something back at the end of it, and now that's been taken away as well.
Starting point is 00:32:10 So what's it going to do for the financial future of Southampton? What they put at risk was never worth doing it for. Do you have any indication how many people were involved in these decisions and where it started and what the implications will be for the manager here? I think, Mark, we had a conversation where we managed to smile last week about the comical nature of the photo of the intern with his phone filming from the side of a tree. But we said then it wasn't a comical story.
Starting point is 00:32:46 It certainly lost its humour now. It goes obviously above that person. And we know that he's been named out publicly, William Salt. He didn't do it on his own, did he? I have a lot of sympathy. I have a lot of sympathy for him because he's an intern, isn't he? Oh, I mean, the poor kid, he's now got to do. deal with that, hasn't he, and live with that and be known for that for, you know, add in for
Starting point is 00:33:11 an item. So it for me, you, I can't say to you where I think it stops because unless I've got proof of that, I could be in trouble for saying that to you, you know that. So whoever is responsible for making the decision, and my guess is that, well, I guess, I believe strongly that the owners know nothing about this, nor the boardroom necessary. So from that point, they have to now make a call, whereas before there would have been sympathy, possibly, when we didn't know the seriousness of the breaches and the decision, now I think most fans
Starting point is 00:33:48 will want to see heads roll for whoever is responsible, and the club would struggle to justify doing anything else off the back of this seismic event. Thank you, Adam. That's it for this episode of the Football Daily. Next episode will be a 72 plus, and that will have plenty more on the Southampton story. BBC Women's Football Weekly.
Starting point is 00:34:12 The latest news, insights and analysis from across the women's game. Dame Serena Vigman, welcome to the... Are we including Dame in your title now? You know how much an honour that is? I'm interested! You want to play in a way that they can show their skills, so that's what we're trying to do. Win the War Cup. It's a dream.
Starting point is 00:34:35 Listen. With the BBC Sounds app.

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