EFL expert George Elek believes Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert will be punished for the Spygate affair, despite the club’s recent attempts to garner sympathy in the media.

Southampton’s season has started well on the football, but off-field troubles are currently dominating headlines at St Mary’s as the impact from the Spygate scandal continues.

Tonda Eckert faces an uncomfortable wait in Southampton as the Spygate verdict approaches.

After replacing Will Still in November, Eckert guided Southampton to fourth place in the Championship, and they advanced to the play-off final with a 2-1 aggregate win over Middlesbrough in their semi-final meeting.

However, the Saints were thrown out of the Wembley final after it was discovered that they had spied on Borough ahead of the first leg at the Riverside Stadium, and they also admitted to spying Oxford United and Ipswich Town training sessions during the regular season.

Southampton was ousted from the final and docked four points for the season, while Eckert was charged with misconduct in July following an FA enquiry, with a hearing scheduled for this week to decide the German’s fate.

It is unclear at this time whether Eckert will face a ban, but when asked if he believes a suspension would be excessive, the 33-year-old stated that he has “asked for forgiveness for what I’ve done” and “apologised publicly,” while also claiming that the punishment the club has already received has been “very hard.”

Southampton are currently 13th in the table, and despite their points deduction, they are only three points away from the play-offs and five points away from automatic promotion, but it is unclear whether Eckert will be in charge for the South Coast derby against Portsmouth at St Mary’s when the action resumes after the international break.

Tonda Eckert’s record as the Southampton head coach

Games

50

Won 30

Drawn

11

Lost

9

Win percentage

60%

Tonda Eckert made an intriguing remark about Southampton ahead of the Spygate ruling.

Elek believes that despite Eckert’s recent media interviews showing remorse for his behaviour, the imminent Spygate trial will still result in sanctions.Elek mentioned Tonda’s recent press activity on the Not The Top 20 show.”He sincerely apologises.”If Southampton anticipated nothing to be done and everyone to go on, I don’t see why they’d be doing this.

“It feels like there is a real drive to try and build some public sentiment of sympathy towards him, so it’s going to be really interesting to see what happens.

“It doesn’t really matter what I think, but considering how Southampton was punished and the FA’s conclusion that Eckert was at fault, I would be shocked if there wasn’t some sort of punishment.It may result in a fine, a smack on the wrist, a touchline ban, or a complete ban.

Southampton will have Tonda Eckert hope ahead of crucial Spygate hearing

Not only has Eckert been in the news lately, but CEO Phil Parsons has also stated that any additional fallout from the Spygate scandal would be “really tough to take.”

Some will contend that the Saints have already received enough punishment after being docked four points this season and denied the opportunity to play in the play-off final and compete for promotion to the Premier League, which would have been worth £200 million. Others will argue that Eckert should face personal consequences for authorising the spying missions.

The South Coast team will be hoping that the FA will be forgiving, especially after the severe punishment they received from the EFL earlier this year, because a ban for Eckert would jeopardise Southampton’s season. However, regardless of the outcome of this week’s FA hearing, opinions are likely to differ.