'We offered him a job' - The quiet decision after Southampton’s spy controversy | OneFootball

Southampton owner Dragan Solak confirmed the club are looking to keep the junior analyst who was caught spying on Championship rivals.

Southampton owner Dragan Solak has decided to keep faith with boss Tonda Eckert as the club look to put an end to ‘Spygate’ fallout that has dominated the last few weeks.

As has been widely reported, a Saints junior analyst was caught watching Middlesbrough’s training ahead of their play-off semi-final, with the south coast outfit admitting they had also watched Oxford and Ipswich earlier in the campaign.

An independent disciplinary commission decided to expel Southampton from the play-offs, as well as hitting them with a four-point deduction to be applied next season.

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Southampton are looking to keep their junior analyst at the club

Since then, further details have emerged about the spying missions, with Eckert seen as the man responsible for it, even if the German claimed he wasn’t aware of the EFL rules.

More information has also been shared regarding the junior analyst, who is thought to have felt pressured into going to watch rivals train.

That angered some of the wider football public, who felt it was wrong that Southampton had put him in a position where he felt he had to break the rules to keep his job.

In response to that, Solak stated that he should have ‘expressed’ his feelings in a ‘stronger way’ to figures higher up at the club.

Despite that, it appears Southampton are prepared to keep the junior analyst as part of the backroom team moving forward, as Solak told the BBC that they are willing to offer him a full-time role at St. Mary’s Stadium.

Southampton will be focused on the 2026/27 season

Firstly, people will note that Solak has said they would like the junior analyst to stay, as opposed to confirming that he will carry on.

Obviously, this is a decision for the club and the individual to make, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the weeks and months ahead, as further updates are likely to follow on whether he has actually carried on.

Many would agree that the junior analyst was put in a very difficult position where he felt he had to break the rules, and it seems everyone in the football world has had their say on whether Eckert should’ve done it, and if Southampton were handed a fair punishment.

Saints have stopped the speculation surrounding Eckert by announcing that he will carry on in his role, but full closure from the incident isn’t likely to happen for some time as the FA are conducting an investigation into the manager.

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In the meantime, all Southampton can do is carry on planning for the 2026/27 season, and it promises to be an exciting one for the club, if they can do the right deals in the window.

The form they had shown under Eckert in 2026 suggests that even with a points deduction, they should be challenging for automatic promotion, and the new format means Saints will be very confident of a play-off place.