The club that wanted to know everything seemed to have missed one minor detail in their investigations. More than 12 hours after one of the more explosive announcements in EFL history, the main story on Southampton’s club website still concerned Ross Stewart’s call-up to Scotland’s World Cup squad. And ‘the Loch Ness Drogba’ will indeed be one of the best nicknames in the United States this summer.
A more immediate issue, however, was Southampton’s expulsion from the play-offs; even the four-point deduction applied to next season’s Championship campaign felt a footnote. Southampton launched an immediate appeal; should it fail, however, then this sorry episode will rank as one of the most expensive miscalculations in footballing history.
