Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson believes it is time to draw a line under the Spygate scandal and has called on the football world to move on following the Football Association’s verdict.
Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert has been given a six-week suspended ban and a £28,000 fine by the FA for his role in the affair. The club had already been punished with a four-point deduction for this season, and was kicked out of the final last season for spying on three Championship opponents — a campaign in which Wrexham narrowly missed out on the play-offs.
Parkinson, one of the most senior managers in England’s second tier at 58, expressed confusion at the length of the investigation. “Everybody outside of Southampton [and probably those inside the club] has been concerned about why it has taken so long to get to this point,” he said. “I can’t quite fathom it. Everybody has now got to respect the decision, firstly from the English Football League and secondly from the FA.”
The Wrexham boss also pointed to comments from Southampton chairman Dragan Solak, who said the club had “suffered enough”. “They are going to move on, and everybody else has to move on. I was reading the chairman quotes. They have been punished severely,” Parkinson said. “They lost the chance to get into the Premier League. That is punishment enough. Tonda is a young manager, and I’m sure he has accepted responsibility. He will learn from that, but now everybody has to draw a line through it and move on.”
Wrexham’s Hollywood owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, had taken a dig at Southampton with a promotional video released before the sides’ league fixture last month. Wrexham went on to win that meeting 2-1 at the Racecourse, Keven Schlotterbeck’s own goal at the death settling it. The victory sent Wrexham into the extended international break on a high and reduced the pressure on Parkinson following a 6-0 defeat at West Ham.
But the triple promotion-winning manager admitted three weeks without a Championship fixture posed new challenges for his squad. “It has been a long three weeks. The three weeks have been decent. The friendly against Wigan was really important,” Parkinson said. “Three weeks is too long for the lads to go without a competitive game. All we could do is plan out the three weeks, which we did.” He added: “There have been a few things that did not go our way, but everybody is going to get that across a three-week period. In general, I feel the lads have trained well. They’ve had a decent balance of rest, fitness work and 11 vs 11 practice.”