Something telling happened in Germany on Saturday. Tonda Eckert watched the 2-1 win over Preussen Münster from up in the stands, not the dugout.
Leo Scienza and Lewis Dobbin both scored decent goals, while Eckert's assistant Ben Garner, once of Bristol Rovers and Charlton, patrolled the touchline in his place.
The rehearsal is a smart move
This was not a whim. Eckert was trialling life with a touchline ban before one arrives, then spelled out why to club media.
"Let's hope that we don't need that," he offered first. The point, he said, was for the staff and players to get "a feeling" for how the game and the half-times run from up high.
Credit him for it. You rehearse the awkward stuff in a friendly, when a defeat costs nothing, so none of it is new once the season starts.
There is practical substance to this beyond a photo op. A touchline ban strips out the instant tweaks and the barked instructions, so the relay through Garner and the bench has to be seamless.
Far better to iron out those signals now than on the opening day. Agree the triggers and the messengers in a meaningless friendly, and a live ban should change almost nothing on the day.
He still wants his touchline back, mind. He admitted the view was better upstairs but that he would "prefer to stand down on the side line."
Eckert had stood as normal for the earlier behind-closed-doors friendly, which finished 1-1 with the Saints' goal coming from Cameron Archer. So Saturday was a deliberate test, not a one-off.
The wait is the problem
Here is the rub. Southampton accepted three breaches of Rule E3.1 weeks ago, yet the FA still have not said what the punishment will be.
Saints Marching flagged how the sanction still looms with no timeframe attached. A ban has been mooted, but nobody will confirm how long.
That delay is hard to defend. The charges have sat on the table since the spring, so the FA could have sat Eckert down in June and delivered a verdict that gave the club weeks to plan.
Instead Southampton rehearse in the dark, days before kickoff at Colchester. That is a strange way to run a disciplinary process.
Remember what the club has already lost, too. They were thrown out of the play-off final and open the season on minus four points.
The board have stuck by Eckert throughout, and staff have plainly done their planning. A side punished that heavily deserves clarity, not a verdict dragged to the brink.
Southampton have taken their punishment already. The least they are owed now is a timely decision.
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