One sentence about 'that ad', then he moved on.
"You can imagine that the whole situation is not particularly funny for me, but I think that's all there is to say." That was Tonda Eckert on the 18th September, asked about the video Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac made for Wrexham's sponsor. In it, the pair stand beside a tree lecturing about privacy, until the camera pulls back and catches them spying on Southampton's pickleball team.
He had watched it the night before and made no attempt to hide it. That's a measure of the German - no fuss and no great sense of humour when it comes to talking about Spygate 2.0.
Eckert's Thursday night in front of a Firefox advert
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are walking a Wrexham tightrope with this one. Although the EFL has finished with Southampton- four points docked, a play-off expulsion served, case closed- the FA has not.
Eckert remains under investigation by the FA, and a ban is still on the table. Which is why this rather unsubtle jibe is a little bit more than that. It could be read as an attempt to influence an ongoing investigation.
As far as banter goes, it must have landed pretty well on Teeside. Not so much on the South Coast. Tonda risks losing his job and that's not something the Wrexham publicity circus should really be mocking.
Tonda Eckert on Wrexham's Spygate advert: "The players have watched it. I've seen it last night. It doesn't change anything. You can imagine that the whole situation is not particularly funny for me, but I think that's all there is to say." #saintsfc
— SaintsExtra (@SaintsExtra) September 18, 2026
Saints Marching has made the point that Saints are the standing joke whenever a fixture list drops.
The squad that carries it into a three-week break
Plenty of the group in Wales this afternoon had nothing whatsoever to do with what happened last year.
Keven Schlotterbeck signed on the 27th of August and scored at Birmingham before the month was out. James Ward-Prowse came in the day after him, back at the club he left for the Premier League. Zach Abbott and Divin Mubama both arrived over the same summer, and not one of them was anywhere near a Middlesbrough training session.
They get the songs anyway. Eckert has to keep every one of them looking forward while the FA takes as long as the FA feels like taking over a decision that has already lasted the whole summer.
Eckert's response was to talk about football. Asked about Wrexham, he went straight into the detail, arguing they have been a lot better than several scorelines suggest. He picked out the home game with Birmingham, a strong Burnley second half, and a West Ham first half in which he thought they could have equalised.
Tonda Eckert on Wrexham: "I think they've had quite a few games where they've been a lot better than the result showed. Birmingham at home. Burnley, they played a very good second half. The West Ham game, they could have equalised in the first half." #saintsfc
— SaintsExtra (@SaintsExtra) September 18, 2026
Read that again and Eckert is handing his players a football problem to chew on instead of a fortnight of noise. It is also generous praise for a side beaten 6-0 last week, which tells you how carefully he is treading.
Then comes the break. Three weeks without a game, then Portsmouth at a sold-out St Mary's on the 11th October.
Three weeks is a long stretch to sit with an open FA case and a clip of yourself doing the rounds. Saints Marching has already wondered whether this could be Eckert's last match in charge, and nobody at the club can promise otherwise.
He said all there was to say in one sentence. His players have to do the rest.
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