Gary Neville has responded to the vocal criticism of Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa, who admitted he was responsible for the 'spy' found at Derby’s training ground prior to the Leeds versus Derby Championship clash on Friday night.
Leeds overcame Frank Lampard's outfit 2-0 at Elland Road, but it was the incident that happened at Derby's training ground that had the Rams boss raging. Lampard hit out at the "dirty tricks" by Bielsa, who admitted he sent a man to watch Derby train on Thursday.
Various sections of the English press have been forthright in their criticism of Bielsa's role in the incident.
"If they didn't get a points deduction I'd be surprised." @jjenas8 believes The FA should punish Leeds for #spygate
? https://t.co/CjyaEugpkG #LEEDER pic.twitter.com/20KnGH9A4f
— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) January 11, 2019
You might think he's cool or that he's a great character etc, but if it transpires that Bielsa employed somebody to spy on Derby County's training then he's also a cheat.
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) January 11, 2019
The Leeds spy presumably didn’t break the law (otherwise police wouldn’t have let him go). Also hard to see what the FA can do. But aren’t the values of sportsmanship worth anything? Staggered by people trying to excuse this. Maybe it’s the au contraire attitude Twitter provokes https://t.co/SEjYbxE280
— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) January 11, 2019
Marcelo Bielsa is a great coach, with many disciples amongst modern managers, but sending spies to opposition training shows a complete lack of respect for his peers. LMA needs to respond to this, let alone FA and EFL. 🕵️♂️
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) January 11, 2019
However, Gary Neville has responded to remind them of a spy-controversy that occurred when he was England assistant manager. Neville was famously furious at an incident during the 2014 World Cup when the English press were spying on training sessions and publishing tactics the following day.
Neville actually outlined his rage at the incident on Sky Sports back in 2016.
In the 2014 World Cup the press were taking it in turns to spy on the England training camp before releasing our tactics in the following day's newspaper. We actually caught the journalists doing it, we banned them for two days, and then everyone defended them stoically.
How can you as journalists think it is right on private training sessions to actually snoop, watch and then reveal tactics and team selections to the whole world? That was wrong, fundamentally wrong. It's a betrayal.
Now nearly five years later, it's something he clearly has not forgotten.
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