Leeds United chairman Andrea Radrizzani ‘still angry’ with Derby County for reporting ‘spygate’ scandal to EFL, claims Mel Morris
Derby County owner Mel Morris believes Leeds United chairman Andrea Radrizzani is ‘still smarting’ in the wake of this year’s ‘spygate’ scandal.
The Rams chief has told talkSPORT Radrizzani remains angry with him for apparently snitching on Leeds to the EFL over the actions of manager Marcelo Bielsa and his coaching team.
United were fined £200,000 by the league after manager Bielsa admitting sending members of staff to spy on opponents’ training sessions.
The scandal, which led to Bielsa revealing the remarkable depth of his tactical analysis of every team in the division, unravelled after a member of Leeds’ staff was spotted ‘in the bushes’ outside Derby’s training ground.
The incident, which occurred in January 2019, led to a mixture of outrage over Bielsa’s actions and admiration for his tactical expertise, but the overall reaction was largely negative.
It also created a huge rivalry between Derby and Leeds, and the Whites fans’ chants of ‘Stop Crying Frank Lampard’ – making fun of the manager’s complaints about ‘spygate’ – backfired badly as they were beaten by the Rams in the play-off semi-finals in May.
Derby owner Morris joined Jim White in the talkSPORT studio for an exclusive chat on Wednesday, as he shared the latest on Chelsea’s interest in Frank Lampard and rumours of Steven Gerrard taking his place at Pride Park.
And, asked if he and Leeds chief Radrizzani are seeing eye-to-eye, he told talkSPORT: “I think Andrea is still smarting on it.
“He feels we are the ones that reported it to the EFL, but my point was once the manager came out and said it was done to every club, there’s nothing we could do about it whatsoever.
“At the end of the day it became a completely different issue.
“I think the world of Andrea, he’s a great guy and I’ll always find time for him.
“He’s angry with me, but some time we’ll have a nice meal and we’ll chat over it some more.
“I like the guy a lot.”
Earlier in the show, Morris was asked for his general reaction to the scandal and told Jim White: “It was one of those events you don’t expect to see.
“The guys were training and someone was in the bushes. One of the neighbours called the police and said there’s someone lurking in the bushes outside and it all unfolded from there.
“There’s definitely no doubt that having addition information about a club [gives you an advantage], but if everyone is allowed to do it in a different culture, the effect is neutral. It’s only where someone does it and the rest aren’t doing where you gain an advantage from it.”
And he believes Leeds’ form post-‘spygate’ proves that.
Derby owner Mel Morris talks about Frank Lampard's potential opportunity to move to Chelsea
“Prior to ‘spygate’ Leeds were flying at two points a game, and after ‘spygate’ they dropped to less than 1.6 a game,” Morris added.
“Is that down to ‘spygate’ or not? I don’t know, but you’d have to say there’s a correlation between those things that says maybe there’s a benefit from this.”
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Despite his and Derby’s strong feeling that what Bielsa was doing was wrong, Morris insisted he doesn’t blame the Leeds boss for the scandal and believes it was merely the product of two footballing cultures clashing.
He added: “Whenever you have a clash of cultures there’s always likely to be a spark that flies from that.
“I have sympathy for Marcelo Bielsa. It’s impossible to read up every one of the regulations as a manager when you come into English football.
“They were doing nothing wrong in their mind, but, for us, we felt this is wrong.
“Then of course the media gets on to it and everyone starts to look at the extreme views of it.”