Martin Keown has torn into Marcelo Bielsa in a new attack and insisted he “would be embarrassed” if he was one of the Leeds United players.
Writing for the Daily Mail, the high-profile pundit insisted that the Argentine has acted outside of the spirit of the game through spying on the training sessions of other teams before matches.
Keown claimed that Bielsa’s honesty in his media conference on Wednesday evening does not make his actions any more palatable.
“If this was my manager spying on our opponents’ training sessions, I would be embarrassed,” Keown told the Mail. “As much as you want to win, you want to do so as fairly as possible.
“What Marcelo Bielsa has been doing at Leeds is premeditated. He may say otherwise, but watching your opponents train gives you an unfair advantage.
“It is not in the spirit of the game. Bielsa wants to leave no stone unturned before every match to ensure that no opponent can spring a surprise on his team. Just because Bielsa is being honest now does not make up for the fact that spying on your opponents is cheating.”
OPINION
Some Leeds fans have reacted to Keown’s comments by highlighting the player’s hot temper during his playing days and how he was hardly renowned for operating within the laws and spirit of the game at all times. That is fair enough, but also beside the point. This is a completely different issue. Keown has not been won over by Bielsa’s extraordinary media conference on Wednesday. That’s a shame. Perhaps the BBC pundit didn’t see it, or extracts of it. Maybe he would have learned a thing about how the Argentine’s level of analysis is such that he didn’t really require final checks on opponents at their training ground to gauge what system they will play, and how they will line up. Keown’s latest analysis would have been more relevant five days ago than it is now, in the light of Bielsa’s breathtaking masterclass to the assembled media. He is being too harsh on the Argentine, and you would be hard pressed to find too many red-faced Leeds players.