The Leeds United intern at the centre of the ‘Spygate’ scandal was spending 24 hours before the club’s matches conducting undercover reconnaissance in the towns and cities of their imminent opponents, according to the Times.
The newspaper detail the “remarkable scouting operation” of the 20-year-old brought to Elland Road by Marcelo Bielsa and the extent of his undercover work “to get under the skin of every aspect” of United’s second-tier rivals.
The Times report the intern did far more than spy on opponents’ training sessions, with his work extending to “talking to fans, drinking in pubs and consuming local media to gain an insight into how the opposition fans would react during matches”.
OPINION
This is intriguing new detail in the Times and shows how far the Leeds intern went into trying to provide Bielsa with a complete picture of the team’s forthcoming opponents. Clearly, he went well beyond just observing training sessions, with reconnaissance also undertaken to try and provide the Argentine coach with knowledge of which buttons to press to gain an upper hand on opponents. Yet, how serious exactly is this undercover work? Sure, spying on opposition training sessions, especially set-piece work a day before matches, is unsporting and against the spirit of the league and elite sport. But, drinking with the natives and finding out what makes them tick and how they are viewing their teams just seems sensible, if somewhat unorthodox, information gathering. Leeds are hardly going to have gained an unfair advantage by finding out, for example, that Swansea City fans are unimpressed by the performances this season of Wilfried Bony and Andre Ajer.