Derby County manager Frank Lampard shared he had no regrets about being angry over Leeds United’s use of a spy earlier in the season.
The Rams boss shared that he thought spying on other teams was not good etiquette but was happier now the situation involving Leeds had been resolved as they had been punished for the scandal.
Lampard then proceeded to give his verdict on the Championship’s race for promotion and claimed Norwich City and the Whites were the two outstanding teams currently, so he thought they both deserved to go up.
“No, y’know what it’s actually good to talk and there’s been a lot of talk about it,” said Lampard on talkSPORT (Tuesday March 12th,17:15)
“But the fact is, the facts remain the same we had to stop our training session and Leeds have obviously gone and said it’s happened regularly, fair play to be fair when they said that, so it was dealt with.
“So no I’m passionate about the job I’m doing, the work I’m doing, so when you’re a day before a game, going into a game sort of in good faith and work with the team, and we were working on team shape.
“It happened very quickly and I don’t want to be a crybaby about that moment in itself, just as a manger, personally I felt it was something that was a bit sacred, I’m working ahead of the game tomorrow.
“That’s just how I felt, I tried not… I know it went to so many lengths but I tried to step away from it even though you get asked in every press conference.
“But then it got dealt with, I think it’s something that shouldn’t go on again, I think the punishment was more than enough as I was never asking for points to be taken away from Leeds, and I think Leeds are actually a fantastic team this year and Bielsa is a fantastic manager.
“And the way it’s going, them and Norwich are the outstanding teams at this minute and are the ones in this moment that deserve promotion, spy gate or no spygate, I didn’t want to make a meal out of it as an absolute game changer, it was just one of those managerial things.
“Yeah we’re working hard, everyone is, everyone is intense on their tactics and how can I get a small edge and I just thought it was something that wasn’t quite right in the etiquette of how we work.”
OPINION
It seems Lampard is ready to talk about spygate but it seems like it will be the last time he mentions the saga. The Derby manager seems completely satisfied that Leeds have been punished for the incident and believes that they deserve to go up despite that headline-making saga. It’s also worth noting that Lampard goes out of his way to make it clear that he never wanted Leeds docked points. While Leeds fans will likely never be Lampard’s biggest supporters after he was infuriated by Marcelo Bielsa’s spying technique, their anger towards him may be slightly cooled after reading his latest remarks. The manager is full of praise for Leeds and even goes as far to dub them outstanding. While Lampard has no regrets about how he handled the whole situation, you feel if he did, he wouldn’t admit it anyway. Aside Lampard’s view, hopefully Leeds can continue steaming towards winning promotion by overcoming Reading on Tuesday night as that’s a game they shouldn’t be dropping the ball in.