Martin Keown has suggested that Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa did the right thing by allowing Aston Villa to score an equalising goal uncontested in yesterday’s Championship clash between the two sides, suggesting it will draw a line under ‘Spygate’.
United had taken the lead in controversial fashion after Mateusz Klich scored following a Villa injury that saw most players on the pitch stop for the ball to be put out of play.
The incident sparked unseemly scenes that led to altercations and a red card for Villa man Anwar EL Ghazi, before Bielsa allowed the visitors to walk the ball into the back of the net at the restart.
And Keown has hailed his move.
Writing in a column for the Daily Mail, he said: “Marcelo Bielsa did the right thing in letting Aston Villa equalise. He went a long way to making amends for his part in ‘Spygate’ with this gesture.
“Leeds and Aston Villa could yet meet in the play-offs. Bielsa was wise to draw a line under this now.”
OPINION
Keown is probably right on this one. The whole incident was one of the most bizarre things you could wish to witness on a football field, and it led to the kind of furious reaction that should give you an indication of just how much of a faux pas Klich committed. Perhaps Villa should have played to the whistle, but ultimately, Tyler Roberts shaped as if he was about to put the ball out of play and then changed his mind at the last minute, instead laying in Klich of the goal. It was a morally dubious thing to do, and would have led to an uproar had Bielsa not intervened to allow the Villans an equaliser. As it is, the incident will still cause a lot of discussion and scrutiny, but at the very least, this way the Argentine has ensured that in this latest controversy, people will see him for what he really is; a decent, understanding man with a deep love for the game, who just wants it to be played in the right spirit.