Frank Lampard has claimed he no longer cares about “Spygate” ahead of Derby County’s play-off semi-final against Leeds United, but confirmed that he has not received an apology over the affair either.
Leeds sent a member of staff to watch a Derby training session from a nearby field before the game between the two in January and their manager, Marcelo Bielsa, subsequently revealed he had done the same for all their opponents this season.
Leeds were fined £200,000 for breaching a nebulous “good faith” rule in the EFL’s code of conduct, a fine that Bielsa paid himself. The EFL is set to bring in a specific rule banning the practice.
Lampard did his best to bat away any questions on the matter after his side confirmed their place in the play-offs by beating West Brom 3-1 on Sunday. Leeds finished third, missing out on automatic promotion after losing three of their last four games, and the pair will meet for the first leg of their semi-final on Saturday.
Leeds won both of the teams’ league encounters this season, 4-1 at Pride Park in August and 2-0 at Elland Road shortly after the “Spygate” row became public. “I want to take myself out of that one now,” said Lampard, when asked what sort of impact the affair will have on the semi-final.
“I don’t care about the history. I don’t care about the talk of spies, I actually care about the fact they beat us well over two games and have been a really strong team this season. I’ll block all of that out and might have to fend off a few questions about it, but the important thing is focusing on Leeds as a team and trying to get a result.”
Lampard was asked if Leeds had apologised over the matter. “No, but it’s not been called for either,” he said.
After Leeds lost 3-2 to Ipswich on Sunday a journalist asked Bielsa if he planned to take another covert look at Derby’s training sessions. Bielsa called the journalist “ignorant” for asking when he knew spying was no longer allowed, and said he deserved “a response without content”.
The journalist then claimed his question was just a joke, to which Bielsa responded: “Is it a joke? If it was a joke I didn’t understand it. It’s not that I don’t have a sense of humour. It’s that you’re not funny.”
