Nudging the Espionage Scandal, Frank Lampard Respects Marcelo Bielsa

DBasia.news – Chelsea manager Frank Lampard insists that he has forgotten the “spying” scandal carried out by Leeds United tactician Marcelo Bielsa in the 2018/19 season.

In the next week of the Championship Division, Bielsa secretly sent two Leeds staff to spy on the Derby County training session, which at that time was under Lampard.

What followed was that Bielsa’s spy was arrested outside Derby’s training base, and Leeds were fined £200,000 by the English Football League Agency.

The last time Lampard and Bielsa met was in the play-off semi-finals that season. Derby qualified for the final after winning 4-3 on aggregate. Even so, The Rams were defeated by Aston Villa at the top of the party.

Closer, the two coaches will clash again when Chelsea host Leeds in the eleventh week of the English Premier League at Stamford Bridge, Sunday (6/11).

“I don’t care at all about what lessons he got or not [from the case],” said Lampard at a pre-match press conference.

“I don’t want to bring up this case. It’s been a long time. I respect him [Bielsa] and Leeds. I just focus on the team to win the game.”

“It was [a case] in the past. Yes, it is interesting news, it has many meanings, but it is gone.”

“I know how good he is as a coach. He brought Leeds promotion the following year, they were one of the strongest teams, maybe the strongest team in the Championship, almost, it was when I was with Derby against them.”

“So it was a very proud moment for us — for me especially — to fight him and win the game, but it was a game that was long gone.”

“Now, I’m dealing with him with a team that is in good form [Chelsea]. I only see it from the football side now,” he concluded.

Chelsea are unbeaten in the last eight matches in the EPL. The Blues are in third place in the standings with a collection of 19 points and the most productive team predicate with 22 goals. Meanwhile, Leeds is ranked 12^th with 14 points.