Football, so we are told, is a game that rests on the finest of margins. The knife-edges on which it tips are the difference between victory and defeat, success and failure and, most crucially these days, fortune or famine.
Why else would a Southampton analyst (allegedly) plonk himself on a hill on a golf course next to Middlesbrough’s Rockcliffe Park training ground just 48 hours before their Championship play-off semi-final and start filming? And why, when approached by Middlesbrough staff would he delete some of the content off his phone, run off into the clubhouse toilets to change clothes and attempt to scarper?
Because, clearly, having inside knowledge of an opponent’s teams and tactics gives you an advantage in an age where every little helps and, in Southampton’s case, where triumph could put them at Wembley for a shot at a Premier League return.
Such obsession with details is also why this was not the first time. There’s a reason why when Daily Mail Sport broke the exclusive story of Southampton’s alleged misdemeanour, it was labelled Spygate 2.0.
The name alone is enough to take you back to the remarkable story – another Mail exclusive – of when Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa sent an analyst to watch Frank Lampard’s Derby train ahead of their Championship clash. It led to a £200,000 fine, one Bielsa paid out of his own pocket, and an EFL rule change. What made it even more incredible was that Bielsa, the great Argentine coach, simply shrugged and admitted it was not the first time.
‘I observed all the rivals we played against and watched the training sessions of all opponents,’ he said and gathered the media for an impromptu 70-minute PowerPoint presentation showing the level of detail with which his staff analysed matches and to suggest that, really, popping along to watch training didn’t make much of a difference but was just dotting is and crossing ts. Bielsea held open training sessions when he was in charge of Athletic Bilbao.
Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa sent an analyst to watch Frank Lampard’s Derby train ahead of their Championship clash
A Boro fan mocks Southampton supporters during the play-off semi-final first leg
Southampton, who ended the regular season 19 games unbeaten, are yet to admit guilt on Spygate 2.0 but, if found to have done so, it would be awfully unfortunate to have been caught on their very first foray into covert surveillance.
Perhaps it’s our good old-fashioned sense of British fair play that we balk at such underhand scheming. Southampton analysts at the Riverside for the first leg had their own security. Around the world it’s long been commonplace.
‘In other countries everybody does it,’ said Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola at the time of Spygate 1.0. ‘Everybody does it. It is the culture of the clubs. It was part of the club. When we were training at Bayern Munich there were people in the little mountains with cameras and the opponent was watching what we did.’
In 2018, Bundesliga side Werder Bremen used a drone to spy on opponent’s Hoffenheim but their manager Julian Nagelsmann, now in charge of the German national side, didn’t care. ‘I’m not really angry and the analyst is doing his job,’ he said.
The Chilean FA once shot down a drone flying over one of their training sessions only to later find out it belonged to a telephone company. Didier Deschamps also noticed one soaring above his France training session at the 2014 World Cup.
Canada’s women’s football team were caught using drones to spy on opponents’ training sessions at the Paris 2024 Olympics, leading to a one-year ban for head coach Bev Priestman and a six-point deduction – a scandal that also raised questions as to whether the practice has been going on during their gold-medal winning campaign in Tokyo.
And, look, we do it too. Lincoln City’s players were midway through receiving their half-time team-talk during the second leg of their League Two play-off semi final at Huddersfield Town in 2004 when a polystyrene ceiling tile fell to the floor. When they looked up, they saw Terriers kitman Andy Brook eavesdropping from above.
Former Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas admitted that he used to travel to training grounds when he was a coach under Jose Mourinho, ‘often incognito, and then look at our opponent’s mental and physical state before drawing my conclusions and presenting a full dossier. Jose is obsessed with detail’.
Canada’s women’s football team were caught using drones to spy on opponents’ training sessions at the Paris 2024 Olympics, leading to a one-year ban for head coach Bev Priestman
A Southampton fan has a laugh during the first leg match at the Riverside
And who can forget the time England manager Graham Taylor got so worried that the media would leak his plans during the World Cup qualifying campaign in 1993 that he moved training to a Norwegian military base, one that happened to be next door to the chief sportswriter of the country’s largest newspaper and hit the front pages the following morning.
So, it’s nothing new. But it’s a becoming a bigger and bigger problem. There is now an absolute desperation among clubs to get their hands on team news. Certain club staff will be given a remit during the week of getting the opposition team for the manager. They will ring agents and mutual contacts. In the 48 hours before a Premier League game, they become journalists.
Daily Mail Sport has witnessed backroom staff bumping into members of the media after press conferences to wonder what they are hearing on team news. Clubs are obsessed. They need to get their hands on it. And they will go to great lengths to stop their own from getting out.
Manchester United spent £200,000 to erect a giant white wall at their Carrington training ground during the days of Erik Ten Hag to shield the sessions from prying eyes. In 2018 they banned drones from flying nearby.
City’s old training ground was so open to public viewing that amateur photographers used to take step ladders to peer over the fence so it was no wonder that Mario Ballotelli’s infamous fight with manager Roberto Mancini was caught on camera.
Now, at their Etihad Campus, they have 3,000 metres of security fencing. No one is viewing training unless let in by security. It’s the same at Liverpool’s AXA training ground that is surrounded by trees and six-foot high fences.
At the 2018 World Cup, England didn’t feel like six foot was enough and more than doubled the height of their steel security fences around their Zelenogorsk base. Chelsea hang a gigantic sheet of fabric to block the view of their training from the bridge near the train station.
Newcastle’s training ground used to be quite easy to see inside so they put up a giant net around the perimeter. What they didn’t bank on was a new housing estate being built on the opposite side that can see straight into the training ground. You imagine it won’t take much for an ‘analyst’ to knock on the door and ask to use the upstairs bathroom for half an hour.
The whole world could see Mario Balotelli’s scrap with his manager Roberto Mancini when they clashed at training
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is known for being economical with the truth when it comes to giving out injury news in press conferences
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is known for being, shall we say, economical with the truth when it comes to giving out injury news in press conferences. He’s been known to ask injured players to travel on the team bus and walk into the dressing room with their wash bags.
‘I don’t want to make it easy for anyone,’ said Arteta once when Daily Mail Sport asked him about his injury mind games. ‘The opponent has to work and think and prepare and make sure they do their homework like I have to. I wish I knew their starting XI, who is on the bench, but I don’t. I will keep you guessing. This is my job.’
Many clubs, including Arsenal, will be equally as selective with the players they allow to be included in the training pictures they post on social media. Martin Zubimendi suddenly became an injury doubt ahead of his first start for the club earlier this season after being absent from training photos only to be named in the starting line-up and play the full 90 minutes.
Yet still the leaks still come. Daily Mail Sport knows of one Premier League club that went full Wagatha Christie a few years back when they thought they had a leak in the camp so sent various dummy teams around to try to weed out the spy. One member of staff at City was frogmarched out of the building for doing so and the club conducted an internal investigation into the issue.
It’s not always intentional though. The leaking of team news has not only become big business between teams and their opponents but also in the ever-growing landscape of fantasy football. Hardcore FPL players and content creators are often even more desperate to find out whether their injury-doubt striker is starting and whether they need to make a late transfer before the deadline.
Liverpool’s head of rehab physiotherapy Lee Nobes was spotted by eagle-eyed FPL players making changes to his own side that inadvertently gave away crucial team news. In January, Nobes removed Hugo Ekitike from his team ahead of the game against Arsenal. The FPL deadline is an hour and a half before kick-off so more than enough time for opponents to make adjustments. Nobes was understood to be deeply upset by the whole affair.
The first leg between Middlesbrough and Southampton finished goalless – but did the Saints have an advantage?
Middlesbrough fans gather before kick off at the weekend
When Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella informed his barber that Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro were both injured for what turned out to be Liam Rosenior’s final game in charge at Brighton, he probably didn’t expect him to immediately post in on X while tagging in three high-profile FPL content creators with the tagline: ‘there’s your exclusive’.
Aston Villa became the first club five years go to ban its players from playing FPL because many of them transferred out star player Jack Grealish ahead of the deadline two days before they took on Leicester City.
It doesn’t matter how many sheets of fabric or screens you put up, clubs will find ways to peek behind the curtain. You don’t even need to be a fly on the wall. Sometimes, you just need to stand on a hill on a golf course.
