Previously on Lampard and Bielsa…
Frank Lampard and Marcelo Bielsa’s feud intensified yesterday, as Bielsa called an snap press briefing, during which he gave a long, detailed PowerPoint presentations, demonstrating how he prepares to face every opponent.
Journalists in the room were astounded by the level of detail in his notes on every other team in the Championship, with Adam Pope calling Bielsa a ‘genius’ on BBC Radio 5 Live last night.
It was the press conference of the year and we're only in mid-January. 📆
Marcelo Bielsa wowed @Apopey with his 'absolute genius' 🤓
More in the Football Daily Podcast 👇
📲⚽ https://t.co/Xynt9CDWro #LUFC pic.twitter.com/GEQjiTlkEn— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) January 17, 2019
This came after the spygate scandal, which involved Bielsa sending a member of Leeds’ staff to Derby County’s training ground ahead of their clash at Elland Road last week.
Bielsa has accepted full responsibility for doing so, saying those above him at the club were not aware of his decision to send the ‘spy’ down to observe Derby’s training session. And yesterday the Argentine coach admitted that he does this sort of thing all the time, also pledging to cooperate the EFL in their investigation of the event.
Frank Lampard, meanwhile, took Derby into the fourth round of the FA Cup last night, beating Southampton on penalties at St Mary’s. Entering his post-match press conference, Lampard said “Ready for my presentation everyone?”, alluding to Bielsa’s press briefing.
When it was put to Lampard that Bielsa may have given the impression that he knows more about Derby than Lampard himself, the former Chelsea midfielder replied: ““Well‚ he gave an impression of himself. I haven’t seen Pep Guardiola give that. I haven’t seen Jürgen Klopp give that. Pochettino give that. They do that sort of thing behind closed doors but they don’t do it to the public. It surprised me, definitely. It’s incredible.”
Lampard has evidently still not recovered from last week’s events, and losing the fixture to Leeds 2-0 won’t have helped. Other pundits of the gammon variety have expressed their disgust at spygate too, with Stuart Pearce, who once played a goalkeeper up front, suggesting that the result of the game should be overturned.
