Spygate was funny and Lampard will learn from Bielsa’s sly showboating

ONE of the most popular reactions to Marcelo Bielsa’s interminable briefing on Wednesday was to marvel at his attention to detail.

He knows more about Derby County than Frank Lampard knows about Derby County was one common thread on social media.

That night, Lampard’s Derby took on Premier League opposition away from home in cup competition and for the second time this season came away victorious.

Not only that, on both occasions, they triumphed after going behind, two down against Southampton in the FA Cup before winning on penalties, one down at Old Trafford before finishing 2-2 and winning on penalties in the

EFL Cup back in September.

Under the stewardship of Lampard, this Derby team has got something about them.

They were comprehensively undone at Leeds, but currently lie in the final Championship play-off slot. He might be in his first season in management, but to paint Lampard as some sort of naive rookie in comparison to the revered Bielsa is vaguely insulting. He IS a rookie obviously, but any implication to suggest he is not meticulous or that he is plain wet behind the ears, is wrong. Spygate was and is funny. Any punishment – and it could be argued that a warning would suffice – should be limited to the financial kind. Bielsa is clearly a wonderful coach, who has Leeds playing some fantastic football. To tempt him to England was a coup for the club and the Championship. But as insightful as his 66-minute explanation of his methods might have been, it was coaching showboating.

When Lampard effectively mocked the presentation, describing the sort of research detailed by Bielsa as “par for the course”, you could understand his mild annoyance.

As trivial as the original ‘offence’ might have been, this was Bielsa planting a flag on the high intellectual ground.

Yes, Lampard, who might have been guilty of allowing the spying incident to be a distraction in the build-up to the game, should probably not have bitten originally.

And probably should not continue to bite.

Yes, he should probably allow a relatively promising first managerial campaign do most of his talking.

But on the football field, Lampard always stood his ground and if he believes he needed to stand his ground over this issue, then that is fine.

And remember, for all the words over the past week, Lampard did originally point out that last Friday’s defeat at Elland Road was “on us”.

This was an impressive reminder of why he’s so revered

Lampard will now surely draw a line under the whole business and allow the authorities to take whatever course of action they feel necessary. How much they are influenced by the Argentinian’s statistical tour de force remains to be seen.

It was certainly an impressive reminder of why he is so admired by luminous contemporaries such as Pep Guardiola.

But however trivial the offence was – and only the po-faced could not chuckle at it – Bielsa was the perpetrator.

Yet to many, it seems like Lampard is the one who comes out worse from the whole farce and that is grossly unfair.

The Englishman will learn from this and I suspect will one day be a coach every bit as acclaimed as Bielsa.