Never miss a thing during United's first season back in the Premier League - sign up for free email updates Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Leeds United’s performances dropped off and their form fell away after they stopped spying on their opponents’ training sessions, Mel Morris has suggested.

The Derby County owner has done the maths and calculated how United’s points-per-game average suffered after head coach Marcelo Bielsa admitted he would stop sending scouts.

Speaking on radio station Talksport, Morris also reflected upon his current relationship with Whites owner Andrea Radrizzani, who was vocal in his disappointment with the former.

“Prior to Spygate Leeds were flying at two-points-a-game and after Spygate dropped down to less than 1.6-a-game,” said Morris.

“Now, is that down to Spygate? I don’t know, but you have to say there’s a correlation between those things that says maybe there’s a benefit from this.”

Last month, at the FT Business of Football Summit, Radrizzani took aim at Morris by claiming selling your club’s stadium to a sister company was far more dishonest and underhand than spying on an opponent’s training sessions.

Morris was asked about their current relationship.

“Andrea’s still smarting on it. He feels we were the ones that reported it to the EFL and my point was, once the manager came out and said he’d done it to every club: nothing we could do about it whatsoever,” he said.

(Image: Alex Dodd/CameraSport)

“At the end of the day it became a completely different issue. I think the world of Andrea, he’s a great guy. I will always find time for him.

“He’s angry with me. At some time we’ll have a nice meal and we’ll chat over it some more, but I like the guy a lot.”

Morris was asked about Spygate and its implications. He said he felt a lot of sympathy for Bielsa.

“Whenever you have a clash of cultures there’s always likely to be a spark that flies from that because people live by a set of values, whether that's children growing up or whatever, there’s a set of values instinctively ingrained upon us, but if you’ve come from an environment that is different to the one you’re now operating in it’s difficult,” he said.

“I remember moving to the States in the 80s and I fell foul of all sorts of ridiculous situations because of language, language barrier.

“You think English and American English are the same. Totally different languages. You can use some words that can get you into real bother.

“I struggled with that and got into all sorts of deep water. I have a lot of sympathy for Bielsa.”

He added: “It’s impossible to suddenly read up on every one of the regulations as a manager. They were doing, in their mind, nothing wrong.

“For us, we felt this is wrong and then of course the media gets onto it and eventually everyone starts to look at the extreme views of it.

(Image: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)

And on the £200,000 fine the Whites were given, Morris said: “At the end of the day, it’s fine. At the end of the day, it’s up to the EFL to do whatever they feel is right in those situations.

“What I would say is you only have to look at some of the situations where maybe there’s a set-play routine that’s particularly intricate and successful that someone spotted on the training field could massively change the result of a game.

“To know someone’s going to change the formation they’re going to play.

“Let’s take our second leg against Leeds in the semi-finals and Frank played a diamond for the first time.

“If somebody had known we were going to play a diamond I guarantee they would have set up differently against us and probably might have changed that result.

“There’s definitely no doubt having additional information about a club changes them. Now, if everyone’s allowed to do it, in a different culture, it’s neutral, the effect is neutral.

“It’s only when someone does it in the environment and the rest aren’t doing it you gain an advantage from it.”