‘You legend. Manager loved it’ – Southampton’s Spygate WhatsApps revealed
New WhatsApp messages have revealed how Southampton carried out a spying campaign against their Championship rivals.
Junior staff told the independent disciplinary commission how head coach Tonda Eckert put them under “extreme pressure” to carry out a task they were clearly uncomfortable with and felt was morally wrong.
The changes were detailed in the written reasons of the League Arbitration Panel appointed to hear Southampton’s appeal against their expulsion from the Championship play-offs and deduction of four points from next season.
Saints pleaded guilty to charges of spying on Oxford United and Ipswich Town in the regular season and then on Middlesbrough ahead of the play-off semi-final.
In the written justification of the penalty, it was stated that Southampton’s behavior was a “completely fabricated and determined plan” approved by coach Eckert.
WhatsApp messages detailing how the scheme was planned have now emerged in the League Arbitration Panel’s report
The messages describe in detail how to do this:
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A junior analyst sent to scout Oxford United train ahead of their game against Southampton in December sent a message to colleagues: “I essentially had no choice and was not given the opportunity to say no. I was an intern and was doing as I was told.”
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When she sent the details of that session to her boss, she received the following message on WhatsApp: “You are legendary. The manager loved it.”
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He expressed concern when asked to do a second spy mission in Ipswich but was told “the boss is adamant someone has to go.”
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Another analyst at the club sent a message to his colleague after he was caught: “I said from the beginning that I was never happy with this situation and that it was not right, but no one listened to me!”
The document explains how the intern was caught spying on training sessions at Middlesbrough in preparation for the semi-final in May.
It details how Southampton discovered he was accused of espionage while he was still on a train from Middlesborough to Southampton.
And it reveals how Southampton later tried to delete the trainee’s images from the internet.
