Davies<\/a>, who was speaking at the launch of Ladbrokes’ new platform, Ladisfaction, said: “The whole \u2018Spygate\u2019 thing was just funny to me, to be honest.<\/p>\n“I\u2019ll never forget when it happened \u2013 I was in the treatment room just getting some work done, and then all of a sudden all of the lads have started coming in from training.<\/p>\n
“Straight away I\u2019m thinking someone\u2019s had a really bad injury, because it\u2019s really rare everyone just comes off the training pitch like that out of nowhere. Generally, if everyone\u2019s off the pitch like that, something bad must have happened. Then someone\u2019s just gone:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s someone in the bushes!\u201d<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m just, like, what do you mean there\u2019s someone in the bushes?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe police have arrested someone. He\u2019s got a Leeds tracksuit on and he\u2019s been spying on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
“And I\u2019m just laughing, like, obviously this hasn\u2019t happened. But it turns out that\u2019s exactly what had happened, and it was all over Sky Sports News, and everywhere.<\/p>\n
“That was one thing, but then my big thing was just the front on [Marcelo] Bielsa, which I actually loved, by the way. He was just like \u2018we\u2019ve done this to every team, here is the document, here is where we spied on this team, on that team\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
“He showed everyone about 30 documents of information that he\u2019d got about other teams, and said that\u2019s just what they did in South America, so he saw it as getting a leg up, rather than cheating.<\/p>\n
“Honestly, that whole PowerPoint presentation just added to it all \u2013 it was great drama, and then of course the story grew even more legs because they were given this nominal fine \u2013 I don\u2019t even know what they were fined for, to be honest, because it wasn\u2019t as if it was something in the rule books\u2026 and then it just became this whole beef between Leeds and Derby, and then obviously we play them in the play-offs\u2026 it\u2019s such a good story, really.<\/p>\n
“I think from Frank [Lampard]\u2019s perspective, his big thing about it all was that there was no apology, you know, from manager to manager.<\/p>\n
“Bielsa was just like \u2018so what?\u2019, which I think Frank saw as arrogant \u2013 but it\u2019s obviously something Bielsa had done throughout his whole career, so he didn\u2019t see it as an issue. And Frank maybe thought he should have at least apologised for it.<\/p>\n
“But he definitely had the bit between his teeth when he went up against him in those games, as he was desperate not to lose on a personal level, as well as the team.”<\/p>\n
The two clubs would end up meeting in the play-offs at the end of the 2018\/19 season in what was a mouthwatering showdown given the Spygate incident.<\/p>\n
Leeds won the first leg 1-0 at Pride Park, but Derby roared back at Elland Road where they sealed a 4-2 win on a famous night to book their place at Wembley.<\/p>\n
Derby eventually lost to Aston Villa in the final, but the win at Leeds will not be forgotten given the celebrations which took place afterwards.<\/p>\n
Davies was in the away end watching the drama unfold, but felt Lampard’s tactical tweak from the first leg was pivotal to their victory.<\/p>\n
“The whole incident with Leeds was honestly like a pantomime, to be honest,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Being in the middle of it all, as a player, was crazy. When you look back at that season, where we made the play-off final after beating them at Elland Road, they\u2019d actually already beaten us comfortably three times that season \u2013 first at our place, then at Elland Road in the league, then they won again in the first-leg of the play-offs, and to be honest, we were lucky to come out of that game with such a small deficit.<\/p>\n
“I was in the stands with the supporters for that night at Elland Road; in the first-leg it was different because as captain I was able to come in and out of the changing room as much as I wanted, but on that night I was up with the fans.<\/p>\n
“Obviously as the game unfolds, we go a goal down and you\u2019re just there with your head in your hands, almost, thinking \u2018here we go again\u2019. Then we get one back, then there\u2019s another, and then Stuart Dallas scores another for them, and there\u2019s just so much energy and emotion you\u2019re working up, but you\u2019re up there in the stands, not able to spend it all on the pitch\u2026<\/p>\n
“I was just literally shaking, because I couldn\u2019t let any of that nervous energy out. And then Jack Marriott goes through again and scores to make it 4-2, it was just mental.<\/p>\n
“I couldn\u2019t believe it. You think back to how much they dominated us throughout that season\u2026 for us to just get it right in that one performance when it mattered the most, it was brilliant.<\/p>\n
“And what Frank doesn\u2019t get credit for on that night, was the slight tweak he made to our team. We played a diamond on that night, which was massive because then we had a lot more control in the centre of the pitch \u2013 it was a huge tactical call but it played a massive part in us getting the job done there.<\/p>\n
“Obviously in the final, things don\u2019t go our way, and we lose to a stacked Aston Villa side in a game where everything hinges on mistakes and moments, you know.<\/p>\n
“We probably could have done better in that final, and a couple of mistakes cost us in the end and we didn\u2019t go up\u2026 but for Frank it wasn\u2019t a bad thing because he obviously went on and got the Chelsea job off the back of it.”<\/p>\n
What are your thoughts on the Spygate incident now? Have your say HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Latest Derby County news from DerbyshireLive brings you what the former Rams captain Curtis Davies has said about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,167458,17303,393,7129,4884,1860,24464,163514,197,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-573709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-curtis-davies","10":"tag-derby-county","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-frank-lampard","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-leeds","15":"tag-leeds-united-fc","16":"tag-pride-park","17":"tag-sky","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Frank](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1_Frank-Lampard.jpg\")
Frank Lampard celebrates victory in the playoff semi-final second leg match between Leeds United and Derby County.(Image: Alex Livesey\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n