‘Disgraceful’ – Emotional Hellberg on Southampton spying row after Middlesbrough are knocked out of play-offs
‘Disgraceful’ – Emotional Hellberg on Southampton spying row after Middlesbrough are knocked out of play-offs Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg accused Southampton of “disgraceful” behaviour after his side’s Premier League hopes were ended with defeat in the play-offs. Boro were beaten 2-1 at St Mary’s after an extra-time winner from Shea Charles. but the two-legged tie was overshadowed by allegations that Southampton had spied on their opponents’ training session before the first leg.
The EFL charged Southampton with breaching its rules following the reported incident, with their punishment still unclear, and speaking after his side’s defeat, Hellberg congratulated Southampton but said he felt as though the opportunity to gain a tactical advantage had been taken away from him. “There are teams, to be fair, that had bigger squads than us,” a visibly emotional Hellberg said. “Teams that have more money to spend.
What you have as a coach and what you have as a group is the tactical element of the game, where we can beat the opponent, and that’s what I think everyone loves about the game. “I think that’s why I look at England and think ‘this is the home of football’. This is where I want to be.
This is what I dream about. That’s where I wanted to be here. “When you battle with teams who have more money and a bigger squad, you try to find a way of doing the tactical element to get an advantage.
“That is what you always try to do because we can be better in that element. When that is taken away from you, I think it’s no longer fair. “It has nothing to do with what they saw, how they affected the game, if it was free kicks they saw, or goal kicks they saw, whatever they saw.