Spying happens a lot, actually

In case you missed it, Canada sent home the coach of their Olympic Women’s Football team plus two of her staff for spying on the training of next opponents New Zealand.

What was initially played off as a one-time incident by overzealous staff quickly rolled right back up to head coach Bev Priestman, who was suspended for the rest of the tournament and may eventually be fired, depending on how the politics play out. Priestman is a good coach, but Canada are the defending Olympic champions and this is clearly a fairly big black mark on the country’s reputation. People view Canada as happy, relaxed, jokey people who pronounce “about” in a funny way, not vaguely sinister edge-grinders in sport.

You may not realise it, but there is a moderate underbelly of shadiness that exists at the top level of every sport, and it harkens back to the saying, “If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.” Sport is hugely competitive and none moreso than football where metric fucktons of money are involved, but degrees of cheating exist everywhere.

Extremely successful American Football programs (See also: The New England Patriots, The University of Michigan) regularly get caught filming opponents either in practice, or the more grey area of filming coaches on the sideline to steal signs.

The Houston Astros won a World Series while stealing signs and banging trash cans to communicate what pitches were coming to their hitters.

Football’s “drone” spying is the upgraded technological version of Marcelo Bielsa sending someone to spy on Derby in training back in 2019, and it probably happens all over the world where coaches feel they need every little edge in preparing their team for the opponents. Do we think this was the only time Bielsa sent someone to watch opposing training… or just the only time they got caught?

Doping in every sport has been around as long as performance-enhancing drugs have existed.

One thing we quickly became aware of when I was working in football was the possibility of recruiting players who came from doping regimes in football, and the impact that would have on future performance at non-doping teams. It’s not that we thought it was innately wrong — we were more concerned about player performance falling off a cliff because the source of the sauce has disappeared.

People who work in sport and are honest about it know that the professional way to do things… is to max out every edge you can legally find. Even ones that exist in the moral/legal grey area. That’s what Canada was doing here, EXCEPT… for the committing an actual crime part of their caper.

Lombardi admitted to using the drone to capture New Zealand players carrying out instructions given by their coach. Mander was also interviewed by officials but denied any involvement in the recordings and was cleared of wrongdoing.

A 43-year-old Canadian man accepted an eight-month suspended sentence and confiscation of his seized equipment, after being charged with maintaining an unmanned aircraft over a prohibited area, according to a statement from a Saint-Etienne prosecutor that was translated by CBC.

Whoops.

—TK

News and Rumours

• Newcastle have been on the hunt for a left-footed right winger all window. They’ve been linked to Chelsea’s Noni Madueke today, and I’d say it’s mildly surprising that the Blues want to sell at a price that Newcastle would find palatable. He had a promising age 22 season, but hey, sometimes a new manager comes in and just doesn’t rate a guy.

• Either Borussia Dortmund or an agent is really interested in drumming up interest in Karim Adeyemi. Apparently all of Aston Villa, Chelsea, and Juventus are interested, and it would cost them £35m. His best games are sensational, but he’s quite an inconsistent and injury prone player, so Dortmund are likely looking to cash in.

• Unsurprisingly, RB Leipzig have rejected an installment and clause-filled offer from Barcelona for Dani Olmo. Manchester City are interested and capable of just paying Leipzig’s asking price, but apparently the player prefers Barca. It’s a Nico Williams II situation

• Crystal Palace are going to sign Ismaila Sarr from Marseille for €15m. He wasn’t quite as good in Ligue 1 as he was at Watford, but he’s a decent all-around forward for a reasonable price.

• PSG have told Man United to meet their price on Manuel Ugarte or do one, so United are now looking into Morten Hjulmand of Sporting CP and Youssouf Fofana of Monaco. Or maybe they’re leaking that they’re willing to move on to alternatives so PSG will negotiate.

• Armando Broja’s negotiations with Everton have gone nowhere, so now he’s discussing a potential loan-to-buy with AC Milan. I’m not sure what they’re cooking over there, what a wildly different striker profile to Alvaro Morata.

• Liverpool have been linked to Juventus defender Bremer, who is 27 and would cost £50m, as well as Baris Alper Yilmaz, who has had one good season for Galatasaray. I do not think either of these rumours are real.

• An update on the weird right back carousel we discussed earlier: Apparently Noussair Mazraoui has cut off negotiations with West Ham and is now exclusively talking to Man United. Guess that Wan-Bissaka/Dumfries swap deal isn’t happening?

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