‘You legend. Manager loved it’ – Southampton’s Spygate WhatsApps revealed

Southampton were faced with a trip to Middlesbrough for the first leg of the play-off semi-final on 9 May.

Eckert was particularly interested in finding out if Middlesbrough’s star player, and Championship player of the year, Hayden Hackney, was training or not. There were differing reports as to his fitness. It was agreed that someone would be identified to go to Middlesbrough’s training ground.

Despite saying he did not want to carry out the Ipswich mission, the junior analyst intern was again identified as the person who should make the trip.

The junior analyst intern said that he felt under extreme pressure because of the context of the importance of the game for the club. He feared that he might be dismissed by the club or it might otherwise adversely affect his career if he did not do what was asked of him.

He felt he had been criticised for the information he provided about Oxford, with Southampton having lost that match 2-1.

The junior analyst is quoted as telling the commission: “With them all telling me they want more out of it than what I got at Oxford as got it wrong etc they clearly don’t think my word is good enough so wallop there’s your footage.”

Southampton’s operations manager booked flights and two nights’ accommodation.

The junior analyst intern was shown drone footage of the Middlesbrough training facilities so that he could get an idea of where to stand.

He flew up to Middlesbrough on Wednesday, 6 May, but was told that Eckert was unhappy he did not fly up on the Tuesday so that he could see the Wednesday training session.

Three videos of Middlesbrough’s training were recorded on his phone from behind a tree.

Four people at the training ground began walking towards the junior analyst intern, and he sent the videos he had gathered to another analyst who subsequently passed the information to Eckert – including the projected Middlesbrough line-up.

When one of the four men caught up with him, the junior analyst intern said he was “just watching” and he was asked to delete the videos, which he did.

He then walked on to a nearby golf clubhouse where he changed and deleted his LinkedIn profile because he was worried that Middlesbrough would recognise him from that.

The junior analyst intern went back to his hotel and awaited permission from Eckert to return home. When this didn’t come, he left of his own accord and caught a train. It was while he was on the train that he learned from news on the internet that Southampton had been caught “spying” on Middlesbrough.

An analyst suggested the Southampton media team should be asked to take down or hide the manager of the month pictures online, because the junior analyst intern featured in the background. The analyst said: “The only way they can put his face from CCTV with [Southampton] as he’s deleted his LinkedIn picture. Just got to hope they won’t put the 2 together.”

Eckert was asked whether he wished to see the videos, and he said he did.

Eckert claimed the videos were of poor quality, taken from a far distance and it was difficult to work out who was who – and, so, they were of no benefit to him.