Hull beat – Hull City boss Sergej Jakirovic reacted with disbelief to the Southampton “Spygate” scandal, saying it would have been treated as a joke in his native Balkans. The Tigers then beat Middlesbrough 1-0 at Wembley, with a stoppage-time winner from Oli McBurnie, da
For Sergej Jakirovic, the whole Southampton “Spygate” affair started with a laugh.
“When I first heard about it, I just had to laugh,” Hull City’s boss said, after his Tigers saw off Middlesbrough 1-0 at Wembley. The winner came in stoppage time through Oli McBurnie, and it left Middlesbrough with a brutal ending to a season that had already been thrown into turmoil.
The timing still stung Middlesbrough. The club had been reinstated in the play-offs after Southampton were expelled for spying on the team they beat in the semi-finals—an offence that featured Southampton’s spying intern caught filming a Middlesbrough training session before their play-off semi-final. Yet despite the reprieve, Middlesbrough suffered the second heartbreak, losing to Hull with McBurnie’s late goal.
Jakirovic. a former Bosnia-Herzegovina international who spent much of his career in Croatia before arriving in East Yorkshire last summer. said he couldn’t understand why something he described as a joke-worthy incident had grown into a national scandal. “In my country, it would be ‘ha ha ha’ and nothing would happen,” he said. “But here I see it is too serious. Big noise.”.
Then he asked the question that captured his stance. “What can you spy?” Jakirovic added. “I am here for the first time in my life, and I know everything there is to know about the Championship because it’s my job.”
He smiled at the memory of learning about the scandal, even as his own week became a moving target. Jakirovic said he had conducted a tactical session on Tuesday in preparation for a final against Southampton—only to find later that day they had been replaced by Boro.
Hull’s owner Acun Ilicali had already made the matter heavier, threatening legal action if the Tigers were beaten. Jakirovic responded in kind, but with a message aimed at closure rather than conflict. “You opened Pandora’s Box, but this should finish it,” he said. “Most important that we won.”
The dressing room was buoyant by the time the final whistle arrived. Ilicali called it “the best day of my life”, and congratulatory messages landed from former Hull stars Andy Robertson, Harry Maguire and Dean Windass.
McBurnie, meanwhile, delivered on the field exactly when Middlesbrough could least afford hesitation. Jakirovic described him as a leader and spoke about what the striker had meant for Hull across the campaign. “He is a true leader,” Jakirovic said. “You can see opponents fear him because of what he is capable of doing.”.
The boss linked McBurnie’s impact to Hull’s attacking struggles. adding that the forward—signed on a free on the eve of the season because Hull were unable to pay a fee due to a transfer embargo—had been pivotal when the team needed a target. “Nineteen goals and a lot of assists and a target when we are struggling,” Jakirovic said. “He has a very big influence on our game. I think he has scored more goals than the rest of the strikers in the Scotland squad. but that is the responsibility of national team coach. so I respect it.”.
He even referenced McBurnie’s international absence as a personal boost for Hull. “I am happy he is not at the World Cup because he can rest.”
On the other side of Wembley, Kim Hellberg’s emotions were raw. The Middlesbrough coach said his team were shattered by the speed at which relief turned back into loss. “Two heartbreaking losses in two weeks is very draining,” Hellberg said. “The game ends and you feel very empty. Disappointed, sad for everyone, flat.”.
Hellberg framed the past fortnight as the toughest stretch of his career. stressing how the back-and-forth left the club emotionally exposed. “It is the toughest two weeks I’ve been through with emotions and the back-and-forth. and the reaction of the supporters and the hard work of everyone at the club. ” he said. “It’s been emotionally draining but no excuses.”.
Then came the plain acceptance of the result, even with the aftertaste of how the season had been reshaped. “Hull scored a goal and you have to congratulate them.”
There’s no disguising the contrast between Jakirovic’s dismissal of the scandal as something that should have stayed laughable, and the way Hellberg described the human cost of a ruling that sent the play-off picture into chaos—just for it to end again with the same hollow feeling at Wembley.
Hull City Middlesbrough Wembley Oli McBurnie Sergej Jakirovic Kim Hellberg Southampton Spygate play-offs Acun Ilicali transfer embargo Scotland World Cup squad