The Unforgiven: The Story of Don Revie's Leeds United

by Rob Bagchi

  For Revie, who so wanted to be liked as well as respected, being champions was about ‘wearing a crown with dignity’. He would never wholly convince the press or win their respect. Like many other managers, he vehemently asserted that he didn’t care what ‘non-football’ people wrote but he was nakedly hypersensitive to anything less than gushing praise. Even the most successful managers protested that they wouldn’t have particular newspapers in the house. Yet long before the advent of PR departments at football clubs, all mysteriously had a photographic recall of every word of even the mildest criticism. Alex Ferguson didn’t invent blacklisting and feuding with certain journalists! Refusing to acknowledge that he’d never win his critics over, Revie wasted an awful lot of time trying to argue his case.

  The first five league games were all won, with Manchester United, Everton and Spurs among the beaten sides, but a goalless draw at Highbury on 1 September would prove to be more significant than it then appeared. Leeds would eventually lose the title to Arsenal by a single point. Worse, they would do so while accruing more points – 64 – than any other club finishing second in a championship race. Even so, deprived of Bremner, Reaney and Gray for large chunks of the season through injury, Leeds did well to keep their title challenge alive for so long. With only two points for a win, Leeds were at one stage 7 points clear at the top. Once again, however, the wheels would come off. Whether through arrogance, complacency brought on by over-preparation, or just plain bad luck, Leeds would again come up short – at least on the domestic front.

  The season turned on two infamous matches, which still cause the more seasoned Leeds supporter to shudder. The first remains one of the biggest FA Cup upsets of all time. The second witnessed one of the most notorious refereeing decisions the domestic game has seen.

  On 13 February, Leeds travelled to Layer Road, Colchester, for the FA Cup fifth round, convinced that they only had to turn up to win. They led the First Division by three points; their opponents, Colchester United, were halfway down the Fourth. ‘So one-sided did the contest appear,’ said one report, ‘that even the ritual pre-match tub-thumping about Davids overcoming Goliaths appeared more spurious than usual.’ Revie, meticulous as always, had his opponents watched but, blessed with the courage of true no-hopers, Colchester were surprisingly disrespectful towards their lofty visitors. Before the tie, their thirty-four-year-old centre-forward, Ray Crawford, had remarked: ‘I always score against Jack Charlton.’ It was no idle boast. Pushed and prompted by their captain Brian Lewis, Colchester harried Leeds from the off. On the cramped Layer Road pitch, the arch-intimidators were thoroughly intimidated. Crawford, who had won a championship medal with Alf Ramsey’s Ipswich nearly a decade earlier, scored twice in the first 28 minutes. One goal was hooked in while Crawford was lying on his back, adding to the first half’s general air of farce.

  After the interval, Lewis delivered a high and hopeful cross, and, with Sprake and Reaney dithering, Simmons managed to scramble a third. At last Leeds came to life. Hunter and then Giles pulled goals back, but it was too little too late. In the 17 minutes that remained they could not contrive an equalizer. For Gary Sprake the game was but one of many televised nightmares. He was at fault on all three goals, coming to claim the ball when he should have stayed on his line. ‘We always felt we could trouble them,’ Crawford later explained. ‘Dick Graham, our manager, reckoned Sprake was vulnerable coming to crosses and basically that’s what we tried to exploit.’

  Notwithstanding Revie’s best efforts, Leeds’ downfall prompted an outburst of national rejoicing. His critics leapt at the chance to savour the club’s embarrassment. ‘The rest of English soccer could join Colchester in celebrating the new-found truth that the last dregs of romance have not been drained from this competition,’ opined a breathless Daily Telegraph. ‘Leeds had used familiar tactics: tackles had been ruthless, fouls stealthy and sophisticated. In these drab days when a footballer’s action seems always to be prompted by cold, commercial instinct, it was the first breath of spring to watch the Colchester players galloping over to their manager and lift him high at the final whistle.’ For the Leeds supporter it was a game to be spoken of only in whispers.

  Even before their historic FA Cup reverse, home defeats against Tottenham and Liverpool in the early weeks of 1971 had piled the pressure on Leeds. Once again, Revie had to pull his team off the floor, and once again, he did so with aplomb. Five of the next six league matches were won, before defeat at Stamford Bridge at the end of March. Yet Leeds had never managed to pull clear of the grindingly consistent Arsenal, who were developing the habit of grabbing late winners to sustain their challenge.

  On 17 April, Leeds hosted West Bromwich Albion in one of the best-remembered matches ever screened by Match of the Day. A home win was critical to Leeds’ title hopes, but Ray Tinkler’s freakish refereeing performance thwarted the club’s ambitions once again, when he waved play on, even though Albion’s Colin Suggett was sauntering back to the halfway line at least 10 yards offside. Tony Brown, almost embarrassed, squared to a clearly incredulous Astle, and for Leeds the match was lost. ‘Tinkler,’ said Don Revie afterwards, ‘ruined nine months of work.’

  It’s a measure of just how much Revie’s team were loathed that their setbacks remained so long in the memory of their detractors. Fully fifteen years on, with the club once again struggling in the Second Division, one excitable journalist even went so far as to blame Leeds’ behaviour that day for ‘setting the tone of national moral decline’. The reaction of the Leeds players and fans to Tinkler’s decision was, fumed David Miller of The Times, ‘the definitive moment of moral corruption in English soccer, from which point the domestic game moved steadily downwards. Leeds United under Don Revie stood for everything that was reprehensible in sport,’ he fulminated, ‘from gamesmanship to physical intimidation and were blatantly beyond the effective control of either the Football League or Football Association. Revie and his chairman, Percy Woodward, disgracefully suggested that Tinkler’s performance – which I have to say was lamentably inadequate – had justified the crowd’s reaction.’ For Miller suspension was an insufficient penalty for the Leeds players who remonstrated with Tinkler. ‘They should have been prosecuted by the police for provoking public disorder.’

  Forfeiting a title that had seemed for the taking all season was surely punishment enough. Three league games were left and Leeds won them all. A late and controversial Jack Charlton goal was enough to beat Arsenal at Elland Road and keep the championship race alive. This time a debatable offside decision had worked in Leeds’ favour, but it would not be enough. Nearly 52,000 crammed into White Hart Lane for the decider, a Spurs–Arsenal North London derby. Fifty thousand more were locked out. Arsenal needed at least a goalless draw for the title, while a defeat or a scoring draw would hand the title to Leeds on goal average. A goal from Ray Kennedy at the death sealed a ninth straight win and an eighth championship for the Gunners. The game finished 1–0 to the Arsenal, as it had done so often that season. Rather bathetically, Leeds received the news in Hull where they were playing a testimonial match for striker Chris Chilton.

  Football people are fond of repeating the cliche that championships are always deserved. Back in 1971 clubs had smaller squads and had to play more games, which makes it doubly difficult to argue. It is also true, however, that Arsenal were nothing more than middling title winners. Though he was gracious in his tribute to Bertie Mee, this must have compounded Revie’s disappointment.

  Superbly organized and ultra-functional, Arsenal would win more matches that season than any title winners before or since. They would end it with not only the title, but also the FA Cup, becoming only the second team since the previous century, after North London rivals Tottenham in 1961, to win the ‘double’. Their glory was fleeting. Arsenal had finished tenth the previous year and been knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round by Blackpool. A year later they would finish fifth and in 1974 they were tenth again. Even in 1971, when it all came to
gether under the captaincy of Frank McLintock, Arsenal still managed to lose 5–0 in the league at Stoke.

  Even as United’s domestic aspirations unravelled in sharp contrast to 1970, there was some recompense for Leeds in Europe. In the Inter-City Fairs Cup, Sarpsborg of Norway and the Czechs of Sparta Prague were swept aside comfortably. Leeds had to rely on the away goals rule to ease past Dynamo Dresden after losing the second leg 2–1, a bruising encounter which saw red cards for the normally placid Mick Jones as well as the East Germans’ Geyer. There was more controversy in the quarter-final against Vitoria Setubal of Portugal. A dubious late penalty gave Leeds a last-gasp 2–1 win at Elland Road, and a 1–1 draw in Portugal – Lorimer the scorer – saw Leeds through.

  The win secured a high-octane semi-final battle with Liverpool. Revie gambled, returning Bremner to the fray after three months out with injury. Once again the Scotsman proved himself the little man for the big occasion, scoring with a diving header to give Leeds a 1–0 home win. At Anfield Revie rolled back the years, instructing his team to put up the shutters, and a goalless draw was enough to put his team through to their third European Final.

  The Fairs Cup, then only sixteen years old, had conspicuously failed to inspire the Leeds public: for the rounds Elland Road had been less than half full. Leeds’ ground was still a long way from being one of football’s great theatres, especially on European nights. Even in the early 1970s the ground was still partly uncovered at one end, the so-called ‘scratching shed’ not being demolished until 1975. Despite these unglamorous surroundings, however, the indifference of Leeds supporters to the greatness in their midst exasperated Revie. He wanted his team to be a ‘magnetic drawing card’ wherever they went. Maddeningly, though, Elland Road was crammed only for the biggest names. As few as 31,000 turned up for a league game against Crystal Palace during the championship run in. Some 17,000 more came when Leeds beat Arsenal in the penultimate match. Twenty years later Colin Welland could still write that Leeds was an oval-ball town without appearing absurd. Indeed, it was only during David O’Leary’s ill-fated four-year reign that football came to dominate in the same way that it did in Liverpool and Manchester. Leeds under O’Leary won nothing, yet they were a far more popular draw than Revie’s side, one of the finest post-war club teams, ever were. For all O’Leary’s detractors, in his last three seasons the ground was almost full for every league game for the only time in Leeds United’s ninety-year history.

  Beating Juventus to win a European trophy is the stuff of which football managers’ dreams are made, but for Revie achieving this feat would be a rather anti-climactic experience. Like United’s previous two Finals, the 1971 showpiece was delayed, this time until June, detaching the event from the ebb and flow of the season. In Turin for the away leg of the Fair’s Cup Final the teams had endured a frustrating interlude when the first leg was abandoned after 51 minutes owing to a waterlogged pitch. The game was replayed three days later and Leeds earned a creditable 2–2 draw. The scorers were Paul Madeley, with an uncharacteristically flashy 35-yard drive, and substitute Mick Bates, thrown into the fray after an injury to Mick Jones.

  The Italian side did manage to pull in 42,000 to Elland Road for the home leg, a tight affair where the outcome was always in doubt. This time, though, Leeds finally enjoyed the run of the ball. Allan Clarke rifled in a low shot on the turn to give Leeds the lead, but Juventus were quickly level, Pietro Anastasi sliding in the equalizer past an advancing Sprake. The nip and tuck continued, with Giles and Cooper impressing for Leeds. As Juve’s attacking threat gradually abated, Leeds settled into the familiar – and dangerous – habit of playing out time. But there were to be no last-gasp shocks this time. Leeds hung on to win on away goals. The result was hard on Juventus, who had gone through the entire competition without losing a match. ‘After all the knocks and setbacks the boys have suffered,’ commented a relieved Revie, ‘it is time they had a few breaks. Juventus are a world-class side, and we could never relax.’

  This second Fairs Cup was Leeds’ fourth trophy in four seasons. They became the first and only British team to win the trophy twice. It was a commendable record, but still the air of disappointment lingered. While the victory was celebrated, expectations had grown considerably and it seemed scant reward for everyone’s efforts over the last two seasons. Now almost all the players agree that they should have won more. They always worked diligently to ensure that the club was unfailingly in pole position each spring, but more often than not they fell short of the target Revie set them at the start of each campaign. The European Cup was Revie’s ultimate goal, and to win it they had first to qualify, which meant securing a second league title. Anything else would be gratefully received but it would still be second best. Of course, after two unsuccessful Final appearances, the FA Cup still tantalized the whole club, but coming second again in the Championship race remained the bigger blow to Revie’s ambitions. He knew his team’s appetite had not diminished and was convinced that their dreadful luck with Tinkler’s perverse performance was the main reason why his dream had imploded. Next season, he resolved, would be different. Next season they would not allow themselves to become hostages to the arbitrary rulings of a wilful referee. If Arsenal could win the ‘double’, he calculated, then so could Leeds.

  ELEVEN

  CATCHING THE BUTTERFLY

  A common criticism of Revie, not least among Leeds supporters who remember the wilderness years of the 1980s, is that his team grew old together because the manager paid insufficient attention to maintaining the pedigree of his stock. Too constricted by years of over-indulgence of his players, it is alleged, he was never going to be comfortable wielding the axe. Therefore, we are told, he dodged the issue and decamped to England. If we are to believe this, then Revie’s personality fits his ‘Godfather’ caricature perfectly, a sick-making combination of ruthlessness and gross sentimentality. It’s a case that fails to stand up.

  No doubt, Revie would not have enjoyed telling Billy Bremner, in particular, that he was no longer an integral part of his team. But he had done it to countless of his protégés before – Greenhoff, Collins and O’Grady for example. He was on the brink of finally ‘shafting’ Sprake. All the evidence suggests that it is something he would have been able to cope with. In 1971, in any case, the average age of his squad was still well under thirty: that his players were not yet suffering from burnout was a perfectly rational assessment. Moreover, he gradually introduced two Scots who would become the backbone of the side. He was not unaware of the need to spice up the team with youth before he left.

  In 1970, on the recommendation of his fellow Scot Bobby Collins, Leeds signed the eighteen-year-old Joe Jordan from Morton. The gap-toothed Jordan did not make his debut for another year but was quickly being groomed as the natural successor to Mick Jones. He displayed the same muscular, hard-running technique and was equally strong in the air, and he was not to play a supporting role for long. After Revie’s departure, he became a permanent fixture in the side, following the knee injury that ended Jones’ career before his thirty-first birthday. Another recruit from north of the border was the 6ft 4in Gordon McQueen, a former goalkeeper pencilled in to replace Jack Charlton, who turned thirty-seven in May 1972. McQueen recalled Revie’s fondness for his countrymen: ‘At one stage there were no fewer than seventeen Scots in the first team pool. I joined at round about the same time as Joe Jordan and we were in the reserves together.’ Revie’s concern for his brood had not diminished after a decade in charge. ‘His man management was wonderful,’ said McQueen. ‘He made sure our families were well looked after when they visited. He would invite our parents down to watch us play and put them up in nice hotels without telling us. He had so many lovely touches. As far as football was concerned he was a strict disciplinarian. But the players loved him and, as the saying goes, would run through a brick wall for him.’

  Another Celt breaking through into the first team was Terry Yorath, a converted rugby union scrum half from South
Wales. Yorath, a prosaic midfielder, never enjoyed much of a rapport with a Leeds support by now used to the filet mignon of Giles and Bremner. His lack of pace also drew disdain from some quarters. Nevertheless, the former apprentice was to make himself a regular in the later stages of 1973/74, filling five positions. Unkindly, some supporters pointed out that Leeds didn’t start losing until he became a fixture. Yorath was unfortunate, perhaps, that his ascent coincided with the turbulence of the immediate post-Revie era.

  Despite a sprinkling of new blood, however, it is still remarkable to note how thin Revie’s squad remained, despite so many years at football’s top table. Leeds played fifty-five competitive matches that season with only twenty outfield players, several of whom were very much on the fringes. One was John Faulkner, possibly Revie’s most quixotic acquisition. The Orpington-born centre half had impressed the opposing manager while playing for Sutton United in the 1970 FA Cup, despite a 6–0 mauling for the non-leaguers. Both his league appearances were undistinguished, one marked by an own-goal and the second, against Manchester City a fortnight later, by a fractured kneecap. Faulkner’s only other appearances for Leeds were against Belgian side Lierse in the club’s European campaign in late 1971. Acutely conscious of his limited resources, Revie had opted to field a weakened side at Elland Road after Leeds won the away leg 2-0. The tactic backfired spectacularly, Leeds losing 4–0 on home turf. Faulkner may have appeared totally out of place alongside Norman Hunter and Paul Madeley, yet Revie’s judgement was not totally awry. The player’s unhappy spell at Elland Road came to an end when he joined Luton Town, helping the Hatters win promotion to Division One in 1974. Other bit-part players were Jimmy Mann, Keith Edwards, Chris Galvin and Nigel Davey. Astonishingly, Leeds’ playing reserves would actually be depleted further in the course of the season, Revie opting to raise some cash by selling Terry Hibbitt to Newcastle for £30,000 and perennial substitute Rod Belfitt to Ipswich for £40,000.