Mighty Leeds Weblog

UNDERCOVER AT THE BASEBALL Written by: Andy P If ever there was a summer of our discontent, the months that followed the end of the 1995/96 season was it. The previous campaign had been a rollercoaster featuring genius cameos from the maverick Tony Yeboah and two unlikely cup runs, one culminating in our first Wembley final since 1973. But after the humiliation there by Villa, Leeds won just one league game of their final nine. Behind the scenes there had also been division, both within the playing staff and the boardroom. Chairman Leslie Silver was smart enough to understand that in the new Premier League era the amounts that had to be risked to achieve success were potentially ruinous; the failed big money transfer of Tomas Brolin had gone some way to proving that the old school, gentlemen’s way of running a football club was over. Silver and Bill Fotherby had been sounded out on a takeover by Chris Akers, one of an upcoming generation of entrepreneurs to successfully monetis...

Dermot Gallagher might well be presiding over the Roses derby between Leeds United and Manchester United next week as part of his Ref Watch work for Sky Sports. By Lee Sobot Twenty seven years ago he was the man in the middle and awarding Howard Wilkinson’s Whites an early penalty as the hosts savoured a 3-1 victory against their arch rivals on Christmas Eve. Leeds would go on to experience a disappointing campaign in which they finished in 13th place whereas the Red Devils eventually reclaimed the Premier League title they had won in both 1994 and 1995, Sir Alex Ferguson’s team having been dethroned by Blackburn Rovers in the previous campaign. But Christmas came early for Leeds against Fergie’s side on December 24, 1995 in what remains the third most recent victory against the arch-enemy in the league. Leeds were handed a golden opportunity to go in front when Nicky Butt handled the ball in the area as the Red Devils looked to clear a Gary McAllister corner. McAllister’s ...

Howard Wilkinson arrived at Leeds with a ten-year plan. Within four, they were champions Howard Wilkinson is not the man he seems to be. The only living English manager to have won the league title is often characterised as glum and pedantic. It is true that the hunger for learning that nourished his teaching career when he dropped down from playing with Brighton into the semi-professional game made him appear stilted, while his fondness for impenetrable pronouncements – for example “Zinedine Zidane could be a champion sumo wrestler, he can run like a crab or a gazelle” – left him vulnerable to ridicule. His thoughtfulness and tendency to weigh every word fed into his dour public image yet his players remember a tinder-dry sense of humour and his pragmatism. Wilkinson’s fitness regime and the sacrifices it entailed enforced changes to his teams’ diet while his rigorous drilling of set-pieces and his belief in the importance of the second ball, especially the knockdowns and flick-on...

Steven Chicken Strachan. McAllister. Batty. Speed. If you were tasked with building the archetypal midfield quartet from scratch, Leeds United’s 1992 midfield would be your model. The 35-year-old savvy veteran and inspirational captain, slighted by his former mentor and with a point to prove. The tough-as-nails young local lad who would put himself on the line for the cause. The intrepid, spry and versatile left winger who came up through the youth academy. Strachan. McAllister. Batty. Speed. You can’t live in Leeds for very long without becoming very familiar with those four names, always presented in that exact order, always rolling off the tongue as easily as you could name members of your own family, always spoken with the utmost reverence. In 1990, Leeds won promotion back into the top flight in Howard Wilkinson’s first full season in charge after eight long and difficult years in the Second Division. Gordon Strachan, signed from Manchester United and installed as ...

Marcelo Bielsa will prove a hard act to follow when the time comes for the Argentine to leave Leeds United. By Flora Snelson Bielsa has set a very high standard for Whites bosses to come, both on and off the pitch, delivering Leeds’ long-awaited promotion to the Premier League and earning the respect of the city and the global fanbase. But Elland Road has not always been blessed with such talent and dignity. We’ve worked out the club’s best and worst managers over the last 30 years, ranking them in order of win percentage. Included are every manager who’s taken charge of the Whites on a matchday since 1991, caretakers and all. 1 - Marcelo Bielsa - 51.7% 77 wins in 149 games officially makes Marcelo Bielsa the best Leeds United manager of the past thirty years. To the majority of Whites fans, Bielsa was something of a non-entity when he arrived at the club in the summer of 2018. He soon found his way into the hearts of the Elland Road faithful for his humble ways and enterta...

Slow starters: Coach Darko Milanic isn’t the first Leeds United boss not to make a winning start to his tenure at Elland Road. Leon Wobschall reports. NOT TOO many Leeds United managers have been afforded the luxury of a flying start to fully ingratiate themselves with supporters over the past decade, and Darko Milanic has plenty of company in the opposing respect. Like David Hockaday, the man he replaced as the new permanent head coach at Elland Road, the Slovenian was left to lament a disappointing afternoon in the capital in his first outing in the dug-out which ended in a lacklustre 2-0 weekend defeat for the Whites at Brentford. Hockaday kicked off with a similarly dispiriting setback by the same scoreline across town at Millwall on August 9. Gary McAllister and, to a lesser extent, Neil Warnock also didn’t exactly hit the ground running either when both were named as Whites manager and while Brian McDermott did generate some early momentum when he took over at Leeds in April 2...

Yorkshire Evening Post 10/6/14 by Leon Wobschall READING ACADEMY boss Eamonn Dolan is emerging as a leading candidate to become head coach at Leeds United – with the club expected to step up their attempts towards concluding their search today. Several bookmakers have installed Dolan as favourite for the vacant post ahead of ex-Watford coach Dave Hockaday and former Whites chief Gary McAllister, in what represents another intriguing development in quest to find a senior coach to oversee United’s first-team squad next season. United owner Massimo Cellino, who was in Italy yesterday attempting to finalise the sale of Cagliari, is believed to have held talks with three domestic candidates over the weekend, having expressed his desire to appoint a British coach. Once progress has been made regarding Cagliari’s sale, Cellino is expected to switch his attentions firmly towards identifying his choice for head coach at Leeds. Cellino has done plenty of research regarding identifying prosp...

By Phil Hay Northampton Town 2 Leeds United 5 Gary McAllister's least desirable scenario at Sixfields was a third defeat in succession for Leeds United. Close behind in his list of unwanted possibilities was an FA Cup first-round replay which dragged his tired squad through extra-time. Neither eventuality came to pass and no-one inside Northampton Town's stadium can have been happier to see last night's tie settled in United's favour by half-time. The club's 5-2 win over Northampton was their first victory in an FA Cup game for five seasons, but the priority for Leeds at Sixfields was not the improvement of slightly embarrassing history. After a League One defeat to Huddersfield Town on Saturday, the brief last night was to come safely through the tie and to do so with the minimum of fuss. Rarely has McAllister, in his guise as United's manager, looked as angry as he did after Huddersfield's victory at Elland Road but the outcome of their swift turnaround to...