Yorkshire Evening Post 21/9/07
Leeds United boss on verge of new record as hype kicks in
By Phil Hay
The late Don Revie casts a large shadow over Elland Road, and Dennis Wise is happy to occupy the shade.
Appreciating the historical importance of Revie's tenure is a prerequisite of managing Leeds United – a fact misjudged spectacularly by Brian Clough – and Wise will not seek comparisons with his most revered predecessor if his side earn their share of a club record tomorrow.
He is more inclined to do what he always does; greet the victory with a sense of perspective before retreating once more behind the barricades.Wise has not been tempted to mention promotion this season, and a seventh league win against Swansea City tomorrow is unlikely to break his poker face.
Leeds are at the point of equalling a record set by Revie's players in 1973, when with seven straight victories they constructed the finest start to a season ever staged by a United team, but the fact has almost passed the club's present manager by.
Wise can sense the anticipation building outside Elland Road; he is deeply reluctant to fuel it further by offering cheap rhetoric from within.
"I've not even thought about it," he said, when asked about the prospect of matching Revie's record. "I really haven't. And if I'm being totally honest, I'm not really bothered about it.
"First of all it has to be achieved – there's no point talking about it now because it hasn't been achieved, and it might not happen. At the moment, I just want to win the game. That's it.
"If we do win it then we'll get out of the bottom four and we'll catch the next group. That's the next thing for us, and it would be massive.
"We've done really well, and what we're doing is good enough, but we're still second-from-bottom. We've got a tough game tomorrow, and I don't want to take any credit from them (Swansea).
"They're doing very well – we've done better, but they're ahead of us. They're sitting in fourth and we'd love to be in that position. But we're a long way from it."
The gap between United and Swansea stands at seven points, a deficit created by United's Football League penalty.
Last Friday's 3-0 victory over Bristol Rovers was sufficient to fulfil Wise's ambition of escaping from 24th position in the League One table, but the club's prospects are difficult to predict with certainty.
United appear to be obvious promotion candidates, but their results this season are yet to provide any breathing space; a first defeat of the season tomorrow would risk a return to the bottom of the division, a position they occupied until the end of last week's fixture at the Memorial Stadium. Wise's caution is not driven purely by a desire to play possum. He at least remains wary of the precarious position that Leeds are in.
Swansea's ambitions have been more heavily stated and, after losing in the 2006 play-off final and finishing seventh last season, their manager, Roberto Martinez, is carrying the demands of an ambitious club and their expectant supporters.
City will visit Elland Road with successive league wins over Cheltenham and Carlisle behind them, but the early weeks of the term were a minor struggle. Beaten by Doncaster and Oldham, Swansea were sitting with four points from as many games on the first day of this month.
Martinez's side possess realistic promotion potential, but United have already seen off several similar opponents. Southend, Tranmere, Hartlepool and Bristol Rovers are all pressing towards the top six, and Nottingham Forest and Luton Town would expect to be involved in the play-offs themselves, even allowing for their mediocre results so far.
Wise said: "The teams that we've played, counting Swansea, have been seven teams who are going to be very close to promotion.
"I'd say they're the better teams, but that's no disrespect to the others. I'll treat them all in the same manner.
"Swansea like to play, and they've won their last three games. They like to keep hold of the ball, and they've got players who can cause problems. Roberto's done very well.
"Football is really funny, and when you're doing well you can get a kick. We don't want a kick. People saw us get to zero and thought we'd take our foot off the pedal, but we didn't. I don't want that to happen, and we're not willing to let it happen.
"I'm not a ranter and raver but I try to put across to the players what we expect. If they don't do it then I have to do my job. A lot of managers like to shout and scream in their faces, and I've spat my dummy out a couple of times, but it's not called for with every game.
"If you shout at them you're not going to get anywhere. You need to explain what you expect from them, and you do that during the whole week. Come Saturday, they should know what they're doing and if they don't then they need a kick up the backside.
"If you've prepared them for the game, they've got no excuses."
Wise criticised his players after their 2-0 defeat of Hartlepool United – the result which returned the club to zero points – but was more content with the 3-0 victory at Bristol Rovers last week.Leeds weathered heavy pressure but took their opportunities with clinical finishing, and the return of 10 goals from Tresor Kandol and Jermaine Beckford has kept United beyond the reach of their six previous opponents.
Asked whether it was realistic for Leeds to attempt to maintain an unbeaten record until the end of the season, Wise said: "I don't know. You'd love it, but to turn round and say things like that would be stupid. I wouldn't say it.
"We've performed very well so far and it would be nice to get a game where we perform all the way through.
"That's very difficult, but the players all want to play which is nice, and they're all in confident mood which is even nicer."
Yorkshire Evening Post 20/9/07
Leeds United go back to the future
By Phil Hay
August 25, 1973. Don Revie is holding court in the players' lounge at Elland Road, two hours before the start of the season.
All of Revie's most trusted servants are present, gathered around his selfless captain, Billy Bremner. Enthused by the dawn of another season but still seething over the outcome of the term behind him, Leeds United's manager decided to raise his own standards of excellence at Elland Road.
"I'll never forget that meeting," recalls Allan Clarke, the zealous centre forward in Revie's ranks. "It was 1pm in the players' lounge and Don was preparing us for the first game of the season against Everton. If you remember, we'd lost to Sunderland in the FA Cup final the year before. It didn't go down well. So Don said 'It's a new season lads, and I've had a thought. I'd like you to go through the season unbeaten'.
"We looked at each other in amazement, and he asked whether it was possible. It was an incredible thing to suggest, but after a few seconds we all said yes. That was how it started."
After 12 seasons as United's manager, Revie understood his players intimately – their strengths, their weaknesses and their loyalty to his brand of football. He would not, Clarke agrees, have made unreasonable requests, and his suggestion that Leeds were capable of completing 42 games without defeat was not a stab in the dark. It seemed instead to be a statement of fact.
What followed was a season that bordered on perfection.United finished the year as Division One champions after only four league defeats, and one at Elland Road. Their unbeaten pledge survived for 29 games until a 3-2 defeat at Stoke City on February 23, 1974, and their championship credentials were bourne out by an initial sequence of seven straight league victories. It was, and is, the finest start to a season ever produced by a Leeds side and a record which has gone unchallenged for 34 years, until now.
"We were the best team in the country," says Clarke. "Any club that planned to win anything was going to have to get past us, and Don knew that. He hated losing, and I hated losing – the whole squad did.
"When I was with Leicester and Fulham, the press used to comment about the foul mood they would find me in whenever we lost a game. They couldn't understand my attitude, but it hurt me too much. I had no reason to smile.
"At Leeds, I found a group of players who shared that attitude, and it felt like home to me. Losing just wasn't acceptable."
Peter Lorimer, Clarke's prolific attacking partner, agrees.
"I think the approach to that season was Don's way of answering the embarrassment of the FA Cup defeat," he says. "He was a bit sore about it, and he wanted us to prove to everyone that we were not just a good team but a great team. Good managers are the ones who turn negatives into positives, like Dennis Wise is doing now.
"Traditionally, Don ran a pretty regimented club but that was the first season when he allowed us to go out and be ourselves – to do what came naturally without being constrained by tactics or formations. It brought the best out of us.
"Seven straight victories at the start of the season was impressive, but the run of 29 games without losing is one of the best achievements by an English team.
"We couldn't wait for the next game to come, and that was always my attitude as a player. I never understand people moaning these days about having too many fixtures. That's why you're a footballer, and that's what you love – not running through bloody Roundhay Park in the pouring rain trying to keep fit. In the '73-74 season, I didn't want to be off the pitch."
Clarke's attitude was identical, and he and Lorimer went tit-for-tat during the first three weeks of the season as United's winning streak grew legs. A 3-1 victory over Everton on August 25 started the term impressively, and Lorimer's first goal of the season contributed to Leeds' 2-1 win against Arsenal three days later.
Clarke claimed his first at Tottenham, and then saw Lorimer score five goals in two games to flatten Wolves and Birmingham. But Clarke did not do secondary roles, and his three strikes in the space of four days earned maximum points from a second meeting with Wolves, and a visit to Southampton on September 15.
"There was never any rivalry between myself and Sniffer," says Lorimer. "We both scored a lot of goals but we just loved seeing the ball smack against the net and then hearing the roar go up.
"Between me, Allan and Mick Jones, we expected to get 60 goals. That was a regular season for us. We aimed to push somewhere towards 70, but I always approached the season looking for 20 goals. It was my job to score.
"People get different things out of football. Billy Bremner loved to get stuck into the midfield battle, and Johnny Giles loved his 40-yard cross-field passes. For me and Allan, scoring goals was the attraction and we did it pretty well.
"There were big incentives for us. We knew we were the best team around, but we also knew that a lot of people didn't like us – especially the London journalists. They hated us.
"We liked nothing better than to stick it up them, and during that run of 29 games we were doing it every week. We had a proper siege mentality and there's no question that Leeds have got that now."
The squads on offer to Revie and Wise are incomparable, but a record which has survived for more than three decades will be matched on Saturday if Wise's United record a seventh straight league win against Swansea City at Elland Road.
Clarke was present for their recent wins over Luton and Hartlepool, and liked what he saw. Lorimer has been similarly impressed. For men who played to the highest of standards, their endorsement is especially valuable.
"I was at Elland Road for their last two home games, and I'm absolutely delighted with the way the season's going," Clarke says."On the evidence of what I saw, I think Leeds will not only be promoted, but promoted automatically. I'm not a betting man but that must be worth a few bob."
Former Elland Road striker Allan Clarke today handed Dennis Wise a firm vote of confidence by backing Leeds United for automatic promotion.
The ex-Leeds forward – the scorer of the winning goal in United's 1972 FA Cup final victory over Arsenal – believes Wise's squad are heading for a top-two finish in League One after starting the season with six straight victories.
United will equal a 34-year-old record if they extend their streak during Saturday's clash with Swansea City at Elland Road, and Clarke, who played in the last Leeds side to begin a league campaign with seven successive wins in 1973, insists he saw signs of a promotion challenge in Leeds' last two home fixtures against Hartlepool and Luton.
The 61-year-old also criticised the Football League's decision to deduct 15 points from Leeds before the start of the season, but United have already wiped out their penalty and Wise's side moved off the bottom of League One after their 3-0 victory at Bristol Rovers on Friday night.
Clarke said: "I was at Elland Road for their last two home games, and I'm absolutely delighted with the way the season's going. It's impressive.
"I never thought I'd live to see the day when Leeds United were playing in the third division, but this is where we are. The only thing that matters now is getting the club out of here.
"The 15-point deduction could only have happened to Leeds United. You'd never have seen Liverpool or Manchester United treated like that. But I've watched Leeds a couple of times this season and they haven't let it get to them.
"On the evidence of what I saw, I think Leeds will be not only be promoted, but promoted automatically.
"I'm not a betting man but that must be worth a few bob."
Wise, who is hoping to have captain Alan Thompson available for Saturday's game after a groin strain, may opt to give a handful of his first team squad members a run-out during tonight's reserve clash with Darlington at Norton and Stockton (kick-off 7pm).
Leeds United boss on verge of new record as hype kicks in
By Phil Hay
The late Don Revie casts a large shadow over Elland Road, and Dennis Wise is happy to occupy the shade.
Appreciating the historical importance of Revie's tenure is a prerequisite of managing Leeds United – a fact misjudged spectacularly by Brian Clough – and Wise will not seek comparisons with his most revered predecessor if his side earn their share of a club record tomorrow.
He is more inclined to do what he always does; greet the victory with a sense of perspective before retreating once more behind the barricades.Wise has not been tempted to mention promotion this season, and a seventh league win against Swansea City tomorrow is unlikely to break his poker face.
Leeds are at the point of equalling a record set by Revie's players in 1973, when with seven straight victories they constructed the finest start to a season ever staged by a United team, but the fact has almost passed the club's present manager by.
Wise can sense the anticipation building outside Elland Road; he is deeply reluctant to fuel it further by offering cheap rhetoric from within.
"I've not even thought about it," he said, when asked about the prospect of matching Revie's record. "I really haven't. And if I'm being totally honest, I'm not really bothered about it.
"First of all it has to be achieved – there's no point talking about it now because it hasn't been achieved, and it might not happen. At the moment, I just want to win the game. That's it.
"If we do win it then we'll get out of the bottom four and we'll catch the next group. That's the next thing for us, and it would be massive.
"We've done really well, and what we're doing is good enough, but we're still second-from-bottom. We've got a tough game tomorrow, and I don't want to take any credit from them (Swansea).
"They're doing very well – we've done better, but they're ahead of us. They're sitting in fourth and we'd love to be in that position. But we're a long way from it."
The gap between United and Swansea stands at seven points, a deficit created by United's Football League penalty.
Last Friday's 3-0 victory over Bristol Rovers was sufficient to fulfil Wise's ambition of escaping from 24th position in the League One table, but the club's prospects are difficult to predict with certainty.
United appear to be obvious promotion candidates, but their results this season are yet to provide any breathing space; a first defeat of the season tomorrow would risk a return to the bottom of the division, a position they occupied until the end of last week's fixture at the Memorial Stadium. Wise's caution is not driven purely by a desire to play possum. He at least remains wary of the precarious position that Leeds are in.
Swansea's ambitions have been more heavily stated and, after losing in the 2006 play-off final and finishing seventh last season, their manager, Roberto Martinez, is carrying the demands of an ambitious club and their expectant supporters.
City will visit Elland Road with successive league wins over Cheltenham and Carlisle behind them, but the early weeks of the term were a minor struggle. Beaten by Doncaster and Oldham, Swansea were sitting with four points from as many games on the first day of this month.
Martinez's side possess realistic promotion potential, but United have already seen off several similar opponents. Southend, Tranmere, Hartlepool and Bristol Rovers are all pressing towards the top six, and Nottingham Forest and Luton Town would expect to be involved in the play-offs themselves, even allowing for their mediocre results so far.
Wise said: "The teams that we've played, counting Swansea, have been seven teams who are going to be very close to promotion.
"I'd say they're the better teams, but that's no disrespect to the others. I'll treat them all in the same manner.
"Swansea like to play, and they've won their last three games. They like to keep hold of the ball, and they've got players who can cause problems. Roberto's done very well.
"Football is really funny, and when you're doing well you can get a kick. We don't want a kick. People saw us get to zero and thought we'd take our foot off the pedal, but we didn't. I don't want that to happen, and we're not willing to let it happen.
"I'm not a ranter and raver but I try to put across to the players what we expect. If they don't do it then I have to do my job. A lot of managers like to shout and scream in their faces, and I've spat my dummy out a couple of times, but it's not called for with every game.
"If you shout at them you're not going to get anywhere. You need to explain what you expect from them, and you do that during the whole week. Come Saturday, they should know what they're doing and if they don't then they need a kick up the backside.
"If you've prepared them for the game, they've got no excuses."
Wise criticised his players after their 2-0 defeat of Hartlepool United – the result which returned the club to zero points – but was more content with the 3-0 victory at Bristol Rovers last week.Leeds weathered heavy pressure but took their opportunities with clinical finishing, and the return of 10 goals from Tresor Kandol and Jermaine Beckford has kept United beyond the reach of their six previous opponents.
Asked whether it was realistic for Leeds to attempt to maintain an unbeaten record until the end of the season, Wise said: "I don't know. You'd love it, but to turn round and say things like that would be stupid. I wouldn't say it.
"We've performed very well so far and it would be nice to get a game where we perform all the way through.
"That's very difficult, but the players all want to play which is nice, and they're all in confident mood which is even nicer."
Yorkshire Evening Post 20/9/07
Leeds United go back to the future
By Phil Hay
August 25, 1973. Don Revie is holding court in the players' lounge at Elland Road, two hours before the start of the season.
All of Revie's most trusted servants are present, gathered around his selfless captain, Billy Bremner. Enthused by the dawn of another season but still seething over the outcome of the term behind him, Leeds United's manager decided to raise his own standards of excellence at Elland Road.
"I'll never forget that meeting," recalls Allan Clarke, the zealous centre forward in Revie's ranks. "It was 1pm in the players' lounge and Don was preparing us for the first game of the season against Everton. If you remember, we'd lost to Sunderland in the FA Cup final the year before. It didn't go down well. So Don said 'It's a new season lads, and I've had a thought. I'd like you to go through the season unbeaten'.
"We looked at each other in amazement, and he asked whether it was possible. It was an incredible thing to suggest, but after a few seconds we all said yes. That was how it started."
After 12 seasons as United's manager, Revie understood his players intimately – their strengths, their weaknesses and their loyalty to his brand of football. He would not, Clarke agrees, have made unreasonable requests, and his suggestion that Leeds were capable of completing 42 games without defeat was not a stab in the dark. It seemed instead to be a statement of fact.
What followed was a season that bordered on perfection.United finished the year as Division One champions after only four league defeats, and one at Elland Road. Their unbeaten pledge survived for 29 games until a 3-2 defeat at Stoke City on February 23, 1974, and their championship credentials were bourne out by an initial sequence of seven straight league victories. It was, and is, the finest start to a season ever produced by a Leeds side and a record which has gone unchallenged for 34 years, until now.
"We were the best team in the country," says Clarke. "Any club that planned to win anything was going to have to get past us, and Don knew that. He hated losing, and I hated losing – the whole squad did.
"When I was with Leicester and Fulham, the press used to comment about the foul mood they would find me in whenever we lost a game. They couldn't understand my attitude, but it hurt me too much. I had no reason to smile.
"At Leeds, I found a group of players who shared that attitude, and it felt like home to me. Losing just wasn't acceptable."
Peter Lorimer, Clarke's prolific attacking partner, agrees.
"I think the approach to that season was Don's way of answering the embarrassment of the FA Cup defeat," he says. "He was a bit sore about it, and he wanted us to prove to everyone that we were not just a good team but a great team. Good managers are the ones who turn negatives into positives, like Dennis Wise is doing now.
"Traditionally, Don ran a pretty regimented club but that was the first season when he allowed us to go out and be ourselves – to do what came naturally without being constrained by tactics or formations. It brought the best out of us.
"Seven straight victories at the start of the season was impressive, but the run of 29 games without losing is one of the best achievements by an English team.
"We couldn't wait for the next game to come, and that was always my attitude as a player. I never understand people moaning these days about having too many fixtures. That's why you're a footballer, and that's what you love – not running through bloody Roundhay Park in the pouring rain trying to keep fit. In the '73-74 season, I didn't want to be off the pitch."
Clarke's attitude was identical, and he and Lorimer went tit-for-tat during the first three weeks of the season as United's winning streak grew legs. A 3-1 victory over Everton on August 25 started the term impressively, and Lorimer's first goal of the season contributed to Leeds' 2-1 win against Arsenal three days later.
Clarke claimed his first at Tottenham, and then saw Lorimer score five goals in two games to flatten Wolves and Birmingham. But Clarke did not do secondary roles, and his three strikes in the space of four days earned maximum points from a second meeting with Wolves, and a visit to Southampton on September 15.
"There was never any rivalry between myself and Sniffer," says Lorimer. "We both scored a lot of goals but we just loved seeing the ball smack against the net and then hearing the roar go up.
"Between me, Allan and Mick Jones, we expected to get 60 goals. That was a regular season for us. We aimed to push somewhere towards 70, but I always approached the season looking for 20 goals. It was my job to score.
"People get different things out of football. Billy Bremner loved to get stuck into the midfield battle, and Johnny Giles loved his 40-yard cross-field passes. For me and Allan, scoring goals was the attraction and we did it pretty well.
"There were big incentives for us. We knew we were the best team around, but we also knew that a lot of people didn't like us – especially the London journalists. They hated us.
"We liked nothing better than to stick it up them, and during that run of 29 games we were doing it every week. We had a proper siege mentality and there's no question that Leeds have got that now."
The squads on offer to Revie and Wise are incomparable, but a record which has survived for more than three decades will be matched on Saturday if Wise's United record a seventh straight league win against Swansea City at Elland Road.
Clarke was present for their recent wins over Luton and Hartlepool, and liked what he saw. Lorimer has been similarly impressed. For men who played to the highest of standards, their endorsement is especially valuable.
"I was at Elland Road for their last two home games, and I'm absolutely delighted with the way the season's going," Clarke says."On the evidence of what I saw, I think Leeds will not only be promoted, but promoted automatically. I'm not a betting man but that must be worth a few bob."
Former Elland Road striker Allan Clarke today handed Dennis Wise a firm vote of confidence by backing Leeds United for automatic promotion.
The ex-Leeds forward – the scorer of the winning goal in United's 1972 FA Cup final victory over Arsenal – believes Wise's squad are heading for a top-two finish in League One after starting the season with six straight victories.
United will equal a 34-year-old record if they extend their streak during Saturday's clash with Swansea City at Elland Road, and Clarke, who played in the last Leeds side to begin a league campaign with seven successive wins in 1973, insists he saw signs of a promotion challenge in Leeds' last two home fixtures against Hartlepool and Luton.
The 61-year-old also criticised the Football League's decision to deduct 15 points from Leeds before the start of the season, but United have already wiped out their penalty and Wise's side moved off the bottom of League One after their 3-0 victory at Bristol Rovers on Friday night.
Clarke said: "I was at Elland Road for their last two home games, and I'm absolutely delighted with the way the season's going. It's impressive.
"I never thought I'd live to see the day when Leeds United were playing in the third division, but this is where we are. The only thing that matters now is getting the club out of here.
"The 15-point deduction could only have happened to Leeds United. You'd never have seen Liverpool or Manchester United treated like that. But I've watched Leeds a couple of times this season and they haven't let it get to them.
"On the evidence of what I saw, I think Leeds will be not only be promoted, but promoted automatically.
"I'm not a betting man but that must be worth a few bob."
Wise, who is hoping to have captain Alan Thompson available for Saturday's game after a groin strain, may opt to give a handful of his first team squad members a run-out during tonight's reserve clash with Darlington at Norton and Stockton (kick-off 7pm).