Power, Corruption & Peter Barnes: Leeds Against The World, Summer 1981 - The Square Ball 10/8/21
LAUGHING OFFENCE
Written by Moscowhite
• Daniel Chapman
Leeds United could be
forgiven for thinking, in summer 1981, that everyone else was mad, not them.
That’s probably why spending more than the club’s entire £900,000 transfer
budget buying winger Peter Barnes felt like a sane move.
Manager Allan Clarke
skipped a pre-season tournament in Spain to wrap that deal up. Barnes wasn’t
the sort of player Leeds had wanted, but almost a year of hunting for an
experienced but affordable goalscorer had come to nothing, so Clarke was going
for the next best thing, a winger who could make chances for strikers Derek Parlane
and Terry Connor. Of course, as soon as Barnes was signed and sealed, Cologne
got back in touch to say they were willing to sell Tony Woodcock, after all, if
Leeds could find £600,000. While Clarke went on another pre-season trip, to
Toronto, his assistant Martin Wilkinson stayed behind, hoping to talk to the
England striker as he toured interested clubs. Of course Leeds didn’t have
another £600,000, and in the end Woodcock stayed in Germany for another year,
scoring fifteen goals in 32 games, before joining Arsenal, where he was top
scorer for three seasons while scoring 56 in 131. In 1981/82, for Leeds, Peter
Barnes scored one. But we don’t have to worry about that now.
More immediately
worrying, in August 1981, was a ‘traumatic experience’ in Spain, that had the
YEP’s Don Warters asking Leeds if they would bother with such high-profile
pre-season tournaments again. To Leeds United, these tournaments were
interesting workouts, but everyone else seemed to be taking them much more
seriously than was sensible.
In Algeceiras, Leeds
started the La Linea Tournament with a 3-2 win over Sporting Gijon, but the
final against Real Madrid was the big game, bigger than Leeds realised.
According to Gary Edwards’ book, Paint It White, the beaten European Cup
finalists were determined to save face and put a trophy in their cabinet. Quite
how a pre-season pot would make up for losing to Liverpool in the final of the
biggest club competition in Europe wasn’t clear, but the locals were adamant
that, however it came about, Leeds could not win. They also couldn’t wear their
own kit: it was in Real Madrid’s contract that they would wear white, and the
referee wasn’t impressed by the contrast of Leeds in yellow, so black and white
striped shirts were borrowed from fellow guests Partizan Belgrade.
The ref was Emilio
Guruceta Muro, and Warters reckoned him the worst he’d ever seen, even after
Ray Tinkler, Christos Michas, Michel Kitabdjian and the rest. His performance
stuck in Paul Hart’s mind until 1984, when he saw a suspicious amount of
activity around the Anderlecht dressing room before Nottingham Forest’s UEFA
Cup semi-final. “I remember saying to Kenny Swain I hope it’s not the same guy
we had when I was playing for Leeds in a tournament in Spain a couple of years
earlier … Then we were waiting in the tunnel and there he was — the same guy.”
Unlike all the times Leeds were unjustly treated in Europe, the truth about
that Forest game was finally revealed in 1997: Anderlecht’s president had paid
Muro £18,000 to fix the game.
We don’t know whether
money changed hands in 1981, but after half an hour, with Leeds already 2-0
down, Muro sent Arthur Graham off for reacting to a hard foul by Uli Stielike,
and the game was held up for seven minutes while Graham protested, officials negotiated
for Alex Sabella to replace him, then Madrid protested about that, the red card
was confirmed, and Muro went to the sidelines to give an interview to
television.
It might have been the
referee’s sense of priorities that caused the next problem. He refused to start
the second half until it had been properly communicated to the English visitors
that Leeds United’s players were to stop laughing at him. The message not
heeded by Derek Parlane, and he was sent off for exactly that: laughing at the ref.
Laurie Cunningham made it 3-0 while the game, delayed by arguments, red cards,
laughter and the ref’s television appearances, dragged on past midnight.
So much for Spain. But
Toronto a few days later, with Allan Clarke and new boy Peter Barnes along, promised
much better. Eddie Gray was superb in the first match, and Peter Barnes
‘electric’, against Ecuadorians Barcelona. But while the referee wasn’t a
problem to Leeds, the other team didn’t share their opinion. Nobody had any
complaints about Paul Hart being sent off for punching an opponent, just before
half-time, but as the game came near the end of extra-time with the score 1-1,
Barcelona were convinced they should have a penalty for what the YEP said was a
dive over Neil Firm’s outstretched legs. Barcelona’s manager, Humberto Maschio,
was particularly sure of it. As a player, Maschio was one of ‘The Trio of
Death’ who moved from Argentina to play in Italy in 1957. Now he was at the
forefront of a staff pitch invasion, and Barcelona’s number 23, international
striker Carlos Torres Garces, if not with death on his mind then something
quite like it, was kicking the referee, Gord Arrowsmith, to the ground.
Arrowsmith, an off-duty Toronto cop from London, tried restoring order with red
cards for the pair of them, but realising the situation was heading above his
pay grade, he and his assistants made for the changing rooms and left everyone
to it.
It took half an hour
before the first resolution: despite the tournament organisers’ bright idea of
bringing everyone back out for a jolly round of penalty kicks to decide the
game, Allan Clarke wasn’t having it, and the stadium announcer told the crowd
to go home. “We’re professionals, and we don’t argue with referee’s decisions,”
Clarke said, as if he’d never even met Billy Bremner. “The ref told me he had
abandoned the game so I got the lads off and in the bath.” He was willing to
try spot-kicks the following day, but by then the situation had reached the
referee-in-chief of the National Soccer League, Larry Naccarato, who ordered
Leeds through to the final. Clarke had no sympathy for the referee’s attacker.
“That lad should not play professional football again,” he said.
In the other, calmer
semi-final, Portuguese double-winners Benfica beat local side Toronto Italia,
and in the final, ‘Every last man, woman and child from Toronto’s Portuguese
community seemed to have turned out to cheer their heroes,’ according to the
YEP. In a close match, Brian Greenhoff gave away a penalty, and Benfica won
1-0. Clarke was impressed by his big new signing, Peter Barnes: “He’s going to
entertain a lot of supporters and put a few thousand on our gates, too.” But
not everything was rosy. “We are still not putting our chances away,” he said.
Maybe in the less volatile landscape of Football League Division One, 1981/82,
the sanity of United’s approach would shine through.
It seemed as if United and ‘Sniffer’ had
finally turned the corner, but it turned out to be a false dawn.
England Winger Peter Barnes was the
cornerstone of Allan Clarke’s ambitions for United and he paid a club record
£930,000 to secure his services from West Bromwich Albion and together with the
return of Frank Gray from Nottingham Forest for £300,000 were the close season
arrivals to bolster the team. While Alex Sabella returned to his native
Argentina to Estudientes for £120,000 and Jeff Chandler went to Bolton
Wanderers for £40,000.