Playground pride — Square Ball 18/1/25
One of us
Words by: Miles Reucroft
Tottenham Hotspur have sprung up at inopportune moments
during my life as a Leeds fan. Tony Yeboah’s last act in a Leeds shirt came at
White Hart Lane and I was there, in the home end, as he was goaded into
throwing his shirt at George Graham while he walked off the pitch after being
substituted. He had time to weigh it up and thought that this was the only, if
imperfect, denouement to his Leeds career.
Of course, Graham soon found a permanent home at White Hart
Lane. Marcelo Bielsa managed his final game in charge of Leeds against Spurs
and we were relegated on the final day of the 2022/23 season after losing to
them, too. And, of course, who can forget the titanic transfer tussle of 1999
over Willem Korsten?
It wouldn’t happen in today’s world of 24/7 football
coverage, a signing like Yeboah being made from nowhere, a leap of faith
purchased from foreign lands. Data departments and would-be football insiders
would have been covering the player for months, with supporting YouTube
highlight reels. You got the occasional dud, even with as lofty a reputation as
Tomas Brolin arrived with, but there was a great joy in seeing an unknown
arrive, hopefully about to bloom like a Yeboah or a Hasselbaink.
The ultimate currency of the playground as a kid was great
goals. A striker could net one of those and have his reputation cemented in
juvenile hearts for the following months.
It’s fair to say that Leeds United weren’t a roundly popular
club back in 1995. You could reasonably say the same now, to be fair.
Extraordinary players and managers can push a club beyond that. Yeboah was the
first to do it during my time as a supporter.
Monday 21st August 1995 was a time before mobile phones and
mass internet use. We were on a family holiday in Dorset, no Sky TV or means of
checking the result. A quick diversion into WHSmith the following morning for a
peek at the sports headlines roundly acclaimed a goal for the ages: Leeds
United 1-0 Liverpool (Yeboah 51’). A mid-week Match of the Day was worth
staying up for. It was all anyone was talking about.
Fast forward to Saturday 23rd September 1995. Grandstand’s
vidiprinter ticked in with the final scores: Wimbledon 2… “bloody hell!”
exclaimed my dad… Leeds United 4. “It’s worth staying up for Match of the Day
tonight!” exclaimed the in-stadium reporter. “Tony Yeboah has done it again!”
And boy, had he done it again. It was another goal so good
that it transcended the result. It transcended his own hat-trick, too. Leeds
had won both games, but more importantly Yeboah had made you immensely proud to
be Leeds. This wasn’t someone else scoring goals for the ages, this was a Leeds
United player.