The Unforgiven: The Story of Don Revie's Leeds United by Rob Bagchi

Author:Rob Bagchi [Bagchi, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aurum Press
Published: 2011-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

NINE

HIGH AND DRY

Revie, an exultant Manager of the Year, had every right to celebrate that summer of 1969. His team had dumbfounded the critics, rewriting the record books for number of points accumulated and fewest defeats in a season. ‘All these successes,’ he wrote, ‘made the past failures more easy to bear, and to look back upon without anger or anguish.’ It was like the end of a terrible journey, all the rancour obliterated by the pleasure of finally arriving. Never one to allow himself an easy ride, however, he limited his enjoyment of the moment to a few short weeks before announcing to his players that his ambition for the 1969/70 season was ‘the miracle’.

Only a few days after they’d returned from their holidays, Revie set them the target of the League Championship, the FA Cup and the European Cup. It’s a reflection of the esteem in which they held him and their own self-belief that no one summoned a Corporation van to come and take him to the nearest asylum. A ‘double’ was difficult enough; only one team had managed it all century. But the ‘treble’? That, surely, was ridiculous. It is clear that even he did not think it was a realistic ambition; indeed, he conceded subsequently, ‘the deliberate aim of a treble was nothing short of fantastic’. By constantly upping the ante at the start of each season, though, he was trying to insure against stagnation. ‘It was said that our manager could rest easy now, because the footballing world had acknowledged us as true Champions,’ reflected Billy Bremner. ‘Rest easy? Don’t you believe it!’ Satisfaction was a dangerous emotion in management, and Don Revie refused to permit his players that luxury. The League Championship was no pinnacle. In their minds they had only just begun.

To emphasize his intent to lead an unprecedented charge at all three major trophies, Revie bought himself a present. The one weakness his team had persistently displayed was their lack of an out and out goalscorer, a genuine 20-goals-a-season star. In their title-winning season only Mick Jones had reached double figures. If Leeds were to prosper in the European Cup, Revie urgently needed someone to capitalize more heavily on the chances created by his illustrious midfield. To this end he shamelessly badgered relegated Leicester City to release Allan Clarke, a dead-eyed finisher with just the requisite hint of cruelty about him. Like all his major deals, it was meticulously researched, with the player’s temperamental suitability to join the Leeds fellowship always being the clinching factor.

Clarke was a magnificent footballer – quick, assured, intelligent, opportunistic and so conspicuously secure in his own ability that it was commonly assumed that he was in love with himself. His unruffled, straight-backed running style betrayed the natural arrogance of the thoroughbred centre-forward, and if his single-mindedness would later lead him off at odd tangents (during his unhappy stint as Leeds manager once advocating the birching of unruly Leeds fans and volunteering to administer the thrashings personally), it added a withering dimension to United’s play.

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