
Part 2 Learning the ropes (1927-51)
- Part 3 Centre stage with City (1951-56)
- Part 4 Shuffling off stage (1956-61)
- Part 5 On the march with Leeds United (1961-67)
- Part 6 The agony and the ecstasy (1967-74)
- Part 7 Inn-gerland! (1974-77) - Part
8 Disgrace and despair (1977-89)
But for the remarkable talents of Don Revie, it's odds on that
Leeds United would have forever remained a mediocre provincial
team, meaning little to anyone, even in its West Yorkshire homeland,
where cricket and rugby league were always more important. In
the 1950's, Leeds' ranks included a genuine superstar in the phenomenal
John Charles, but he was
an enormous fish in a tepid little puddle and could make the club
nothing more than the stuff of very minor headlines.
Don Revie brought Leeds United to public consciousness in a very
unique way. The reputation they earned was often dubious, but
their profile was undoubtedly extremely high.
Away from Elland Road, the lasting memory of Revie is the distasteful
and infamous manner of his departure from the job of England manager,
with one famous detractor demanding that he should be castrated.
Don Revie excited passionate emotions in football people, and
in many corners of the country his name is reviled.
back to top
However, Revie's legacy at Elland Road is indisputable - the
former England inside-forward
dragged a side on the brink of Third Division obscurity up by
its bootstraps to become the most powerful football team in the
country. Round Elland Road way, Don Revie is remembered as a peerless
Messiah, and there are few who will hear a word against him.
In an era when British football could boast some of its most
famous and charismatic managerial characters - Busby, Shankly,
Clough, Allison, Mercer, Ramsey, Stein, Nicholson - one manager
and his team stood out from the rest, despite never enjoying the
success their consistency and supremacy merited or the genuine
affection Revie coveted.
Don Revie enjoyed memorable, yet ultimately disappointing, careers
as footballer and manager. He earned respect and success, but
any praise was grudgingly given.
As a player, Revie was one of the most intelligent and gifted
of post war inside-forwards, never particularly robust or powerful,
but incisive and accurate, with a vision which allowed him to
control the flow of games. He earned the respect of good football
judges and graced the English game in the 1950's with his shrewd
positional play, touch and eye for an opening.
He was one in a lengthy tradition of ball playing schemers who
graced the British game before hard running, defensive midfielders
overtook them in the eyes of managers for whom avoiding defeat
was the priority. The likes of Charlie Buchan, Clem Stephenson,
Alex James, David Jack (curiously all stars under former Leeds
City boss Herbert Chapman), Raich
Carter, Johnny Haynes and Len Shackleton were the most treasured
of footballers, men who could transform a game with one sure-footed
intervention.
Revie himself was one of the most pragmatic of the new breed
of manager, but he still chose to build his later Leeds sides
around the genius of diminutive playmakers Billy Bremner and Johnny
Giles after losing the aggressive bite of Bobby
Collins.
Revie would have been rendered an irrelevance if he had come
up against Collins on a football field, for he was never the combative
type. But he had a deftness of touch and clarity of vision, and,
when deployed in a team sympathetic to his qualities, he could
be a match winner.
He had a fascination from his earliest days with tactics and
revolutionary thinking and was as delighted as any Englishman
could permit himself to be when the innovation of the Hungarian
national team in the early Fifties ripped apart an outdated and
outwitted England formation.
back to top
He benefited as a player from studying role models and learned
at the feet of willing mentors after developing skills and techniques
in the back streets of his native North East with a ball made
from rags, as the romantics would have you believe.
He caught the eye with stylish displays for Leicester City and
Hull City, before blossoming with Manchester City and breaking
through into the full England side in 1954 after years as a nearly
man.
It was a tragedy that Revie won only six England caps
and enjoyed such a limited time at the very top of the game. However,
he won the Footballer of the Year award in 1955, when he took
Manchester City to the verge of the Twentieth Century's first
League and Cup double, and had the most celebrated game of his
life a year later when he was recalled to the City side that won
the FA Cup. He enjoyed a pivotal role as the Revie Plan brought
home the bacon.
Revie lost his way as a footballer after that triumph, winning
his sixth and final England cap in October 1956 and shuffling
sideways offstage with Sunderland and then humble Leeds United
before finally retiring from playing in 1963. For a time he had
combined playing with managing, but his final onfield contribution
was in March 1962 as Leeds battled to avoid relegation to the
Third Division.
Opinion is divided about Don Revie the player, with many commenting
on a surprising inflexibility, and a need for the rest of the
team to play his way. Sunderland inside-right Charlie Fleming
played alongside Revie in his latter days and is a critic: "The
trouble is, there was only one way Don could play but there were
ten other players on the field. We had to start off trying to
get him into the game. He did a lot of things foreign to us and
we could have frozen him out ... For instance, Don would centre
the ball and then disappear. He was always caught behind. I found
that Don's system was alright in Manchester but everybody knew
about it when he came to Sunderland, and how to play against it.
Don couldn't change himself."
Others from his Roker days were more generous. Half back George
Aitken: "He was a great player ... he was forever trying to make
the rest of the team play. Don took the game very seriously ...
and he would try to help people and give a bit of advice." Billy
Simmons, life-long Sunderland supporter and club historian, was
similarly positive: "He played plain, clean football and could
find holes in defences. The reason why he was not a success at
Roker was that the players could not keep up with his football
brain."
Raich Carter signed Revie for Hull City as his replacement, but
was unimpressed by his contributions at the Yorkshire club: "I
think he let me down. I was expecting too much too soon. Revie
didn't play as well as I thought he would ... I always thought
he was an inside-forward but he didn't have the punch an inside-forward
should." But the Silver Fox acknowledged: "You have late developers.
When he left here, he went to Manchester City where he blossomed,"
admitting that it was only Revie's lack of aggression that let
him down.
back to top
Revie won new admirers after his move to Elland Road. His favourite
son at the club, Billy Bremner: "What impressed me more than anything
else was his vision on a football park ... it was tremendous.
And after he had struck the ball, he would pose, as if for a photograph."
Jack Charlton is direct
in his summing up: "Good striker of the ball, good passer, was
Don - though he couldn't tackle to save his life."
Renowned as he was as a player, however, it was when Don Revie
hung up his boots and concentrated on management that he achieved
his greatest fame - and notoriety.
Given his break in March 1961 by a Leeds United board in desperate
straits, he first stabilised a drifting club, then fashioned a
revolution that made his team among the most feared and powerful
in Europe. Their early success was built on niggling gamesmanship
and hard tackling ferocity, but they later perfected a style of
flowing football which carried all before it in the early 1970's,
culminating in a memorable League title and the prize of the England
manager's job.
The reputation that 'dirty Leeds' won in Revie's first four or
five years at Elland Road stayed with the man for years, tarnishing
his name. The more venomous of his critics seized on his insecurity
and pursuit of material wealth to characterise him as 'Don Readies'
when he jumped ship before the Football Association could knife
him in the back.
Gossip and innuendo followed Revie throughout his managerial
career, and he despaired that his achievements in club management
were never celebrated as they should have been. But for Leeds
United followers the memory of Don Revie will always be accorded
the greatest respect.
He single-handedly changed the standing of the football club
and built what could
have been a lasting dynasty. Liverpool were in a similar state,
following the retirement of Revie's old friend Bill Shankly in
1974, but the Leeds directors did not follow the Anfield club's
example of continuity and stability. Liverpool appointed Shanks'
right hand man Bob Paisley and went on to even greater success.
Leeds ignored Revie's recommendation of Johnny Giles as his successor,
and instead opted controversially for Brian Clough, one of the
club's fiercest critics. The ripples from that appointment and
subsequent sacking struck at the heart of the club's togetherness.
It did not take long for all that Revie had built to erode and
a lengthy slump ended with Leeds United consigned to the Second
Division, just seven years after they had reached the European
Cup final. That demise cut Revie to the quick, but only added
lustre to the memory of his achievements at Elland Road.
back to top
He was the soundest of man managers, although his homespun philosophies
and homilies worked less well with proven international players
when he took the England job. He missed the family atmosphere
he had built up at Leeds, and suffered from not being seen as
omnipotent by his new charges.
Mike Channon played more games for England under Revie's management
than anybody else: "He wanted the England team to be his boys,
like at Leeds. He would go, 'Come on, lads, we're having bowls
tonight,' on a Friday night. But we were England! I think he was
unfortunate to get it wrong. And I think once he fell out with
someone, he couldn't forgive. Of course we used to sneak out.
I used to rebel against being told what do. You treat people like
children and they behave like them."
In contrast, most of the players who grew up with Revie at Leeds
were unswerving in their devotion to the man. They recognised
his faults, but acknowledged that he was the biggest influence
on their careers.
Eddie Gray: "He had tremendous physical presence and personality.
He told my father, 'I know you don't know much about Leeds United
now, but in the not too distant future, this club is going to
be one of the best in Britain.' He was not the only manager who
sang that type of tune, but his enthusiasm and drive were such
that it was difficult to dismiss his claims. His persuasiveness
was underlined even more forcibly by our belief in his assertion
that Leeds could become the English equivalent of Real Madrid.
"While he was not as volatile as Sir Alex Ferguson, Don had a
similarly intimidating aura. Norman Hunter, recalling the first
and only time he was late for training, says, 'All Don did was
to walk a couple of yards towards me and look at his watch - that
really was all he did, and all he needed to do to make me feel
bad about it.'
"He had a very strong character and when he was angry about something,
we were liable to be quite sensitive about doing or saying anything
which might make the situation worse. He was a big man with big
hands. I remember the
hands because when he brought his fist down on a table - something
that he often did when upset - the whole room seemed to reverberate.
If we had not played well, the other warning signal for us was
his habit of storming into the dressing room after the match,
briefly combing his hair in the mirror and then going out again
without saying a word. At times like that, the dressing room suddenly
became quiet enough for you to hear a pin drop.
"In team talks, when addressing players who had displeased him,
he had a habit of muttering, 'I'm going to need to get the chequebook
out' - meaning, of course, that if they could not do what he wanted,
he would buy players who could. Despite the number of times he
said it, occasionally in circumstances that made the remark seem
farcical, it never totally lost its effect.
"He wasn't just a manager to me. I went to Leeds United as a
15-year-old and more or less grew up with him. He brought me along
in life and was more like a father than a manager."
Jack Charlton: "Don Revie made Leeds United into one of the most
professionally run clubs in Europe. If I had to sum up Don's qualities
as a manager in one phrase, it would be attention to detail. He
compiled elaborate dossiers on our opponents, and for an hour
or so on the morning before a match he'd analyse every one of
their players - their weaknesses, their strengths, whether they
were quick or slow. Sometimes it got a bit hard to bear. If someone
started nodding off, he'd shout, 'Pay attention! I've spent fortunes
sending people all over Europe to watch teams and bring back reports,
so you bloody listen!'"
back to top
Trevor Cherry: "He treated me like a son. I owe a great deal
of what I've got now and what I have achieved to Don."
Joe Jordan: "He is the best manager I have been privileged to
work under."
Billy Bremner: "He was never a tough disciplinarian despite his
outward image. If you stepped out of line you knew you were for
the chopping block, but he never had to rant and rave. He commanded
respect because he gave respect and treated his players as men.
Though we were allowed to dress in casual clothes for travelling
away, we always had to remember that we were representing the
club and had to be presentable. We were not allowed to have very
long hair. We didn't have to look like convicts but we were expected
to look neat.
"He was always very superstitious and would often wear the same
suit game after game while we were winning. His favourite was
a blue one. I was a bit superstitious for a while, like most players.
I used to do things like borrow Norman Hunter's comb, putting
my pants on last and things like that. I was cured when we were
narrowly pipped for three major trophies in one season. I realised
then that it was not worth all the trouble - what will be will
be.
"Superstitious or not, Don Revie was nobody's fool. He made Leeds
United great again and after he had left things began to decline.
When he went to the England job he did not have a great success
as he had done at Elland Road - mostly I think because he did
not have the daily contact with players and therefore could not
develop that family spirit which worked so well at Leeds. For
my money, Don Revie was one of the greatest managers of all time
and he certainly played a key part in my career. When he was awarded
the OBE in January 1970, nobody was more pleased than me. It was
an honour he thoroughly deserved."
Peter Lorimer: "Every season there were new rumours about him
leaving Leeds to join this club or that, and it has always been
my feeling that this was just to put extra pressure on Leeds to
increase his wage packet. Don always said that he was going to
retire in his early fifties and enjoy life, and this of course
required the amassing of money. He also knew how to use the press.
If he thought it would do him any good he would not be averse
to stories that he was wanted elsewhere, thereby raising his stock
at Leeds United. Conversely, if anybody wrote in derogatory terms
about his team he would tell the paper responsible not to bother
sending its representative to the next game because he would not
be
allowed in. And he meant it.
"He was a manoeuvrer, manipulator and planner. He was also the
worst loser on the planet. I have never known a man take defeat
so badly, so personally, and this was a weakness of his."
Referees often fell foul of Revie and pressure from his team.
Andrew Mourant in his biography of Revie: "Clive Thomas has said
that with its relentless harassment and contesting of decisions
on the field, Don Revie's Leeds United gave him more trouble than
the other First Division clubs put together. Yet Jack Taylor says:
'Revie was personally charming. I have all the time in the world
for him. He was never anything other than honest and frank.'"
back to top
Some other personalities in the game openly despised Revie, with
possibly the deepest enmity being expressed by Bob Stokoe, who
revelled in the FA Cup triumph
of his humble Sunderland side over Revie's Leeds in 1973.
He always maintained that Revie tried to bribe his Bury team before
a relegation tussle in 1962, and is outspoken in his criticism:
"It has always riled me when I see the career Revie has had. At
the back of my mind, the bribe is always there. He was always
an evil man to me."
Stokoe's bitterness was more extreme than that of anyone else,
although Revie's abandonment of the England job provoked intense
personal attacks and hysterical over reactions. For a long time
the episode threatened to distort the memory of the good work
Revie had done over the years. But time is a great healer, and
many of the wounds have scabbed over if they have not completely
healed.
The most sustained monuments to the man are his Revie Plan-inspired
FA Cup triumph with Manchester City and the memory of a Leeds
United side that dominated the English game in the Sixties and
Seventies.
Under his management, Leeds won all three major domestic honours
and were one of the most powerful teams in Europe. Between 1965
and 1974 they never finished out of the top four in Division One
and were the most feared side in the country. The greatest testament
to his influence on the club was the fact that, prior to his reign
at Elland Road, the only major trophy they had won was the Second
Division title. In later years, Howard Wilkinson inspired a revival
but it came nowhere near emulating the achievements of Revie.
But there will always remain the depressing and lasting impression
of Leeds United as eternal chokers, consistently blowing their
chances in disastrous end of season collapses. They were runners
up in the championship on five separate occasions, and an additional
thirteen points at the right time would have brought them five
titles to add to the two they actually won under Revie. They were
beaten finalists in Cup competitions on five occasions and fell
at the semi-final hurdle too many times to contemplate.
Despite all the heartbreaks and setbacks, however, Don Revie
and Leeds United always
contrived to come back, stronger and more determined at the start
of the following season, when they would inevitably emerge once
more as the team to beat.
Johnny Giles: "People didn't give us enough credit for picking
it up. After what we had been through, a lot of clubs, a lot of
players would have collapsed. But there were never any public
recriminations. Everyone kept quiet and we said we'd start again
next year. We knew we were the best team in the country."
Syd Owen: "We would just tell the players that they had done
themselves justice."
back to top
Billy Bremner notes that some of the never-say-die attitude which
was exhibited by his colleagues stemmed from Revie's aptitude
for man-management: "When you'd come to the end of the season,
you'd get options on your contract. I would go in and ask for
a rise. Then just as I'd walk in, he'd say, 'Wee man, I just want
a word with you. I'm going to increase your money', and then tell
you the amount. I thought: 'I wasn't going to ask for that much
... that's brilliant.' You'd walk out of his office thinking 'I've
done it' but then a bit later, you'd suddenly think: 'He's done
you. He's got you under contract again, but you think he's a good
guy because he's upped your wages!' "
There are many who theorise that it was Revie's caution, preoccupation
with opponents and all round fatalism that were behind United's
propensity for bottling it. The dossiers, the gamesmanship, the
paranoia, the defensiveness mindset … all were indicators of the
uptight nature of the man and his players. There will always be
a lingering memory of unfulfilled potential and the most glorious
of failures. The story of Don Revie and Leeds United is the most
dramatic of them all.
Don Revie brought a weird brew of professionalism, cynicism and
(eventually) style to the English game. He constructed a side
from the bottom up, attracting and retaining some of the country's
best teenage talent, and then honing them as the most resilient
and diamond hard of competitors. Consistency and the pursuit of
success on all fronts were his watchwords, and it was the very
breadth of his ambition
and perfectionism that lay behind many of United's greatest disappointments.
The eternal fixture backlogs and the intransigence of Revie's
nemesis, Football League secretary
Alan Hardaker, in fixing the dates of League games, continually
dulled United's challenge just as events reached their climax.
The tragedy of 1970 was
the most extreme of examples, and it is a travesty of justice
that such a wonderful team came second so often.
If Leeds had not been in at the death of virtually every competition
that they entered, they would doubtlessly have had more silverware
to show for their considerable efforts in the Sixties and Seventies.
But it would have been nowhere near as nail-biting and exciting…
Part 2 Learning the ropes (1927-51)
- Part 3 Centre stage with City (1951-56)
- Part 4 Shuffling off stage (1956-61)
- Part 5 On the march with Leeds United (1961-67)
- Part 6 The agony and the ecstasy (1967-74)
- Part 7 Inn-gerland! (1974-77) - Part
8 Disgrace and despair (1977-89)
|