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Part 1 An Appreciation - 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)
Ever since England's defeat in a vital World Cup qualifying game
against Italy in Rome in November 1976, there had been the air
of a man on borrowed time about manager Don Revie. He was convinced
that the FA were building up to his dismissal, and the clever
money in the newspapers was on the axe falling after the Wembley
return against the Italians completed the group stages.
The paranoia which had been building up in Revie's troubled mind
finally got the better of him, and he decided to deny his masters
the satisfaction of sacking him, and determined the timing and
manner of his own departure after securing a lucrative role as
supremo of football in the United Arab Emirates.
The way he chose to break the story led to one of the most histrionic
and self righteous newspaper campaigns of all time. Revie sold
the story of his departure to the Daily Mail. On 11 July 1977,
the paper scooped Fleet Street with a front-page story in which
Revie poured out his heart:
"I sat down with Elsie one night and we agreed that the job was
no longer worth the aggravation. It was bringing too much heartache
to those nearest to us. Nearly everyone in the country seems to
want me out. So I am giving them what they want. I know people
will accuse me of running away and it does sicken me that I cannot
finish the job by taking England to the World Cup finals in Argentina
next year. But the situation has become impossible."
The FA were furious, especially as they did not receive Revie's
letter of resignation until later that morning. The manner of
his leaving rankled with the pompous patriots of Fleet Street
who responded to public antipathy by hastening Revie's fall from
grace, branding him a traitor. Some of the articles written were
hysterical in the extreme and old enemy Bob Stoke said bluntly,
"He should have been castrated for the way he left England," while
Alan Hardaker's voice was thick
with biting sarcasm as he spitefully snapped, "Don Revie's decision
doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Now I can only hope he can
quickly learn to call out bingo numbers in Arabic."
Undoubtedly, Revie's handling of events was clumsy and served
to give ammunition for his critics' most bile-ridden, venomous
outpourings. Even the more considered comments pointed out the
flaws.
Johnny Giles: "It's obvious he shouldn't have done it the way
he did. He didn't do himself justice. He left himself open to
savage criticism by telling the Daily Mail first. There was no
defence for it. He ruined  a
lot of good work and then became a baddy... which he wasn't. But
who isn't greedy? The people who write the stories in the tabloid
newspapers might be the greediest in the world."
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Gerald Sinstadt gave a cool headed and objective assessment of
matters in The Times on 15 July:
"Once again the England football team is managerless. Don Revie
… has resigned without waiting for the virtually inevitable failure
to qualify for the 1978 finals. His task, already difficult in
a period when the general standard was mediocre, had been made
harder by injury to several players who might have raised the
level. To that extent Mr Revie was entitled to sympathy. Now,
with the timing and the manner of his departure, that sympathy
and more will vanish.
"It is nevertheless remarkable that the conduct of the outgoing
manager has so far attracted more comment than the qualifications
of those who might take his place. For this Mr Revie himself is
largely to blame. The first announcement - to his employers, the
Football Association, as well as to the public at large - came
in the Daily Mail. He was leaving, Mr Revie was reported to have
said, to protect his family from the criticism his job increasingly
attracted: 'It was bringing too much heartache.'
"Twenty-four hours later, the Daily Mail was able to reveal that
the heartache had been eased by an offer to run football in the
United Arab Emirates for the next four years with a remuneration
of £340,000 tax-free. It was also disclosed that when Mr Revie
abandoned his team for the first match of the recent tour of South
America in order to watch Finland play Italy in England's World
Cup qualifying group, he also took the opportunity to visit Dubai.
"Although some of the response to these developments may be attributed
to Fleet Street pique, the issues lie deeper than professional
envy in the media. Whether the Daily Mail outsmarted its rivals
as a result of the perspicacity of its football correspondent
or the generosity of its accountants can be only a matter of conjecture.
Whichever the explanation, either was certain to expose Mr Revie
to more of the criticism he has apparently found so burdensome.
"As manager of England, Mr Revie involved - and, indeed, sought
to involve - the whole nation in his public responsibilities of
the past three years. He might therefore have felt obliged to
end that involvement with a more generously open announcement,
especially in the light of his stated resentment of the
fact that 'everyone seems to have believed that I've just been
feathering my own nest.'
"The timing of the resignation is another matter. Those who have
been forecasting England's certain failure to qualify for a place
in Argentina next year can hardly claim that Revie would have
enhanced the prospects by remaining in office. The sequel to England's
matches against Luxembourg (October 12) and Italy (November 16)
was expected to be a clamour for Mr Revie's removal. So what harm
has come from his anticipation of the demand?
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"In Mr Revie's defence it could be said that his position at
the Football Association was not, in any case, as secure as it
should have been. Although he undeniably had his supporters at
Lancaster Gate, he cannot have been unaware of grapevine mutterings
last season that unofficial soundings were being made about his
possible successor.
"Perhaps it is worth restating the basic facts of the matter.
Mr Revie was England's manager for three years and one week. In
that time 29 full international matches were played. Fourteen
were won, eight drawn and seven lost. More than 50 players were
given the chance to prove themselves. This was interpreted as
indecision rather than a display of fair treatment, but in reality
reflected the paucity of really outstanding individuals.
"Failure in the European Championship, diminishing hopes in the
World Cup, and finally humiliation in the home international championship
provoked mounting disenchantment among critics, paid and unpaid.
At that juncture came the offer of a job which would guarantee
in four years security for life. Which of us can say that, in
that position, we would have made a different decision? Mr Revie's
weakness, surprisingly, in a man who has worked hard at public
relations since he became England's manager, was to make his announcement
in a manner that was undignified and ungrateful.
"Team games were nurtured in Britain a century ago as a visible
expression of a code of ethics which, roughly speaking, governed
the attitudes of society at large. Demonstrably, many of those
attitudes have changed. We may deplore the transformation but
it is naïve to suppose that sport can indefinitely preserve old
standards in isolation.
"Nonetheless, there are qualities which should not lightly be
abandoned. It is possible to sympathise with Mr Revie for finding
himself weighing in the scales an individual's right to better
his own lot against the obligations of one who has taken on the
role of keeper of a nation's dreams. Equally, it is impossible
to escape the irony of the man who encouraged crowds to sing Land
of Hope and Glory turning to seek his desserts in the desert."
Revie had spoken of the intolerable pressures placed upon him
as England manager, but they were as nothing compared to what
followed in the wake of his departure.
The FA charged him with bringing the game into disrepute. Revie
refused to attend the hearing in which he was suspended indefinitely
from any involvement in FA-controlled football until he appeared
to  face
their complaints. It was 18 December 1978 before Revie would agree
to meet.
The eventual hearing commenced with two objections from the accused.
Firstly, his counsel argued that the FA had no jurisdiction over
their client and, secondly, they objected to the presiding presence
of Sir Harold Thompson, whose post as FA chairman destroyed his
impartiality. Both these objections were summarily brushed aside
and Don Revie was banned from English football for ten years.
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The severity of the judgement prompted Revie to take the case
to the High Court a year later. Revie made a claim for damages
and demanded that the court declare his ban illegal. The crux
of the case hinged upon the hostility of Sir Harold Thompson,
whom Revie's barrister described as 'prosecutor, witness, judge
and jury'. The judge listened to a lengthy series of complaints
against Thompson, none of which impressed him. He concluded: "Mr
Revie is a very prickly man and I think he has been brooding on
imagined wrongs". Nevertheless, Mr Justice Cantley quashed the
ten-year ban, although his summing up was scathing:
"Mr Revie was the English team manager. He held the highest post
of its kind in English professional football and he published
and presented to the public a sensational and notorious example
of disloyalty, breach of duty, discourtesy and selfishness. His
conduct brought English professional football, at a high level,
into disrepute." The FA was ordered to pay one third of Revie's
costs plus the entirety of their own. Ted Croker estimated that
their total losses were in the region of £141,000.
Lord Harewood: "I think it was an agony for him and the elements
of character assassination on the part of the defending counsel
grilling him were very unattractive. The summing-up of the judge
was one of the craziest things I have ever read. I think that
judge was extremely ill-versed in human behaviour … he was an
ass. If he really thought that Sir Harold Thompson had behaved
admirably and Don hadn't, then he is a very, very poor judge of
character... and of evidence. He plainly disbelieved every word
I said but I don't give a bugger what he thought."
Ted Croker: "I didn't like the way Cantley handled it at all.
I thought his summing-up was very wrong, his assessment of the
various characters totally wrong... he praised Sir Harold Thompson
to the hilt as being an honourable man. I didn't think it was
fair and he should not have worried so much about the personalities."
Looking back at the sorry episode, it is difficult to avoid the
conclusion that Revie was simply myopic and self-destructive.
He clearly underestimated the depth of ill-feeling provoked by
his abrupt desertion and as a result suffered terrible damage
to his reputation. Ironically, it was all so unnecessary. His
detractors maintained that greed played the major part in hastening
his departure, but the actual timing was  not
particularly clever in financial terms. If he had stayed with
England for those vital last months he might even have won everything
- the Arab money, compensation from the FA and a relatively quiet
exit.
In the end Revie served out three years of the four that the
United Arab Emirates had signed him for, with his new bosses terminating
his contract in May 1980 by mutual agreement, on the pretext that
an Arabic-speaking coach was required. Elsie had never settled
in the Middle East, but Revie enjoyed considerable success, noting,
"We lost only one of our last nine games at national level. I
am leaving a squad of good young players and am very happy about
the whole business."
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He almost immediately became manager of the UAE First Division
team Al Nasr, where he remained for a while, recruiting former
Leeds player Eric Smith as assistant. He returned for a short
time to a consultancy role at Elland Road, before another brief
stay in the Middle East, managing Egypt's Al-Al FC. He came back
to the UK again on a permanent basis in 1984, seeking to land
the post of QPR boss, and saying: "I never thought I'd have the
chance to get back into the English game but I have discovered
I have missed the involvement. I've been away seven years and
don't know everything about First Division players. But I'm still
able to get on to the training pitch and after 40 years, I feel
I have something to offer the game."
However, Revie fell out with Rangers chairman Jim Gregory over
the package, prompting the QPR supremo to say: "The terms he asked
for then were not those he was seeking when I met him. In view
of his increased demands, I have unfortunately come to the conclusion
that I no longer wish Mr Revie to be the new manager of Queen's
Park Rangers."
Revie eventually ended up working part time for Total Sport,
the sports booking company run by his son Duncan, before retiring
with Elsie to Scotland.
In May 1987 specialists diagnosed Revie as suffering with the
incurable motor neurone disease, which causes gradual muscle wastage.
Faced with the possibility of imminent death, Revie was admirably
defiant: "I aim to do all I can to raise as much as I can for
research into the disease. It's not all doom and gloom". That
same indomitable spirit was conveyed in a message from Billy Bremner
who urged his gaffer to keep fighting, "just like you told the
players to in our great days together".
There was a final reunion with the players he had loved so much
from his time at Elland Road. In May 1988, Leeds United arranged
a benefit match in his honour, with the money being split between
research into motor neurone disease and the Leeds Children in
Need campaign. For many, that return visit to Elland Road was
the first occasion in years that they had encountered their former
boss, who was now confined to a wheelchair. "It was cruel for
someone associated with the physical side of life," says Joe Jordan.
Johnny Giles recalls: "He was bad... he couldn't move his arms...
but he didn't want to talk about it." For Billy Bremner, it was
a poignant occasion. "He was crying a bit that night and reminiscing
about us. He loved reminiscing. I saw him in the early stages
of his illness and he was reminiscing about his Manchester  City
days." Lord Harewood recalls: "It was very moving and Don was
in good form although totally incapacitated and blown-up by steroids
or whatever they were giving him. I spoke quite a lot to him although
we were talking superficialities. Don didn't even stay for the
game. He couldn't take the strain... there was too little resilience
left."
On 26 May 1989 Don Revie finally lost his battle against the
disease and died in Murrayfield Private Hospital in Edinburgh.
When the news broke, the gates of Elland Road were soon bedecked
with scarves and posters in tribute to the man who had given Leeds
United all the success it had ever known. Four days after his
death, Revie's funeral took place at the Warriston Crematorium
in Edinburgh, an occasion which reunited not only former Leeds
players but other admirers, among them Lawrie McMenemy, whose
managerial career Revie had encouraged, and Kevin Keegan.
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Revie's funeral was conspicuous for the absence of soccer officialdom.
Even the once acerbic press deplored the 'FA's final snub'. A
final poignant comment from Kevin Keegan begged for a long overdue
reassessment of Revie's contribution to football:
"It saddens me that the public at large had, and still have,
the wrong impression of him. He was kind, generous and caring.
When he left the England job, he did the right thing for his family
but did it wrongly. He knew it and was big enough to admit it.
He'd have been as successful as Alf Ramsey with England if the
players had been good enough. We weren't."
In contrast, however, Don Revie was exceptionally good. He was
one of the greatest managers who ever lived, and the architect
of a remarkable if notorious revolution that saw a provincial
club emerge from the depths of the Second Division to become one
of the premier outfits in Europe. The tale of the man and his
club is a dramatic if tragic one, and one which will never be
forgotten.
Part 1 An Appreciation - 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)
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