Each sports team has its legends, those players who – in a few years as in an entire career – have managed to leave an indelible mark in the memory of the fans.
We know this kind of player well in Italy too: Francesco Totti, to name one of whom we continue to rightly speak even in these weeks, is in his twenty-second season in Serie A, always with the same shirt, and is still a very important element of Roma. , of which he is captain, symbol, and flag.
THE BEST PLAYERS IN THE HISTORY OF A CLUB
Of course, it is not easy to find, in other teams, elements with a similar experience to that of Totti, but you can still identify the best players in the history of a club. For this reason today we are launching a series of articles in which we will present the great legends of the main European clubs, touching not only the best-known companies such as the great Italians or Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United or Liverpool, but also the second-tier ones, sometimes forgotten but full of history.
One of these is certainly Leeds United, for some years away from the great results of the past but still at the center of the news thanks to the films and books that have been dedicated to its history and above all to the recent transfer market operation developed by Massimo Cellino, which after some legal disputes acquired the property while selling Cagliari, its historic Italian company, to the Fluorsid industrial group.
Who, then, have been the most representative players in the history of Leeds? Here are the five that the same fans of the white, yellow, and blue team chose in 2006.
John Charles
The Scorer Who Passed to Juventus
The player who finished at number 2 in the peacock fan rankings is an old acquaintance of Italian football too, John Charles. Welsh native of Swansea, born in 1931, he joined Leeds at the age of 17 following an audition in which he was chosen exclusively for his physical size, which was already important; his youth career, in fact, was limited to a few second-tier Welsh teams and was not characterized by particular successes.
FROM CENTRAL DEFENDER TO TOP SCORER
Within a few years, however, he managed to gain confidence in the team’s coaches, first making space between the reserves and then accessing the first team. His debut came in 1949, even as a central defender, showing great talent in marking even undisputed champions of the time such as Billy Houliston; for a few years, he alternated games in defense with others as center-forward, until, in October 1952, he began scoring goals in a burst, removing all doubts from his coaches. In the following five years he scored 146 goals in 200 games, with unforgettable seasons like that of 1953/54 (with 42 goals in 39 games) and above all that in the First Division, the only one with the Yorkshire team in the top flight, in who scored 38 goals in 40 league games,
Precisely that extraordinary season aroused the interest of various foreign clubs: the player was thus bought by Juventus for 65 thousand pounds, a figure that doubled the previous record of the English championship. With the Bianconeri the Welshman played five seasons, forming an unforgettable attacking trio with Omar Sivori and Giampiero Boniperti: in the first year he won the top scorer and in the following years he led the Turin team to the conquest of three championships.
HUMAN QUALITIES
After a fleeting appearance at Roma and a brief return to Leeds, he closed his career between Wales and the English minor leagues, also registering 38 appearances in the national team. After his retirement she ran a pub and a sporting goods shop for a long time, receiving great honors, especially in the latter part of his life, with the appointment as Commander of the Order of the British Empire and the appointment as Vice President of the Football Association. Welsh; he was also chosen as the strongest Welsh footballer of all time and also named in Italy as the strongest foreign footballer in the history of Juventus. Above all, he is remembered – as well as for his talent – for his human gifts: nicknamed the gentle giant, never received a single yellow card in his entire career. As Bobby Robson wrote: “John wasn’t just one of the greatest players ever. He was one of the greatest men who ever played in this sport ». He passed away in 2004.
Billy Bremner
The Captain of Great Successes
John Charles was a player who managed to make his mark for Leeds in just a few seasons, making his trademark physicality of his irrepressible physicality; more or less in the same years of his fleeting and late return to England, however, a young midfielder who would become a flag on Elland Road also began to play in the yellow and white team, dragging the team – in seventeen years and 587 appearances – to the conquest of a League Cup, an FA Cup and two of the only three league titles won by the Yorkshire team: Billy Bremner.
Bremner was the historic captain of the team, the leader of the golden age that led Leeds to excel both at home and in Europe between the end of the sixties and the early seventies: in addition to the national titles, in that period there were also two Cups of Fairs, in 1968 and 1971, the first against Ferencvaros and the second against Bettega and Capello’s Juventus.
SMALL BUT TOUGH
Scotsman, Bremner had long been watched by Leeds as early as school, and signed on the day after his seventeenth birthday in 1959; only 1.65 meters tall, he had previously been discarded by both Arsenal and Chelsea, who considered him too small for British football; However, he made his debut in the first team in January 1960, in a season that would actually end with relegation, nevertheless becoming a staple of the white midfield already the following year, a role he would have maintained until 1976.
A tough and tough player, he was the perfect representative of the typical British midfielder, who concedes little to the show and who fights for every ball, sometimes even going beyond what is allowed by the regulations; aggressive almost to the brawl, however, he also had the innate ability to score decisive goals, as happened in at least four semi-finals, and to be the true leader on the pitch of a team that perhaps got even less than it deserved, with national titles lost on the last day and numerous European finals and semifinals.
To understand the specific weight of what is considered the greatest player in the history of Leeds (complete with a statue outside the stadium), just mention the most famous anthem sung by the fans, the Glory Glory Leeds United which is performed on the air. of John Brown’s Song, and in which a verse is dedicated entirely to him:
LITTLE BILLY BREMNER IS THE CAPTAIN OF THE CREW
FOR THE SAKE OF LEEDS UNITED HE WOULD BREAK HIMSELF IN TWO
HIS HAIR IS RED AND FUZZY AND HIS BODY’S BLACK AND BLUE
BUT LEEDS GO MARCHING ON.
(i.e: Little Billy Bremner is the captain of the crew / for Leeds United’s sake he would break in two / His hair is red and frizzy and his body is black and blue / But Leeds still advances). Having coached Leeds for three seasons in the 1980s, Bremner worked primarily as a sports commentator. He passed away prematurely at the age of 55.
Bobby Collins
The Mature Midfielder Who Touched the Double
Barely 1.60 meters tall, he was also the other Scottish pillar of Leeds midfield in the sixties, the more mature Bobby Collins, who wore the white shirt 149 times in five years, when he was already in his thirties. age and had already been a flag before Celtic in Glasgow and then Everton.
THE CURSED UNITED
Those were the years that would have fueled the myth of the cursed United, an epithet born from a famous novel by David Peace also brought to the big screen a few years ago: Leeds were coached by Don Revie and played a very aggressive and partly incorrect football that would become the trademark of the team, but which would then be been criticized by Revie’s successor on the team bench, the hated Brian Clough. Collins, who helped build the backbone of that winning team, however, left the team before the great successes: in his CV in Leeds, in fact, he only achieved a series of second places both in the league and in the national cups, even if he personally reached the milestone of being named England’s Player of the Year, the first Scotsman to take that award.
The golden year was in fact 1965: the year before the team had been promoted from the second division to the major championship, and immediately was able to aim for the title and indeed even a double, given that it simultaneously came to close the championship at the top of the standings and in the FA Cup final. The championship, however, went to Manchester United, who had the same points as Leeds but a better goal difference, while the English Cup was won by Liverpool.
THE INJURY AGAINST TURIN
He was already thirty-five when, in 1966, he suffered a terrible injury in the Coppa delle Fiere during a match against Turin; he managed to recover and return to the field for a few more games, but he was unable – thanks to his age – to regain his lost form, quickly moving on to other smaller teams. In the years after his retirement he worked as an observer for Leeds, convincing the manager Revie to buy the young Joe Jordan, then an important forward of the team and also seen in Italy with Milan in the 80s (as well as one of the most passionate assistant coaches of today’s English football, which a few years ago returned to the center of attention for a clash with Rino Gattuso in the Champions League). He then also coached some minor teams and the youth teams of the peacocks. He passed away in January of this year.
Eddie Gray
The Winger Who Scored the Best Goal in Elland Road History
So far we have seen two Scots and one Welsh, but no English. Even the fourth element of the ranking drawn up by the club’s fans is actually a “foreigner” or at least a player not eligible for the local national team, the Scotsman Eddie Gray, who completes the trio of the midfield from the highlands that dominated the scene at Leeds between the 1960s and 1970s.
17 SEASONS IN WHITE JERSEY
Actually a winger of good intelligence, great speed, and impressive dribbling and capable of fine goals, Gray was born in Glasgow in 1948, and as a boy, he dreamed of being able to play for Celtic; at the age of 16, however, he was placed under contract by Leeds, which in those early 1960s had made Scotland his favorite hunting ground for fishing promising youngsters; he made his debut in the first team, still a minor, on New Year’s Day 1966 and played in the white jersey for his entire career, retiring 17 years later, in 1983.
He probably played his best seasons between 1969 and 1971, before the injuries – which had already begun to bother him – began to keep him more frequently away from the football fields: in that period he was one of the drivers of the team that won the first Scudetto in its history, setting a record of points and which came in second place in 1970, 1971 and 1972; he also won his second Fairs Cup and an FA Cup.
Also Read: THE WINNERS OF THE GIRO D’ITALIA THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
As mentioned, however, the injuries became more and more serious and Gray managed to contribute only minimally to the 1974 championship; also the new trainer Brian Clough, who as mentioned replaced Revie with little success, began his first meeting at the helm of the team, right in 1974, stating that if Gray had been a horse, he would have been killed for some time, which certainly would not do well to the morale of the swift wing.
THE UNFORGETTABLE GOAL AT BURNLEY
Despite his bad luck, he is remembered and still loved by fans both because he was a fundamental element of the great Leeds that dominated at home and in Europe, and for some of his unforgettable goals and in particular for the two scored at Burnley in 1970, one of which was voted as the finest goal in club history and one of the five most memorable of all time. Furthermore, he was mild-mannered and, like Charles, never earned a single card in his very long career. As soon as he retired from football in 1982, he too spent a few seasons coaching the team, and above all, he was the head of the youth sector which brought players such as Harry Kewell, Alan Smith, and Jonathan Woodgate to the first team. Today he is a radio and television commentator for the team’s matches.
Allan Clarke
The Boy With the Incredible Flair for Goals
We conclude the five with the only English player that fans have included in the final five, once again a member, albeit one of the youngest, of the great Leeds of Revie: the center forward Allan Clarke.
REVIE’S CHOICE
A promising young English footballer who had impressed him at Fulham in his early twenties and then led Leicester City to the FA Cup final, Clarke was bought by Leeds in 1969 at the express wish of the coach, who immediately placed him at the center of the attack of his war machine; there, already in the first season, he earned the nickname of sniffer, sniffer, precisely because of the extraordinary nose for goals that led him to score in situations that were often unthinkable.
He continued at excellent levels practically in every season of the first half of the ’70s, but collected fewer successes than his very strong team would have deserved, with an impressive series of second places in the championship and cups; he left the team in 1978, now 32 years old and with 273 appearances under his belt, as well as 110 goals, to marry for a couple of seasons at Barnsley as a player-manager.
THE PARENTHESIS AS A COACH
In 1980, however, he was recalled as a manager to Leeds himself, immediately obtaining a good ninth place but being relegated to the following season; he then changed various teams, obtaining mixed results, without being able to return to the top flight. After 1990 he no longer coached, moving on to a career in the world of sales; in any case, he remains an often sought-after commentator for both Leeds matches and English football history. He had four other brothers who played football at a good professional level (the youngest, Wayne, also won a championship with Everton) and boasts 19 caps for the national team with 10 goals, but had the misfortune to be part of the generation that, after the victory of the ’66 World Cup, often failed to qualify for the most important continental and international competitions.
Leave a Reply