August 12 - He Heart Huckerby

TODAY in 1999 David O’Leary was proving that he was getting the hang of this spending money lark, as he signed Coventry City striker Darren Huckerby for £6m.

O’Leary had been in the Elland Road hotseat for a year and was gaining plaudits across the game for his attacking style of play and finishing fourth in the Premiership to qualify for the Uefa Cup at the end of his first season.
He was also striking up a good working relationship with the Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale that seemed to consist of O’Leary asking to buy and a player and Publicity Pete stumping up the cash, no questions asked.

Huckerby had flourished under the stewardship of former Leeds midfielder Gordon Strachan who paid £1m to bring him to Highfield Road in 1996.

Whilst Huckerby was not O’Leary’s worst big-money buy during his four-year spell at Leeds (step up £7m one-cap wonder Seth Johnson), the striker only scored two Premier League goals in 40 appearances for the Yorkshire club and was sold to Manchester City.

This then encouraged O’Leary to go striker-crazy as Alan Smith, Robbie Keane, Robbie Fowler, Michael Bridges, Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell were all under his bokos at some point during his reign.

Hucks meanwhile, spent three years at City, playing an instrumental part of their return to the Premiership in 2002. One of those players who never quite got to grips with scoring in the top flight, Huckerby again struggled and was sold to Norwich where he became a huge hit with the fans, twice winning their Player of the Year award in his five-year spell at the club.

Last month the Nottingham-born striker answered Burt Bacharach’s 1968 question ‘Do You Know the Way to San José’ with a resounding YES, as he moved to MLS side San José Earthquakes and has banged in two goals in his first three games. See him bagging against Becks and the Galaxy below to help get Ruud Guillet and Alexi Lalas the boot and find out what else was happening today here.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

 Loading ...