March 17 – The Don Takes Charge | On This Football Day

March 17 – The Don Takes Charge

IT could’ve all been so different for Leeds. Back in 1961 Leeds director Ronald Crowther was sitting down to write a letter to the Bournemouth board, recommending one of his aging midfielders for their vacant managers job. Whatever he wrote must have been pretty convincing, as Crowther ditched the idea of sending his man to the south coast and instead installed him as player-manager of his struggling Division 2 side. The player, of course, was the Leeds legend Don Revie, who took the reigns of the Elland Road side today in 1961 and lead Leeds to the most successful period in their history. Unlucky, Bournemouth.

Due to his success in the dug-out, Revie’s playing career is often overlooked. After being scouted in his native north-east he signed for Leicester City as a 17-year old in 1944, operating as striker or deep lying midfielder. By the time he moved to Leeds in 1958 he had commanded combined transfer fees of £79,000, which was a British record, as Hull City, Manchester City and Sunderland had all taken punts on him, making him the Anelka of his day, if you like. On the pitch he was always seen as an intelligent player, and this was vindicated in the 1956 FA Cup final, where Revie’s Man City side played a system they called the “Revie Plan”, that imitated the Hungarian national team’s deployment of playmaker Nandor Hidegkuti. Revie turned in a man of the match performance as he picked up his only major honour as a player.

This tactic showed that the English game was beginning to evolve away from the old WM system and Revie was obviously taking it on board. When he took over Leeds the club were struggling at the wrong end of the old Division 2. Revie was able to steady the ship, keeping the side up as he began to learn the managerial trade. Within three years he had Leeds playing in the top flight and they wouldn’t take long to, quite literally, make their mark on the upper echelons of the English and European game.

Depending on your point of view, Revie’s Leeds side became the most feared/respected/talented/dirty side of the ’60s and ’70s. With their mixture of skill and aggression they won a first ever League title in 1969, with players such as Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles, Norman Hunter, Peter Lorimar and Eddie Gray bringing a total of two League titles, one FA Cup, one League Cup and two Fairs Cups to Elland Road. It could, however, have been so much more. Time and time again Leeds would crash out of competitions in the latter-stages and they managed to finish second in the league five times during Revie’s era.
Middlesbrough-born Revie also took it upon himself to change all aspects of the club. Like everyone else on the planet Revie was impressed with the all-conquering Real Madrid side of the 1950s, so he ditched Leeds’ traditional blue and yellow strip for the all-white stylings that Di Stefano and co could be found in. He would also change the club’s badge a number of times, getting rid of the Owl crest that irked Revie thanks to his phobia of birds. Whilst Revie may not have looked like a fashion-innovator, he was the first to see the potential commercial pickings from the sales of replica kits and his players could be founded wearing some very trendy sock-tags and Admiral tracksuits.

Revie eventually left Elland Road in 1974 when he was offered the England job. This didn’t go to plan, as he struggled to replicate the success of his tenure at Leeds and he would controversially quit in 1977 when the lure of petro-dollars galore from the United Arab Emirates proved to be too strong to resist. He would coach in the Middle East until the late ’80s when he revealed that he was suffering from motor neurone disease. His death in May 1989 was overshadowed by the events that night at Anfield, where Arsenal and Liverpool played out the most exciting title-deciding match ever seen. His funeral was attended by the majority of his legendary Leeds side, but shamefully, no representative from the FA was there to pay their respects.

Revie’s presence is still felt at Elland Road to this day, with the club naming the kop end after their former manager. See some footage of Revie’s former charges scoring goals, picking up trophies and scything down opponents below and make sure you head over here tomorrow for some cosmopolitan action.