100 years of Leeds United: Memories of past glories and hopes for a return to the Premier League
Henry Winter joins club for 100th birthday party full of hope for the future

“Oh my!” Gary McAllister exclaimed, his eyes alight with excitement. Leeds United’s graceful 1992 title-winning midfield player had just had his photograph taken with 45 other club legends in the Norman Hunter Suite at Elland Road. “Oh my! I was just looking about me! I’m an old-school footballer, a fan of football, so there were some special players. I spoke to Eddie Gray and Gordon McQueen, Tony Currie, Tony Yeboah, Gordon Strachan, outstanding! Johnny Giles, wow!” Leeds certainly celebrated their centenary in style on Thursday.

Having parked his car nearby, McAllister patiently accommodated the requests of countless Leeds fans as he strode towards the West Stand for the legends’ private reception before the centenary dinner in the pavilion across the road from the East Stand. Trying to keep pace with McAllister as he hurried to the ground, I listened as he talked of his love of Leeds, as all the memories came back, shaking the hands of familiar staff members as they eased the gates open for him, rolling back the years, taking him back into his old playground. So keen to catch up with former team-mates, McAllister bounded up the stairs into the Norman Hunter Suite.

Watching McAllister and all the legends, it felt like the team pictures on the wall had sprung to life, great names from Leeds’s famous past stepping out from the frame and filling the room. There was Hunter, still commanding awe. There was Allan Clarke, still slim, still looking poised for a half-chance. Trevor Cherry and Mick Jones were there, more of that great Don Revie side.

Howard Wilkinson continued to exude authority with that wry humour. Lucas Radebe was deep in conversation with Strachan. Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, Champions League semi-finalists in 2001, were there, taking a break from their managerial rigours. Everywhere you looked were reminders of the talent woven into the 100-year-old Leeds tapestry. They’d be worth a fortune now. “I was trying to work out the actual cost,” McAllister laughed.

The day started at Salem Chapel, where Leeds were founded. The chairman Andrea Radrizzani unveiled a plaque before all moved on to Civic Hall for a reception where Angus Kinnear, the managing director, announced that Elland Road would be expanded to 50,000 if they reach the Premier League. In the presence of Joe Jordan, Terry Cooper, Gordon McQueen, Cherry and Gray the cheers reverberated at the announcement of the Revie team being granted the Freedom of the City.

Then the focus moved outside, to Millennium Square. Radrizzani wanted a free event where fans gained access to the players, so there was the Centenary Roadshow. Backstage, local bands chatted about their love for Leeds, and what time they were on. The biggest Leeds band of all, Kaiser Chiefs, sent birthday greetings from the Peru leg of their tour. Out front, home-grown players such as Jamie Shackleton, 20, spoke of his love for Leeds, going to Elland Road for the first time aged six. Arriving on stage to huge cheers, Radrizzani addressed the audience, saying: “When people write to me, or I hear from them, saying they feel proud to be Leeds United fans, that’s the best for me.’’

He spoke of his desire for Leeds to get promoted back to the Premier League, and the fans cheered and sang Marching on Together. Afterwards, Radrizzani stayed and signed shirts. All the while, more birthday messages flooded in, from near, from James Milner, and far, from Michael Bridges in Australia.

The show moved across town, to Elland Road, guests flocking to the pavilion for “A Night of Legends”, as McAllister glided to the West Stand for the private reception and photo. He understood the passion for a team he served so well from 1990 to 1996. ‘‘I’d played against Leeds in my time at Leicester but it was not until you get here that you realise how massive it is,” McAllister recalled.

“It is a one-club city, so when you are in the city you’re not dodging bullets, you’re fully supported by the entire place, and I felt that immediately. I settled in Wetherby, north of the city, where a lot of players lived. Everywhere you went, the Leeds fans would be firmly behind you. That’s still here. There is probably a wee bit of desperation now. I feel it.” That hunger is vital, for all the years of frustration at being out of the top flight. “As soon as that goes, the club is in trouble. I love that expectation.

“Everywhere I go, certainly in my time working with Liverpool, the number of people who came up and said, ‘The Premier League needs Leeds United.’ It does. It is one of the super-clubs. There are clubs who have become super-clubs for reasons you know about [huge financial investment], but this has history, tradition, and when this club gathers momentum, it’s unstoppable.”

One of the young men charged with making that momentum unstoppable is Patrick Bamford, the No 9. Bamford emerged from the Revie Room suite, where Marcelo Bielsa’s players gathered before joining the legends, explaining how he takes inspiration from them.

Leeds are well placed for a return to the top flight as they sit just two points off the top of the Championship before today’s visit of Birmingham City.

“I’d been a couple of times to see mates at uni here, and they were saying it was a great city,” Bamford, 26, said. “But you don’t appreciate how big a club it is until you are involved and immersed in it. You see all the great players who’ve been here, the names around the stadium, the history. Everyone says you can’t live in the past but you have to admire and respect it. That past drags you along. It’s not really spoken about but there is that pressure of playing for Leeds but it’s a nice pressure, a good pressure to have. You saw how much it would have meant to people if we’d gone up last year. Everyone was down, everyone was hurting the same as we were.

“Everybody around the city wants us to get back in the Premier League, expects us to be back in the Premier League. If you look at the way the club is set up, even though the stadium is old, it is a Premier League club, everything is geared towards the Premier League.

“I’ve had some good times pretty much wherever I’ve been. I loved my last club, Middlesbrough, but this is a club that not only do they make you feel like part of the culture, the history but also where they’re trying to make you better. You can’t stand still and just say, ‘I’m at Leeds now, I’m happy playing my football now.’

“You’re at Leeds but you want to take the team forward. It’s a challenge for me and I wanted a challenge. Leeds are going to help me grow. It is the right place for me. You go to some clubs, do your training, you’re out of there, and you don’t get to feel the history of the club. Whereas here everyone’s making you feel welcome.

“I was a bit worried last year. There was the pressure of they’ve signed this striker for £10 million, he’s been injured, he’s not scored that many. I feel this year they have warmed to me, or I have shown my worth a bit more. Now whenever I’ve seen them, they’ve been positive. They always want photos, and every time everyone does that, banging the chest!” Bamford slams his right hand hard on to his heart. “It does show how much it means to them. You get people who have maybe been in work, all suited and booted, and they come up to me, banging their chest. It’s crazy.”

McAllister understood. He remembered his debut, at Goodison Park, a 3-2 win. “There were Leeds fans all over the ground,” McAllister said. “You could feel the city was properly behind the club. It is an inspiration. Then when you get inside the club and see on a match day . . . you just need to look at the Scottish players sat up in the stand watching, I had McQueen — Big Gordon — Eddie Gray, Peter Lorimer, Billy Bremner, so I felt I had to come here and do well, because Scotsmen had done well here. That inspiration didn’t let me down.

“The first season back up we finished fourth, so there was a wee bit of belief, and the second year [in 1992, when they won the league] there was a phrase that Leeds didn’t win the league, that Manchester United lost the league. But we only lost four games, we scored more than [Manchester United].”

That was a fine, well-balanced team of Wilkinson’s, especially the midfield of Strachan, McAllister, David Batty and Gary Speed. “People tend to look to the midfield and I was fortunate enough to play in it but we are taking away from Mel Sterland and Tony Dorigo. Look at today’s full backs. We had two very attacking full backs, it is the modern way now. Gordon Strachan was a wide man playing inside.” Giving McAllister and Batty extra support.

They were strong defensively. “With [Chris] Fairclough and [Chris] Whyte and John Lukic — you don’t win a league unless your goalkeeper was good,” McAllister added. “The midfield was good, but [Lee] Chapman and [Rod] Wallace were upfront and Eric Cantona did his wee bit there as well. It was a good team.”

As the former players talked, Bamford and the new generation strode in for the picture, kneeling in front of the three tiers of legends. Radrizzani joined them, having changed into black tie. Bielsa walked in quietly, unassumingly, clad in club tracksuit, as if wandering down the corner shop for some milk. Bielsa stood behind David O’Leary, with Brian Deane joking with Bowyer on his left and Nigel Martyn and Radrizzani on his right. “He’s different to any manager I’ve worked with,” Bamford said of Bielsa. “Some managers when you go into their office they put an arm around you, and you chat to them almost like you were talking to a family member. Tony Pulis at Middlesbrough, it was like speaking to a favourite uncle.”

With the frequently inscrutable Bielsa, Bamford continued: “He’s a hard guy, I don’t think anyone can read him.” Yet when Bamford was returning from injury last season, Bielsa famously rushed across the training pitch at Thorp Arch to hug the forward who had just scored a gem. “It’s strange because you see the video where he embraces me, but you don’t get that often so when you get it, it means a lot,” he said.

With that, the players went round in taxis to the pavilion, Radebe in particular being mobbed. Fans rushed down the road, nodding to the statues of Bremner and Revie along the way. Inside, the hugely popular pair of commentators Bryn Law and John Helm ably compered, interviewed, and entertained. Standing alongside Hunter and Giles, Gray said: “The best moment of my career was sitting in that dressing room, looking at the players, thinking there is no way we can get beat today.” McAllister talked through the ’92 title-winning team, and his mention of the precocity of Speed on the left, at only 22, brought an emotional applause. Roger and Carol Speed were present, hearing this salute to their much-missed son.

So were family of other legends mourned: Revie, Bremner, John Charles, Bobby Collins and Paul Madeley as well as Speed. Leeds got every detail right, worked so hard in organising, and sorting the logistics, including flying in Radebe and Yeboah from Africa. When Law interviewed Yeboah on stage, the striker remained spellbound at the fans’ support. Recalling his debut at QPR, coming off the bench. “My first touch was terrible but the fans were all clapping.” He’s never forgotten. “Welcome back home all these legends,” Radrizzani said. “You make me feel proud.”