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Nothing Without
Labour
From
'The Team Makers : A Gallery of the Great Soccer
Managers'
By Peter Morris (1971, Pelham Books , London)
Don
Revie ... always the track-suit manager - even in the
office
Sometime
in the late summer of 1970 the crying stopped and Leeds
United, suffering mortal anguish after the triple
disaster of being the best team never to win anything in
one memorable and tension-ridden campaign, got a grip on
themselves and settled down to try again. In a few weeks
they had challenged for, and almost unbelievably lost,
the European Cup, the League and the F .A. Cup.
The
League they had let go for Everton, preferring to
concentrate on the two Cups, neither of which they had
won. But they twice lost to Celtic in the European Cup
when the odds were for them; the F .A. Cup they twice won
morally but in the first repla y since 1912 , lost in
extra time to a Chelsea side inferior in skill and team
work if not in spirit and strength.
But they
still had Don Revie. So they had. . . the best manager in
the business, many said, and they were right at the time
and may still be so when these words are read. A big man,
Revie, both physically and in his philosophy towards a
game which can offer such glittering rewards yet
disappoint so cruelly- and for the Leeds United of 1970,
so unpredictably.
And in
1970, Revie played the man. His world crashed around his
ears and though some of his bitterly disappointed players
could not rise to it after all the drama and the
desperate hour or so of that traumatic Old Trafford Final
replay, Revie did what he had to do.
God alone
knows what it cost him then to find a smile and face his
public. To be within grasp of at least two such major
honours yet in the end, to have lost all was the bitter
pill he had to get down. Yet Revie did it. He had a right
to be sour but he showed nothin~ of it. Perhaps he drew
some strength that night from Sir Matt Busby, his early
guide and mentor, who, in 1957, had endured a similar
experience when his pre Munich Manchester United team
failed in their great bid for the triple crown of League
champions, F .A. Cup-winners and European champions
Cup-winners.
Disappointment
is alv.'ays hard to take and Revie had to take it for
himself, for his players and for his directors who had so
much faith in him and his ideals and who knew just how he
had laboured to make Leeds great - a Leeds, now, whose
skill and flair had finally emerged from that dour mould
of strength and team discipline.
Ironically,
just when we had given Leeds their due, when our fear and
dislike of their spartan football and machine-like
efficiency had changed to uneq uivocal admiration for
their often superb play, they lost out.
They lost
out because when they were in urgent need, the ball would
not run for them and so the prizes were not to be, not in
197ø at any rate. And not all the willing and praying of
Revie, himself, and of his faithful lieutenants, Maurice
Lindley, Syd Owen and little Les Cocker could make it so.
All past
history now, of course. But Revie is still very much a
part of history. A man who time and events perhaps
singled out to be the logical inheritor of Sir Matt's
mantle, to stand forth as the manager of the sixties,
just as Busby had been the manager of the fifties.
Revie's
shoulders are broad enough to carry the accolade. His
skill and his dedication to the Leeds cause will surely
carry him through the seventies and perhaps, in time, he
will equal Busby's long long stay at Old Trafford, become
the father figure at Elland Road, that modern soccer
phoenix risen from the ashes of Second Division oblivion
not all that long ago.
Truly,
the Don Revie success story with Leeds has been a triumph
of skilled and dedicated managership, of efficient
coaching and scouting, of thinking big and acting big, of
taking the gritty approach so characteristic of
Yorkshire; of being optimistic enough to believe that it
could all happen because you could make it happen if you
had faith enough. And this is really all Revie had when
he took the job on in March, 1961.
He says
'I owe a debt of gratitude to Leeds and their chairman at
the time, Mr Harry Reynolds, who gave me my chance to
become a manager. And I am not ashamed to admit that I
modelled my ideas on managership on those of Sir Matt
Busby and Manchester U nited.'
Busby met
Revie, gave him sound advice and encouragement and thus
set in motion one of the outstanding managerial
operations of post-war football.
Revie, a
distinguished playing career behind him with Leicester,
Hull, Manchester City, Sunderland and finally Leeds, had
won six England caps (a paltry award for such a gifted
footballer) and played in two Wembley F .A. Cup Finals.
starting as an inside-fofward he had with Manchester
City, helped to pioneer the deep-lying centre-forward
role in this country. The very difficult switch from the
Elland Road dressing rooms to manager's office was, as he
admits 'a lucky break'.
Leeds,
relegated to the Second Division in their black year of
1960 were bent on restoring the club's pride and creating
a new, successful image in the West Riding where Rugby
League football has always been a formidable contender
for public affection- at least it was then if not quite
so now.
Recalling
that early period in his managerial career Revie says
'even then, we had our dreams and ambitions although we
were at the wrong end of the Second Division table. M y
first move, in fact, was to change the club's colours
from blue and gold to the all-white of l~eal Madrid. I
reasoned that if you think small then you stay small.'
After
three years of re-organisation and massive effort by
everyone at Elland Road with Harry Reynolds leading the
great drive to success, Leeds won promotion to the First
Division and began the task of finishing what they had
set out to do. . . achieving national, then international
acclaim.
It was
now that their far-flung scouting network began to earn
its keep as youngsters on whom the club had expended much
time and money and limitless patience began to come good.
For Revie, then establishing himself as an up-and-coming
manager, the necessity to appoint new staff had not
arisen. Already, he had the services of Syd Owen and Les
Cocker under whom he had trained as a player and
together, these three worked in perfect harmony towards
consolidating and expanding what Leeds had already
gained.
Seven
years of hard graft, of working with a Board of Directors
who let him manage, of adhering to the club maxim of
'helping and being honest with each other' and of
producing players of character brought the results. But
until March, 1968, Leeds could not actually win anything
as tangible evidence of their efforts. Twice runners-up
in the First Division; twice in fourth place. Runners-up
to Liverpool in the 1965 F.A. Cup Final: seemingly always
the bridesmaid and never the bride.
Even
their fine showings in the Fairs Cup did not raise many
ripples outside Leeds itself. But in 1968 Leeds finally
won their first trophy- the Football League Cup. They
beat Arsenal by the only goal of a drab, excruciatingly
boring match at Wembley, won no friends, only a host of
critics who deplored their grey, unadventurous tactics,
their penchant for closing the game up once they had the
lead. No good, we said, no good !
Leeds had
to win that match, had to win something to keep faith
with their supporters. Supporters who could only guess
just then that this was no more than the prelude to
further triumphs. The rest of us were too sceptical.
Leeds, with all their efficiency were still not a good
enough side to win the major prizes. So we thought !
Their
First Division championship team of 1969 was a much more
attractive eleven than that which won the Football League
Cup. The Leeds side which in 1970, failed at Wembley, at
Hampden and at Old Trafford was an even better one. The
skills, the imagination, the teamwork were there for all
to see. Regrettably, all the goals which should have
accrued as the natural end product did not materialise.
Leeds, the super team, had, after all, an Achilles heel.
When
Leeds were on the threshold of their first title Revie
was indignantly refuting the line that he had only a
powerhouse team with no individual talents. 'Our young
players already had inherent skills when we first took
them. Now they have matured. People seem to forget that
we have seven full internationals and four Under-23
internationals here. That doesn't happen by accident,' he
argued.
Early in
197ø, seven Leeds men had been called up for England
training and Revie was throwing up his arms in delight at
this recognition of players he and his coaching staff had
always known would reach international standard. He has
always backed his hunches so, has been prepared to build
teams around men he knew would be irreplaceable.
Once, he
nearly left Leeds because they wanted to sell young Billy
Bremner to Everton for a mere 25,000 pounds. 'If he goes,
I go too' he warned the Leeds directors. In the end, they
saw his side of it. Revie knew Bremner was one of the two
players around whom he could fashion a new team. Bobby
Collins was the other. Two Scots, a brace of wee soccer
general.5 with the will to steer their colleagues to
success. No coincidence that both Collins and much later,
Bremner, both became Footballers of the Year. No
coincidence that Revie has twice been named Manager of
the Year.
His flair
for taking raw youth, absorbing it into his scheme of
things and grooming it to stardom was reflected in the
surprising versatility of players like Terry Cooper, once
a leftwinger at Wolverhampton, Rod Belfitt, Peter
Lorimer, Eddie Gray, Bremner, himself, of course, but
more especially Paul Madeley, whose enormous capacity for
playing well in any position made him the most valuable
utility man in the game.
Revie
believes that barring a complete breakdown in the system,
Leeds must be one of the leading clubs in the First
Division for perhaps another two or three years. There
seems no end to thc flow of young players draftcd into
the club and under the guidance of Chief Coach Syd Owen
the immaturity is scaled off them, the wheat sorted from
the chaff . There has been comparatively little of thc
lattcr for Leeds are ultraselectivc in their choice of
the young men they want to keep.
In the
old days, Leeds recruitcd some of their best players from
the Yorkshire coalfields. They take comparatively few now
but Revie and Owen have a feeling for Scotland and the
north-east where the productivity rate is still high
despite the intcnsc compctition. Thcy have also struck it
rich in South Wales which is a rather remote area for a
northern-based club.
Among
othcr clubs, Leeds, undcr Rcvie, have paid particular
attention to the welfare of their young players and their
youth scheme is one of the best run of all. Says Revie of
his youngsters '1 tcll thcm . . . what you put into the
game you take out, othcrwisc thcre'll be no returns. You
can earn a lot of money in ten or fiftcen years and at ~~
be financially secure for life if you arc prcpared to
work hard. This is common sense.'
He
believcs, as do other modern managers, that today's young
professionals are more imaginative and more flexible than
those of his playing days.
He has
visions of a super soccer acadcmy at Elland Road. A
hostel for young footballers where they will learn the
game and at the same time prepare themselves under
qualified teachers for another trade or profession ready
for when their playing days are over. It is a dream many
have and in thc fullness of time it will undoubtedly come
true. When it does, then Leeds will be among the front
runners.
Revie's
reaction to all youngsters is of affection and tolerance
although he spares no one his wrath when certain marks
are ovcrstepped. He is a huge bear of a man with a wide
frank face. He smiles a lot and boasts a mighty jaw
reflecting, perhaps, his Yorkshire origins in
Middlesbrough, that hardest of hard northern towns where
once, times were even harder. Revie, born in Bell Street,
not so far from Ayresome Park, lost his mother when he
was still a schoolboy and his father, a joiner, was
frequcntly out of work. Perhaps the raw youthhood he
endured prompted those controversial remarks about the
'soft south' and although they rather reboundcd on him in
the 1969-70 season, there is a great deal of truth in his
philosophy about the importance of dcciding the type of
background which breeds footballers and the effcct on
their character.
In 1944,
when he joined Leiccster City and first began to make a
name, Revic courted and married Elsie Duncan, niece of
Johnny 'Tookic' Duncan, then City's manager and doyen of
a famous Scottish footballing family. The prodigal son
was welcome.
John
Duncan had played with Raith Rovers alongside Alex James
and his family was steeped in the game, its traditions
and science. Much of it rubbed off on his son-in-law. It
fonned the basis of Revie's earlier Soccer thinking, made
it easier for him to accept his key role in the 'Revie
plan' which revolutionised the Manchcster City team of
1955.
There was
for me a remarkable similarity of pattern between the
tactics of Lceds in 1970 and those of Manchester City in
1955, not a few of them owing their origins to Revie's
own improvisations.
Leeds,
incidentally, can thank the curious turn of events for
getting Revie as their manager in the first place. As a
player nearing the end of his run, he had expressed a
thought or two about ,going into the managerial side and
fairly soon, there was the opportunity of going to a
Third Division club where Revie could gain initial
cxperience as a player-manager. Leeds, themselves were
not that far off the Third Division when chairman , Harry
Reynolds wrote out Don's reference. The tale is not so
well enough known. . . how he changed his mind, realising
that if Revie was as good as he made him out in his
recommendation then, damn it, he might as well stay at
Elland Road and get Leeds out of the mire.
The big
new broom swept clean: brand new training kit, for
instance, best hotels; all the time, as he recalls:
'thinking big and acting big'. I'm sure then that Don
Revie did not give Leeds too much chance. Perhaps he
thought, come what may, he would at least look the part.
But hope became actuality and the rest is a modern day
football romance- at least it always will be for Leeds
where pomp and circumstance have been the exception
rather than the rule.
There
have been times when Leeds and Revie have almost come to
the parting of the ways. Once, over the Bremner incident
and once again when Revie thought he deserved a better
contract, which he was finally conceded when the crowd
rose up and demanded in forthright Yorkshire fashion that
cither Revie remained or they didn't.
Not all
that long ago Revie turned down a lucrative offer to go
and manage the Italian club, Torino. It was a contract,
they said, which would have ensured financial security
for life.
By then,
however, times had changed, Leeds were on the way up.
Chairman, Alderman Percy Woodward wouldn't dream of
letting Revie leave and later when Birmingham City
essayed rather clumsy overtures to try and get him he
again decided to stay put. Too wrapped up in Leeds was
Don Revie !
Perhaps
the character of the man is summed up in a sign which
hangs, or used to hang, in the Leeds home dressing room
and which reads 'Keep Fighting'. This, after all, is what
their manager has done. It has been work and more work
and fight and more fight to get Leeds where they are and
it has not been easy.
Revie,
himself, is the epitome of industry. Visit Elland Road
any day of the week and you'll meet him as like as not in
heavy sweater and tracksuit trousers, straight off the ad
joining training ground, his face bathed in honest sweat,
perhaps blowing just a little. He will subside into his
office chair to talk to you but all the time you can see
the man is positively itching to get on with it and he
looks curiously out of place behind his desk - a grizzly
bear perched on a cocktail bar stool.
He talks
of the youngsters Leeds have found and are still finding,
not only in the West Riding but further afield and he
will also talk frankly of the money he has spent to
ensure hisside staying with the leaders. In nine years,
for instance, he had, by mid-197ø, spent something like
500,000 pounds on stars like Allan Clarke (a record
165,000 pounds), Mick Jones (100,000 pounds) and his
little general Johnny Giles (35,000 pounds). But he has
also sold well and in much the same period, incoming fees
totalled up to over 300,000 pounds.
Surprisingly,
despite all this mighty huffing and puffing in the Leeds
cause, the club has not, in the past, born financial
comparison with Everton, Manchester United and Tottenham.
Even in 1969-7ø when Leeds were in the running for so
much at one time, Elland Road gates were barely enough to
reach break-even level. Leeds is a big city - the biggest
in the North outside Manchester- but its sporting
loyalties are divided and Rugby League still has a
tenuous hold which soccer, even successful soccer, has
never been able to quite loosen.
Don Revie
is aware of this. So are his directors. They have spent
the best part of a million pounds on ground improvements
and expect to spend more over the next year or so. But
they must keep a successful team to justify it. Always,
you have the uneasy feeling that if Revie were to leave
Leeds and the club began a slide down there would be a
startling reversion to the days when the club nearly
dropped into the Third Division.
At Elland
Road, Revie has built a hard side, a fit side, a highly
skilful side and, in 197ø, a desperately unlucky side.
Now he needs all the breaks and the run of the ball to
sustain him for the others will be all out to beat his
team and even the Bremners, the Jack Charltons and the
Terry Coopers can't win them all.
Sometimes,
when you see him puffing hastily on one of those neat
little cheroots he affects, the strain of it shows
through as Revie sits watching a match, living every kick
and every bounce.
A big
man, Revie, as we must agree. Big enough to stay at the
top as long as Busby ? Time and the increasing pressures
of the most fiercely competitive sport in the world will
give us the answer. Meanwhile, the labourer has proved
more than worthy of his hire as witness, Don Revie, twice
Manager of the Year and most worthy member of the Order
of the British Empire.
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