Wednesday, October 9, 2024
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The Don Revie story
Don Revie was ridiculed in the newspapers as a bit of a pretentious upstart when he declared: 'We are going to become a Real Madrid. One day, this club will rule in Europe. Behind his back, even some of his own Leeds United players were mocking him over the statement. The sniggering was hardly surprising given the circumstances. Revie had no experience yet in management, and Leeds United, a club of little pedigree, were languishing at the time in Division Two, where they had been stuck for a generation. Revie also announced that Leeds United would be changing their colours from blue and yellow to the all-white strip made famous by Real. 'You could almost hear the laughter ringing throughout English football,' Norman Hunter, the Leeds defender, recalled. Yet, for a brief period at least, Revie fulfilled his seemingly ludicrous promise. In the years between promotion in 1963—64 and his departure to take the England job in 1974, Leeds did, in fact, win more trophies in Europe than the Madrid aristocrats.
