Leeds United were founded in 1919 to revive professional football in Yorkshire’s biggest city following the expulsion of their fragile and bungling predecessors, Leeds City. A century on from their formation, a club that makes a virtue out of its many ups and downs in its own anthem, has endured a turbulent existence of crushing disappointment and conflict tempered by extraordinary, often mercurial, success.
When United mark their centenary in October 2019, vivid recollections of their greatest days, the three league championships, FA Cup, League Cup and floodlit memories of nights of European glory will be celebrated throughout the vast fanbase, local and international, such triumphs promoted. Elland Road icons John Charles, Billy Bremner, Jack Charlton, Peter Lorimer, Norman Hunter, Eddie Gray, Tony Currie, John Sheridan, Gordon Strachan, David Batty, Eric Cantona, Gary Speed and Lucas Radebe played for teams that were both revered and reviled, contributing to the club’s fame throughout the world. Don Revie’s team of the Sixties and Seventies, that immortal line-up that rolls off the tongue of generations of football fans, propelled the club and city to unprecedented heights. But when they reached the top, they failed to plan and there was nowhere to go but down. The theme of the past five decades has been the struggle to get back, a story of great adventures, fleeting splendour, relegation and defiant, hard battles against authority, owners and self-sabotage.
So, here we go with Leeds United, a club adorned by hall of fame managers from Major Frank Buckley to Don Revie, Brian Clough, Jock Stein, George Graham and Marcelo Bielsa, is also an institution that has perennially toiled to pay its own way and in recent years has suffered as a vehicle for the greater good of Peter Ridsdale, Kenneth Bates, Massimo Cellino and others. Yet it survives and now thrives because of the millions of people who love it.
In The Biography of Leeds United, Telegraph journalist and lifelong fan Rob Bagchi writes the story of this famous club and chronicles a century of history that will educate, entertain and inform both old and new supporters. Packed with fresh stories about and from former players, managers and the money men, as well as the fans, the book is an affectionate and insightful portrait of a football club like no other, ‘Super Leeds’.
‘A beautiful book, wonderfully written, that is essential for Spurs fans and deserves to be widely read.’ - When Saturday Comes
