|
The Man Who Saved Leeds United enjoyed a fairly nondescript
playing career with Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton before
starting a career as a coach at Boston United and Notts County,
while making an impression on the FA hierarchy as he became manager
of the England semi-pros and the U-21s. Wilkinson took over as
manager of Notts County before moving on to Hillsborough where he
enjoyed 5 successful years, and became known for his physically
strong teams, acquiring a reputation of being a "route one"
coach.
On his arrival at Elland Road, he improved the fitness and
discipline of the existing players and staved off relegation to
Division 3 in his first season, but with the inspired signing of
Gordon Strachan, and the arrival of defensive solidity in the shape
of Chris Fairclough and Mel Sterland, Leeds looked set to make a
promotion push. The escape bid got a major shot in the arm with the
biggest surprise signing of all - Vinnie Jones! Leeds went top
before Christmas, Lee Chapman's arrival brought more goals, and the
title was sealed in the last game of the season.
1991-92 saw Wilko get the better of Alex Ferguson in a
season-long tussle for the title, and things were looking bright
for the following season. Wilko always said that the title arrived
a year too early. Leeds failed to capitalise on the position, money
(admittedly peanuts by today's standards) and opportunity to make
the big signings that were needed as injuries, age and lack of
squad depth were reflected in the results. Cantona stomped off over
the Pennines, Rangers knocked Leeds out of the Champions Cup, and
Leeds failed to win a single away League game all season.
Wilko went back to the drawing board and started to rebuild the
side managing to qualify for the UEFA Cup in 1994-95, and reaching
the final of the Coca-Cola Cup the following year. A Wembley final
is the peak of many managers' careers - but this one ended with the
Leeds fans screaming for Wilkinson to go after a very disappointing
performance.
The club was taken over by Caspian in the close season, and
after giving Wilko a chance to sign some players and seeing him
make a decent start to the season, the board realised that they
needed some sort of excuse to ease him out and bring in their crony
George Graham. A 4-0 home defeat by Manchester United provided the
pretext, and Wilko was shown the door. He went on to become FA
Technical Director, managing the U-21 side and even taking charge
of the national side for a friendly when the FA were taking their
time over finding a replacement for Glenn Hoddle.
Bradley Mitchell says: paid over 4m for sharpie when the man utd
board thought they'd be lucky to get 2m. Sold Eric for a 1m and
handed 10 years of domination to Old Trafford, nuff said...
Martin Bell says: ok some doge deals at the end but what about +
side lukic, sterland, dorigo, fairclough, whyte, strachan, wallace,
chapman, mcalister non world class but all did the job to win the
championship which is much more than risdales millions have done
since. and did eric want to stay .heres to only the second manager
to win a top league title at leeds cheers Howard
|
