Picking a Leeds all-time XI is mostly a fight with Don Revie's team sheet. Seven or eight of his players walk into most fans' sides before you've even had a think, and the 1992 title winners and David O'Leary's Champions League side end up scrapping over what's left. I tried to get more of the later lot in. It didn't go well. Years in brackets are each man's time at Elland Road, and only what he did in a Leeds shirt counts.
Three teams worth arguing about
Revie took over in 1961 with Leeds near the bottom of the Second Division. By 1974 they had won the league twice, the FA Cup, the League Cup and two Fairs Cups. They also finished second five times.
That second list matters. Everyone outside Yorkshire called them Dirty Leeds, and some of it was fair, but the thing that haunted that side was the near misses. The worst was 1973, when Second Division Sunderland beat them 1-0 at Wembley and Jim Montgomery made a save from Lorimer that people still can't explain. Two years later, with Revie gone to manage England, they lost the European Cup final to Bayern in Paris.
Wilkinson's 1992 side was a different animal. Strachan, McAllister, Speed and Batty in midfield, Lee Chapman getting the goals, Cantona arriving in February. They won the last old First Division title, which is more than O'Leary's young team ever won. That 2001 side played better football than either, beat AC Milan at Elland Road and reached the Champions League semi-final before Valencia put them out.
So, one game, winner takes all. I'd back Revie's lot, and I don't think it's close. Wilkinson's midfield could live with Bremner and Giles for an hour, maybe. O'Leary's side would be lovely to watch for twenty minutes, then Hunter would get his first tackle in.
The XI
4-3-3, with Revie as manager. Lorimer and Gray stay wide, and the big lad in the middle can drop to centre half if it goes wrong.
Goalkeeper
Nigel Martyn (1996 to 2003). I went back and forth on this more than anything else. Gary Sprake played nearly 400 league games under Revie, but he also threw the ball into his own net at Anfield in 1967, and some nights he could cost you a big game. David Harvey was in goal for the 1972 Cup final and played for Scotland at the 1974 World Cup. Martyn was the best of the three, and a big reason that O'Leary side went so far in Europe.
Defence
Paul Reaney, right back (1962 to 1978). More than 550 league games, and very few wingers got much change out of him. He broke his leg in April 1970, which cost him the FA Cup final and a place in England's World Cup squad that summer. Gary Kelly gave Leeds fifteen years and has a fair claim here too.
Jack Charlton, centre back (1952 to 1973). If I'm honest, Hunter was the better footballer. But if I had to build a back four round one of them, it'd be Big Jack, who won everything in the air. He played 773 times for Leeds, and nobody has caught him.
Norman Hunter, centre back (1962 to 1976). Bites Yer Legs. That's the reputation, and he earned it. In 1974 the other pros made him the first ever PFA Players' Player of the Year, and they don't vote for a hatchet man.
Terry Cooper, left back (1962 to 1975). Scored the only goal of the 1968 League Cup final against Arsenal, Revie's first trophy. Went to the 1970 World Cup with England.
Midfield
Billy Bremner (1960 to 1976). Captain of the best team Leeds have ever had, Footballer of the Year in 1970, and the man on the statue outside Elland Road. If I could only have one of them, it's Bremner.
Johnny Giles (1963 to 1975). Manchester United let him go in 1963, which might be the worst bit of business they ever did. Bremner won the ball, gave it to Giles, and Giles decided where the game went. I'd go further. Without Giles, Bremner is a great ball-winner with nobody to give it to.
Gordon Strachan (1989 to 1995). The one non-Revie man in midfield. He turned up from Manchester United when Leeds were in the Second Division, captained them to promotion in 1990 and the title in 1992, and was Footballer of the Year in 1991. He was 34. You don't leave that out.
Attack
Peter Lorimer, right wing (1962 to 1979, then 1983 to 1985). Debut at 15, still the club's record scorer with 238. They called him Hotshot, and plenty of those goals came from that right foot. Leeds fans have never got over the one in Paris in 1975 that was ruled out against Bayern.
John Charles, centre forward (1948 to 1957, then briefly in 1962). The Welshman played centre half and centre forward and was the best in the country at both. In 1956-57 he scored 38 league goals, the most in the First Division, and Juventus signed him that summer.
Eddie Gray, left wing (1966 to 1983). Watch the goal he scored against Burnley in 1970, beating defender after defender in the box. Then watch the 1970 FA Cup final, where he ran David Webb ragged for two hours on a terrible Wembley pitch. Injuries took a lot of his best years.
Manager
Don Revie. Wilkinson won the title in 1992 and is still the last English manager to win the top division. Marcelo Bielsa got Leeds back to the Premier League in 2020 after sixteen years away. But Revie took a struggling Second Division club and built one of the best teams in Europe. No contest.
Close but not quite
- Rio Ferdinand (2000 to 2002). The hardest one to leave out. He came in November 2000, ended up captain, and was the best player in that Champions League run. On pure ability he's probably the best defender Leeds ever had. But two seasons, then Old Trafford, and Charlton gave them twenty-one years. If you put Rio in, I won't argue very hard.
- Allan Clarke (1969 to 1978). Sniffer. He scored the header that won the 1972 Cup final, and plenty of Leeds fans would have him up front ahead of Charles. I nearly did. Clarke was the better finisher in a better team. I went for Charles because he was the best player in Britain at his peak and did it in a side that won nothing, which is a harder thing to do.
- Mick Jones (1967 to 1975). Crossed for that Clarke header, then dislocated his elbow and climbed the Wembley steps with his arm strapped up. Belongs in the squad photo, at least.
- Tony Yeboah (1995 to 1997). The volley against Liverpool in August 1995, then the one at Wimbledon a month later. I'd watch those two before most of this XI. It was one season of fireworks, though, and then his knee went.
- Lucas Radebe (1994 to 2005). Captained the side for years and is loved at Elland Road like few players are. Behind Hunter and Charlton.
- Gary McAllister and Gary Speed. The rest of that 1992 midfield. Speed loses to Eddie Gray on the left, and McAllister loses to Giles.
- David Batty. Tackled. Didn't score.
- Mark Viduka (2000 to 2004). Four goals in the 4-3 win over Liverpool in November 2000. If this was a Premier League-era XI he'd be leading the line.
- Eric Cantona (1992). A hat-trick in the 1992 Charity Shield against Liverpool and another in a 5-0 win over Spurs a couple of weeks later. Gone to Old Trafford before Christmas.
- Paul Madeley (1963 to 1980). Played in nearly every position for Revie. He'd be first on my bench.
- Harry Kewell, Alan Smith, Lee Bowyer. O'Leary's young core. Kewell was the most gifted and was PFA Young Player of the Year in 2000. Smith ran through walls for the club, which is why it hurt so much when he left.
- Kalvin Phillips (2014 to 2022). From the academy to an England midfield in a Euro final, all while a Leeds player.
- Pablo Hernandez (2016 to 2021). For anyone under 30, he's the one. In his mid-thirties he was the cleverest player in Bielsa's promotion side. He still doesn't get past Giles or Strachan.
Quick answers
Who has played the most games for Leeds United? Jack Charlton, with 773.
Who is Leeds United's record goalscorer? Peter Lorimer, with 238.
Build your own Leeds
Plenty of fans would rather have one real side on the wall, like the 1972 Cup winners, Wilkinson's 1992 team or the side that beat Milan, and you can put any of them together in our team builder, with a proof sent before it's printed. There are ready-made Leeds United prints too. And if your dad wants Sprake in goal, that's his call.