Paul How,
England
Eddie, does losing
the 1975 European Cup final rank as the biggest
disappointment in your football career? I was 11 at
the time and have since seen the game again and
strongly believe we were robbed.
It was a
disappointment, but the thing about playing in
European Cup finals is that it's a great achievement
to get there. When you look back on your career there
are always a lot of disappointments. I think we were
aggrieved at a few decisions that went against us
that night, and it was a disappointment in that
respect.
But we weren't far
away from winning the Champions League last season
and losing in the semi-final was another blow. I
think when you play professional football you can
accept disappointments as part of the game, as long
as you're winning trophies along the way.
I think in 1974 it
would have been more of a disappointment for
everybody connected with the club if Don Revie had
still been the manager, because it was his great
ambition to emulate Real Madrid. Don't get me wrong,
it was a major disappointment, but you have to put
these things in perspective, and it goes down as a
career memory.
Don
Speight, UK
Does the
appointment of Brian kidd have any impact on your
role at Leeds United and has your role changed since
his appointment?
Well I do agree
with dis appointment, but who wouldn't ? (Sorry, I
made that bit up - Bob, what Eddie really said
was...)
My role has changed
at the club. Brian does the coaching, and David
O'Leary's role has also changed. He's stepped back
from the coaching role a bit, but he still gets very
much involved in the day to day running of the club,
as we all do.
Brian's got his own
ideas on how the game should be played, and David is
open to ideas. Brian's worked at the highest level,
and he's come into the club at the right time. The
club has some top class players, so it was a nice
time for him to come in.
Sean Kelly,
Cyprus
I remember going to
watch Leeds when you were manager in the mid-80s. You
had a talented crop of youngsters then - Irwin,
Linighan, Sellars. Although new blood has come
through, the emphasis now appears to be on buying
talent. Are there any future prospects to look for
coming through the academy?
One or two players
at the club are useful, but it's always difficult for
the young boys to break through now. If you think of
the boys that were about when we won the Youth Cup,
there are the likes of Paul Robinson, Jonathan
Woodgate, Alan smith, Harry Kewell, Stephen McPhail
and a few others, so it will always be difficult for
the younger players to break through. We have a
highly talented group of players, and if you look at
the Manchester United situation it was similar then
with players like Scholes, Giggs and Beckham coming
through.
David bought Rio
Ferdinand for one reason - he thinks he's the best
centre-half in the country, and I agree with him. So
it is difficult for the young boys at the club to
break through because we already have several young
international class players. That's why the club now
has to look at a really top class youngster if he's
going to break into the side. There are a few boys
that maybe have a chance, but it's not going to be
easy for them.
Jonny
Spence, England
You were sacked by
Leeds in '85 with what many thought was a good young
side. How do you view that sacking today, and do you
see any comparison with the young players you had
then and young starlets of today's Leeds Utd?
It's a bit like the
European Cup question. It was a disappointment, but
it's all relative in the game. You know when you
become a manager that you're going to get the sack
one day, or you're going to move on. It was a
disappointment at the time, but I look back on my
time at the club then and take some satisfaction from
it.
Some of the players
at that time went on to be successful - Denis Irwin
is still playing at the highest level. Other players
include John Sheridan, Scott Sellars, Andy Linighan
and numerous other players.
Ian
Doughty, England
Do you believe the
present wave of player power could lead many clubs to
financial ruin? Will wage capping for clubs be a
reality in the future?
I think it could,
and I think a lot of clubs are in way over their
heads at the present time. But that's the nature of
the game at the moment, and it will be interesting to
see what happens when the television contracts run
out - that will be the testing time for football.
But right now I
think it's a great time to be a player. Everyone
knows they earn great money, and I think it must be
great for a player to know that he doesn't have to
worry about paying the mortgage, and is financially
secure. It's a great game, and if they can't enjoy it
under the present circumstances they shouldn't be
playing.
Steve
Broughton, England
What similarities
do you see between the Leeds team of the 60s and 70s,
and the present side? Which players of today's team,
if any, resemble the players of your era?
In many ways I
think Nigel Martyn reminds me of Dave Harvey. He's
not spectacular, but he is a very solid goalkeeper,
and Dave Harvey was like that. A lot of people
compare Harry Kewell and myself, but I think Harry
and I were different types of player. I always
considered myself as a frustrated midfield player
that played out wide because of the circumstances at
the club.
We had some great
midfielders and Revie felt that I would be better out
wide because I could go round people. I don't like to
compare individual players, but there are a lot of
similarities between the ambition, the drive and the
abilities of the players of now and then.
Dean Knox,
England
Have you ever
thought about moving back into management yourself,
or had any offers that have tempted you?
I'm extremely happy
in my current job, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it
since I've come back to the club. I think to get
offers you've got to make it known that you're
interested, and I'm not interested in moving on at
the present time. I'm just enjoying the job I'm doing
now and I hope it continues for a long time.
Allastair
McGillivray, Australia
I regard the goal
you scored against Burnley in the early 70s as the
greatest individual goal I've ever seen. Pure magic.
Do you regard it as the best you scored?
Funnily enough, I
scored two goals that day, and the first goal gives
me the greater pleasure. As soon as the ball was
cleared from the box I saw the goalkeeper off his
line and decided I was going to chip him. So I had to
have a good touch on the ball, I had to set it up
right, and the chip I hit had to be well executed.
That gave me a lot of satisfaction.
The second goal I
scored - the goal everybody talks about - was
something I could do naturally. And when you pick the
ball up there (on the dead ball line), it's something
that just evolves. Going by people was just something
I was always able to do, so the first goal gave me
more pleasure.
Mark Bond,
Russia
Has there ever been
a better Scotland side than the one of 1974, the
backbone of which was provided by Leeds?
Traditionally,
we've always had good players in Scotland so it's
difficult to say, but I think the '74 side was as
good as any. When you look back at the history of
Scottish football, even before I was playing,
Scotland have always had some great players.
Unfortunately they've never gelled, but people tend
to forget that we're a small footballing nation.
Mike Law,
England
How do you relax
away from football? I enjoy playing golf. My partner
is an ex-team-mate of mine, Mike Betts, who I used to
play with in the 60s and 70s. We've had a few needle
games against my old assistant manager at Leeds Jimmy
Lumsden, who's now coach at Preston, and Arthur
Graham, who I used to play with. It gets quite
competitive.
Ben Dirs,
London
The Leeds side of
the 70s had a reputation for being aggressive. How
did you get through your career without ever being
booked?
Because I never got
involved. We had enough players in our side who could
take care of that side of things, and I think the
game has changed from how it was in the 60s and 70s.
If you look back at some of the old videos and apply
today's rules to those matches, you'd end up playing
four-a-side. Also, once the referee had made a
decision, I could always accept it because I knew he
wasn't going to change his mind.
Nowadays, I think
that's how a lot players end up getting booked. They
aggravate the linesman or the referee so much
sometimes that the ref will take the first
opportunity he can to book them. I was never like
that - it wasn't in my nature, and we had plenty of
people in our side who could look after themselves. I
think the reputation came around because teams were a
little jealous.
We had good
footballers and if they tried to hurt us physically
they would end up coming off second best. But if they
wanted to play football we could play as well, and we
could match them in any way they wanted to play the
game.
