Only old enough to remember his second stint at Leeds, and probably can’t judge it that well, but do think because of his reputation and shithousery he was underrated as an actual footballer.
There was a good interview (since gone offline annoyingly) where he talked about keeping possession ticking over by passing it sideways or backwards, and everyone’s on board with that now, but at the time people just wanted it lumped forward.
A while back wrote this after rewatching the title win under Wilkinson. Part of the club’s best-ever midfield.
…I slammed a heavy iron gate on my hand and took the ends off two of my fingers.
After getting my hand patched up at St James’s (hospital) I insisted on taking home the lost bits as a trophy and put them into a little cardboard box.
They remained there for some years, virtually forgotten, until the day my teacher at Scott Hall Middle School told the class to bring in unusual items the following day, which was the last day of term.
What to take? I couldn’t think of anything better than my fingertips, which by now had been rotting away for about four years at the back of the wardrobe.
As my classmates unveiled their typical collectors’ items – stamps, books, football programmes, even an old sewing machine – I proudly produced the remains of the grisly accident, but I was cute enough to not reveal the identity of the strange, blackened little objects.
Just about every kid in the class tried and failed to guess what they were, many going for birds’ eggs.
Finally the form mistress delicately held the mystery objects aloft and said: ‘Okay David, you’ve got us all baffled. What are they?’
When I told her, the poor woman let out an ear-piercing shriek and promptly hurled them to the floor like they were red-hot coals.
But when she had recovered her composure, she was big enough to award me a Mars bar.
Also, at the start of the ‘rona Leeds were putting out compilation videos On Twitter of players past and present either telling everyone to stay in etc or clapping the NHS and he turned up on one of those.
Would be the first name down on a team sheet if I was a manager. Every team needs a player like that in the ‘engine room’. Plus, I really love footballers who really don’t give a fuck about football.
One of the unsung greats - every team needs a player like him. Under-rated by the majority, but those that know know. I’d of given him a 9 but i missed the opportunity.
Wasn’t even ‘into’ football which stil ltickles me whenever I think about it.
