Leeds United managers since the second world war

Article by Leeds Correspondent Lucas Whitehead

Since the end of world war two, Leeds United have had 25 managers on a permanent basis. The current manager is obviously Brian McDermott.

Billy Hampson

For 12 years, Billy Hampson was the manager of Leeds United but 6 of these years were interrupted by war. In his 231 games at the helm, Hampson had a win percentage of 39.39%.

Willis Edwards

Willis Edwards is the stereotypical gentleman of English football. Playing 70 times for Chesterfield in his native Derbyshire, in 1929 Edwards moved to Elland Road where he made 417 appearances at right half. England capped Edwards 16 times and he scored 6 times for Leeds. Edwards was never booked or sent off. Edwards’ managerial stint at Leeds was less successful however with Edwards winning only a third of his games as manager. Edwards worked in Moorhouses Jam factory and the Beestonians amongst you will be reminiscent of the smell on Old Lane before it was turned into an ASDA!

Major Frank Buckley

Frank Buckley’s name intimidates me. It suggests man management and a no-nonsense approach that would make Neil Warnock seem encouraging! Playing for Villa, Brighton, Manchester United, Manchester City, Birmingham, Derby, Bradford and Norwich, Buckley is one of the first journeymen of English football and he was capped by England once. Buckley managed Norwich, Blackpool, Wolves, Notts County, Hull, Leeds and Walsall. 48.21% is the win percentage of Buckley before he was replaced by Raich Carter.

Raich Carter

Raich Carter should be heralded as a god by every Leeds fan as he was the man who brought Don Revie the player to Leeds United. Horatio Stratton Carter played at inside forward for Sunderland and after 6 years of war he joined Derby County. During his time at the Baseball ground, Carter was employed at Derby’s cricket ground as a left armed bowler! Ian Botham eat your heart out! A spell at Hull City and a short stint as player manager at Cork Athletic followed. Carter was player-manager at Hull and Cork but he hung up his boots to take up the managerial vacancy at Leeds. After Leeds he managed Mansfield and Middlesbrough. 5 years at Elland Road revolved around two giants, John Charles and Don Revie and Carter’s win percentage was 49.31%.

Bill Lambton

After Carter’s departure, Willis Edwards was interim manager before Bill Lambton took over the reins. Iron man Bill had an underwhelming playing career as a Goalkeeper for Basford North End, Forest, Peterborough, Exeter and Doncaster Rovers. He managed Leeds, Scunthorpe and Chester. His win percentage was 41.11%.

Jack Taylor

Taylor played at full back for Wolves, Norwich and Hull and he was Don Revie’s predecessor. He managed at Weymouth, QPR and Leeds. His win percentage at LUFC was 40.33%.

Don Revie

Where do I begin?!? Donald George Revie was born in Middlesbrough in 1927, a few streets away from Brian Clough. He was brought up in and around Middlesbrough and his career began with the youth side, Middlesbrough Swifts. He joined Leicester City in 1944 and was mentored by Septimus Smith, a wing half. 5 successful years at Leicester were brought to a halt in 1949 when Hull City acquired his services, Hull were managed by Revie’s boyhood hero, the aforementioned Raich Carter. Manchester City signed him in 1951 and 5 years of his career were spent at Maine Road where he was English footballer of the year! The Revie plan was masterminded at this time and this involved the usage of Revie as a deep-lying centre forward. 2 years on Wearside followed and after this Revie came to Elland Road. Revie was our manager for 13 years, during which we were winners of the FA cup, fairs cup, league cup and first division. He left for Lancaster Gate and England but he was unsuccessful in his post and he departed 3 years later to manage the UAE for 4 years. Two spells at Al-Nassr and Al-Ahly ensued but he died in 1989 amidst allegations of impropriety which personally, I do not believe!

Brian Clough

Brian Clough makes me think about what could’ve been. If he hadn’t had a disagreement with Peter Taylor, would he have been a success? Anyway, back to reality. Brian Clough, as I have said, was born in Middlesbrough in 1935 and he began his professional career with his hometown club, where he stayed for 6 prolific years. For the remaining three years of his career, he played for Sunderland but his career was ended prematurely at the age of 29 after a ligament injury. In his career he played 274 times, scoring 251 times! He managed Hartlepools United and was successful at Derby County before his resignation. A turbulent time at Brighton ensued before he was poached by us, it caused a major rift between him and Taylor and Taylor chose not to follow Clough up north. 44 days was the length of Clough’s tenure and he won only once before his sacking. 18 successful years at Nottingham Forest where he won the European cup twice ensued before he died in 2004.

Jimmy Armfield

Jimmy Armfield does not gain the recognition he deserves for a time of stability at Elland Road and he quite successfully rebuilt Revie’s ageing whites. In 1975, we reached the European cup final in Paris only to be defeated by Bayern Munich amidst match-fixing allegations and under Armfield we never finished below tenth in the league! He is a Blackpool legend having played for the tangerines for all of his career.

Jock Stein

Jock Stein used Leeds United as a stepping stone between two jobs, Celtic and Scotland. He resigned after 10 games with a 50% win rate before taking the Scotland job, a post in which Stein died.

Jimmy Adamson

This JA wasn’t a success and he failed to prevent the decline of Leeds United as a footballing force and he was sacked two years into the job in 1980, he had previously managed Burnley, Sparta Rotterdam and Sunderland.

Allan Clarke

In Sniffer’s first season managing at Elland Road, we finished 9th in division one but in the subsequent season we were relegated and Clarke was sacked. He managed Barnsley, Scunthorpe United, Barnsley again and the imps of Lincoln.

Eddie Gray

The next manager was another one of Revie’s famous team, and Eddie Gray would return as caretaker in 2003 in the club’s darkest hour. 3 years spent on youth development was Eddie Gray’s impact but he was unfortunate not to gain promotion back to the first division and after 20 years, his employment at the football club ended. He also managed Whitby, Rochdale and Hull City.

Billy Bremner

3 years as manager for Billy also, the club’s family ethos returned and promotion was nearly achieved with us losing out to Charlton Athletic in a play-off final. We also reached the FA cup semi finals. Billy Bremner was also coach of Doncaster twice, where he died in 1997.

Howard Wilkinson

Sgt. Wilko was manager of us for 8 successful years, he achieved promotion thanks to Gordon Strachan, an inspired captain and the season after we won division one. The last division one! Wilkinson was unsuccessful in the Premier League though and his only success between 1992 and’96 was reaching the league cup final. Wilko also managed Boston, Mossley, England C, Notts County, Sheffield Wednesday, us, England, England u-21, England again, Sunderland and Shanghai Shenhua.

George Graham

11th place and 5th place finishes were the achievements of George Graham. When he replaced Wilko in 1996, he plugged a leaky defence partly by including Lucas Radebe in his plans yet at the other end of the pitch Leeds lacked panache, scoring merely 28 goals in the entire season. Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink solved our problems and the season after we finished in a respectable 5th place, gaining a UEFA cup place. He left for Spurs in 1998 where he lasted 3 years, previous to us he was manager at Arsenal and Millwall.

David O’Leary

O’Leary was Graham’s understudy at Leeds and when Graham was sacked the understudy and assistant became the manager. In 4 years, we never finished below sixth and reached the champions league semi-finals in 2000-01. Leeds never won a trophy under O’Leary but we topped the premier league on 1 january 2000 and 2002, he was sacked in questionable terms in 2002 after a fall-out with Peter Ridsdale. Ridsdale had borrowed 60 million pounds and he intended to pay this back using future champions’ league gate receipts but we failed in qualification, leaving debt which still exists. He also managed Aston Villa and Al Ahli.

Terry Venables

To some extent, El Tel was a complete failure but players were being sold left right and centre at Elland Road and there wasn’t a harmonious dressing room. Terry Venables didn’t complete his first season as manager and was deposited towards the end of the season. He had managed previously at Palace, QPR, Barca, Spurs, England, Australia, Palace, Middlesbrough, us and assisted McClaren at England.

Peter Reid

Reid kept us up after taking over from Venables and he was awarded the job permanently on this merit but debt hit £80 million and Harry Kewell was sold, Reid was told to make signings abroad but his new signings failed to mould. He was sacked after a crushing 6-1 defeat to Portsmouth. Manchester City, Sunderland, us, Coventry, Thailand and Plymouth were Reid’s clubs.

Kevin Blackwell

Blackwell was the first manager of the Bates era and he did well to steady the decline eventually. He made a record number of signings including Rob Hulse, Shaun Derry and Eddie Lewis and in his second season at the club, Leeds finished third in the championship, only to lose out on a premier league spot to Watford in the play off final. Bates replaced him with old friend Dennis Wise after he denigrated the club’s financial status. Blackwell managed us, Luton, Sheffield United and Bury.

Dennis Wise

Previous roles at Millwall and Swindon were enough to persuade the board to appoint Wise and his assistant Gus Poyet as management. In his first season, the club were relegated to league one and he didn’t complete his second, taking up an executive role at Newcastle. This was the infamous -15 season.

Gary McAllister

Gary Mac only lasted less than a year at Elland Road. He gained a play-off spot in the end of his first season but in December 2008, McAllister left the club due to poor results. He had previously managed Coventry City.

Simon Grayson

In Grayson’s second season at the helm, Leeds gained promotion to the Championship after defeating Bristol Rovers. The season after, Leeds finished 7th in the championship after leading it that Christmas! Grayson was sacked in 2012 after slumping down to 11th. He had previously managed Blackpool and afterwards he went to Huddersfield and he is currently manager of Preston.

Neil Warnock

Neil Warnock took over as manager on 18thFebruary 2012 and he temporarily turned around the club’s fortunes but we were defeated 7-3 by Forest and we slumped down to 14th. The next season began with a new squad which was rebuilt entirely but Leeds were unimpressive and he left on the 1st April 2013 after a defeat to Derby County. He had managed at Gainsborough, Burton Albion, Scarborough, Notts County, Torquay, Huddersfield, Plymouth, Oldham, Bury, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and QPR.

Brian McDermott

Brian McDermott is our current manager and he has done relatively well, last season he won his first game in charge against Sheffield Wednesday and we went on to defeat Burnley and Watford in the last 5 games of the season. In the close season Ken Bates left the club completely and we signed two players for a million pounds each, Luke Murphy and Scott Wootton, and we currently sit 9th in the table.

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