Authors: Paul Harrison
It wasn't just any league game; it was in effect the Football League championship decider with Leeds needing a draw to take the title. Bremner said:
‘It was so wrong, we were physically and mentally exhausted and it was always going to be a tall order for us to win a point. Wolves were a physical side, full of cloggers like Danny Hegan. They made us work really hard and exploited our tired legs and minds by running us all over the pitch. Frank Munro and Derek Dougan scored for them and it looked all over for us. I managed to pull a goal back and that gave us our second wind. I went round our players telling them to give it one big push and the boss was shouting to us to attack and force them back. We did everything, threw the kitchen sink at them but Phil Parkes in their goal played a blinder and stopped everything. When the final whistle went it was as though we had lost everything. It was a shattering blow to lose the League championship in such a way but we had the FA Cup and that was important to everyone and to me as I now had winners’ medals for each of the three major domestic competitions.’
The Wolves game was later blighted with allegations of bribery and match fixing. In September 1977 a Sunday newspaper recounted and printed the spurious claims of various players of attempted bribery, and there were plenty of people who appeared desperate for any dirt they could dish on Leeds. One Wolves player claimed that Bremner offered him £1000 to give away a penalty, while another said he offered him £5000 – vastly contrasting and contradictory tales that must have humiliated those making them. On 3 February 1982, Bremner won £100,000 libel damages, along with legal costs, after he sued the newspaper for publishing the article. Among those
speaking on behalf of and in support of Bremner were Jack Charlton, Allan Clarke, Johnny Giles and Wolves centre forward, Derek Dougan. On the matter, Dougan was to later tell the author,
‘It was absolute nonsense, Billy was a good man, a great footballer and I trusted him implicitly. I couldn't say the same about a lot of footballers I knew. The press were hungry for anti-Leeds, anti-Don Revie stories to undermine their achievements and efforts. Certain reporters would say anything, pay anything for a story, no matter how true or untrue it was, just to cause a sensation. The rumours about Don Revie and bribery had been about for donkeys’ years. Bobby Stokoe started it all off, he hated Revie and Leeds United. So you can't pay too much attention to what he claims, why didn't he report it to the authorities when it happened, not wait a decade later and get payment for his version of events? I don't know why Frank Munro and Danny Hegan didn't come clean at the time either, why sell your story to a newspaper, why say anything at all? It beats me. I saw plenty of corruption during my time, I spoke out there and then, be it referees, linesmen, players or managers or club officials, there was plenty of it going on. It's a disgrace really, Billy Bremner wasn't corrupt. He cleared his name in court and I helped him because it was right and proper to do so.’
Others said the claims were nonsense but as Bremner found out:
‘It just wouldn't go away. We had made enemies in certain quarters of the press, particularly the southern-based reporters. They despised us, they enjoyed seeing us lose and would rarely report positively on us. In my opinion, the whole bribery thing was nothing but smoke and mirrors. There was a groundswell of reporters who didn't like the boss and he was being looked at as a prospective England manager. My take is that they were desperate to destroy his reputation so as to frighten off the Football Association. As for the Wolves boys making the allegations, well, they were made to look silly when one of their own team mates, Derek Dougan, spoke out against them and said
their claims were nonsense. For all I know, they were probably looking at some way to top up their pensions but I hold no public malice towards them. And when it comes to Gary Sprake, the f—— clown wonders why the players of our era don't want anything to do with him. He shit on the boss, me and the club. As far as I'm concerned, what will his football career be remembered for? Mistake after mistake after mistake. The sad thing is, it's never his fault, always someone else's.’
The FA Cup was to feature heavily in the Leeds campaign the following season when they again reached the final. This time they faced Second Division Sunderland, who were managed by Bob Stokoe:
‘There was that bit of history and bad blood in existence between the boss and Stokoe. I remember there being a few unnecessary comments made by the press, and accredited to Sunderland, in the lead-up to the game, and basically they were questioning our ability to see off opposition in the final stages of competitions. My response is that at least we reached finals regularly. Not every journalist can write for
The Times
, but they would all like to, I would wager. They do their best, but still only get to write about parish fetes in local rags, so what right had they to write about and question our ability?
‘It's no wonder we had a mistrust for many reporters. The amount of crap that was written was ridiculous. They seemed to want any scrap of information be it true or not, and they would run with it as if they were trying to undermine what we were achieving – absolute arseholes.
‘I think everything about the FA Cup final of that year has already been said. It always f—— well hurts. It would have been great to win it two years in succession but Sunderland had lady luck with them that day and we really didn't do ourselves justice. Afterwards, I went to congratulate some of them on the win and got told to “piss off”. They really did enjoy beating us and rubbed it in.
‘Jim Montgomery was class that day, both on and off the field. He made that super save from Peter Lorimer and was courteous
to us after the game. I did meet up with some of the Sunderland lads a few months later and to be fair they were all okay then. I reckon Stokoe had wound them up so much on the day that they had to be obnoxious.
‘My final word is that Sunderland deserved to beat us, we didn't want to lose, we weren't prepared to lose, but we did, and it was no one's fault but our own. I would have ran through brick walls to stop Bob Stokoe from having any success, but that day he outdid us and fair play to him. A few days after the final we took out our angst on Arsenal, who had already finished the season as runners-up, by giving them a 6-1 stuffing at Elland Road. It didn't take away the pain of losing the FA Cup final but it gave us a real lift for the European Cup Winners’ Cup final that we were appearing in a week later.’
The route to the European Cup Winners’ Cup final had not been an easy one, but Leeds had achieved it and Bremner and Co. now faced AC Milan in Salonika:
‘That final was a farce – Leeds really were playing against twelve men. Before the game, John Giles, who wasn't playing, said he had been talking to some of the press who reckoned that the word was, that no matter how well we played, we wouldn't win the game. Corruption was something we had all heard of and suspected, but none of us had so obviously encountered it before a game. With just four minutes of the game gone, the referee, a Greek called Christos Michas, awarded an indirect free kick in Milan's favour. The lads hadn't settled at that time and lined up to defend the kick. The Milan player Luciano Chiarugi ran up and fired a shot directly into our net. No one was alarmed as it was indirect and it was clear that no one else had touched the ball. I couldn't believe it when the referee gave the goal.
‘As the game wore on we were denied three definite penalties, I don't mean debatable penalties, but clear-cut and very obvious fouls. It was excruciating knowing that such blatant cheating was occurring in a European final. Every decision went the way of AC Milan and if it wasn't so serious it would have been hilarious. It was more akin to a scene from a “Carry On” movie. Milan
were the winners and collected the trophy but couldn't complete the lap of honour because of the abuse they were getting from the Greek crowd, for the obvious cheating and bribery that had gone on. Missiles were thrown at them and they had to leave the field. The Greek referee was also abused and had the Greek equivalent of the word “shame” screamed at him by the crowd; it was obvious to them what had happened. He was subsequently investigated by his own Football Association on suspicion that he had been bribed. He denied the allegations and it was never proved but he received a lifetime ban from UEFA and would never referee another international club game. Bloody referees, you can't live with them, and you sure as hell can't live without them!’
Within a few days of the final and after taking consultation on the matter, Leeds requested a replay from UEFA. The governing body convened to look at the request but it was denied and the result stood.
Most commentators are united in their opinion that the 1973-74 season was Billy Bremner's finest as a footballer. Not only did he feature in all forty-two league games for Leeds, but he also led his team to new football heights in an unbeaten start to the football league season that lasted an incredible twenty-nine games. Bremner was magnificent as his side raced to the League championship with absolute ease:
‘What a side that was – we were f—— superb and probably as good and strong as any British team since the Second World War. It was an absolute pleasure and delight to go out and play week in, week out. Of the four league games we lost throughout the season only Burnley really outplayed us. They actually destroyed us 4-1 at Elland Road, which hurt all the more.
‘We had a certain swagger about our play and with Gordon McQueen we had found the best and only replacement for Big Jack that existed. Gordon was a superb defender, he marshalled the defence and was strong in the air and on the ground, and it really made a difference having him in there. To be honest, we
didn't actually say as much but our concentration was mainly focused on the League championship. Previously we had wanted to win every competition we entered but now we had a more definite focus and if we progressed in other competitions then that would be all well and good.
‘At that time there were a lot of rumours circulating about the boss being eyed up by different European clubs. We all knew he had achieved almost everything he had set out to do at Leeds – we were a formidable football team, the best of our era, trophy winners and a team full of internationals, all as a result of the drive and vision of one man, Don Revie. As it was, the rumours were more than mere speculation, and it had become clear to us all for some time that he was going to move on to take over as England team manager at the end of the season. So that Football League championship was for him.’
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‘During the summer the boss told each of us that he was leaving the club. I was devastated that it was over. His departure was a blow for everyone, but it was a step up for him and he was the best manager in the game at that time and deserved a crack at the England job. There was a lot of speculation as to who would replace him. John Giles was mentioned, I was mentioned, Big Jack was mentioned, and he had already begun to prove himself as a decent manager at Middlesbrough. Then totally out of the blue we get told that one of our main detractors, Brian Clough, had got the job. Well, I thought it was big joke to be honest. Was this the same Brian Clough who had publicly called us cheats and dirty and had nothing but derogatory things to say about each and every one of us? I believed that the bloody directors of the football club had gone barmy. What an inappropriate and ridiculous choice to replace the boss. I told them precisely what I thought about it, but was told to give him time and a chance.
‘It was obvious from the start that the new manager was going to split the successful Don Revie team of the last decade. He brought in new players, such as Duncan McKenzie, John O'Hare and John McGovern, and tried to drop them straight into the first team. I knew them, they were Clough's boys alright; added to that, they weren't good enough for us.
‘We struggled as a unit and Clough never seemed to be there when we needed his support. It was a tough time at the football club. We were league champions yet we were in complete disarray both on and off the field. The supporters had been outraged by the appointment of the new manager and quite
rightly so, and he regularly suffered verbal abuse from the terraces but he was so arrogant and aloof to it that he seemed to enjoy it and revelled in the attention. We became a distinctly average team overnight and the buzz and dressing-room camaraderie disappeared as the Clough management style was implemented – split and divide.
‘I decided that I wasn't about to let some arsehole like Brian Clough ruin the club so many of us loved. People have gone on for years about how player power got him the sack; let me tell you it wasn't player power at all, it was his own egotistical stupidity. The man was completely blinded and guided by his pathological hatred of Leeds United, the Leeds United Don Revie built! I decided one day after training that enough was enough, and asked for a one-to-one meeting with him. He laughed, and said, “You, Bremner, want a meeting with me, your manager, you running away, are you, you after a transfer?” He said he was busy, he had important things to do, like laugh at photographs of Don Revie with the Football League championship trophy, so whatever it was had better be important. I told him it was, and he said to meet him on the training pitches in half an hour.
‘I made my way out onto the pitches, and there he was singing to himself; weird thoughts went through my head, it looked to me as though he was cracking up, and for a split second I felt some sympathy for him. Within a moment it had disappeared. “Right Bremner, what is it, what do you want?” he said. I explained that it was my opinion that he was making a complete balls-up of the job at the club, and that he needed to get rid of the monkey that was on his back that was of his own making. I told him he had lost the confidence of the majority of the dressing room and to grow up and to deal with it all sensibly. He erupted like a volcano at such a suggestion. “F—— you, Bremner, f—— Leeds United, f—— all those morons on the terraces who shout abuse at me each and every game. This is my Leeds United, I will f—— destroy it if I want to, it's not like you haven't already.” Spittle was flying from his mouth. I took a step back as I thought he was going to have a dig at me. He stood there staring at me,
calling me all kinds of insulting names and generally acting like a right dick-head. I told him he was wrong, Leeds United would always belong to its supporters, and as I was one of those, I wouldn't allow him to drag the club under. He laughed and told me that I was finished, he would see to that. I walked off, reminding him of how big a wanker I thought he was.