Revie’s Boys: The Lost Hope of Glory, Glory Leeds United by Ian Hall – Review
By Karl Hornsey
Revie’s Boys focuses on one of the grimmest periods in the history of Leeds United’s history, when their glory days seemed to fade into the distance amidst the harsh realities of English football during the 1980s. Fan and author Ian Hall has picked a time that was both fascinating and dispiriting for Leeds supporters but, as with so many of Pitch Publishing’s output, this is a niche subject that also offers wider appeal to others.
As with managerial giants at several clubs, following in their footsteps is always difficult and, while several years had passed since Don Revie left the club, Leeds were still searching for the right person to restore their former glories. To appoint men who had been integral to the side’s success on the field was understandable, but to appoint three in a row proved quite remarkable, and that’s the focus of Hall’s excellent and detailed foray into the 1980s.
Allan Clarke, Eddie Gray and Billy Bremner were, and always will be, Leeds United legends, but all suffered the same fate in an era dogged by financial difficulties, rampant hooliganism and dwindling support.
“Doesn’t pull his punches”
Hall doesn’t provide a forensic analysis of matches or hone in too much on the finer details, but instead provides an overview of each manager’s time in charge, chronicling the highs and lows before the inevitable happened and all three were sacked. Excellent research helps recreate the period on and off the field for Leeds, other English clubs and wider society, while a number of interviews with those who played for the club under one or more of the managers help to dig behind the headlines and offer up first-hand accounts of what life was like in such turbulent times.
The fact that the cycle of appointing club legends was broken by Howard Wilkinson, the man who would go on to win the First Division title for Leeds, yet never be treated in such revered manner as the three whose reigns are featured here, seems somewhat ironic.
All three undoubtedly had their hands tied by the board and all three may have gone on to achieve success had they been given more time but, for various reasons chronicled here, none of them could class their tenures as successful. Bremner came the closest, missing out on promotion to the top flight in agonising circumstances, while Gray lasted the longest and even returned to the hotseat in 2003 and, while Hall is sympathetic to their plight, he doesn’t pull his punches in highlighting their faults and those of anyone else connected to the club.
This is an interesting insight into a period of time largely now forgotten, but one that anyone keen of learning how the behind the scenes of a club and wider societal changes can have such an impact on a fanbase, will surely enjoy.
‘Revie’s Boys: The Lost Hope of Glory, Glory Leeds United’ by Ian Hall is published by Pitch Publishing
Karl’s love of writing was piqued at the age of eight, when he won a Blue Peter badge in an essay-writing competition. The location of said badge might be a mystery now, but the memory never fades. Hours spent writing about sport as a teenager, in pre-internet years when you had to make your entertainment, honed his skills, and Karl has worked in TV and radio listings at PA Media for 28 years, and the age of hybrid working means 50% of that can be at home listening to Classic FM and thinking about his next visit to his beloved Yorkshire Dales.
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