In his latest column for leedsunited.com, lifelong supporter Jon Howe looks back at the Leeds born stars who have gone on to wear the famous white shirt.
Howe is the author of two books on the club, 2015 hit ‘The Only Place For Us: An A-Z History of Elland Road’ and ‘All White: Leeds United’s 100 Greatest Players’ in 2012.
Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s proud tradition of fielding only players born within the emboldening confines of God’s Own Country served them well and built an identity, until such a time when the game had evolved, left them in its wake and the policy was suitably updated. Similarly, you don’t have to have been born in Leeds to ‘get’ Leeds United, because pretty quickly Leeds United will get you.
Some of the most famous names to have decorated Leeds United’s history had probably never heard of Leeds when the club came calling, and in many cases had never set foot within the city walls before putting pen to paper on a relationship that quickly got under their skin. Billy Bremner, Don Revie, Gordon Strachan, Lucas Radebe; they were never weaned on Tetley’s, but are all honourably adopted Loiners, and even the mother of John Charles famously believed her son would need a passport for the long train ride from South Wales to a golden future at Elland Road.
So you don’t have to have been born within earshot of the bells ringing last orders at Whitelocks to be taken to the hearts of the Leeds public. To be accepted at Leeds United, you don’t have to recall memories of interrupting your paper round on Beeston Hill to sit in awe at the sprawling landscape of the diamond floodlights of Elland Road, or in more recent times the ubiquitous heft of the East Stand. Leeds fans will accept you wherever you’re from – even Manchester in the case of Andy Hughes and John Sheridan – as long as you deliver the goods and show those ‘Leeds United’ traits we as fans would kill to be able to show ourselves.
But then, if you are from Leeds, it certainly helps form a bond and build an affinity. There is a rare and captivating romance to a Leeds-born player thrilling his home fans, and while Leeds United has cast its net far and wide for players and supporters over the years, the dwellers of Leeds have long been roused by ‘one of their own’ donning the white shirt. And the club’s 100-year history is routinely punctuated by a series of Loiners living out their dreams for their home city.
As you might expect, a ‘Far East’ scouting network in the 1920s meant nothing more than locating players from beyond East Ardsley, and the nucleus of the club was locally sourced. Two Leeds-born players lined-up in the club’s first ever league fixture in August 1920 versus Port Vale, and each were born within striking distance of Elland Road in South Leeds; Ernie Goldthorpe from Middleton and Arthur Tillotson from Hunslet. But surprisingly, the club’s early years were not overly-subscribed with Loiners, another being Rothwell-born Alan Fowler, who was signed in 1927 from non-league Whitehall Printeries – who played on the waterlogged pitches of Petty’s Field Sports Ground off Lowfields Road – and scored eight goals in 15 games before being killed in the Second World War.
Despite those local early roots to the club, research suggests less than 50 Loiners have actually played for Leeds United over those 100 years, perhaps not-so surprising when you consider the outlying towns of West and North Yorkshire such as York, Selby, Dewsbury and Harrogate have been particularly fruitful for Leeds, certainly in recent years and historically too, before you contemplate the global nature of the game today. Yet while there are too many Leeds-born players to mention every single one, there are plenty of interesting names amongst them.
Don Revie’s success was built on a fierce local identity, and it’s no surprise that his early sides included Leeds-born Rod Johnson and Mike O’Grady, and later David Harvey. And if you wanted to build a prototype of the archetypal ‘Leeds United’ player, you could do worse than chisel a sample from Paul Madeley, born in Beeston and the textbook exponent of a ‘side before self’ attitude throughout his 727 appearances.
The 1980s saw something of a Leeds-born heart to a struggling club, with Terry Connor, Martin Dickinson and Peter Swan all flying the flag for the city, while nearby Tadcaster-born Aiden Butterworth just missed out.
There is also something of a strikers’ union within the Leeds United Loiners club, with the Kop loving nothing more than a Leeds core to their net-bulging rapture. The aforementioned Connor is joined by Lawnswood-born Len Browning who plundered an impressive 46 goals in 105 appearances between 1946 and 1951, and in more recent times we have Brian Deane, Noel Whelan and of course Alan Smith. Meanwhile, Jackie Overfield was a dashing outside left for Leeds in the pre-Revie era of 1953 to 1960.
Like Mike O’Grady, who Revie signed from Huddersfield Town in 1965, the new Millennium has seen a couple of exiled Loiners join Leeds later in their careers, rather than coming up through the ranks. Both Richard Naylor and Lloyd Sam took that belated route to finally fulfilling their boyhood dreams, whilst Jonny Howson is another more recent Leeds-centric academy graduate and both James Milner and Aaron Lennon almost certainly carry a tinge of regret that they didn’t feature for longer in the colours of their hometown club.
Which brings us right up to the present and the unmistakable symmetry between the careers of Wortley’s Kalvin Phillips and David Batty, the last Leeds-born player to lift silverware for the club. Phillips as both a player and statesman of class and style, is readymade for the fabled number 4 shirt, but prefers 23, Batty’s squad number from his second spell at the club. But it’s not just his performances at the heart of Marcelo Bielsa’s midfield and his critical status as the beating heart of such a dominant team, which earmarks Phillips as Batty’s natural heir.
When Leeds United were last promoted to the top flight in 1989/90, it was clear that Batty was destined for a bigger stage, and he took to Division One like a duck to water. Subsequent England recognition was deserved, inevitable and taken in his stride. As a blueprint to success, Phillips has a well-trodden path to follow, and with fellow Loiner Jamie Shackleton in the ranks too, the current Leeds United contains plenty of local spirit to see them home. And as Leeds fans, we’ll gladly take success however it comes, but when it carries a ‘made in Leeds’ flavour, it tastes an awful lot sweeter.