| Jabba's Comments |
Despite the failure of Allan Clarke, the board offered
the chance to rebuild the club to another one of Revie's squad - youth team
coach Eddie Gray. Gray continued to play until the end of the 1983-84 season and
with the steadying influence of an aging Peter Lorimer, he brought many of the
youngsters he had been coaching in to the first team - Dennis Irwin, Scott Sellars,
John Sheridan and Tommy Wright all coming through under Gray.
As Howard Wilkinson was later to show, what you need to get out of Division Two
is a bit of experience and steel rather than raw youngsters, and despite
some good showings, the board finally pulled the plug on the popular Gray
in October 1985. The players were devastated, one of the board resigned, and
the fans made their displeasure clear, staging a massive demonstration in the
car park after the next home game that left the board cowering inside the
ground. Gray coached at Whitby and Middlesbrough before managing Rochdale and
Hull City before returning to Elland Road more recently and working
once again with the youngsters, bringing on another successful crop of
talented players.
After being edged out by David O'Leary in favour of Brian Kidd, and
remaining on the sidelines under Venables Eddie found himself
initially sacked by Leeds when Peter Reid took over and appointed his
own coaching team. But the Prof took him back on as a general
ambassador for Leeds, and when Reid found that he couldn't motivate
his decimated and makeshift team to produce the necessary results,
Eddie was brought back in as caretaker manager.
Andy Watters says: I hope Eddie gets the job full-time. Good luck
Eddie and come on Leeds!
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