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A hugely popular and very solid centre back, Wetherall was brought
to Leeds by Howard Wilkinson in a deal that also saw Jon Newsome move
up the M1. Last season, he was in and out of the team as George Graham
tried to find the defensive combination to keep us up. He's a little
short of pace and needs to work on his distribution, but he is an
excellent header of the ball and is strong in defence or attacking in
set pieces (ask Peter Schmeichel!).
In 98-99, he dropped from favour as a first choice defender, but
was regularly on the subs bench. He held the distinction of being
Leeds' longest serving player, but that loyalty was poorly rewarded
when in the close season he was told that Leeds had accepted an offer
from Huddersfield. There was also interest from Southampton and he
finally agreed terms and moved to Bradford for £1.4 million.
In the final game of the 1999-2000 season, David did Leeds a huge
favour - his goal against Liverpool guaranteed Leeds entry into the
Champions League qualifiers - as well as helping save Bradford from
the drop. After terrible injury problems at the start of 2001-02,
David finally came back into the first team in March and despite the
financial turmoil at the club was still there and marshalling the
defence at the start of the 2002-03 season. That season he missed
nearly 6 months with a hip injury, but returned to strengthen the
defence for the run-in in February and he'll be hoping for a less
painful season in 2003-04.
Ste says: Sorry everyone - bad news - I was a massive Wetherall fan
- even after he left but I recently spoke to him at Valley Parade and
he laughed at Leeds' current plight - pathetic David! And i thanked
him for the beating Scum memories - a sad day we think.
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