Don Revie - Portrait of a Footballing Enigma - Andrew Mourant

Whilst sifting through some of my books recently, I came across Don Revie - Portrait of a Footballing Enigma, a biography of the former Leeds United and England football manager.

This book's value to me lies primarily in its focus on the periods both before and after his tenure at Leeds United. The nature of his background and upbringing give clues as to the evolution of his character and temperament, and also the way that his footballing philosophy was to develop.  It also serves as a snapshot of professional football as it was between the end of the Second World War and the arrival of big money.

Some of the characteristics of that football scene seem mildly bizarre now.  The meagre, hand-to-mouth finances of many clubs, the spectacle of players from outside the top flight regularly featuring in the England national team, and the prevalence of injuries and fixture congestion.

The reminiscences of associates, acquaintances and colleagues form a large part of this telling of the Revie story, and they help to give the book its balance and flavour, and to explain the origins of the personality traits which became well-known;caution, superstition, thoroughness and insecurity.

Detractors might grumble, but Revie was on balance a progressive and innovative football thinker. I might be biased, but his Leeds teams played outstanding and compelling football, and had flair in abundance. Allied to their famed attributes of resilience and a fierce will to win, they were a formidable unit.  They did not win the number of trophies which they should have done, and the book seeks to explain why this was the case. The solution to the question is as complex and elusive as the subject of the book himself.

The concept or notion of blending brains with brawn has always appealed to me as a sporting world-view. Think, but work hard. This was what made football in the four decades after World War Two so compelling, absorbing and popular, and it was a hallmark of many of Revie's teams.

It is noteworthy that Revie in his pre-Leeds footballing endeavours seemed restless, until he arrived at Elland Road, where he finally found his niche, and a place where he could put what he had learned, or taught himself, to good and constructive use.

I found the chapters dealing with Revie's early days at Leeds quite illuminating, especially the methods employed to recruit and motivate young players. The "family atmosphere", and some of Revie's man-management methods, seem quaint and even bizarre from the vantage point of 2016, but they worked at the time, and still induce a smile and twinge of regret and nostalgia that those days are now gone forever.

The book also goes into Revie's turbulent and unhappy spell as the England team manager, and his controversial departure from the post, as well as his final years. I think that there is a balanced and realistic assessment of some of the contentious aspects of his career, and there are lots of good anecdotes and quotes.

The book might appear concise, but in the latter stages the analysis of Revie's character and motives becomes quite intensive and nuanced.

If hardly definitive, this is a good, satisfying read, and leaves one concluding that the man was indeed an enigma.

The Unforgiven - The Story of Don Revie's Leeds United - Rob Bagchi & Paul Rogerson

There is frustratingly little in the way of books, that I have seen anyway, which comprehensively cover and analyse Don Revie's glorious but turbulent tenure at the helm of Leeds United. This one, originally published in 2002/03, does not completely plug the gap (if such a gap indeed exists) or satisfy the need, but it is nonetheless an entertaining and lively effort.

 

 

"Concise", "lean" and "digestible" would be some of the words appropriately employed to describe "The Unforgiven". Fans and students may feel that it barely scratches the surface on  key issues such as tactics, Revie the man and the mystique surrounding the whole era.  One is left wanting more, but I see this more as a virtue than a criticism of the product.

Where the book does score highly for me is in capturing the essence and the atmosphere of the times, both in football and in a wider social context. The "outsider" status and distinct character of the Revie team, and the hostility which it attracted from the outside, are well conveyed. One is also constantly reminded of the different parameters within which Leeds, and other clubs, were operating in the 1960s and the 1970s.

It is amusing but poignant to note the paltry (by today's standards) financial sums involved, and the crucial importance of week-to-week gate receipts in determining strategy, even in the "glory days".  This leads us on to another thread which runs through the book, namely the complex relationship which the club "enjoyed" with the Leeds public, and the sense that this team was often under-appreciated and misunderstood, even on its own doorstep.

The text is colourfully written in places, and will not be to everyone's taste, but it does help to encapsulate the mud-spattered, rugged world which Revie's men inhabited, with limited squad sizes, horrendous fixture congestion (a familiar bugbear for Leeds in those days) and a very different media landscape. Quotes from the press of the time help to bring over an immediacy and a "real time" feel.

Creditably, Bagchi and Rogerson concentrate much of their effort on the pre-1969/70 period, when the groundwork was being undertaken. We therefore get a glimpse of how the legendary team of later years took shape and evolved, with the introduction of the young players and the occasional judicious signing. The passages dealing with activities in the transfer market are quite illuminating, and once again underline how times have changed. Some episodes not particularly familiar to the casual observer are given prominence, such as the club's early adventures in the European competitions.

By no means do the authors give the impression that all was sweetness and light, examining the less savoury aspects of the epoch, including the beginnings of hooliganism and the excesses of some teams on the pitch. The supposed professional insecurity of Don Revie is also a major theme. The flaws, contradictions and disappointments are part of what made the team so compelling, although some might yearn for a more profound search for the reasons behind Leeds' repeated role as "bridesmaids".

This book was originally written at a time when Leeds United were still threatening to build something vaguely comparable to those heady days of yore. The subsequent precipitate decline of "the dream" only adds to the allure of the era which ended in the summer of 1974. The club, and the city itself, have undergone additional change in the past decade, and some of the comparisons and perspective, in the edition which I have at least, may not be as pertinent as they were. However, this does not negate the overall charm of this piece of work, which is both breezy and highly readable.

 

The Damned United (movie)

After some prevarication, I recently read David Peace's novel, the Damned Utd:

The Damned Utd

It also seemed logical to check out the movie, The Damned United, which was based on said novel.

One of my first thoughts when watching the film was that the authenticity and attention to detail was a cut above what is normally forthcoming in "biopics".  The settings and aesthetic were well done, and perhaps most importantly not over-ambitious.  The 1970s hairstyles and fashions were much better realised than I had expected...

The only discordant note in this respect was struck by the football sequences in the movie, which I felt were unrealistic, perhaps falling victim to an over-earnest attempt to replicate what was perceived to be the slower but more robust style of football in the 1970s.  Thankfully, these shots were used only sparingly, and the film's makers sensibly employed real archive footage.  I did notice one error, though; the lettering on the back of Leeds' famous purple tracks-suits was yellow, not white!

A few of the early scenes I found a touch discouraging, feeling that the characterisations were being over-cooked, and the acting cloyed.  However, I stuck with it, and was rewarded.  The dialogue and acting became gradually less cringe-inducing and more plausible as it progressed.

I accept that compromises had to be made to fit the story into a manageable running time for a movie, but I would have liked more concentration on the period between Don Revie's resignation from the Leeds and the appointment of Brian Clough.

In assessing Michael Sheen's performance in the Clough role, I oscillated between admiring its occasional restraint and recoiling at what seemed to be an exaggerated portrayal of the man's well-known personality traits.

Overall, I found the film to be a slight disappointment, just ever so flat and anaemic.  However, like the book, it did provide a commendably mature and nuanced depiction of Clough, and did not pander to easy cliches.

The Damned Utd - David Peace

This book had been gathering dust on my shelves for many months, but I felt a strange reluctance to give it my full attention.  This may have something to do with the ambivalent and even uncomfortable feelings which for many, myself included, surround the 44-day Brian Clough reign at Leeds.

The first thing which will strike many readers is the colourful language, which does not relent throughout. Indeed, once one becomes accustomed to the expletives, they somehow become an indispensable feature of the book, without which it is difficult to imagine the tale having quite the same impact. At the same time, the sheer incidence of the industrial language tempers its shock value, but not necessarily its "value" to the fabric of the story....

As much as its concentration on the Brian Clough/Leeds saga, this book is also a window on the gritty and often bleak ambience of the times in which it is set.  The stark, almost minimalist tone and and style of prose serves to accentuate this. The Britain of the late 60s and early 70s, is made to feel quite sinister and dark, a place where the sun rarely shone, and menacing clouds were never far away.  I was a very small child in the early to mid 1970s, and any meaningful recollections on my part are therefore impossible, but the depiction of the Leeds (my home city) of that time pretty much tallies with other accounts which I have read and heard. Almost a dystopian vision, but not quite!

The format of The Damned Utd is novel, and by and large quite effective.  The relating of the "forty four days" is alternated with the Clough managerial chronicles up until his appointment at Leeds. Although very occasionally confusing (that may just be my own feeble attention span!), this method of telling the story helps to place the drama at Leeds in some kind of context, underscoring what Leeds were letting themselves in for, but also highlighting some of the essential differences between the environments which he had previously worked in, and that which he would be confronted with when he turned up at Elland Road.

I was heartened, but not totally surprised, to note that the Clough story, up until late 1974 at least, was presented in a complex, multi-faceted light, moving beyond the stereotyped and cliched media image of him at the time. Insecurities, regrets, and relationships are all explored, as well as the curious, shifting and evolving nature of his attitude towards Don Revie and Leeds United.

As well as this being a thoroughly engrossing read, I also learned some things about the tumultous events of 1974 at Leeds.  There is possibly a tendency for some Leeds followers to expunge some episodes from this period from their minds, or airbrush them from history. It was good to get a rounded account of those days, even by a less than fully orthodox route.  The feelings which come through are despair, dread and mistrust, and the grubby, cut-throat, dark heart of football, even back then.

From what I have gathered, opinion is mixed about how some of the protagonists are portrayed in The Damned United, but whilst making allowances for this, it is a compulsively gripping and raw documenting and interpretation of those times, both within football, and in a broader social sense.

I found it a less than comfortable read at times, but felt unable to put it down....