What if? Bayern Munich 0: Leeds United 2

[Phil147]

Life is full of what ifs but Leeds United seem to specialize in them...

I mean imagine IF we had pipped Man Utd to the league in 1965 (which we only lost on goal average) we would have been in the European Cup the next year and then we could have been the British team to win it!! A big ask I know but not impossible.

We should have won more league titles under Revie and the only luck we had in cup competitions was bad luck. If the roll of the dice had been kinder for us in 1970 we would have won the 'impossible treble' long before that lot from over the Pennines did.

I was just too young to remember the 1975 European Cup final but in all of the what if's for that Revie team this one does feel like the hardest and most unfair of them all. What a fitting end it would have made for that team and it might have been the springboard for greater things to come in the future instead of the rather rapid downward spiral which followed.
Leeds would have been only the 2nd English team to win it at that point and would surely have been able to attract a better caliber of player and also stop our better players leaving (Jordan / McQueen etc.).

Another 'what if?' I occasionally ponder is if after winning the title in 1992 we had radically strengthened / improved the squad, maybe have brought in a certain young striker called Alan Shearer? A top class centre-half? At the very least in buying Shearer it would have stopped him scoring so many against us over the years... 1992 seems like a missed opportunity to have built on the ambition already shown and reaped the benefits of the somewhat unexpected title win.

[Westminster]

Life is full of what ifs but Leeds United seem to specialize in them...

I mean imagine IF we had pipped Man Utd to the league in 1965 (which we only lost on goal average) we would have been in the European Cup the next year and then we could have been the British team to win it!! A big ask I know but not impossible.

We should have won more league titles under Revie and the only luck we had in cup competitions was bad luck. If the roll of the dice had been kinder for us in 1970 we would have won the 'impossible treble' long before that lot from over the Pennines did.

I was just too young to remember the 1975 European Cup final but in all of the what if's for that Revie team this one does feel like the hardest and most unfair of them all. What a fitting end it would have made for that team and it might have been the springboard for greater things to come in the future instead of the rather rapid downward spiral which followed.
Leeds would have been only the 2nd English team to win it at that point and would surely have been able to attract a better caliber of player and also stop our better players leaving (Jordan / McQueen etc.).

Another 'what if?' I occasionally ponder is if after winning the title in 1992 we had radically strengthened / improved the squad, maybe have brought in a certain young striker called Alan Shearer? A top class centre-half? At the very least in buying Shearer it would have stopped him scoring so many against us over the years... 1992 seems like a missed opportunity to have built on the ambition already shown and reaped the benefits of the somewhat unexpected title win.

Good point about the title-winning squad of '92. That team had a brilliant midfield but the rest of the side arguably played above themselves that season and the squad needed some significant strengthening that summer.

A top-class striker would have been good and a centre-half, yes. Possibly a better goalkeeper too - Nigel Martyn would have done nicely.

We desperately needed another right-back though. Mel Sterland was basically finished by then and Leeds tried to get through the following season without a proper right-back. Which really didn't work.

Wilko signed two midfielders instead - Scott Sellars and David Rocastle - who were both good players but we didn't really need.

[Phil147]

I had forgot about the right back position, Jon Newsome ended up playing there for most of the season. Wilko did bring in David Kerslake from Swindon (who I had forgotten about) but he only made a handful of appearances before moving onto Spurs.

Of course a certain Frenchman was pretty much given away to that mob over the Pennines as well which didn't help...

[johnh]

And Forest haven't exactly pulled up a lot of trees since the early 80's.

I see what you did there.....

You mean you twigged it.

[Westminster]

I had forgot about the right back position, Jon Newsome ended up playing there for most of the season. Wilko did bring in David Kerslake from Swindon (who I had forgotten about) but he only made a handful of appearances before moving onto Spurs.

Of course a certain Frenchman was pretty much given away to that mob over the Pennines as well which didn't help...

Kerslake with meant to be a bit of a star at youth level but he never really cut the mustard in the Premier League, with either us or Spurs.

The Cantona thing is interesting because Fergie's enquiry about him only arose after Wilko contacted Ferguson about signing Dennis Irwin. Wilko should have insisted on a swap deal if Fergie was so keen on Cantona.

It's difficult to know who else we could have signed at that time though. I can't really remember many right-backs from that era. In fact, I recall Graham Taylor gong in Euro 92 without a recognised right-back and playing Keith Curle there who had a torrid time.

Either way, Newsome was a fish out of water at right-back really. We also tried playing Chris Fairclough and David Batty there as well, neither of which worked.

I also think the no back pass rule coming in was difficult for that Leeds team. Whyte and Fairclough didn't adapt well to that.

[Selby White]

It's difficult to know who else we could have signed at that time though. I can't really remember many right-backs from that era. In fact, I recall Graham Taylor gong in Euro 92 without a recognised right-back and playing Keith Curle there who had a torrid time.

That is correct Taylor didn't have a RB in the squad .
Curle played the first match in that position which we drew with eventual winners Denmark (think he never played for England again).
Batty played RB in the draw with France and defeat by Sweden (not 100% sure but think it was the first time Batts had ever played there at any level).

Was rumoured at the time Taylor asked Dorigo to play RB but he refused saying he could only play on the left so spent the tournament bench warming.

[Selby White]

And Forest haven't exactly pulled up a lot of trees since the early 80's.

I see what you did there.....

You mean you twigged it.

You lot are BARKing mad

[Phil147]

It's difficult to know who else we could have signed at that time though. I can't really remember many right-backs from that era. In fact, I recall Graham Taylor gong in Euro 92 without a recognised right-back and playing Keith Curle there who had a torrid time.

That is correct Taylor didn't have a RB in the squad .
Curle played the first match in that position which we drew with eventual winners Denmark (think he never played for England again).
Batty played RB in the draw with France and defeat by Sweden (not 100% sure but think it was the first time Batts had ever played there at any level).

Was rumoured at the time Taylor asked Dorigo to play RB but he refused saying he could only play on the left so spent the tournament bench warming.

David Bardsley was the right back in the Premiership team of the year in 92/93 - he was at QPR at the time. He got two caps for England under Taylor. But you are right there wasn't really a wealth of talent there... Lee Dixon was starting to play for Arsenal but he was quite young back then. Mind you he would have been better than putting Keith Curle or Batts at right back. I had forgotten Batty had played there... a tournament easy to forget though.

We did have Gary Kelly coming through so I guess Wilko was OK with that and was hoping Sterland would last another season...

[Selby White]

It's difficult to know who else we could have signed at that time though. I can't really remember many right-backs from that era. In fact, I recall Graham Taylor gong in Euro 92 without a recognised right-back and playing Keith Curle there who had a torrid time.

That is correct Taylor didn't have a RB in the squad .
Curle played the first match in that position which we drew with eventual winners Denmark (think he never played for England again).
Batty played RB in the draw with France and defeat by Sweden (not 100% sure but think it was the first time Batts had ever played there at any level).

Was rumoured at the time Taylor asked Dorigo to play RB but he refused saying he could only play on the left so spent the tournament bench warming.

David Bardsley was the right back in the Premiership team of the year in 92/93 - he was at QPR at the time. He got two caps for England under Taylor. But you are right there wasn't really a wealth of talent there... Lee Dixon was starting to play for Arsenal but he was quite young back then. Mind you he would have been better than putting Keith Curle or Batts at right back. I had forgotten Batty had played there... a tournament easy to forget though.

We did have Gary Kelly coming through so I guess Wilko was OK with that and was hoping Sterland would last another season...

The standard of all the teams at the tournament was poor and really there for the taking, any other manager than Taylor would have given us a good chance. Was only 8 teams there two groups of four, Sweden topped ours with a certain Thomas Brolin scoring a few goals for them. Denmark was the other team that got through the group to the Semi leaving France and ourselves holding an enquiry.

[Westminster]

It's difficult to know who else we could have signed at that time though. I can't really remember many right-backs from that era. In fact, I recall Graham Taylor gong in Euro 92 without a recognised right-back and playing Keith Curle there who had a torrid time.

That is correct Taylor didn't have a RB in the squad .
Curle played the first match in that position which we drew with eventual winners Denmark (think he never played for England again).
Batty played RB in the draw with France and defeat by Sweden (not 100% sure but think it was the first time Batts had ever played there at any level).

Was rumoured at the time Taylor asked Dorigo to play RB but he refused saying he could only play on the left so spent the tournament bench warming.

The way I heard it was that Curle was having a 'mare and Taylor turned round looked at the bench saw Dorigo and said "do you fancy a run at right-back,son?" At which point Dorigo just turned round and said "no, boss, I don't play right-back"

Taylor obviously hadn't thought it through at all.