Eric Cantona

Reds and Whites Reunited

Saturday 19 December 2020 08:00

With Leeds United back on the opponents list for the first time since 2011 – and the first time in league football since 2003/04 – we examine
 the nature of the Reds-v-Whites rivalry and try to put our finger on the roots and character of a long-running cross-county squabble that has burned with sulphurous intensity at times, and is up there among the club’s fiercest feuds...

In a standard calendar year – one governed by the ‘old normal’ – the month of December 2020 would have been keenly earmarked by Manchester United fans. Especially those who like their football fast and frenetic; who love the white-hot charge of a derby game or a grudge rivalry. Between 12 and 19 December, United host two of their greatest traditional enemies: Manchester City and the newly resurgent Leeds United. As if that weren’t enough, those two clashes sandwich a midweek straightener with Sheffield United at Bramall Lane – a fixture that produced a pulsating, see-sawing 3-3 draw last term.

Lamentably, the curse of COVID-19 has deprived us of these atmospheric treats. Of course, the football will still contain plenty of added bite, but we need only look to the Reds’ last game in front of a crowd – March’s dramatic 2-0 win over City – for a reminder of what we’re missing. The sight of the Stretford End writhing in the rain to Scott McTominay’s audacious injury-time settler will live long in the memory for those who were there.

As for Leeds? Whenever we meet Yorkshire’s premier club, there’s always an extra spicy kick to proceedings. And given it’s 16 years since we last fought them in a league match, this upcoming date would have been peri-peri-hot. But where does this strange and most bitter of rivalries come from? And how does it compare with our cross-town battles with City? The majority of Reds would probably put Liverpool top of the antagonist list, but does Leeds’s return to the big-time necessitate a re-think?

BATTLE LINES DRAWN

For Iain McCartney, a Scottish Red who’s been going since 1968, it’s a simple equation. "The biggest rivals would be City," he says firmly, "because they’re a local club. The Leeds fans see us as big rivals, but it’s maybe more from them than us. We didn’t like them because of the way they played under Don Revie, but I didn’t class them as huge rivals. They’d kick their grannies [to win] and we wanted to beat them because of the way they played; to get one over on them." For McCartney, the rivalry’s true beginning dates back to the 1965 FA Cup semi-final, and a legendary set-to immortalised in an infamous photo showing Denis Law with his shirt ripped off and Paddy Crerand squaring up to Billy Bremner (as pictured on the previous page). But was that just passion overspill in an important contest between two well-matched sides? Or the stirrings of something deeper? 


The War of the Roses is often cited when United-Leeds is discussed. Cricket matches between Yorkshire and Lancashire (who play their home fixtures at Old Trafford cricket ground) are known as ‘Roses’ matches, and have a long and spiky history that pre-dates Don Revie and Denis Law by decades. But are fans and players really thinking about the Battle of Bosworth Field of 1485 when they face up?

Sports writer Duncan Hamilton is not convinced by this stretch: "The jagged rise of the Pennines split the counties geographically, and the long-ago disputes of kings allowed everybody to cite history as an excuse for enmity." Leeds fan James Brown – the founder of Loaded magazine and author of Above Head Height: A Five-A-Side Life – thinks it’s perhaps more to do with his club’s lack of a big, consistent local rival.

"When we came up under Howard Wilkinson in the early 1990s, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday were doing really well – but they were rivals with each other. And it was only when we dropped in the 2000s and suddenly were playing Bradford and Huddersfield – we’d never played them in my lifetime – that we found they hated us! We always looked west along the M62, at United and Liverpool."

As a child, Brown lived opposite Whites striker Allan ‘Sniffer’ Clarke, and he’s convinced the staff of both clubs were full of admiration for each other. "I asked Eddie Gray [former Leeds player and manager] once about the rivalry with Man United, and he thought it was more of a fans’ thing," he says. "Johnny Giles and Nobby Stiles were brothers-in-law and Allan Clarke’s big hero was Denis Law. There was a lot of respect with Busby and Revie, too – they’d call each other every Sunday."

TO ELLAND BACK

But, wherever the animosity sprang from, it endured, even when both teams slid into relative mediocrity during the ‘70s and ‘80s. There was a famous win for United in the 1977 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough, and two painful transfer switches for Leeds, as Joe Jordan and Gordon McQueen arrived at
Old Trafford within weeks of each other in early 1978. Tensions weren’t exactly smoothed when McQueen’s first words as a Red were: "Ninety-nine per cent of footballers will tell you they want to join Man United. The other one per cent are liars."

The following season ended with a thunderous meeting at Elland Road. Dave Sexton’s Reds had to win (and hope Liverpool lost) to claim the club’s first title since 1967, but Leeds won a spiteful encounter 2-0. "It was more Helland Road than Elland Road," laughs McCartney, who stood in the home end to try to avoid trouble. "After, it was pure evil," he remembers. "I had to run through a hole in a fence, over a school playing field, and out through someone’s garden to get back to the station. I vowed never to go back, but of course I was there the next year."

Leeds were relegated in 1982, and City went down the following year, so United’s focus homed in on Liverpool. The Blues’ woes continued in the following decade, but tensions with the Yorkshire club reached an all-time high. Local Red Anthony Murphy was 17 when Leeds returned to the top flight in 1990, and he remembers three meetings over Christmas and New Year of 1991/92 (in the league and two cups) as the peak of a tumultuous period.

"The press were hyping it up as ‘the Leeds-United trilogy’," he recalls. "The atmosphere inside Elland Road was visceral for all three. They really don’t like Manchester United fans; the reception we get there is always hostile."

In Murphy’s opinion, Leeds were a bigger enemy than City, and he puts their loathing for United down to jealousy and frustration. "City meant bugger all to me then – they were an irrelevance until 2008 – but Leeds I really disliked," he explains. "I don’t have any dislike of Yorkshire, but there’s something around that club that I find difficult to like. They had a really fantastic side between 1969-75, but they never quite scaled the heights of Manchester United, and I think they are deeply envious of us. They never got the recognition they felt they were due, which gives them an added chip on their shoulder."

All 35 Premier League goals v Leeds Video

All 35 Premier League goals v Leeds

Watch every United strike against Leeds in the top-flight since 1992, including efforts from Cantona and Beckham…

That envy would swell in the 1990s, but it was Leeds who struck the first big blow in the new decade. Captained by former Red Gordon Strachan, no less, they pipped Alex Ferguson’s team to the top-flight title in 1992, the last before the league restructure heralded the arrival of the Premier League era. But the rivalry’s defining moment arrived less than six months later, when Eric Cantona crossed the Pennines to join United.

"The media retrospectively overplayed Cantona’s contributions [at Leeds],” insists Brown. “He only played in the last 11 or 12 games [of our title-winning season] but it was just – as you all unfortunately know – his aura and his ability. It lifted us. So that really intensified the hatred [when he left]."

Cantona would famously inspire United to lift that inaugural
Premier League trophy in 1993 – a success which ushered in 20 years of domestic dominance under Ferguson. There were
many more great battles with Leeds throughout the next 10
years – and flashpoint incidents like Roy Keane’s simmering battle with Alf-Inge Haaland – before the Elland Road club suffered a shock relegation in 2004.

Sparks often fly when these two sides meet but it’s United who hold the upper hand with most wins, helped largely by our ’90s domestic dominance.
A RIVALRY REUNITED

While Leeds have been ‘away’ – bar their memorable FA Cup victory over us in 2010 – City have grown in stature and success. So where do things stand now? Does the rivalry still burnish as brightly?

"In terms of playing you, it’s exciting," Brown enthuses. “We play really good football, and it’s just a matter of how well the opposition play. I’m really looking forward to it, especially the way we’ve played against Liverpool and Man City. I just wish we were at the grounds.

"But I don’t think it would be right to say [we want to beat United more than anyone else]. They didn’t even have social media last time we were in the top division! People interact with sport differently now.

"Is there a dislike for City? No, not at all. There’s just not the same historic animosity or rivalry. But part of that is a reflection on status: they weren’t very good before they got all this money! The rivalry with United – whether fan-driven or results- driven or whatever – is long-standing.” The first two decades of the new century were painful for Leeds, while United added multiple titles. And there were more painful deals between the clubs, too: Rio Ferdinand and local hero Alan Smith both rocked up at Old Trafford and had success.

Paul Pogba made his United debut at Elland Road in a 3-0 win in 2011.

But Marcelo Bielsa’s reign has given Yorkshire’s big boys a renewed swagger. They’ve started the current Premier League season fearlessly and with plenty of verve. All is bright within their world. But as history shows, United-Leeds is a feud that is always simmering beneath the surface, ready to re-emerge at a moment’s notice.

With three victories over City last season, it might even be arguable that United fans would relish a first Old Trafford success against the Whites in 17 years more than another triumph over Pep Guardiola’s men. Without fans in stadiums, that’s something that’s hard to gauge. But, enticingly, the early signs are that Leeds look like making their Premier League stay a lengthy one.

Over the next few years, our battles with both the Blues and the Whites could be set to enter a new, exciting phase. And if the 1960s and 1990s are anything to go by, the next episode could be quite the ride...

This feature originally appeared in the Leeds edition of United Review, available now.

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