100 Greatest Leeds United Players

17 Nov 2015 10:20 pm, by YorkshireSquare


It is always a thankless task selecting the “Greatest” anything, as people are influenced, sometimes by favouritism from a popularity point of view or simply by the fact that the players were from an era before a person started supporting the club and in many cases before they were even born. Their judgement is clouded accordingly. Leeds United published their own 100 greatest players on the official website back in 2005. Presumably from some kind of poll?

Looking for our favourites, sure many were there, but where was Tommy Burden, club captain and inspirational leader, veteran of over 250 games for LUFC? Wilf Copping English International, 150+ appearances, Tom Holley, stalwart centre half 169 appearances? Players I would have gambled on being there were not in the list. I found myself checking out how-to.bet thinking about the odds on various player making the top 100. I looked at Rio Ferdinand with 50 games, Eric Cantona even less at 25, Imre Varadi 23 games, John McClelland 22 league games, David Rocastle and Chris Kamara, less than 20, Tomas Brolin and wondered where the priorities lay.






To us, a player's greatness is a reflection of his abilities and achievements as a player for LUFC (or representing his country etc, when a LUFC player). It should not be swayed by unpopularity or the fact some perceive them as a “Judas” nor by the division which Leeds were playing in at the time.

So, we asked the users of four of the main Leeds United forums at the time, Marching On Together, WACCOE, WeAreLeeds and Leeds Chat who they thought were the greatest Leeds United players ever. They were asked to give a list, (Maximum 100) be it top 20, top 50, or whatever and score: 100 for No.1 down to 1 for No.100, or 100 for No.1 and 81 for No.20 etc.

As with all votes and polls you will never get a true opinion, merely a generally acceptable consensus of the valid voters. Over 164 players were nominated to give us our final 100 but in the time that has passed since 2005 nearly 200 more players have donned the white shirt of Leeds United. It has not been a period of glory for Leeds United but there have been some stand out players. Some of those who were fresh in the memory when the initial vote was taken may have faded over the years too. As such we have updated the 100 Greatest Leeds United Players Ever in time for 2019, our centenary year.


See the 100 Greatest Leeds United Players Ever >>

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mav wrote on 19 Nov 2015 11:17 am

My only issue with that is Lucas should be in the top 10 easily.

Tare wrote on 18 Nov 2015 08:40 am

Tony Currie N:o 1.

Reasoning: Probably best individual who wear the Whites shirt in legendary "10" MF General position. Even tough football pundit anti-Leeds Eric Batty thought that TC was the best MF player in the World late 70s.

DRs Band of Brothers was in my estimation a collective one man band who thrashed opposition as a human machine. I understand fully well that people have heroes from the success era, but I think this article was about individuals as such.

Tare

YorkshireSquare wrote on 18 Nov 2015 08:29 am

gessa wrote:

That can be the problem with these kind of polls, a lot that voted wouldn't have seen Charles or the Revie team play, so they mostly vote for more recent players.
I would put Beckford in the top 100 ahead of some that are in there.
Always going to be the problem with these polls.

Firstly there are always going to me more people who has seen the more recent players as such they will figure higher in the voting as a proportion. Secondly it was conducted online and again that may skew the audience to a younger demographic. It is also very difficult to compare eras, how really can you compare Charles to Bremner? Strachan to Giles? How do you say who is a great player, do you base it on there whole career, their achievements at Leeds or the trophies they won?

It's never designed to be a definitive list, it's designed to create the debate.

1964white wrote on 18 Nov 2015 07:53 am

Difficult to find any player outside the Revie squad & John Charles for the Top Ten

Yeboah, Strachan & surprisingly Ferdinand come close

The rest are also rans

gessa wrote on 18 Nov 2015 07:40 am

1964white wrote:Charles 4th :roll:

Strachan ahead of Giles :roll:

Clarke 8th :roll:

Martyn in the top ten

What do our fans know ??

That can be the problem with these kind of polls, a lot that voted wouldn't have seen Charles or the Revie team play, so they mostly vote for more recent players.
I would put Beckford in the top 100 ahead of some that are in there.