Howard Wilkinson

We'll come to that at the end.

We'll begin, though, with his arrival, because Bruno Ribeiro's arrival at Elland Road was a sign that things were changing fast from the Howard Wilkinson era.

Once upon a time, if managing director Bill Fotherby had a spare half million in the bank, Wilkinson would scour the reserve teams of Sheffield looking for a bargain.

Not anymore.

I know there have been very, very good players.

Uh, they did go on to win the league with, uh, uh, Howard Wilkinson in 1990.

You know, with Gordon Strachan and Gary McAllister.

We had Gary Speed, David Batty, Tony Greco, Chris White.

And, and that happens when you're picking a team.

But these lads did it for so long and were so successful over the long periods of time, Nathan.

You know, when, when, when the other, the only, the only time other trophy they won was with, under Howard Wilkinson, and that was win the League-

Mm

No, that's a joke about his snozz.

It was Thomas Brolin making Howard Wilkinson laugh.

Not something that happened very often.

But it happened in this game.

I hope that if you're planning to have a nice time, you have a lovely time.

If you're planning to just tolerate the whole affair, I hope you also have a lovely time as well.

And I hope that hearing about the days when Thomas Brolean might actually have been quite good so good he could get carton palmer to do good things makes you feel as fuzzy and festive as howard wilkinson with a glass of nice red wine and the barbara streisand cassette album it always gets uh underrated just how much he loved and still loves i imagine Barbara Streisand and wine.

I should begin reading the stuff that I've written about this match, which I'm surprised I've never written about before.

Cantona arrived in 1992 and he joined a Leeds United side that was chasing the first division title.

Under Howard Wilkinson, Leeds were competing at the very top of English football and Cantona brought something different.

Flair, creativity, unpredictability and an incredible personality.

He was the sort of footballer who could do something that nobody else on the pitch had even thought about and Leeds went on to win the league title in 1992, the final first division championship before the Premier League era.

He became an icon, a legend, a player who helped transform the mentality of that club and every time you look back at that era, you can't help thinking what if he'd stayed at Leeds.

Because imagine it, Eric Cantona becoming the central figure in a Leeds United side defending its league title.

Imagine Howard Wilkinson finding a way to get the very, very best out of him.

Imagine Cantona spending his prime years at Elland Road rather than at Old Trafford.