Andy O'Brien ⭑ From A-Z since '92

This is part of my (eight year long, it'll fly by) attempt to write about every Leeds United player since 1992. For more about why I'm doing this, go back to Aapo Halme, and to read all the players so far, browse the archive here.

We're usually talking about fans, not footballers, when we say you don't choose a football club but a club chooses you. But Andy O'Brien looked fated to play for Leeds United, and as fans know too well, the fates are not always kind when picking your football team for you.

Born in Harrogate, where his grandparents had moved from County Limerick in the 1950s, O'Brien played for Leeds United's youth teams from the age of fourteen until he was seventeen. "Paul Hart was here then," he once told the LUFC website, "and there was a very good youth team with the likes of Harry Kewell, Jonathan Woodgate, Lee Matthews." Instead of coming through with them under David O'Leary and Eddie Gray, O'Brien went to Bradford City and was given his debut by their manager, former Leeds utility player Chris Kamara. Former Leeds striker Carl Shutt was also playing for the Bantams that day, ex-Leeds youth player Matthew Smithard was at the club, and Bradford were at the beginning of their rise to the Premier League with help from Lee Sharpe's loan from Leeds and, after promotion, the permanent signings of Sharpe, Gunnar Halle, Neil Redfearn, David Hopkin, Robert Molenaar and David Wetherall, with whom O'Brien formed an enduring top-flight partnership in central defence.

O'Brien also earned a £2m transfer to Newcastle United in March 2001, going into the side with Gary Speed and, two years later, being reunited in defence with teenage pal Jonathan Woodgate. He was still at St James' Park for Michael Bridges' loan from Leeds, and James Milner's permanent arrival. Perhaps the lack of Leeds connections influenced his unhappy time at Portsmouth, unless we throw forward to count future Peacocks Jamie Ashdown and Jason Pearce, but at Bolton Wanderers he was with Gary Speed again, plus Robbie Blake, our future-players El Hadji Diouf, Lubo Michalik and Paul Robinson, future technical director Grétar Steinsson and even — for a few months after he arrived on loan from Benfica — Rodrigo Moreno. O'Brien's own loan, to join Leeds in October 2010, was long overdue when you consider this history.

It was also exactly what Leeds United needed at the time. For all his attack-minded tactics, Simon Grayson had helped Leeds to promotion from League One by starting with centre-backs and working from there. When it came to defenders Grayson loved battlers and he didn't love nonsense. Richard Naylor, Sam Sodje, Patrick Kisnorbo, Leigh Bromby and Neill Collins had got Leeds up and were joined by Alex Bruce. In the Championship, though, Grayson was struggling to field a consistent fit partnership, or to find players who could increase the quality available at a price that wouldn't upset the chairman, Ken Bates. Leeds had conceded fifteen in five games, losing four, when Grayson tried again to get O'Brien from Bolton. O'Brien was a centre-back, a Premier League quality one, with more than 400 games under his belt. "He didn't say a great deal," O'Brien said. "The whole thing was fairly self-explanatory."

O'Brien had proven his quality during his rise with Bradford alongside Wetherall, where he'd been pushed for England honours. Bradford had thought England meant prestige, but for O'Brien the Under-21s were a bad time. "I remember Danny Cadamarteri not turning up for the England game and I had to room alone," he said, soon after switching allegiance. "It was nothing to do with (manager) Peter Taylor but a lot of the other lads knew each other and I didn't seem to fit in. (With Ireland) I didn't know any of the Irish lads either ... I just had this feeling of being wanted and that suited me."

His best years were at Newcastle where the manager, Bobby Robson, loved to want players who loved to be wanted. And he loved Andy O'Brien. "You always know where you are with Andy O'Brien — he's a player you can trust," said Robson. "He keeps things simple and is a good defender. He's just the opposite of the flash Premiership player. Andy is a throwback to the old-fashioned pros who used to come in every day, train and go home without any fuss. I love that." O'Brien would commute to training from his home with his parents in Knaresborough, driving a fifteen-year-old Saab that Robson reckoned was "the oldest car in professional football" until its gearbox gave up. "That Saab had great character and sentimental value," O'Brien said. "I'd had it from my days at Bradford but I'm not really sure why I kept it so long — whether it was because my dad gave it to me or because I'm just tight!" He was speaking after a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford where his teeth had gone through his lip when a bang to the head knocked him out. "To be honest, taking my car to the scrapyard hurt me more," he said. Gary Speed appreciated him too. "Andy is one of the boys you want in the trenches with you," he said. "He is a fantastic lad who works very hard at his game."

O'Brien's time at St James' Park gave the world a famous photo of a ball squashing his nose into his face and being squashed back, but his unassuming dedication was not enough for Graeme Souness when he took over from Robson. There was an odd dalliance with another Leeds connection, a possible transfer to David O'Leary's Aston Villa, but when that move fell apart in winter Newcastle went through an odd rigmarole of offering O'Brien an extended contract and doubling his wages, then selling him in the summer to Portsmouth. £1m seemed a low fee for a player with 174 Premier League appearances, international caps for Ireland, and 36 appearances in the Champions League and UEFA Cup, and Harry Redknapp was a poor manager for O'Brien when he took over from Alain Perrin a few months into the season. "I don't think Harry was very honest with me and he treated me like a mug for quite a long time at Portsmouth," O'Brien said, after being consigned to the reserves and having his shirt number switched from 5 to 33. At Bolton he recaptured some of his best form, captaining the side to the last sixteen of the UEFA Cup and 16th in the Premier League, winning the Bolton News readership's player of the year vote. But Owen Coyle's arrival as manager took O'Brien from playing thirty games a year to playing six. That, and Coyle's suggestion he needed to recover from a hamstring injury, sent O'Brien to Elland Road.

Some of those experiences seemed to have made O'Brien more cynical. "I'm 31 years old so I know what's expected of me," he said at the start of his loan at Leeds. He wasn't buying Coyle's talk of letting him build up fitness in the Championship and return to the Premier League for the rest of his final year. "I wouldn't be surprised if (Bolton) didn't offer me a contract," he said. "I'd like to think I'm playing well and hard here but I don't think that has any bearing on my future at Bolton. I'm doing this for myself and for Leeds United because they're my employers at the moment."

What he did for Leeds United was so good that Grayson quickly extended his loan into January, agreed with Bolton that he should stay until the end of the season, then agreed when O'Brien asked for the certainty of a permanent transfer instead. Leeds had only won three of seven at home to start the season but didn't lose again at Elland Road after O'Brien arrived, and after conceding four or more three times in three months before him they never again let in more than three. Cardiff had made an offer to sign O'Brien from Bolton in January, and he was using the wisdom he'd built up from dealing with Souness, Redknapp and Coyle. He didn't bother with an agent, saying Cardiff and Leeds were both impressed "that I had the guts to do everything myself". He listened to Cardiff's offer, and told them he'd talk it over with Leeds. He told Leeds that if they matched it he'd sign for them. They matched it. He signed. "It was quite a week and I haven't slept much, but I wanted to deal with it myself," he said. "Sometimes when a third party gets involved, things can get lost in translation. It's a relief to have it sorted out."