Anthony Elding ⭑ 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.

Some of Anthony Elding's story will warm your heart, about the striker from a family of Leeds fans who got a dream move to Elland Road in January 2008. "I'm over the moon," he said after getting his first goal. "I've always dreamed of a big move and I feel this is the next best thing to the Premiership. Before I'd signed, I'd been to this stadium once to watch Leeds in the Premier League against Sheffield Wednesday. And for me to set foot on the pitch and see and feel the atmosphere was fantastic. And to feel the adrenaline when I scored a goal especially was second to none."

But it was hard to warm to a player who, to put it simply, had such busy agents. Someone was putting his name in the headlines from an early age, anyway, and transfer speculation was a constant background to his fifteen year, nineteen club career. Hindsight means we can set Elding's career total of five goals at any level above English League Two against the early career claims that Celtic, Spurs, Middlesbrough and Bolton were 'battling it out' to sign 'a teenage striker dubbed the new Chris Sutton'. His boss at the time, at Boston United, was convinced that a big bid would be coming from a top club soon. "Celtic have been watching the kid, but they are not alone. We've already turned down money for the lad and I'm sure he'll move on." But his boss at the time was the spacehopper of hype, Steve Evans, and at the time Steve Evans was lodging false contracts with the FA and when he pleaded guilty to fraud he avoided jail by having his lawyer tell the court he was too scared to go to prison. Elding, meanwhile, did play trial games for Spurs and Bolton, but the new Chris Sutton's big move was to Stevenage Borough on a free.

Elding hit his stride at Stevenage, scoring 50 goals in 109 appearances in the Conference National, but he also got the wrong side of manager Graham Westley by asking for a loan away. "Fortunately we are not called Mickey Mouse and we do not need to give in to a misbehaving player," said Westley, who dropped Elding and pulled him out of the England C squad, of the best non-league players. "He thinks that he is okay because League Two clubs want him. If he listened and concentrated he could be moving into the Championship." Elding did get a transfer, to Kettering, in the Conference North, for £40,000 — and according to rival bosses, on £1,200 a week — and at the end of the season he finally got a move into the Football League, to League Two, and back to Steve Evans' Boston United. He wasn't there long. After nineteen games and five goals he moved up League Two, from 23rd to 8th, to Stockport County, for £55,000.

Stockport were about to do something almost incredible. Elding's debut was a 2-0 win over, of course, Boston United in mid-January. Elding scored seven in the next eight games, and the team's total in the nine match sequence was nine played, nine won, sixteen scored, none conceded. It was a record breaking run that swelled crowds to 6,500 and pushed Stockport into the play-off positions, but they couldn't capitalise. Despite winning 5-0 at Darlington on the final day — Elding scored two of those — County ended the season back in 8th.

Elding hit six in the early stages of the next season, and soon hit the headlines again. "I'm a County player, I've got two years left on my contract and I'm really happy here," he said in September, amid speculation about interest from Crewe. "I feel like I owe something to the club maybe because Jim (Gannon, the manager) took the chance and brought me here and paid money for me so I want to pay him back by scoring goals." A month later Stockport were suspending Elding for a week, believing that he'd breached his contract and broken Football League rules by approaching another club and telling them to buy him. "I don't want away and I haven't contacted other clubs," Elding countered. "There are things going on at the club which I will be questioning but I'm fully committed."

This was the way of the Football League in the 2000s, after the ITV Digital crash that had created a wages and transfer fees balloon that, when it popped, took many clubs down with it — Leeds United included. The money players had been on was the money players still wanted, but the money available was a fraction of what it had been. Agents, then, and players, were hyper aware of the boon to their bank accounts from making the most of good form, getting moves even within the same division, taking the signing on fees and percentages as they come and edging the wage as high as they could.

"If the players had chances to move to the top 25 or 30 teams in the country and there was good money on the table and it was a great move for the player, then I'd welcome that," said Gannon when January 2008 came around and speculation around Elding increased. "But no disrespect to the likes of Hartlepool, Crewe, or Gillingham. Are they a real step up for the player? We got over 5,000 here on Tuesday night. It's a vociferous crowd who get right behind the players and it's a great environment for players to develop. Anthony loves it here now," he added.

That was on 31st January. The next day Elding was on the move, and he probably couldn't believe his luck. No disrespect to the likes of Hartlepool, Crewe, or Gillingham, as Jim Gannon would say, but while football's financial collapse was making it hard for a lower league player to make a living, it also meant Anthony Elding could sign for Leeds United.