Don't let them go to Everton
It was Bielsa’s Leeds, and he let us have it. It was a gift to us from a generous soul. And I, a selfish bastard, don’t want him to give anything like that gift to anybody I don’t like.
It goes down as one of the great near misses in Leeds United’s history: a legendary manager negotiating to take over at Everton, to the shock and dismay of fans in Leeds, only for the move to collapse at the last moment.
I wonder how things might have turned out differently if Don Revie had moved to Merseyside in summer 1973. That year Leeds lost the FA Cup final to Second Division Sunderland — much to the delight of Sunderland manager Bob Stokoe and a parade of critics — and the European Cup Winners’ Cup final to the referee, Christos Michas, who gave the trophy to AC Milan. Revie was tired of the near misses, and the criticism, and the lack of appreciation from the boardroom at Elland Road. He was 46, and wanted to retire in his fifties, but for that he needed more money for his pension than the seven years left on his Leeds contract would pay him. Everton had offered to double that amount, and pay Revie £50,000 just for moving to Goodison Park. In Greece before the Cup Winners’ Cup final, Johnny Giles, Norman Hunter and Mick Bates confronted Revie in his hotel room, and he decided to get all the lads together to tell them the news he’d been saving for after the game. He had decided to go. He planned to take his backroom staff with him to Everton, and make Hunter and Trevor Cherry his first signings.
Instead, Revie stayed, and Leeds won their second league title in 1973/74, with a record-breaking run of 29 games unbeaten. But the decision was not only Don’s, but the government’s. The Conservative government’s Pay Board had control of wages, with rules dictating that new employees should be paid the same as the people they replaced, allowing for a maximum of a £250 annual increase. Labour MP Dennis Skinner pointed out in Parliament that, as reported, Revie’s move to Everton could be illegal, and the job became a political talking point. There were other offers from abroad that were even more lucrative and came without government restrictions, but losing the chance of Everton seemed to turn Revie’s mind back to Leeds. He stayed, and never managed another English club side.