Breedon Books have published the second edition of Martin Jarred and Malcolm Macdonald’s book, updated till the end of last season.
With Christmas coming up faster than you can say “Boxing Day at home to Leicester City”, it’s time to start thinking what present your going to buy for that special Leeds fan in your life.
The book gives the essential career statistics and a short biography of every player to have represented Leeds United, and also has a section on those who turned out for Leeds City.
They must have taken many hours of painstaking research to trace the post-Leeds career of those who dropped out of the media spotlight once they had left the club. Whatever happened to Steve Balcome after his league career of one game and one brilliant goal? Surprise, surprise, he’s now running a pub. And did you know that Mark Ford ended up playing part-time in the Northern Counties East League while working as a guard on the railways?
And the managers haven’t been forgotten either, so you can read about every boss to have occupied the Elland Road hot-seat, while taking charge of either Leeds City or Leeds United. There’s a picture of Frank Scott-Walford (1908-12) looking splendid with his upper class moustache, while 1920s boss Arthur Fairclough resembles a Chicago gangster. Or did everyone look like that in the twenties?
And at the end there are the details of the international appearances that Leeds players have made for 22 different countries, and a section on our appearance and goalscoring records. You might remember that John Lukic broke the record for the most consecutive appearances during his first spell at the club, but did you know that Peter Lorimer’s 21 goals in the UEFA Cup were more than twice the number scored by any other Leeds player?
So I can certainly recommend the book as an interesting read, and an essential reference source that could settle many an argument you might have in the pub or on the messageboards. It costs £19.99 and you can find it in numerous decent book stores, or order it on-line at http://www.breedonbooks.co.uk/publications/9781859836316instock.html