Whilst a return to ER for striker Warren Feeney has been greatly anticipated, the man who let him leave Leeds has amazingly spoken to the Daily Mail about a sensational return.

Yes on Monday, readers of The Mail were treated to an exclusive insight into the brilliant mind (or blarney! depending on what camp you are in) of no other than David O'Leary.

It is now seven years since O'Leary left Leeds after a roller-coaster ride. The Irishman was appointed as a hopeful but inexperienced manager after Leeds failed to woo Martin O'Neill north from Leicester in the autumn of 1998.

Blessed by a harvest of fantastic young players or "Moi Babies" as he called them more than once and a board led by Peter Ridsdale ready to bankroll every Leeds fans wildest dreams, O'Leary led Leeds to a fourth place Premiership finish in 2000 and followed it up with the Champions League semi's the following season.

However it all went so horribly wrong, successive failures to get back into the Champions League and the realisation that the club's debts were spiralling beyond control, O'Leary was sensationally sacked during the summer of 2002.

O'Leary told the Mail that despite leaving both Leeds and latterly Aston Villa, he has had offers of some big jobs and even claimed Jose Mourinho put his name forward for one post!

He said "I've had lots of offers mainly from abroad and I think that can only come from people remembering Leeds in the Champions League.

"Some with loads and loads of dollars. Jose Mourinho was very good and recommended me for a really big job but I just felt I couldn't live where it was with the family really. That was about six or seven months ago."

More interestingly, he waxed on very sentimentally about Leeds, saying "I wouldn't rule that out. Most of the city would love it to happen and what would give it every chance is Risdale (sic) is not involved anymore.

"We'd have to wait and see on that. My last memory of Leeds is of 40,000 people applauding me as I walked around the pitch. I left them in the top five in the country."

Regrettably we are light-years away from the club O'Leary left in 2002. Gone are the days of having multi-million pound supersubs like Robbie Keane and buying the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Seth Johnson as insurance on the outcome of a high-profile court-case.

Yes I liked O'Leary and shook his hand on what was his Elland Road swansong, unaware he would be heading for the exit-door later that summer. However his "babies" mantra wore very thin. His shocking decision to abandon the stylish football game in place of a more technical dour game (which in my opinion coincided with the promotion of Brian Kidd to head-coach) was not something I enjoyed watching.

Probably the silliest thing he did was release a book entitled "Leeds United on trial" in the wake of the Bowyer/Woodgate court-case verdict. I feel that not since Rushdie has one book and one author managed to piss-off so many people. O'Leary's book was utter self ego-pampering and pushed Peter Ridsdale's chronically appalling "My Leeds United" video all the way as the most embarrassing piece of media in the club's history.

However, I am an old romantic and I yearn for those feel-good days of the late 1990's when the summers were long and you actually anticipated the start of the season - unlike this one when I can't actually remember the exact date we kick-off against Exeter.

Nevertheless, putting aside my contempt for the Bates regime, I personally hope O'Leary does not get his wish to return to Leeds because this would mean that our potentially brilliant, honest, bluntly spoken young Yorkshire born boss Simon Grayson will have restored this club towards its former glory. I have every faith in Larry but not Bates.

Photo: Action Images

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