Danny Pugh ⭑ 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.

Danny Pugh's pedigree, versatility and personality made him and condemned him. He became a player every manager wanted in their squad, but few wanted in their team. His longest stay with one club was at Stoke City, where the manager Tony Pulis insisted Pugh's second one year contract extension was "not a sentimental decision." Pugh was, "the kind of player and character you want to keep around." At the time, he was actually being kept around Preston North End's squad, on loan from Stoke.

Perhaps the pedigree was exaggerated, as when he came through the youth system at Old Trafford it was as part of Alex Ferguson's declining empire. His peers were Kieran Richardson, Lee Roche and Danny Webber, and while Ferguson was motivated to name one of his youngest ever elevens in a European dead rubber against Deportivo La Coruna, Pugh's presence on the bench for a 1-0 defeat to Terry Venables' Leeds at Elland Road was portending doom.

Old Trafford was decaying imperceptibly compared to Leeds United's sudden collapse, and a year or so later Pugh was being held up as the canniest example of Kevin Blackwell's attempts to rebuild a team in the Championship. Pugh was Blackwell's first signing, as a makeweight in Alan Smith's transfer the other way, and wasn't given much of a say: he found out he was moving from watching TV.

Alan Smith ⭑ From A-Z since ’92

Alan Smith did play for twenty seasons, but only six were for his hometown club, and like so much of the Ridsdale and O’Leary years, he left more questions than answers about what might have been made of everything Leeds, and Smith, had going for them.

LeedsistaMoxcowhite • Daniel Chapman

Blackwell was praised for the foresight of swapping for Pugh, but his plans at the time now sound naive. His new midfielder would, he reckoned, help him get the best out of sixteen-year-old wonderkid James Milner, who had been playing on the left in hopes of wringing a dreg of talent out of on-loan, twenty-year-old ex-wonderkid Jermaine Pennant on the right. "Danny is left-footed and James prefers his right," said Blackwell, "so Danny's arrival will help us move James to the right or even up front." Or even to Newcastle United, for £5m.

Nonetheless, Pugh slotted in well for a season of post-relegation delirium when fans were trying to reassure each other that this could be a better team, with hard working players like Danny Pugh on the left wing, than in the erratic days of Harry Kewell. He took over Kewell's song, to the tune of Boney M's 'Daddy Cool'. Pugh's origins at Old Trafford were never a problem, because the real burn of his transfer was about Alan Smith's betrayal in the other direction. There was some pleasure in nabbing a prospect of their's — maybe a better one, who knew? — and besides, he was a Manchester City fan anyway. His combination of hard tackling and a goal threat on the opening day against Derby got some of the season's first big, celebratory, just like the good old days cheers.

The goal threat produced six goals from the left by the middle of October, most of them celebrated with forward flips and backwards somersaults. Pugh was the most consistent source of joy — and important points — Leeds had in the first few months. The highlight was two equalisers in the club's first ever visit to Crewe, the second a volley through a crowd in the 89th minute. "He's a manager's dream," said Blackwell. "He's among the first out onto the training ground and the last to leave."