David Batty (part three) ⭑ From A-Z since '92
Older, sterner, but never quite grizzly, Batty was still quiet on the pitch — players dreaded the thump thump thump of his boots — and still taking delight from upending reputations.
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.
(This part three of three — start with part one here, then part two)
David Batty's return to Leeds hadn't gone to plan. When he'd played, he'd played as well as everyone had hoped. Well enough to regret he was ever allowed to leave. But he hadn't played enough, and after writing off thousands of pounds and contemplating retirement if he couldn't come home, home had not been the place Batty had wanted it to be. The suspicion among the club's hierarchy, that his achilles injury had been all in his mind, had hurt him.
It was an example of the reality, behind the scenes of football, that took away from what Batty truly enjoyed: playing football in front of football fans. But he was gladdened when those fans saluted his comeback from the bench at Elland Road in December 2000. "Although it sounds funny, you sometimes wonder if the fans have forgotten you when you are out for as long as I was," he said. The thrill of the fans' ovation, he said, would live with him forever. As would the thrill of the football he started playing in a team that was going further than anybody had expected.
At first he was concerned that he and £7.2m signing Olivier Dacourt were too similar — and aware that Dacourt, in the no.4 shirt, had probably been signed to replace him. But soon their partnership clicked and so did Leeds. In the second half of 2000/01's Premier League, Leeds didn't lose a game Batty started, winning ten and drawing three. He made a similar impact in the Champions League, particularly against Anderlecht, only losing to his former suitors Real Madrid, and in the away legs to Deportivo La Coruña and Valencia, when he was one of the Leeds players who looked most at ease in the knockout stages. He earned a year's contract extension, and was getting the same satisfaction from bossing midfields for Leeds that he had in his first top flight season in 1990/91.
Back then he'd taken great delight in stamping his authority, silently, on midfields containing big names like Paul Ince. Older now, sterner, but never quite grizzly, he was still just as quiet on the pitch — players dreaded the thump thump thump of his boots as he closed them down — and still taking just as much delight in upending reputations. In the first half at Anfield in April, he and Dacourt didn't let Steven Gerrard, Danny Murphy or Dietmar Hamman near the ball, setting up a 2-1 win. Dacourt's interception of Gerrard's pass made United's second goal; after pulling one back Gerrard, for going in late on Batty, ended up being sent off.
Batty took great pleasure in obstinate displays of his ability. Leeds fans, desperate for him to add to his four goals for them, implored him to 'shoot' whenever he was within thirty yards of goal; he, deliberately, would pass rather than hit the top corners he had for Blackburn and Newcastle. That passing, particularly going forward, still had the capacity to surprise anyone who still underrated his prowess. Nobody could play a better through ball than the one that set up Alan Smith to score in Anderlecht, partly because nobody else had learned from Billy Bremner how to pass that way off the heel.
Batty and Dacourt started solidly the following season. Their Premier League record together, overall, was won thirteen, drew ten, lost three: 1.88 points per game. But now Dacourt was affected by injuries, and the club as a whole was becoming unstable after defeat to Cardiff in the FA Cup. Batty was consistent as ever, but Leeds only won two of ten games he started alongside expensive new signing Seth Johnson. David O'Leary was sacked that summer, and when Batty and Nigel Martyn declined to risk the toll a pre-season tour of the Far East could take on their bodies, new manager Terry Venables — who had missed part of the tour himself, filming a holiday programme — ostracised them both.
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