David Norris ⭑ From A-Z since '92
The problem with Neil Warnock's Leeds United was not the number of midfielders he signed, but trying to tell them apart.
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.
It is fair to say that Neil Warnock was not averse to quantity when he couldn't guarantee quality. At Sheffield United, searching for a formula to get them into the Premier League, he worked through 45 different strikers before Danny Webber and Neil Shipperley turned out to have enough.
Options were important, and as substitute benches grew in number, he loved to have different kinds of attackers available so he could weigh up the opposition and the way the game was going and pick the right horse for that day's course.
Modern football giveth to Colin, and it taketh away, as the longer, fuller dugout coincided with shorter, more concentrated transfer windows. He couldn't just go out and get the player it turned out he needed when summer's plans had disintegrated by autumn. He had to get as many bodies in the building as he could before he couldn't get any more through the door. Even that wouldn't end his baleful glares towards the boardroom, balancing their emptying wallets against the temptations of the emergency loan market.
That's partly how Leeds United's midfield, in 2012/13, contained Michael Brown, Paul Green, Rodolph Austin, Michael Tonge, Luke Varney, Ross Barkley, Jerome Thomas and David Norris. In March, Warnock said he didn't regret not putting Tonge in his team earlier, because "it might have been in Luke Varney's position and that would have lessened Luke's impact." A risk Warnock obviously didn't feel he could take.
Strength in numbers made a certain amount of sense but where Warnock was alert to variety in his attackers, his Leeds United midfield was a bewildering story of sameness. Rodolph Austin was singular, but Green, Tonge and Norris were all aged 30-32 and had roughly the same amount of Championship experience and played roughly the same way and, especially as Tonge arrived after Green and Norris had early season injuries, it felt like Warnock didn't particularly care about the particular qualities of his midfielders. He just wanted to make sure he always had enough to fill out a teamsheet.
Norris was given his break in football by Steve Evans, who in the years after Warnock joined him in the less-loved league of Leeds managers. Evans was Norris' boss at Stamford, took him with him to Boston United, then drove him to Bolton to place him safely into the care of Wanderers' boss Sam Allardyce and complete a triptych of Elland Road nightmares in waiting.
"I was a young lad and naive," Norris said years later. "So Steve insisted on driving me across and helping me with the negotiations [with Bolton]. I appreciated his help." Evans told the teenage Norris to dress smartly, so he turned up, "in my best clothes ... [as if] I was going straight out to a nightclub." Allardyce wasn't fazed, and Boston received a record £50,000 for him.
Bolton soon won promotion to the Premier League but that wasn't great news for young Norris. As an aspiring attacking midfielder he found himself behind manager's fave Kevin Nolan, French international star Youri Djorkaeff and experienced utility player Paul Warhurst; the quality in the side was rounded out by strikers Michael Ricketts and Rod Wallace, and left-back Mike Whitlow. Norris returned to Boston, then bottom tier Hull, on loan.
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