History Squared
Neglecting our past for so long means there is a lot of catching up to do, and that conversations about the merits of one player or another quickly veer into disbelief that Bobby Collins or Jack Charlton or numerous others aren't publicly acknowledged somewhere at Elland Road already.
Naming your three favourite Leeds United players ought to be easy, but one of the problems of history is its always increasing weight.
Then there are the constraints. You can only choose the three from a preselected list of forty. The decision has implications: this isn't a pub chat, but a vote for players to be saluted in stone around Billy Bremner's statue as part of 'Bremner's XI'. And it's not just about your favourite; it's about picking the best, or the most deserving. Subjectivity clashes with objectivity, while a stonemason watches you, chisel in hand. Who are you going to pick?
There are considerations, even responsibilities. Dominic Matteo might have been your favourite player when you were a kid watching the Champions League on telly, but should his name be carved at Elland Road ahead of, say, Paul Madeley? There are personal, emotional and generational biases. Gary Speed will probably come high in the voting, despite his stale play in the last couple of seasons before his necessary transfer to Everton; people want to express their sadness at his early loss, and anyway, no member of those two title winning squads from the early nineties, apart perhaps from one fleeting Frenchman, should ever be forgotten. I would personally like to see Chris Fairclough honoured; he came to Leeds at the same time as Gordon Strachan and stayed just as long, winning two titles along the way, transforming our defence and scoring one of the key goals that won the First Division, against Coventry City in April 1992. But can he make the team ahead of Jack Charlton, whose 773 appearances were made across three decades, who rose like the club under Don Revie to become one of the best defenders of his generation?
And if it's Bremner's XI, shouldn't the team only include players Billy played with, and would approve of — with perhaps a space for Gordon Strachan, ahead of, um, who? Then there's the nebulous question of Billy Bremner's approval. I once wrote, and stand by, an article that argued Billy would have been proud if he'd seen the way Andy Hughes put Leeds United before himself. Should Hughesy be considered? As manager, Billy Bremner indulged the genius of John Sheridan, who brightened up the dark years of the eighties, but Shez hasn't made the shortlist.