Moving on: David Wetherall interview
From just after the league title win, to just before we began to live the dream, David Wetherall was synonymous with two things: Leeds United, and chemistry.
It was another sign that Peter Ridsdale didn't really get it. Seth Johnson had been bought for £9m, to add to the other glittering baubles coming through the door at Leeds: Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Keane, and before long Robbie Fowler. Amid the brouhaha with which Ridsdale liked to greet every new signing - holding scarves aloft together on the pitch, big reveals in front of the crowd at Elland Road - Peter made a comment which gave Leeds fans pause.
Signing Seth Johnson was, according to Ridsdale, a sign that Leeds had "moved on from the Molenaars and Wetheralls of this world."
I put the question bluntly to David Wetherall. Did it piss him off? He paused. "Yes. In a word. And he knows it did.”
It pissed off most Leeds fans, too. It wasn't just that Peter Ridsdale was demonstrating less and less of a grip on reality as the 'living the dream' era began to turn sour. It was that while Ridsdale might have thought Leeds' success began with Rio Ferdinand and Jonathan Woodgate, the fans hadn't forgotten the players who, in 50 games for Robert Molenaar and over 200 in Wetherall's case, had given their all for Leeds in unglorious times, and built the foundations for the Champions League nights.
Rio and Seth might have been expensive and flashy and everything Peter wanted from his dream. But the fans still appreciated what Wethers and the Terminator had done for Leeds, and weren't interested in 'moving on' the way Ridsdale thought.
"I've certainly appreciated it when supporters have talked to me about it like that," said David. "I mean, Rio Ferdinand is a fantastic player and I've never been in his league, he's got attributes I haven't got. But all you can do as a player is do your best with what you've got, and that's all I ever tried to do. And you shouldn't really be criticised or pilloried for anything beyond that. All I did was my best and I thought the comment was undeserved.
"But it was made, I've spoken to Peter about it, and it's history so it's not a problem. It was very, very disappointing at the time, but I'm not going to dwell on one man's opinion or one comment from one individual."
Whatever Ridsdale's opinion, the overwhelming opinion among Leeds fans is that Wetherall is one of the unsung stars of the nineties. After breaking into the team in the season after the title win, Wethers was a constant presence at the back as defensive partners came and went, managers changed, formations were tried and discarded; as Leeds established themselves in the new Premier League until Howard Wilkinson's Thorp Arch plans bore fruit. Throughout it all David Wetherall wore number 6, and sometimes the captain's armband, and had a reputation as a consistent, reliable and committed part of Leeds United.
He also had a reputation for being dead clever, because he'd famously missed most of Leeds' championship campaign in 1991/92 to complete a chemistry degree at the University of Sheffield.
"I made that decision three years earlier, and you've got to stand by it," said David. "I've never really looked back and thought, what if I'd gone full time? You can't live life like that anyway - I could have broken both of my legs in the first week of full time training and things would have been very very different.
“I think that I just wasn’t sure that I was going to make it as a footballer. Howard was very supportive of me going down the academic route, and I had the opportunity to go and study and to try and combine the two things. And I was really fortunate that I had that choice, because I’m sure at most clubs it wouldn’t have been an option and I would have been forced to choose. When I spoke to Sheffield Wednesday about signing, at the time I was thinking of going to university, but they were fantastic about it and they said go on, by all means. You know, they might have thought I wasn’t good enough to! They didn’t really question it, they said yeah that’s fine, go and do it, and come in and train and play when you can.
“It was a case of everything in moderation around that time, but I had to try and focus on football as and when I could. I spent a good bit of time driving up and down the motorway from Sheffield to Leeds and played in any reserve games that I could, and tried to pick and choose what I had to miss from university time if there were important football events.
“I suppose from both a university and a football perspective you’re different to everyone else there. From a football perspective everyone else is there all day every day - or as much as that can be applied to a footballer - and from a university perspective, well, you know what university life is like. I don’t want to use the term odd one out, but I was different to other people who were just focusing on one aspect. But in a lot of ways I got the best of both worlds, and I wouldn’t want anyone to think it was a problem.
"I came from Sheffield Wednesday where I'd been in the reserves, and so to make a progression from just being around the reserves to being around a first team squad was great, but then to be around a first team squad that ended up winning the Championship was even better. The title was nothing to do with me, but that experience, for the limited time I was in the club that season, was great. I think that helped with me feeling part of things the year after, when I came in and started full time training.”
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