To dream the impossible dream
I HAVE often remarked to the Sports Desk guys that they should occasionally feature teams that are not in the Premier League.
They could be teams aspiring to be promoted and also teams that were once up there but are now languishing in the leagues below.
But I know it’s hard for these clubs to get coverage simply because the top teams are making all the news themselves.
Apart from playing good football, Premier League players – and the managers – also like to shoot off their mouths and make remarks that are guaranteed to get them into the news. And we are not even talking about their offfield activities.
So I was pleasantly surprised to read an item in the sports pages yesterday about Neil Warnock being named as the new boss of Leeds United, a team I had supported since my secondary schooldays in the 1970s.
Those were the days when Billy Bremner, Peter Lorimer, Allan Clarke and Norman Hunter ruled the game and the manager of all managers at that time was Don Revie.
The club have competed at the top level of English football for the majority of their existence.
During Revie’s leadership in the 1960s and 1970s, Leeds won two First Division titles, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Inter-cities Fairs Cup twice.
They were relegated to the Second Division in 1982, not returning to the top flight until 1990, when they were managed by Howard Wilkinson.
There was another spell of good performance during the 1990s and early 2000s, when Leeds competed for places in Europe, reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Champions League in consecutive seasons.
However, after severe financial difficulties and a mass sale of players, Leeds were relegated from the Premier League and subsequently from the Second Division three years later. get to watch them play live, save for the occasional FA Cup matches, I never abandoned them or switched loyalty.
So, unlike many people, including my colleagues, I cannot go ga-ga over the Gunners, The Reds, The Red Devils or the Blues. For me, it’s The Whites or nothing at all.
I don’t know much about Warnock other than the fact he was sacked by Queens Park Rangers recently after a run of eight Premier League games without a win.
I am hoping that Warnock will be able to fulfil his promise to take Leeds back to the Premier League.
“I feel I have one big challenge left in me and believe Leeds are a club that should be in the Premier League,” Warnock said.
“I want to be the man who is able to deliver this for a set of fans who never cease to amaze me with their numbers and loyalty.”
Well, having seen Leeds being able to shine at the highest level and then sink to the lowest ebb, I surely want to wish Warnock all the best.
It is an impossible dream to many. But hopefully to Warnock, impossible is nothing.
He is right about the loyalty of Leeds fans. But I wonder if he knows about this loyal fan in Malaysia who certainly wants Leeds to be back in the Premier League.
The bonus, if they gain promotion, would be for me to be able to watch them over Astro and also read about them in this newspaper.
Surely, that is not asking for too much.