34- Dorigo and Co plus a Spanish summer
Once again, Leeds were active in the transfer market come the summer of 1991 and paying, back then, some hefty fees to bolster the side that had outperformed arguably in its first season back in the top-flight by finishing a credible fourth behind Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Arsenal
Tony Dorigo was first in, the Australian born England left-back cost £1.3m having fallen out with Ken Bates. Dorigo's arrival was considered a necessary piece of business given our instability at left-back. Two former occupants of the no3 shirt in Peter Haddock and Jim Beglin announced their retirement that summer, the curse extended to Glynn Snodin and Chris Kamara who'd both sustained injury whilst deputising there.
Howard Wilkinson raided his old club Sheffield Wednesday in a double swoop for two of their young players, Jon Newsome and David Wetherall, both centre backs in their early 20's. Arguably Newsome was the more squad-ready of the two, having played seven-times for the Owls. Wetherall left Hillsborough without a first team game under his belt, however he was full-time student reading Chemistry at Sheffield University and was in the final year of his studies. Wetherall had represented Great Britain's football team at the World Student Games that summer, conveniently hosted in Sheffield mainly at the purpose built Don Valley Stadium. The Brits finished 3rd to earn Bronze behind silver medalists Holland and South Korea who won Gold.
Another double-swoop saw Wilko raid the South Coast for twin-brothers, Rod and Ray Wallace. Rod was the more costly at £1.6m whilst Ray cost a mere £100,000. Then another £900,000 was spent on England midfielder Steve Hodge, surplus to requirements at Forest due to the emergence of a young Irishman called Roy Keane. Hodge had caused a bit of a stir in Ashby where I was living at the time, by turning up one night with his entourage for a drink in the Lamb public house which was one of the in-places to be seen in. I'm sure he could have comfortably afforded to have bought everyone in the pub a drink seeing as he is the man with Diego Maradona's shirt from the "hand of God" World Cup Quarter-Final in 1986, something he may well have mentioned once or twice.
It was also time to trim the squad a bit, there weren't any really huge departures that summer, unless you count John Pearson's £130,000 switch to Barnsley. Reserve keeper Neil Edwards, now third choice moved for just £5000 to Stockport County. Chris Kamara would exit in the Autumn with struggling Luton Town his destination, Andy Williams (Notts County) and Mike Whitlow plus Simon Grayson (Leicester City) would also leave before the season was finished.
There had also been some moves in my own home, my parents separated and my mum moved to the Costa Brava in Spain to open a little bar in the wonderfully named resort of Tossa De Mar. I soon made sure she had some Leeds souvenirs to hang up, which were conversation pieces and through them I got to know a couple who ran the Market House pub in Dewsbury called Paul and Janet Fahey. Paul was a big Leeds United follower and spotted a picture of David Batty id sent out. Steve Beever who owned the City Gent men's hair salon in Leeds also spotted the Batty photo, despite him not being a big Leeds fan. I'd have some good times with Paul, Janet and Steve on home turf.
My mum did buy me a Barcelona shirt, it was one of those unofficial ones and let's say the fit was not that brilliant. It had Koeman 4 on the back and Barcelona had let me and thousands of other Leeds fans down in May by failing to beat Man U in the European Cup Winners Cup final.
I managed a couple of trips out there, flying out usually from East Midlands Airport on a Friday night. I remember flying with a load of Notts County lads who were rather drunk and warned by their anxious tour guide to stop making jokes about bombs whilst going through security. Other than that, they seemed quite a friendly bunch and had good reason to be celebrating as Neil Warnock had just guided them back to the First Division.
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