'I'd never heard of him', but legendary Leeds United boss Don Revie soon proved ahead of his time says Eddie Gray

Manchester United’s Matt Busby, Wolves boss Stan Cullis, Bill Nicholson at Tottenham Hotspur to name but three.

For Celtic fan Gray, anybody in charge of the Hoops with Jimmy McGrory the man at the helm at that particular time.

Don Revie, though, was not a name a young Gray was familiar with, even midway through his teens.

Yet that all changed in 1961 and the decade and a half that followed as Revie went on to become the most successful manager Leeds United has ever seen.

All the more remarkable, says Gray, that Revie built that empire from scratch.

Leeds United experienced one of the saddest days in their history 31 years ago today as former legendary Whites manager Revie passed away in Edinburgh aged 61 after his battle with motor neurone disease.

But over three decades later, the legacy that Revie created stands tall at Elland Road where a statue of the Leeds great overlooks the club’s famous home in which so many glories were savoured from his spell in charge from 1961 until 1974.

Two First Division titles, two Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a Charity Shield and the club’s only ever League Cup and FA Cup triumphs.

Yet a Division Two title also presented itself in 1964 as Leeds ended four years in English football’s second tier in also securing only the second piece of silverware in the club’s history exactly 50 years on from also winning the second division title in 1924.

This time, though, a glut of honours followed in the next decade and as Leeds United today of all days remembers Revie, Gray can also well remember that all-conquering side’s humble beginnings.

“It says everything about Don when you look at his statue outside Elland Road and the legacy that he left the football club,” Gray told the YEP.

“But when I look back and I was in Glasgow before I came to Leeds, when I was first asked to come down, to be perfectly honest, I’d never heard of him.

“That tells you everything because I am not trying to be flippant with that remark.

"I was a Celtic supporter, Celtic were a top club then and that was at a time when the game was more at a level playing field financially, it wasn’t like the Premier League now.

"Celtic could compete with anybody and they were the first British team to win a European Cup.

"And then when I looked in England you had the Manchester United team, the great Wolves teams of the late 50s, the Tottenham Hotspur team that won the double in the early 60s just before I came down to Leeds.

"Leeds United were not really a name that as a young Scottish boy growing up in Glasgow that you had really heard of.

“The only thing that was in my mind when I first got asked to come down and have a look at the place in 1962 was that I had been to watch the Scottish schoolboys play the year before I played against England at Ibrox and Peter Lorimer was playing.

“I always remember reading, ‘Peter Lorimer, who could have gone to any club in the country, joins English Second Division club Leeds United.’

“But as a football club I couldn’t really remember them.

"They had never done anything in the game and at that particular time coming from Scotland, you are only young and you are only looking at the big leagues.

“You are not looking at the second division, third division and fourth division as it was then. Don built the club up and he ran the club.”

Signing professional terms at Leeds as a 16-year-old in January 1965, Gray would prove one of the key building blocks in Revie establishing such an impressive empire.

Born in Middlesbrough on July 10, 1927, former Leicester City, Hull City, Manchester City, Sunderland forward and England international Revie first took charge of Leeds as player-manager in March 1961 following the resignation of Jack Taylor.

United were struggling in Division Two at the time but Gray says Revie and chairman Harry Reynolds concocted a cunning plan to turn the Whites into a driving force.

“Obviously they had great players,” said Gray, now 72.

"There’s not a better example than that of the great John Charles.

"But as a football club they had never won anything and I am talking about major honours. Don started all that.

"I think him and the chairman at the time, Harry Reynolds, formed a plan.

"They realised that they couldn’t compete with the top clubs with attracting players so I think Don and Mr Reynolds formulated a plan to try and sign some of the best schoolboys in the country that they could get.

“They got a lot of young players through as everybody knows, the Reaneys, the Hunters, the Coopers and I’m not even talking about Billy Bremner and Gilesy!

“He brought a few players in and he brought Bobby Collins to the club and Bobby first coming into the club was also a big factor because Bobby was a born winner.

"Don had seen that and he wanted Bobby to lead by example and Bobby did.

“Don deserves a lot of credit. You look at the money he paid for Bobby and then he bought Johnny from Manchester United and then he brought in Allan Clarke and Mick Jones and it escalated from there.

“When Don came to the club, his ideas and how he looked at the game, he was definitely ahead of his time – diet for the young players and everything that he did.

“Obviously he was the man that started it all, there’s no doubt about that.”

After a glorious 13-year tenure, Revie finally left Leeds in July 1974 to succeed Alf Ramsey as England boss.

Revie departed just two months after the Whites had won their second First Division title.

Former Derby County title-winning boss Brian Clough was brought in to replace Revie but Clough’s ill-fated seven games in charge began with defeat on penalties to Liverpool in the Charity Shield.

With Jimmy Armfield’s United then robbed of victory in the infamous 1975 European Cup final against Bayern Munich, the First Division title of 1974 remained United’s most recent honour until Howard Wilkinson led the Whites to the Second Division title of 1990.

Leeds then became champions of England two years later and also bagged the 1992 Charity Shield. But that, at present, is where it ends.

Twelve club honours, with eight under Revie whose legacy is stronger than ever.

Gray reasoned: “The boys who played for him always look back on that time with great affection and that’s why we are still so close today.

“It was like a family and I think the Leeds United fans still feel like that to this day.

"That’s what the club is, all in it together.”

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