'I wouldn't have joined from Manchester United without him.' Leeds United legend Gordon Strachan pays tribute to Bill Fotherby

Strachan credited Fotherby with “getting it rolling” in the late 1980s at Elland Road and admitted his own transfer to Leeds from Manchester United would not have happened without Fotherby’s influence.

Fotherby died on Tuesday night at the age of 88 after being taken ill on holiday in Tenerife.

In a statement, his family described him as a man who “used to say he would love Leeds United until the day he died, and did.”

Fotherby, who became a Leeds director in 1978, was a famously skillful and persistent negotiator who rejuvenated Leeds during a low point in their history with successful commercial deals and the appointment of Howard Wilkinson as manager in 1988.

Strachan joined the club the following year and remains the most telling signing of the past three decades, arriving from Manchester United for £300,000 and captaining the club to the second division title in 1990 and the first division title in 1992.

Speaking to the YEP, Strachan said: “I don’t think I’d ever have come to Leeds if it wasn’t for Bill. I honestly believe that. I had enormous respect for Howard, and Howard was the manager, but Bill did the deal and it was him who sold me the vision.

“He was a presence and when I first met him I’d never met anybody quite like him before. I was thinking ‘is he a genius or is he a used-car salesman?’ but the fact of the matter was I felt myself buying into what he was telling me.

“You can never talk about the percentages of who contributed what when a club are successful but if you’re even two per cent short of being 100 per cent, the machine’s not going to work. Bill got it rolling, got Howard in and Howard did the rest on the pitch. It was like a family. It wasn’t about taking credit.”

Strachan, like Wilkinson, was part of Leeds’ answer to an extended run in the second division, a spell which affected attendances at Elland Road and left United under financial pressure. Fotherby told Strachan directly that his only priority was to get the club promoted and to do it quickly.

“There was no negotiating when I signed,” Strachan said. “Bill told me the money I’d be getting and that was that.

“I’ve said before that it’s the only time in my career when someone said ‘I need you to do this for me.’ They were desperate for promotion and promotion was the one for him. The title (in 1992) was a bonus but it wasn’t on the agenda when we first spoke.

“I never forget the time when Howard told me to go in and talk to Bill about my contract and I came out having agreed to sponsor a match. I’m still not sure how that happened. But he was good with people and he knew how to deal with people. He was happy to take difficult decisions as well and to ruffle feathers when he had to, but he did it with a smile.

“Bill became a good mate and we’d go out in town together before ending up back at my house at 3am, me, him and Howard eating bacon rolls and talking football.”

Fotherby was admitted to hospital in Tenerife on Monday and died the following day.

A statement from his family said: “Bill loved Leeds United. It was his life and it never stopped being his life. He always used to say that he would love the club until the day he died and he did. It consumed him and he never lost interest. He loved the fans.

“What he helped to achieve there was amazing and as a family we're immensely proud of him. He was our everything and he'll be sadly missed by the public, his friends but most of all his family - so much, we can't say."