Leeds United legend's dignity is antidote to Premier League stupidity, greed and self interest - Daniel Chapman

The past week has been a confusing blur of anniversaries of past glories, vying to replace the euphoric dopamine hit we were promised for the end of football season 2019/20.

It’s 28 years since Leeds United won the league title at Bramall Lane, 46 years since we claimed it at Loftus Road, 51 years since we were hailed for it at Anfield. We were promoted at Bournemouth 30 years ago, at Elland Road 10 years ago. And 56 years ago, 64 years, 88, 92 and 96. Throw in the FA Cup finals and European matches: in case you’ve lost count without constant reminders, it’s 19 years this week since Valencia.

The memories have poured like Kool-Aid into cups left empty by this year’s stalled soccer schedule. May is the month when scores are settled and nostalgic futures are written. So, for what will we remember May, 2020?

Stupidity and greed, mainly, as the Premier League argues its way in to or out of resumption. The latest ‘compromise’ reportedly being sought by some clubs, led by Brighton and West Ham, is for no relegation in exchange for playing at neutral venues.

“At this critical point in the season,” says Brighton chief executive Paul Barber, “playing matches in neutral venues has, in our view, potential to have a material effect on the integrity of the competition.”

Protecting sporting integrity is one thing. Imagining that the very real material effect of the deaths of 28,000 people from a coronavirus the country is still struggling to contain won’t mean things have to change is quite another.

Yes, that some teams have played Liverpool in front of packed crowds in their own stadium, while Brighton might have to play them behind closed doors in another ground, might put the Seagulls at what Barber calls a disadvantage: “We didn’t play our first 29 matches of the season in this way,” he insists. But to think that anybody can do anything tomorrow the same way they did everything two months ago is at best naive and at worst morally vacant.

Gordon Strachan once famously enlivened ITV’s World Cup 2014 coverage by saying reaction to Luis Suarez biting Giorgio Chiellini exposed the absence of morals in football.

A youth-team player would be sacked, he said, but when big names are involved, clubs and fans, “Because they can bring in merchandise and bring in money, then they will back them to the hilt ... because they can win games of football, and that’s all that matters.”

There are examples to lift Strachan’s gloom from the beach in Copacabana, and Leeds United winning a FIFA Fair Play Award last season is one of them. But then look at how Marcelo Bielsa is regarded as El Loco for insisting that winning at all costs is not good for the game.

Or look at Trevor Cherry, the former Leeds United captain, who died last week. Cherry was the Third Division title-winning manager at Bradford City on the awful day, 35 years ago next week, that 56 fans lost their lives in the fire disaster at Valley Parade. Bradford fans will never forget Cherry’s dignity and leadership in those dark days, weeks and months, or during the difficult season and a half that followed, playing ‘home’ games at Elland Road, Huddersfield’s Leeds Road, and Odsal Stadium.

I wonder what Brighton’s current board would make of Bradford’s fixture list in those two seasons.

Bradford asked for help back then, and got it, raising funds to help the injured. But they never asked for favours or protection from relegation as they played through the pain. Many Bradford fans believe their board acted shabbily later, sacking Cherry soon after the club returned to Valley Parade in December 1986.

It seemed to affect Cherry, too, who never accepted another job in football management, giving disillusion as one of his reasons.

If the football authorities aren’t careful now, they might find many fans feeling the same way about the sport. During a national crisis, there are only so many statements of self-interest we can take before ending up as cynical as Strachan. Strachan is rightly regarded as Leeds United’s second-greatest captain, after Billy Bremner, as the two ginger Scots are the only skippers to have lifted league titles for Leeds. David Hopkin must have thought he was onto a sure thing when he took the armband.

But the statistic showing Cherry captaining more Leeds games than anyone but Bremner brings him into a debate he’d be too modest to enter himself. He never lifted a cup – in fact Leeds were relegated – but he didn’t have the talent around him that helped Bremner or Strachan.

When football talks about heroes, it usually means players who led clubs to the glories we’ve been remembering this week, not relegation. But heroes are made in hard times, too, and football in May 2020 needs Trevor Cherry’s example.