A salutary lesson for England from the troubled reign of Leeds legend Don Revie

As the nation calls for Harry Redknapp to cure English football’s ills, Richard Sutcliffe, author of the biography ‘Revie: Revered and Reviled’, offers a cautionary tale from the past.

AS Don Revie’s son Duncan strode into the London hotel suite where his father had been staying for the past few days, he expected to see a familiar smile beaming straight back at him.

The previous night, England had beaten Czechoslovakia 3-0 at Wembley to hand the former Leeds United manager a dream start to his time in charge of England.

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A rousing rendition of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ – Revie, believing the national anthem was not passionate enough for a major football match, having ensured lyric sheets were handed to the 83,858 crowd at the turnstiles ahead of kick-off – had greeted the final whistle, underlining the feel-good factor that had been caused by the appointment of what most felt was the obvious choice to succeed Sir Alf Ramsey.

The headlines had been equally positive, leading Duncan to believe his dad would be as overjoyed as the rest of the country. He could not, however, have been more wrong.

“I’ll never forget it,” admits Duncan when talking about the morning after the night before in October, 1974, that left him shaken. “Everyone was delighted with the start England had made so I went to see Dad at his hotel.

“I went into his suite with a big smile on my face but could see straight away that something was wrong. I asked why he didn’t look very happy after such a great win.

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“He came across and sat next to me before saying, ‘We haven’t got the players – there is no Bremner and no-one like Giles’.

“He looked as miserable as sin, as he went on to explain that it just wasn’t going to work out (as England manager) due to a lack of good enough players. No matter what I said, Dad was adamant.

“Even now, I can’t explain it. He just knew England was not going to work out.”

Revie’s sense of foreboding proved, of course, to be correct. Less than three years after the resounding victory over the Czechs that gave not only his reign such an encouraging start but also England’s European Championship qualifying campaign, Revie’s time in international management had come to an end.

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His fear that the Three Lions did not possess the players needed to repeat the success he enjoyed at Leeds had been born out by a string of disappointing performances.

As a result, the failure to qualify for the 1974 World Cup under Ramsey had been followed by the national team missing out on a place at the European Championship two years later.

By the time of Revie’s departure, any hope of reaching the 1978 World Cup had also been as good as snatched from England’s grasp thanks to a demoralising qualifying defeat in Italy and a failure at Wembley to beat minnows Finland by a larger margin than 2-1.

Revie’s is a cautionary tale as to how public expectation and reality can differ, and one well worth remembering as the clamour continues for Harry Redknapp to succeed Fabio Capello in the summer.

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Revie may not have been the people’s champion in the style the Tottenham manager is right now. But he was the overriding choice of the nation after 13 hugely successful years at Elland Road.

No other candidate came close to Revie, a point underlined by the speed with which it took the FA to offer the job once the Leeds chief had made it clear he was interested. Should the FA be given similar encouragement from Redknapp any time between now and the summer, the 24 hours needed to successfully conclude negotiations with Revie may even be eclipsed.

Redknapp, after being cleared of all tax evasion charges this week, is the clear favourite to become the next England manager and justifiably so after the manner in which Tottenham Hotspur have been revived under his control. A failure to hand him the reins would surely constitute one of the biggest blunders even the FA have made over the past couple of decades.

But, to those expecting the appointment of Redknapp to cure all of England’s footballing ills then a glance at the fate that befell Revie is perhaps in order.

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Redknapp will, on the evidence of the last few years, suffer from exactly the same problem that Revie pinpointed within his first 90 minutes of action as England manager. He simply has not got the players to be the success that England fans, regardless of what many may claim after the latest failure in a major tournament, demand.

Okay, we may have Wayne Rooney, Joe Hart and Ashley Cole as examples of players who would walk into most international sides. Jack Wilshere is also someone who until his injury problems looked capable of establishing himself.

But, dig a little deeper, and the talent pool becomes alarmingly scarce, even allowing for the high hopes many have for Phil Jones and the early promise shown by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the Premier League.

It is a problem that Redknapp, for all his renowned ability to inspire improved displays from average players at clubs such as West Ham and Portsmouth, will find hard to overcome, at least to the extent where England can think of improving on the quarter-final appearances Sven Goran Eriksson managed in each of his three major tournaments.