Gary McAllister: Return of the Mac

Mark Bateman

Gary McAllister is one of football management’s young men and is in only his second job as a boss with his old team Leeds United. But after a poor start with the fallen Yorkshire giants he is starting to prove he has what it takes to not only restore his former club to the Championship but maybe take them back to the promised land of the Premiership too.

A legendary footballer, McAllister played for Motherwell, Leicester City, Leeds United, Coventry City and Liverpool. He made a mammoth 720 appearances as a professional and notched up 119 goals. He also represented his native Scotland 57 times between 1990 and 1999, so when he decided to become a manager with Coventry City in 2002 it was not too much of a shock to the football world.

Barely a year into his post at the Sky Blues and with the team doing okay in the Championship, McAllister decided to walk away from the game to care for his wife Denise, who was diagnosed with breast cancer and unfortunately passed away in 2006. McAllister dedicated his time to looking after his children before finally expressing a wish to return to the game in 2007.

But since the last time Macca graced Elland Road in 1996, Leeds had fallen into football’s abyss. Mismanagement on a massive scale and incompetence with money had seen the club go from the Champions League semi-finals in 2001 to playing League One football in 2008. Not to mention flirting with liquidation on three separate occasions and finally having to go into administration in 2007 under the stewardship of chairman Ken Bates.

Leeds then manager Dennis Wise had helped the club defy the critics who said they would slip into League Two after the club was docked 15 points by the football league after breaking their strict rules on insolvency.

Wise brought in by Bates at the expense of the popular Kevin Blackwell seemed to finally win over the Leeds faithful who largely detested the way the chairman was running the club. When Premier League Tottenham came in for Wise’s number two Gus Poyet in late 2007 the wheels started to come off Leeds’s promotion band wagon and Wise ultimately decided to seek pastures new opting to take on the bizarre role of Executive Director of Football at Newcastle United under their new boss, the returning Kevin Keegan.

Leeds were now looking for their sixth manager of the new millennium and speculation was rife as who would get the job. One name stood out however and that was former Leeds United skipper and midfield general Gary McAllister.

Macca returned to Elland Road in January after taking just minutes to agree to chairman Ken Bates proposal to become Leeds next manager. He was initially signed on a deal until the end of the season charged with the goal of guiding Leeds to promotion back to the Championship. He soon began building his own team and brought in former Republic of Ireland manager Steve Staunton and Lincoln City assistant boss Neil McDonald as his first team coach.

Macca was met with adoring adulation at his first game in charge against Tranmere Rovers at Elland Road even though Leeds went down to a 2-0 defeat and slipped to eighth in the League One table. A battle was now on for the playoffs and there was a distinct possibility the club’s hard work to overcome the adversity of the 15 point deduction and gain promotion would be in vein.

It took McAllister five attempts to win his first game, that coming 1-0 away to Swindon Town. But McAllister, unlike Wise, had the full support of the fans who appreciated that their former idol would need time to get the team playing his style of passing football as opposed to the hit and hope game they had been playing under his predecessor.

With the end of season now in sight Macca has guided Leeds to four consecutive wins including a 1-0 win against rivals Doncaster and a 3-2 win last weekend against high flying Carlisle.

The club is now firmly back in the playoff places and perhaps more crucially are going into their end of season run in on good form which should give them a massive advantage if they go all the way to Wembley.

The most important thing about Macca as a manager unlike Wise is his ability to communicate and be diplomatic. Wise was known to alienate players and other managers who of course you depend on to make transfers happen; Wise also put people off signing for the club with his brash nature, unlike McAllister who is widely respected in the game.

The Scot is a popular personality within football and convinced Crystal Palace boss and good friend Neil Warnock to loan Leeds the services of talented 32-year-old striker Dougie Freedman who has been a revelation since arriving in Yorkshire and already notched up four goals. His class and ability have already shown him to be a cut above the rest in League One. Macca also got misfiring top goalscorer Jermaine Beckford back on form and even managed to get Tresor Kandol to look like the player he was at the start of the campaign.

His excellent man management skills and emphasis on good passing football as well as fitness has turned Leeds from a team who could have potentially missed out on promotion this term to a team that will get its just rewards if they are promoted.

Leeds will soon learn if they are to get the 15 points back which were docked from them last summer by the football league. If they do they would go from sixth to second in the table and could still theoretically win the League One title.

Most people will say it won’t happen, but then again if you had said in 2001 that Leeds would be in League One in 2008 most people would have probably said the same thing.

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