Born on this day is former Sunderland forward and Leeds United manager Don Revie. The ex-England manager joined Sunderland for £22,000 by manager Bill Murray.
Revie was the first English player to become known as a deep-lying forward, dropping deeper on the pitch. At Manchester City, he became the main component of a tactic known as the “Revie Plan”. This was revolutionary at the time, and helped City to an FA Cup final in 1955. Revie would drop deep and start attacks, pulling opposition centre halves out of position and creating space for his fellow forwards to exploit.
When Revie joined Sunderland, the Middlesbrough born attacker struggled and was initially dropped from the starting team. However, he returned to the side for a 5-2 win against Sheffield Wednesday, with Revie amongst the scorers. The lads finished outside the relegation zone that season, with Len Shackleton playing a big part in the survival campaign. However, Shackleton announced his retirement at the end of the season, and Sunderland went on to struggle.
In the first season without Shackleton, Revie was Sunderland’s second top scorer with 12 goals. However, the lads finished in the relegation zone and were relegated from the top flight for the first time since joining the Football League in 1890. Revie eventually left for Leeds United after turning down hometown club Middlesbrough, where he would have played alongside Brian Clough.
As a manager, Don Revie is a Leeds United legend and has a stand named after him. Despite being a serial winner at Leeds, he was unable to win the FA Cup in 1973, losing to the underdogs Sunderland. He was Leeds manager for 13 years, and imposed his physical, direct style of play onto the Peacocks. His biggest critic was Brian Clough, who eventually took over from Revie at Leeds. However, whilst Revie lasted 13 years Clough lasted just 44 days in Charge.
Revie left Leeds to become England manager, where he stayed for three years. However, the spell in charge of the national team was unsuccessful before Revie left controversially for a lucrative contract to become United Arab Emirates manager.
