Danny Mills: ‘We realised David O’Leary wasn’t a good manager after a year’

The story of Leeds United at the turn of this century is one of the most compelling English football has served up in recent years and in the opinion of one of the stars of that team, the failings of manager David O’Leary contributed to what was a huge missed opportunity.

Danny Mills was one of many big-money signings who arrived at Elland Road amid a blaze of publicity, but this story was not to have a happy ending.

After experienced tactician George Graham put the building blocks in place to put Leeds in a position to challenge the giants of English football, the task of taking them towards trophy success eventually fell to his assistant, David O’Leary.

Arsenal legend Graham’s move to take over as manager of their north London rivals Tottenham opened the door for O’Leary to inherit his kingdom at Elland Road and for a brief period of time, it seemed as if the Irishman was destined to reach the top in management.

Leeds challenged for the Premier League title and they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in the 2000-01 season, losing to eventual winners Valencia.

The stories around that Leeds team were headline news for a variety of reasons, with the trial of the club’s star players, Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, for grievous bodily harm and affray in connection with an attack on an Asian student attracting unwanted attention beyond the football spotlight.

When O’Leary then released a book taking readers behind the scenes at his time at Leeds shortly after that court case ended and named the publication ‘Leeds United On Trial’, the unravelling relationship with his players hit rock bottom.

As Mills looks back on the rise and fall of Leeds in an exclusive interview with Planet Football, the former England defender has reflected on O’Leary’s biggest mistakes as he refused to hold back on what he felt were his glaring flaws.

“I think the players realised after a year or so that he wasn’t as good a manager and as good a coach as everybody thought he was,” said Mills of O’Leary, speaking to Planet Football.

“We were a very young, hungry, talented team that went out there, played in a certain style, didn’t really need too much coaching at that stage, but ultimately, that’s what let us down.

“If we’d had been better coached and had a plan B, we would have had a bit more successful football club and what happened in the end may have been avoided.

“We were a team that had one way of playing. It was fast, it was furious, it was aggressive. We tried to overrun teams and that worked against lesser teams.

“We never had good results against the top five or six teams. It was always a case of let’s go try and beat them in the first half hour, if we don’t, there’s no back-up plan.

“And you can’t get away with that against top sides in that era. It simply didn’t work for us. I think that’s what let us down in the end.

“We had players who had not achieved too much and it all fell into place for us for a period of time due to that hunger and desire, but ultimately, if you don’t have a plan B from the coach, talent only gets you so far. That’s why we could not sustain it.

“When everything started to unravel, there were lots of issues that didn’t work and we also had off-the-field issues.

“David’s book, Leeds United On Trial, was a big one. Apparently, it was a coincidence that it was called that and it came out the day after the Bowyer and Woodgate trial finished.

“Again, it didn’t sit particularly well with the players and there was a point where he lost us and our belief in him went.”

With players voicing their concerns over O’Leary’s coaching abilities, Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale encouraged him to bring in former Manchester United coach Brian Kidd to offer fresh ideas, with Mills arguing this further undermined the manager’s credibility.

“I know for a fact that it was Peter Ridsdale’s suggestion to bring Brian Kidd in to help with first team coaching and I don’t think David particularly liked that,” he reflected.

“It worked for us as players because it stabilised us as a team, but it was difficult for the manager to accept that.

“To his credit, David signed some very good players in his time at Leeds. He made some shrewd signings and they were young and talented players, but we didn’t qualify for the Champions League for a couple of years and that was a problem for the club financially.

“It ended up being a boom and bust story, but if you look at the squad that we had, we had some incredible players. We almost had two internationals for every single position.

“When you compared our squad to Manchester United and Arsenal’s at the time, we were not as strong, but the squad as a whole, in terms of strength and depth, was sensational.

“We had five international strikers, but we didn’t make the Champions League for the second year and financially, that was a big hit to the football club.

“We finished in the top positions in the Premier League for a few years in a row and at that time, it wasn’t ridiculous to spend a bit of money and have a go at challenging the top teams, assuming that you will be in Europe every season.

“Obviously, it fell apart very quickly, but we had a great team and things could have gone in a different direction if a few factors were different.”

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READ: Arsenal & Leeds used to kick sh*t out of each other and even Wenger loved it

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Mills still follows the Leeds story closely to this day and after making a positive start following a return to the Premier League this season, he has urged the club’s fans to keep their ambitions set at a realistic level.

“The target has to be fourth bottom for all the sides coming up and even after making a decent start, that’s going to be very difficult,” he added.

“If you look at the results at the start of the season, all the teams have had some wins and all the teams you would expect to be fighting relegation have won matches.

“Brentford, Burnley, Sunderland and the teams down the bottom end have all picked up results, but we know it’s going to be incredibly difficult for Leeds coming back into the Premier League.

“Leeds don’t have the financial power that other teams have. They can’t sign players for huge money and you can’t offer long contracts.

“You just have to do everything possible to try and stay in the Premier League for that first year and go from there.”

By Kevin Palmer

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