"You can't put into words what Billy Bremner meant to football." So said another irascible, preternaturally aged Scot, Sir Alex Ferguson. There are more skilled players in this list, but nobody better epitomised the bloody-minded brilliance of prime-time Leeds. John Wray, of the Telegraph & Argus, pinpointed this will to win, writing: "To sit in on a card session with the little fellow losing his cash is to experience something akin to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the explosion of an atomic bomb. He is an extraordinary competitor." He was the totem of the side whose football has been besmirched by selective editing.
Signed by Bill Lambton as a 15-year-old and rooming with a veteran named Don Revie, the homesick Bremner asked for a transfer. When Revie became the manager, he asked again, but the manager priced him out of the market by slapping a £30,000 price tag on his head. For his next trick, Revie converted him from an inside right-cum-centre forward to a midfield general. He was in the team for 17 years and then came back as manager. When he was dying, Allan Clarke, his closest friend, wanted to see him. "He sent word back that he didn't want me or any of the lads seeing him like that," Clarke recalled.
His achievements are manifold. The glory years began in 1964 with the second division title and took in two championships, an FA Cup, a League Cup and two Fairs Cups. It might have been so much more, but for Leeds fans it was enough. They have always liked hard players at Elland Road and Bremner could merge silk and steel. It is entirely right that the belligerent firefly is immortalised in bronze outside the ground, and entirely in keeping with the myopia of modern times that it took his death to prompt it. What is football about? "Days when you can cry your eyes out and walk on air," Bremner summarised. "There is nothing to compare."
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | William John Bremner | |
| Date of birth | 9 December 1942(1942-12-09) | |
| Place of birth | Stirling, Scotland | |
| Date of death | 7 December 1997 (aged 54) | |
| Place of death | Doncaster, England | |
| Playing position | Midfielder | |
| Senior career1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1959-1976 1976-1979 1979-1981 | Leeds United Hull City Doncaster Rovers | 587 (90) 61 (6) 5 (0) |
| National team | ||
| 1965-1976 | Scotland | 54 (3) |
| Teams managed | ||
| 1978-1985 1985-1988 1989-1991 | Doncaster Rovers Leeds United Doncaster Rovers | |
1 Senior club appearances and goals | ||