Billy Bremner

Billy Bremner
Personnel
Surname	William John Bremner
birthday	December 9, 1942
place of birth	Stirling ,  Scotland
date of death	December 7, 1997
Place of death	Doncaster ,  England
position	midfield player
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1959-1976	Leeds United	587 (90)
1976-1988	Hull City	61 0(6)
1978-1981	Doncaster Rovers	5 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1965-1976	Scotland	54 0(3)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1978-1985	Doncaster Rovers
1985-1988	Leeds United
1989-1991	Doncaster Rovers
1 Only league games are given.

William "Billy" John Bremner (born December 9, 1942 in Stirling , Scotland , † December 7, 1997 in Doncaster , England ) was a Scottish football player . As a longtime team captain of Leeds United in the 1960s and 1970s, he was inducted into both the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame and the English Hall of Fame of football and is considered to be among the Leeds United supporters at that club as best player of all time.

Leeds United (1959-76)

The early way south

Bremner, who was small in adolescence but acted very physically as a midfielder , caught a talent seeker from Leeds United early on during a school game in Scotland . The day after his 17th birthday, Bremner signed his first contract on Elland Road . He had previously grown up in Raploch - south of Stirling - and attended St. Mary's Catholic school. With Arsenal and Chelsea , two prominent London clubs had already rejected Bremner as too small.

Bremner played his first game in the first team of Leeds United during a 3-1 win at Chelsea on January 23, 1960. For the next 15 years he was a permanent regular in the team for the next 15 years - interrupted only by injury breaks or bans Don Revie . He became a central figure in the game of Leeds United mainly through his strength in combat and physical presence . Not infrequently, however, his physical style of play against primarily technically experienced opponents exceeded the limit of what is allowed in the rules. The other strengths of Bremner were stamina and accuracy of fit. He also scored goals in crucial situations, including four winning goals in semi-finals in major competitions.

First successes

In the early 1960s, the second division Leeds United was at the beginning of a sporting upswing and Billy Bremner as the central player developed with his midfield partner and Irish international Johnny Giles , who had come from Manchester in 1963, to the heart of the team that Don Revie rebuilt . After winning the second division championship in 1964, the West Yorkshire team immediately established themselves in the top English division and Bremner narrowly missed the “ double ” of the English championship and FA Cup with Leeds United . In the 1964/65 season Leeds United had to admit defeat to the tied title holder Manchester United only because of the poorer goal quotient . In the FA Cup final, the game against Liverpool went into overtime after 90 minutes without a goalless, in which Bremner was able to compensate for the 0-1 deficit by volley , but then the winning goal for Liverpool by Ian St. John followed.

During this time, the Leeds United team had a reputation, especially in the London press landscape, for their successes not only due to their ability to play, but also to an unfair style of play, with Bremner and other very physically active players such as Norman Hunter for this stood representative. A famous photograph from this period shows the young Bremner in 1966 after a foul on the Scottish midfielder Dave Mackay , who grabbed his collar while Bremner claimed his innocence. Mackay had just returned to the game after his second broken leg and built up spectacularly in front of Bremner in this scene.

On October 6, 1965, when Bobby Collins, the team captain of Leeds United suffered a fractured thigh during a trade fair cup match against AC Turin , the captaincy was transferred to Bremner. The team went through further positive development stages towards the end of the 1960s and Bremner led the club to victory in the league cup as well as the trade fair cup in 1968 . In the following year the team crowned this phase of success with Bremner as "Captain of the Crew" by winning the English championship. In the season 1968/69 Leeds United had lost only two of 42 league games.

Successes and Missed Opportunities: The 1970s

A statue in front of Elland Road shows Billy Bremner in a cheering pose.

In the 1969/70 season Bremner played with Leeds United for a "triple" of the English championship, FA Cup and European Cup , which no English club had previously achieved. In the end, however, the team was left empty-handed because the league title went to Everton and the FA Cup victory after a defeat in the final replay went to Chelsea . In addition, Leeds was defeated in the European Cup semi-final by the Scottish representative Celtic Glasgow .

Despite the success Bremner was able to achieve with Leeds United, the title haul during this period was marked by many missed opportunities. In addition to the two English championships in 1969 and 1974, the team more or less narrowly missed winning the title in at least three other seasons. Bremner completed four FA Cup finals, of which he was only able to make one victorious. In the final of the European Cup winners' competition of the 1972/73 season , Leeds United "owed" their 0-1 defeat to AC Milan in Thessaloniki to a controversial performance by the Greek referee. Two years later, the now aging Leeds team was again unlucky in the final of the European championship against FC Bayern Munich when Bremner's narrow position prevented Peter Lorimer from scoring .

The 1970/71 season was changeable for Bremner. The FA Cup victory was matched by one of the biggest surprises in English Cup history, when Leeds United lost to the lower-class Colchester United in the fifth round. In addition, Bremner drew the short straw in the title fight against Arsenal FC, just one point behind, when the Londoners made the first step towards the double with a win on the last day of the game against Tottenham Hotspur . The same contrasts followed in the 1971/72 season. A 1-0 final win against Arsenal gave Leeds United their first FA Cup in club history, but the championship round ended in disappointment when the Bremner-led team only needed a draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers in their final game , through a loss but still lost the title to Derby County . Further runner-up titles followed in 1973. The final defeat in the European Cup winners' competition in Saloniki against AC Milan was accompanied by an FA Cup final defeat against the second division club Sunderland .

The English championship in the 1973/74 season marked the last major title win in Billy Bremner's career. The Leeds United team dominated the competition to such an extent that they were completely undefeated in the first 29 games of the season - this series of unbeaten games since the beginning of the season was only outbid by Arsenal in 2004. Leeds United opened the following season together with Liverpool FC in the Charity Shield game. There Bremner had to leave the field early together with his opponent after a confrontation with the opposing Kevin Keegan .

The last career stations

After Revie left Leeds United in 1974 to take over the England team from Alf Ramsey , the club's era of success slowly came to an end. Bremner also turned his back on his long-term club in the late summer of 1976 and joined Hull City . He played a total of 772 games for Leeds United (including 585 league games and 77 games at European level), just one less than Jack Charlton , the player with the most appearances for Leeds United.

Bremner's arrival in Kingston upon Hull was accompanied by widespread media coverage and although the two-time champion was in the fall of his career, his two years for Hull City were successful. The next stop was the Doncaster Rovers , which he initially worked as a player- coach and, after retiring at the age of 39, continued as head coach until 1985. During that time, he also received £ 100,000 in February 1982 after successfully suing a Sunday newspaper for libel . This had previously accused him of manipulating game outcomes, including Leeds United's defeat by Wolves in May 1972, which led to the loss of the league title on the final day of the game.

Scottish national team

Bremner was one of the central figures of the Scottish national team , which experienced a boom after a series of sporting disappointments in the early 1970s. He made his debut against Spain in 1965 and two years later he was part of the team that defeated the world champions from England 3-2 at Wembley Stadium . In 1974 Bremner led the Bravehearts as team captain during the 1974 World Cup in Germany . More than a year later, Bremner's national team career ended ingloriously. After his last international match against Denmark in Copenhagen , the captain and teammates visited a nightclub in the Danish capital, where he allegedly rioted after curfew with Willie Young , Joe Harper , Joe McCluskey and Arthur Graham and was expelled from the pub. All six heavily drunk Scottish internationals were never to play in the Scottish selection again. With Ronald McKenzie, an employee from the coaching staff was also involved in the drinking bout. The official "lifelong" suspension was issued to Bremner in 1976, whose national team career ended after 54 international matches and three goals. Regardless of this dishonorable ending, Bremner was later to be inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.

Leeds United coach

Bremner had a turbulent coaching time at Leeds United after his playing career, after he had inherited his two former teammates Allan Clarke and Eddie Gray in this position . His attempt to return the club to the top English division after relegation in 1982 failed several times. His most successful season was the season 1986/87, when he lost with his team just barely in the play-off final against Charlton Athletic and was also only defeated in the FA Cup semi-finals against the eventual cup winners Coventry City .

In September 1988 Bremner was fired and replaced by Howard Wilkinson , who not only managed to return to the English First Division within four years , but also brought the third English championship to Elland Road in April 1992. Bremner had meanwhile switched to the Doncaster Rovers and had been a coach until November 1991.

The last years and honors

In the 1990s Bremner worked primarily as a columnist. In December 1997 he suffered a heart attack in the small town of Clifton , where he had now settled . Despite being immediately admitted to a nearby hospital in Doncaster, Bremner died two days before his 55th birthday. Celebrities from the field of Scottish football from all generations attended the funeral. The loss of the former top performer caused profound sadness, especially among Leeds United's supporters.

In the following year Bremner was one of “100 legendary players” that the Football League Association honored on the occasion of its anniversary celebration. In 2004, the English "Hall of Fame" of football accepted Bremner as a further posthumous honor for his sporting merits.

Outside the Elland Road Stadium, a statue was also erected showing Billy Bremner in a jubilant pose. In the opinion of the supporters of Leeds United, this should be a memorial to the best player in the club's history and long-time team captain.

successes

• Trade fair cup winners: 1968, 1971
• English champion: 1969, 1974
• FA Cup winner: 1972
• English league cup winner: 1968
• Charity Shield Winner: 1969

publication

• You get now for being second. Souvenir Press Ltd., England 1969, ISBN 0-285-50264-6 (autobiography)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Football's 50 greatest hard men" (TimesOnline)
2. ↑ The image itself can be viewed here , for example .
3. ↑ "Still Greatly Missed" ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (LeedsUnited.com) 

Web links

• BBC profile page of Billy Bremner (Engl.)