Eddie Gray

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Eddie Gray
Personnel
Surname Edwin Gray
birthday January 17, 1948
place of birth Glasgow ,  Scotland
position Winger (left)
Juniors
Years station
1962-1965 Leeds United
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1965-1984 Leeds United 453 (52)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1966-1967 Scotland U-23 2 ( 02)
1969-1977 Scotland 12 ( 03)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1982-1985 Leeds United
1985-1986 Whitby Town
1986-1988 Rochdale AFC
1988-1989 Hull City
1989-1990 Whitby Town
2003-2004 Leeds United (interim)
1 Only league games are given.

Edwin "Eddie" Gray (born January 17, 1948 in Glasgow ) is a former Scottish football player and coach . As a tricky left winger , he was a longstanding member of the successful Leeds United squad in the 1960s and 1970s. The twelve-time Scottish international later switched to coaching and in the 1980s and after the turn of the millennium, he was primarily responsible for Leeds United in terms of sport.

Athletic career

Player career

Leeds United

Gray had already played in the Scottish student selection before he signed his first professional contract with Leeds United in January 1965 . He had joined the club in 1962 and it is said that Jack Charlton had given the decisive hint to the commitment when he told his coach Don Revie that he would not later play twice against the agile winger. Shortly before his 18th birthday, Gray made his debut on New Year's Day 1966 against Sheffield Wednesday and straight away he scored a goal to win 3-0. In the following years he developed on the left with speed and a wealth of tricks in duels with opposing full-backs to an important factor in a team that blossomed into an English top club in the second half of the 1960s. The first title wins came quickly and after the "double" in 1968 from the league cup and the trade fair cup , he won the English championship the following year . In the following season 1969/70 Gray played with Leeds for a long time in the three competitions from the English championship , the FA Cup and the European Cup for the title. Gray scored both goals in the 2-0 win against Burnley FC on April 4, 1970, and especially the hit after a dribble to the final score is described by some fans as the most beautiful goal of a Leeds player ever. A week later he was in the FA Cup final against Chelsea and his performances, which caused great problems especially for his direct opponent David Webb , brought him the award of the best player ("Man of the Match"). The game at Wembley ended in a 2-2 win. In the replay at Old Trafford , Gray found himself under constant attack from Chelsea players and an early kick by Ron Harris on his knee helped prevent him from finding the shape of the first game. In the end, Chelsea won 2-1 after extra time and the winning goal was scored by David Webb of all people. Since the English championship finally went to Everton FC and the "Whites" failed in the European championship competition in the semifinals to Celtic Glasgow , the season remained untitled.

The injury problems began from the 1970/71 season, in which Gray missed more than half of the competitive games. His team won the runner-up again . Gray was also often missing in the trade fair cup , scoring three goals in his five appearances, but was not taken into account in both final games against Juventus Turin (2: 2, 1: 1, victory according to the away goals rule ). In the following two years he was in the starting line-up of the team that played two FA Cup finals in a row against Arsenal (1-0) and the second division AFC Sunderland (0-1). The eight league appearances in the first nine games of the 1973/74 championship season were the only ones and were not enough to officially receive a medal. After a one-year break, he returned in January 1975 to the team that had meanwhile been trained by Jimmy Armfield and in the final of the European Cup against FC Bayern Munich (0: 2) he made a brief assignment for Terry Yorath a good ten minutes before the end of the game . He acted alongside his brother Frank , who was almost seven years his junior and who had meanwhile fought for a regular place in the defense of Leeds United. In the second half of the 1970s, Gray was later the only remaining player from the successful Revie era. He now acted a little withdrawn in the left full-back position and under his former teammate Allan Clarke the slow sporting decline ended with relegation in 1982 .

Scottish national team

The frequent injury problems were largely responsible for the fact that Gray came to relatively few 12 full internationals for Scotland in his career . After two appearances for the U-23 team, he made his debut on May 10, 1969 at Wembley Stadium in a 4-1 defeat to arch-rivals England and scored the first goal a week later in an 8-0 win over Cyprus . After defeats in the World Cup qualifiers against Germany (2: 3 in Hamburg) and Austria (2: 2 in Vienna) in the autumn of 1969 , he only played again in a few international matches between May and December 1971 before taking a long break. During this phase, Scotland participated in the 1974 World Cup in Germany , which Gray missed due to his injuries. On May 6, 1976 he celebrated a comeback in a 3-1 home win against Wales , but on November 17, 1976, Wales was also Gray's last opponent in his twelfth international match.

Coaching career

During his active career, Gray took over the coaching position at Leeds United in the summer of 1982. After his last own appearance on May 12, 1984 against Charlton Athletic (1-0), he then led the team exclusively as head coach. In more than three years, however, the promotion goal could not be achieved and in October 1985 his more than two decades long commitment to Leeds United ended when he was succeeded by Billy Bremner after just two wins from nine games, another former player from the Revie era . The dismissal decision was controversial due to Gray's great popularity and in addition to protests from the supporters, parts of the team reacted with publicly voiced criticism.

For a short time each he worked in the second half of the 1980s for Whitby Town , Rochdale AFC and Hull City . In the summer of 1995, Gray returned to the meanwhile again first-class Leeds United and in the coaching staff of Howard Wilkinson he took care of the development in the youth teams. Under Gray's direction, the club won the FA Youth Cup in 1996 and the following year he took over the management of the reserve team. The players who pushed into professional football during this period included Harry Kewell , Ian Harte , Alan Smith and Jonathan Woodgate . When David O'Leary was the new head coach in Leeds in October 1998 , Gray lost his status as the unofficial "number 2" because O'Leary later relied more on Brian Kidd . He stayed with the club, however, and accompanied the club's dramatic crash from participation in the Champions League to relegation in 2004. He had looked after the "Whites" as head coach on an interim basis in the 2003/04 relegation season after Peter Reid was dismissed . After going into the second division, Gray left the club a second time. He later worked for BBC Radio reporting matches with Leeds United.

Title / Awards

literature

  • Martin Jarred & Malcolm MacDonald: Leeds United - The Complete Record . DB Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-78091-031-4 , pp. 215 f., 285 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gray, Eddie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gray, Edwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION scottish soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow