From the publisher:
Leeds United's Champions League journey, 2000/01, game by game, as written by Daniel Chapman at Leedsista.com.
This 164 page paperback book is the story of Leeds United's Champions League season of 2000/01, game by game, written 25 years after the event.
These articles were originally published at Leedsista.com on the anniversaries of each match, and attempt to get to the essence of each match without labouring the details.
It's not a day by day account of the season. But it's a match by match account of, let's not forget, increasing excitement. There was a reason I stayed on the phone for three days in autumn 2000, trying to get a ticket.
A humbling would probably have helped. Perhaps if the European campaign had foundered in the second group stage it would have been like a splash of cold water, and O'Leary and Ridsdale would have kept building their squad steadily upon budgets never shooken by pots of Uefa's cash. As for the humbling Leeds United eventually got, well, you can read about that on Wikipedia.
But if Leeds had been humbled in the Champions League, well, the 25th anniversary would have passed without this book, for one thing.
And Leeds fans wouldn't have spent 25 years singing about what Dom Matteo did in the San Siro, leaving an unimaginable gap in the Peacocks' songbook. We wouldn't know who Dida was. We wouldn't have the photos of Alan Smith, arms outstretched in a gorgeous yellow away shirt, celebrating his goal as Leeds demolished Anderlecht: a goal that, for David Batty's sublime through ball, remains one of my favourites. The one against Lazio wasn't bad either.
We wouldn't hear 'Deportivo' and think, 'Weakest link, eh?', and see — and hear — Ian Harte's free-kick whooshing and crashing into the Gelderd End net.
The author:
DANIEL CHAPMAN is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller 100 Years of Leeds United, and writes about football at Leedsista.com.
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