Three Leeds United managers who were sacked too soon: Including two ex-Whites players

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Leeds United have parted company with many managers over the last few years, but which were sacked too early?

Leeds have gone through a number of managers since the days when David O’Leary nearly led them to domestic and European glory around the Millennium, but while some sackings have received the backing of the fans – the likes of Dave Hockaday and Darko Milanic perhaps spring to mind – there have been a handful of dismissals since O’Leary’s tenure that, in hindsight, were poor pieces of judgement.

With that in mind, here is a look at three Leeds bosses who were arguably sacked too soon…

Peter Reid

This is perhaps a controversial choice because it seems that no manager would have been able to prevent the financial implosion that saw Leeds go from European contenders to the bottom of League One in a matter of years. However, Reid deserves credit for the job he did following his appointment as interim boss in 2003, keeping the Whites in the Premier League. He was dismissed just a handful of months after being given the job permanently as Leeds slipped closer and closer to relegation.

Dropping into the second tier was probably inevitable by that stage regardless of who was in charge, and having Reid in charge in the Championship may have been a smart decision given that he had brought Sunderland up and established them in the top flight just a couple of years earlier.

Gary McAllister

Given the success that Gary McAllister enjoyed at Elland Road as a player, his appointment as manager seemed to be destined to be a match made in heaven. Taking over following Dennis Wise’s departure for Newcastle, McAllister managed to take Leeds to the play-off final months after his arrival. Unfortunately, Leeds never really turned up at Wembley and were denied promotion.

What was set to be his first full season with the club did not exactly go to plan as they fell outside of the League One play-off places and famously lost to Histon in the FA Cup. While his sacking seemed a fair decision, he had perhaps done enough to earn more time in the role as his win-rate has only been bettered by Garry Monk and Don Revie in terms of permanent managers since the latter was put in charge in 1961.

Simon Grayson

McAllister’s successor at Leeds was another former Whites player, Simon Grayson. The former Blackpool boss dropped down a division to take over and enjoyed a huge amount of success with Leeds. He guided them to promotion to the Championship in his first full season, won an FA Cup tie against Manchester United at Old Trafford and took Leeds to seventh in their first year back in the second tier.

Their inability to continue progressing saw him take a lot of criticism in the final weeks before his departure in 2012, but, in hindsight, Grayson is arguably the manager from Leeds’ recent history that fans would have taken back before Monk’s arrival.

The struggles that his successors endured highlighted just good a job Grayson was doing considering that players such as Kasper Schmeichel, Bradley Johnson, Max Gradel and Jonny Howson were allowed to leave while practically no money at all was spent on replacing them in what became his final season.