Montage of Heck
Leeds United managers past and present will be occupying the dug outs as Sheffield United visit Elland Road on Sunday and the contrast in legacies and cult status could not be further removed between the two.
Paul Heckingbottom's four month reign as Leeds head coach was forgettable but the futility of the end of the 2017-18 season perhaps did inspire the Leeds board that the next appointment would have to be someone on a completely different level to the Barnsley born "Hecky". Antonio Conte was Andrea Radrizzani's pipe dream with Belgium boss Roberto Martinez an ambitious second choice until Victor Orta plucked Marcelo Bielsa's name from nowhere and left a 'fuck it, why not?' voicemail on the Argentine's phone. The rest as they say is history.
Going back to February 2018 and it still makes little sense why Leeds went for Heckingbottom, even more so the fact they were only too willing to pay Barnsley £500,000 to buy him out of his contract that was only signed days previously. His predecessor Thomas Christiansen was popular but in all fairness had to go. The wheels had come off from a blistering start to the season where Leeds topped the Championship for the first time since relegation from the Premier League and were now languishing in 10th, five points from a play off place. Perhaps more telling was the discipline had totally gone with frustration getting the better of the players with a red card in four of the last five matches. But why Hecky? He had done a decent job with Barnsley gaining promotion from League One, an EFL trophy win and was going well in the Championship before the vultures came in and decimated The Tykes's squad taking players such as Conor Hourihane, James Bree and Sam Winnall. But there were surely better options and compensation free options in that.
The appointment was a confusing one with echoes of those of Brian Clough and Steve Evans, prolific Leeds bashers being approached and then taking on the job. Only two months prior he was gleefully point scoring to the Barnsley fans about how when growing up he hated Leeds and that they're a club everyone loves to hate. Once again, Leeds had appointed a manager whose first job was to win over an unforgiving and pissed off fan base as well as turning around the fortunes of an under performing team.
I've always enjoyed watching Leeds play live, taking the positives from a good day out or ticking off a new away ground despite defeats but Leeds under Hecky was just shit. Maybe it was no worse than it was under Hockaday or Warnock but for me I began to hate going to watch Leeds United at the time and regretting spending money and a 300 mile round trip to Norwich away. I remember Leeds conceding a last minute equaliser at Derby which stretched our winless run to ten games and the frustration led me to kicking the seat in front and lowering the capacity of Pride Park by one.
Leeds United wasn't fun anymore which is why when I see Marcelo Bielsa and Paul Heckingbottom shake hands on Saturday I will be so grateful that it will be El Loco taking his seat in the Home dugout instead now. Leeds are better because of Marcelo Bielsa and my life is better now too.
I always found it poetic that Heckingbottom openly spoke about a joke that he told his kids that if Leeds were to sack him they would go on holiday with the severance pay. That summer he was to be greeted on holiday in Greece by Victor Orta carrying a P45. Leeds United have never looked back.