Leeds United Centurions - Olivier Dacourt took the Whites to another level
In the latest of our series heralding the club's greatest-ever players, Jon Howe remembers the French midfielder
20:30, 11 SEP 2018Updated21:25, 11 SEP 2018
Dacourt was a firm fan favourite during his time at Leeds
In the latest of our series heralding the club's greatest-ever players, Jon Howe remembers the French midfielder
For a player whose brief Leeds United career was bookended by on and off the pitch strife, it is testament to what Olivier Dacourt produced in just 82 appearances in between that he is remembered so fondly by the Elland Road faithful.
Leeds fans were already cautious in June 2000 at a club record fee of £7.2million being splashed out on the Lens player who failed to set the world alight during a fleeting stint at Everton a couple of years previously, and add to that the fact that Dacourt was the first Frenchman of any significance to arrive at Leeds since a certain Monsieur Cantona.
However, ignoring for a moment that Dacourt was sent off on his debut in a Champions League qualifier, and that he left Leeds under a cloud due to the same kind of dysfunctional player/manager breakdown that famously sent Eric Cantona to Old Trafford, the two Frenchmen couldn’t have been more different. Honest.
Dacourt arrived in June 2000 for a fee of £7.2million
Concern that Dacourt would turn the positively bubbling atmosphere in the Elland Road dressing room sour in another headstrong display of egocentric Gallic flounce, was soon dispelled as Dacourt became a vital lynchpin in a youthful side that fed off his selfless, tenacious muscle in the engine room. While the home-grown element of the side and the goal-scoring exploits of formidable front man Mark Viduka grabbed all the headlines in the epic Champions League campaign, Dacourt quietly went about his business with a step change in quality and experience, and in the kind of role that only true scholars of the game would fully appreciate.
The midfielder was the first Frenchman to join since Eric Cantona
It is true that Dacourt arrived with something of a disciplinary issue, which clouded his stay at Goodison, but his red card in the Champions League qualifier against 1860 Munich at Elland Road in his first outing for the club, was greeted with a measure of sympathy. In a mad ten minutes towards the end of the game, a fussy referee sent off three players, with Dacourt receiving two yellows and Eirik Bakke also seeing red for Leeds. An injury time Munich goal set up an awkward second leg, which an injury and suspension-ravaged United line-up navigated by the skin of their teeth. How the history of Leeds United could have been different had Dacourt’s red card proved more costly?
Dacourt soon became a fan favourite
Nevertheless, within three months of that inauspicious start the name “Olly†was reverberating around Elland Road every week, with the kind of echoing vibrancy that resonates as a sincere reminder of epic European nights. The home crowd took the tough-tackling Frenchmen to their hearts, helped by a sweeping free-kick that defeated Arsenal at home in November 2000, on a historic day that started with new signing Rio Ferdinand being introduced to the crowd before Kick-Off.
This was truly a time of transformation and revolution at Leeds United, and yet Dacourt’s arrival in itself felt like a defining moment. While Leeds had qualified for the Champions League with a home-grown core and some savvy procurement of young, English talent, Dacourt represented the club moving on to another level. It was a brave new world, and Dacourt quickly adapted to it, demonstrating immediate evidence that he was a class above.
Dacourt formed a formidable partnership with David Batty
While Dacourt was brought in partly to compensate for the long-term injury absence of David Batty, in providing a solid anchor in midfield, the adaptability of his game was just as vital. When the talismanic Batty returned to fitness for the second half of the 2000/01 Champions League season, Dacourt tailored his game to suit, and the two forged a forbidding partnership that was vital in managing the cavalier spirit of O’Leary’s effervescent side.
Dacourt was an all-action ball-winner who played right on the edge of the referee’s patience, continually prowling the middle third with the mind-set of seeing how much he could get away with. But this is to underplay his creative value; a mixture of precise long and short passing, intelligent use of the ball and steely composure. It created a beautiful symbiosis with Batty that few teams in England or Europe could deal with, and which the more artistic and decisive elements of the Leeds team fully beneF***ed from.
The midfielder excelled in Europe for Leeds
It was one night in Rome that truly put Dacourt on a pedestal as a modern day great with many Leeds fans, as he almost single-handedly won the midfield in the Olympic Stadium during the epoch-defining 1-0 win over Lazio. Dacourt was muddied, exhausted but triumphant as he set the standard for valour and courage on the biggest stage. Batty was missing that night, but the two combined in a performance of similar majesty two months later, when Leeds demolished Anderlecht 4-1 in their own back yard.
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