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Promotion 2010

Legende: Johnny Giles
« på: Desember 27, 2010, 15:46:57 »
Fantastisk RADIO-INTERVJU med Johnny Giles på BBC:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00cjwpy (28 mins)


Fra karrierestart til storhetstiden på begynnelsen av 70-tallet!  :)


« Siste redigering: Februar 19, 2019, 21:29:06 av Promotion 2010 »
Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Radio-intervju med Johnny Giles - TOP CLASS!!!!
« Svar #1 på: Desember 27, 2010, 15:49:04 »
Hvem er Johnny Giles sier du, unge mann?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NTObP0WON0

 ;D
Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Radio-intervju med Johnny Giles - TOP CLASS!!!!
« Svar #2 på: Desember 27, 2010, 15:51:23 »
En egen Johnny Giles-sang:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZCDjN1wEn0

 ;D
Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Thomas

Sv: Radio-intervju med Johnny Giles - TOP CLASS!!!!
« Svar #3 på: Desember 28, 2010, 15:41:07 »
Takk for link, Promo :). Skal få hørt dette intervjuet.

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #4 på: Juli 11, 2016, 11:26:19 »
Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #5 på: Januar 27, 2017, 09:08:22 »



Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

RoarG

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #6 på: Januar 27, 2017, 13:08:46 »




Full støtte til Giles, her. En av Leeds' klassiske midtbane-eleganter.
"Jeg tror ikke på Gud, men etter Bielsas ansettelse må jeg nok revurdere", Roar Gustavsen, januar 2020

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #7 på: Juli 01, 2017, 00:05:02 »
The new John Giles documentary is essential viewing for Irish football fans

RTÉ will air the hour-long film about the legendary Irish midfielder on Monday.

It very much sounds like Giles still misses working on the RTÉ panel.
Updated at 20.00

“I NEVER WANTED to be a star, I wanted to be a great player and there’s a difference,” John Giles states during the opening scene of a new documentary about an Irish footballing great.

One of the finest midfielders of his generation, Giles lined out for Manchester United, Leeds United, West Brom and Philadelphia Fury before returning to Ireland as player-manager of Shamrock Rovers.

He won 59 caps for the Boys in Green and also managed them in the 1970s, before going on to establish himself as a football analyst for RTÉ.

Produced by Loosehorse, an hour-long film featuring the great man as he looks back on his life will be aired this Monday, 3 July.

“I knew early on that I had a gift to play football, to control it and pass it,” Giles explains. “I had a second gift — to realise I had the first gift.

I’ve known a lot of players who are gifted, but never realised or appreciated the gift they had. It’s making the most of it that’s the important thing, that’s the satisfaction that you can live with for the rest of your life.”

He remembers growing up in working class Dublin during the 40s, becoming a ‘street footballer’ in Ormond Square and getting a hard time from Christian Brothers for his love of a sport that was frowned upon by the establishment at the time.

“The Christian Brothers were very anti-soccer and I was known as a soccer guy,” Giles says. “One teacher said ‘you’ll be like all those corner boys going up to Dalymount Park’. I didn’t know what a corner boy was at that stage.

“He dragged me over in front of another class and said ‘you think you’re going to go to England and play football over there…’. It was just totally mean.”

Soccer - Football League Division One - Leeds United Photocall Giles at Leeds United. Source: PA Archive/PA Images

Giles pays his former schoolboy club Stella Maris a visit and also takes a trip to his old stomping grounds of Elland Road, Old Trafford and Dalymount Park.

There’s a cameo from his partner-in-crime Eamon Dunphy as the pair chat away while taking in a recent League of Ireland meeting between Bohemians and Limerick.

It covers his move to Manchester United, being affected by the Munich Air Disaster as a 17-year-old and asking Matt Busby for a transfer request after winning the FA Cup in 1963.

Giles Elland Road Revisiting Elland Road. Source: Loosehorse

Giles went on to make a name for himself at Leeds United, where he played alongside Jack Charlton and received criticism for being a “dirty team”.

“Because I was a small guy and I was a creative player, I was a target,” he explains. “My attitude was to get your retaliation in first.”

Life under manager Don Revie saw Leeds win the English top flight with a record points tally for the first time in the club’s history in 1969.

Giles Dunphy 1990 Dunphy and Giles during Italia '90. Source: Loosehorse

For so long part of the furniture in the RTÉ studio, Giles is no longer on the national broadcaster’s football panel after they decided against renewing his contract. And Giles admits feeling “strange” when he makes a return to Donnybrook for the documentary.

“Anything that’s over after 30 years, there’s a sadness in it,” he says. “First of all, you’re looking back over a time and how quickly it’s gone.

“If somebody told me when I started that I’d be doing it over 30 years I wouldn’t have believed it. I didn’t intend to make a career of it, and sort of fell into it.”

There’s a tear-jerking moment in the closing minutes as the 76-year-old watches coverage of an Ireland international from his armchair.

Giles is a national treasure and this is essential viewing for anyone remotely interested in Irish football.

It will be broadcast this Monday at 9:35pm on RTÉ One
Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #8 på: Juli 01, 2017, 19:32:04 »
Johnny Giles wanted to ‘haunt’ Manchester United after leaving Old Trafford to join Leeds United

JOHNNY GILES has admitted he wanted to “haunt” Manchester United after leaving for Leeds United.

‘Giles’, a documentary on the life and times of the ex-Ireland player and manager will be broadcast on RTÉ One at 9.35pm on Monday.

Johnny Giles became a Leeds United legend

Johnny Giles became a Leeds United legend
The Dubliner is renowned as one of the best midfielders the country has produced and known to younger fans from his time as a TV analyst.

Now 76, Giles reflected on how he might never have gotten his chance at Old Trafford were it not for the Munich air disaster in 1956, in which eight United players lost their lives.

But he reckons he lost the trust of then-boss Matt Busby after a 1962 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Tottenham.

And, although he helped United lift the Cup 12 months later, he left that summer for Elland Road, where he enjoyed far more success.

Recalling the plane crash which saw 21 people in total killed, Giles said: “They’d just won the league twice, they were leading the league that year. The average age of the team was 22.

“I’d say they would have dominated for probably ten years.

Giles and future Ireland boss Jack Charlton celebrate winning the FA Cup

Giles and future Ireland boss Jack Charlton celebrate winning the FA Cup
“Before the Munich air disaster, you had a surplus of young players brought through in the Busby way. So I was pushed forward after the Munich air disaster.

“I made my debut against Tottenham. I don’t know what would have happened if there hadn’t been a Munich air disaster. I don’t know what progress I might have made. Nobody knows.

“But I got into the first team and was playing there for a few years.

“The big changing point for me at Old Trafford was the semi-final of the Cup in 1962. We got a hiding and lost 3-1.

“I was terrible. From that moment, Matt lost confidence in me.

“Whatever I did was wrong. If I went inside, I should have gone outside. It happens in football.

“I think the general feeling was that I’d bottled it, I was out.

“I’d a bad time with Matt that season. But I was relaxed in the Cup final, I thought, ‘I can’t be that bad’.

“Matt was God at Old Trafford. I couldn’t picture going another year at Man United with Matt saying, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that’. So I asked for a transfer. Without any hesitation, I could go.”

That meant dropping a division but, in his first season in Yorkshire, Leeds were promoted as champions.

Glies with Leeds in 1974

Glies with Leeds in 1974
He went on to win two Division One titles, another FA Cup, the League Cup, the Charity Shield, two Inter-Cities Fairs Cup – the equivalent of the Europa League – as well as reaching a European Cup final.

And, whatever about the motivation of his team-mates, Giles was fuelled by the desire to disprove the theory that the only way was down if you left the Red Devils.

Giles added: “There was an arrogance that no one leaves Old Trafford and does well. I thought, ‘I’m going to prove that wrong’.

“It sounds childish now and I’d only just got married at the time but I said, ‘I’ll haunt them’.

“When I went to Leeds, I didn’t know any of the players. I learned quickly that there was a great work ethic, the players were close.

“They were hungry, they were well-coached, that’s what was in the club. Although they were in the Second Division, something was happening there.

“We were a very difficult team to beat and we won the Second Division. There is a thing at Old Trafford that no one leaves and does well.

“I got great satisfaction that when we won the league in 1969. Matt Busby did say publicly that it was the biggest mistake he’d made. I’d said I’d haunt him and I did that. I left Old Trafford and did well.

“We were there, top four every year. If we were playing now, we’d be qualifying for the Champions League every year for 11 years.”

MOST READ SPORT

Among his team-mates was another future Ireland manager, in Jack Charlton and, between the pair of them, they did little to help the reputation of Don Revie’s side.

But Giles believes the caricature of Leeds as a dirty team was not entirely accurate given the ability which he and others in the side possessed.

Giles said: “We were criticised for being a dirty team. Everyone talked about dirty Leeds and there was an element of truth in that.

“The Leeds lads always stuck together and never packed it in for anyone. Whether it was Billy Bremner, myself, Norman Hunter, if anyone had a go at them, they’d have to have a go at us too.

“I was a small guy and I was a creative player so I was a target.

“My attitude was to get your retaliation first. I had to do it. It was your living.

“If you didn’t respond, you were going to be a softie, so I got a reputation for it then.

“It annoys me sometimes. Sometimes people say, ‘You were a dirty little sod’, but I say, ‘Yeah but I could play a bit as well’.

“Jack was the best centre-half in the league for five years. He saw the game through a centre-half’s eyes. Jack is very stubborn.

“He wasn’t always right but he was never wrong. When you play, it’s life and death, it has to mean that much to you to win to get stuck in and never give up.

“When you’re losing, you could feel your blood boiling, you couldn’t take it, you had to get in and win.”

Because of his contribution, he was seen as the natural successor to Revie, who recommended him for the role in 1974 when he left to take charge of England.

Instead, the board appointed Brian Clough, who had been critical of Leeds in the past and lasted just 44 days in the role, with Giles rejecting the chance to replace him.

Giles added: “It didn’t make any sense. We were back for pre-season training for a few days and he hadn’t spoken to anyone.

“We were sitting in the players’ lounge and Cloughy came in and he said, ‘You see all those medals there, you can put them in the bin’.

“That was his starting thing. ‘Norman Hunter, you’re a dirty b*****d, everyone likes to be liked, no sir, I couldn’t give a f***. To me, ‘You’re a dirty b*****d too’.

“And, ‘Eddie Gray, if you’re a horse, you’d be put down years ago’.

“I think this was Cloughy’s way, he’d dominate you and then was OK.

“But we had just won the league, we were an experienced team.

“We were proud of what we’d done and he’s telling us to put them in the bin. He never got off first base with the players.

“He got sacked. When they came back again, I was offered the job but, in my opinion, you can stick the job up your jumper.”

https://www.thesun.ie/sport/football/1204337/johnny-giles-wanted-to-haunt-manchester-united-after-leaving-old-trafford-to-join-leeds-united/

Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #9 på: Juli 03, 2017, 09:34:28 »
Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

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Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #10 på: Juli 04, 2017, 00:28:52 »
Tell me - I've got to know
Tell me - Tell me before I go
Does that flame still burn, does that fire still glow
Or has it died out and melted like the snow
Tell me  Tell me

Dylan

Promotion 2010

Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #12 på: Juli 04, 2017, 17:26:24 »
Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

lojosang

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #13 på: Juli 05, 2017, 16:35:10 »
Det der var ytterst severdig, og dessverre fjernet fra youtube nå.
- Leif Olav

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Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #14 på: Juli 15, 2017, 10:26:34 »
LEEDS UTD MEMORIES‏ @MartinMarty1974  21m
21 minutes ago
What the press said about Johnny Giles in 1976 #lufc

Tell me - I've got to know
Tell me - Tell me before I go
Does that flame still burn, does that fire still glow
Or has it died out and melted like the snow
Tell me  Tell me

Dylan

Promotion 2010

Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #16 på: November 06, 2017, 19:42:29 »
LUFCdata

Johnny Giles: "I got some bad injuries & I decided that if this was a jungle we were playing in then it's better to be a lion than a lamb."


Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #17 på: November 06, 2017, 19:57:15 »



77 i dag!!
Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #18 på: Januar 15, 2018, 10:39:53 »
Johnny Giles spilte i denne utrolige testimonialen til Len Cantello!

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37924448

All Blacks vs All Whites!

Første og siste kamp der man satt sammen et helt sort lag mot et helt hvitt!


Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #19 på: August 30, 2018, 21:30:33 »
A Football archive
Leaving Old Trafford: Johnny Giles signed by Leeds United for the sum of £33,000, 29 August 1963. (Photo: Mirrorpix)


Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

RoarG

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #20 på: August 30, 2018, 21:34:27 »
A Football archive
Leaving Old Trafford: Johnny Giles signed by Leeds United for the sum of £33,000, 29 August 1963. (Photo: Mirrorpix)



I den tida spillerne ikke gikk "kledd" i tatoveringer, men i pene dresser.
"Jeg tror ikke på Gud, men etter Bielsas ansettelse må jeg nok revurdere", Roar Gustavsen, januar 2020

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #21 på: November 06, 2018, 18:32:18 »
Leeds United

 Happy Birthday to #LUFC legend Johnny Giles who turned 78 today!

During 525 games for The Whites, Giles won the First Division twice, Second Division, FA Cup, League Cup, Charity Shield and two Fairs Cups

Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

Promotion 2010

Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #22 på: November 06, 2018, 21:17:25 »
Johnny Giles was Don Revie's on-field tactician who ticked every box in Leeds United's greatest side - Leeds Live

“The inevitable Giles for Leeds”.

It’s not just an iconic piece of period commentary, but a perfect summation of what Johnny Giles brought to Leeds United and how his influence was appreciated. He was always there; not simply consistent in terms of appearances – 523 in 12 seasons and his only prolonged injury absence was in the 1973/74 title-winning season – but a reliable performer in every sense. Always available for a pass, always prompting, always ready to get stuck in.


For very good reason, people view Billy Bremner as synonymous with the spirit and endeavour in Don Revie’s great Leeds side, but anyone who watched that team and certainly anyone actually in it, will testify that Giles was just as important. Together they were a domineering double act rarely matched in world football. The game is littered with exalted individuals, but rarely have two players combined with such effortless symbiosis, to grace a football pitch as a collective force that offered so much. Think Xavi and Iniesta from a different era and not many scholars of the game’s rich heritage would disagree.

A somewhat idle label to identify the duo with, was that Giles was the brains to Bremner’s brawn. In truth, they were so sublimely interchangeable that their power was in how similar they were and how they understood each other. The main difference perhaps, was in how Bremner wore his heart on his sleeve and led from the front, while Giles took a more circumspect approach and became the team’s on field tactician


Giles turned out more than 500 times for Leeds
Either way, it worked perfectly. Giles was renowned as a master of the passing art; dextrously two-footed and parading a sixth sense on a football field that combined obstinate composure with a fiercely competitive spirit. If Leeds fans debate the signings that shaped the history of the football club, Bobby Collins from Everton and Gordon Strachan from Manchester United are the two that are always reeled off, but Giles’ capture from Old Trafford in 1963 was also an audacious coup that was central to the success of the next decade.

Giles was well established in Matt Busby’s side, but points to a defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in which he was overrun in midfield, as the moment Busby lost faith in him. Giles never regained that trust and was frozen out of the team. He put in a transfer request and bowed to Revie’s tenacious advances, signing for £33,000.

Eyebrows were raised at Giles dropping a division to a parochial club who had achieved precisely nothing in a football backwater dominated by rugby league. But Giles had been enchanted by what Revie was planning, and how credible it sounded. In a chilling declaration that exemplified the cold and driven disposition Revie was after, Giles vowed to “haunt Busby for his decision” and Leeds’ dominance over their red rose rivals for much of the next decade and more, bore this out.


Don Revie leads Giles out of Old Trafford after signing him from Manchester United for £33,000 on 29th August 1963
Busby would later confess that not recognising Giles’ genius was one of his biggest regrets in football. But by then the diminutive Irish maestro had indelibly marked the game with his brilliance. With 114 goals in 523 appearances, Giles was a critical lynchpin in how Revie wanted his team to operate, and along with Bremner in the engine room, Leeds dominated games with ease. This was despite Giles’ small physique, which allowed him to use his supreme strength and low centre of gravity to bully the opposition into submission through a mixture of skill and physicality.


Make no mistake, Giles was a player who could most definitely ‘mix it’, but like that Leeds team in general, Giles is stigmatised as a sly and brutal purveyor of every trick in the book, in an era where everybody was ‘at it’ in some form or another. Perhaps Leeds were simply better at it, and that’s what the media and fallen opponents didn’t like. It was “a game within a game” according to Giles himself, and while Leeds could mix majesty with the Machiavellian, they were tarred with an underworld villainy that belied their technical prowess, and this is particularly apparent in how Giles is remembered now; too much as an exponent of the dark arts, and not enough as an orchestrator in the game that he describes as “one of wit, cleverness and brain”.

Giles was a complete player
The midfield pairing of Bremner and Giles ironically came about much by accident. Giles was signed as an outside right and played his first two seasons in the position an emerging Peter Lorimer would later mainly occupy. Bobby Collins was the pocket rocket who partnered Bremner in the middle of the park until he suffered a broken thigh bone in Leeds’ first ever European tie against Torino.

It allowed Revie to move Giles in field and Leeds never looked back. Little needs to be added on the catalogue of near-misses and the uncontrollable forces that seemed to deny Revie’s Leeds their true position amongst European football’s elite, but this is not to deny Giles his place as a legendary figure at Elland Road and one of the most influential players to have graced the turf of LS11.

Giles joins in the celebrations after Leeds' Inter-Cities Fairs Cup win over Juventus in 1971
Revie often confided in Giles off the pitch and sought his advice tactically, and of course it was Giles who the Don recommended to fill his considerable shoes when he left to take the England job in 1974. For whatever reason, the board didn’t follow Don’s advice and we will never know what kind of dynasty might have been created.

Giles left Leeds after the shuddering tragedy of the 1975 European Cup Final; as stark an indication that an era had come to a close as it was possible to imagine. It was no surprise that the inevitable Giles made a success of football management, but Leeds had lost out to the enigma of Brian Clough and the catalogue of errors that led to Revie’s legacy collapsing


Ironically it was Clough who would later defy the bitterness and acrimony over how things had turned out by perhaps best describing Giles’ illustrious splendour: "Giles could grab hold of a match, tuck it in his back pocket, and carry it around with him. He didn't need to find space, it was as if space found him."


Giles was no show pony, he knew how to survive in the jungle, but as a specimen midfielder who ticked every box, he is up there with Leeds United’s very best.

Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

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Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #23 på: April 14, 2019, 15:34:36 »
New concerns raised around FAI in protected disclosure - including questions about John Giles foundation

New allegations after complaint made to Office of Director of Corporate Enforcement

Philip Ryan14 April 2019 12:40 PM
 1
A general view of the Aviva Stadium. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has received a detailed protected disclosure outlining a number of new concerns about governance at the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).

The Sunday Independent understands a similar letter has also been sent to the Charities Regulator and the Revenue Commissioner.

The author of the letter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, makes a series of allegations surrounding corporate governance at the FAI and other entities linked to the association.

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It includes questions surrounding how funds linked to the John Giles Foundation are operated.

It also raises concerns about the transfer of funds between the FAI and a business linked to the Aviva Stadium.

In addition, there are allegations relating to the investment of FAI funds.

The author of the complaint also notes that questions were raised at the Oireachtas Sports Committee about the FAI's inability to declare whether they have a tax clearance certificate, which should now be answered.

The complaint follows weeks of controversy surrounding corporate governance at the FAI after it emerged John Delaney gave the football governing body €100,000 while he was chief executive. Soon after details of the loan were published, Mr Delaney stepped down as chief executive. However, he was subsequently appointed to the newly created role of FAI executive vice president.

Sport Ireland sought an explanation for the loan from the FAI but decided to withdraw funding when it did not receive satisfactory responses to their questions.

Last week, Mr Delaney appeared before the Sports Committee where he was expected to answer questions related to the loan and other financial issues at the FAI.

Mr Delaney, whose future with the FAI was in doubt last night, said he was told at a meeting in April 2017 that the FAI's €1.5m overdraft limit would be exceeded if all their creditors cashed their cheques and bank transfers.

He said he was surprised by the situation and gave his financial director a cheque payable to the FAI for €100,000 as a "precautionary measure".

Mr Delaney was later told the cheque would have to be lodged by the association. He was repaid in June 2017.

"I accept that the overdraft limit issue arose on my watch as chief executive officer. I wish that it had not happened but I acted in the best interests of the association," he said.

Mr Delaney said he was precluded from answering further questions on advice of his solicitors.
Min første Leeds-kamp:
Strømsgodset vs Leeds, 19.september 1973

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Sv: Legende: Johnny Giles
« Svar #24 på: August 29, 2020, 09:23:11 »
Hva annet kan man si, dette er et flott intervju!

'I had to start scaring those out to hurt me... get my retaliation in first': Leeds United legend Johnny Giles reflects on Don Revie's glory years, pals he's lost and his hardman reputation as he turns 80 this year
Johnny Giles is the oldest survivor from Leeds' great title sides of 1969 and 1974
The Dubliner who soon turns 80 reflects back on friends he's lost over the years
Legends Jack Charlton, Norman Hunter and Trevor Cherry passed away this year
Giles also looks back on the glory days of Leeds United under Don Revie 

By CRAIG HOPE FOR THE DAILY MAIL PUBLISHED: 21:05 BST, 28 August 2020 |


Surrounded by pictures of his family and former team-mates, Johnny Giles contemplates his own mortality.

The Dubliner turns 80 this year and is the oldest surviving member of Leeds United’s great title-winning sides of 1969 and 1974.

How he wishes that Jack Charlton, five years his senior, was still here. Norman Hunter and Trevor Cherry, too, all three Leeds legends who have died in recent months.




Next to it, on the mantelpiece, a picture of Giles and his brother-in-law, England World Cup winner Nobby Stiles. They are suited - no longer booted - but still smiling, two of the finest midfielders of their generation, together at a family wedding.

But that was then. Today, Stiles is cared for in a home, unaware of his surroundings, his mind defeated by Alzheimer’s disease.


‘What a great lad. Honestly, the best. My sister married a good ‘un, and how he loved her,’ says Giles.

The pair were team-mates at Manchester United - original Busby Babes - and were apprentices when eight of the senior stars they so revered were killed in the Munich air disaster of 1958.

‘I was 17, a kid, going to all these funerals,’ recalls Giles. ‘It’s only later in life that the sadness and tragedy of it all really hits you.’

He remembers seeing Duncan Edwards for the first time, ‘waiting for a bus, sitting on top of a post-box eating an apple, he was only a kid himself, but what a player, I was in awe’. Edwards died aged 21, the youngest Munich victim.

In that sense, Giles has lived a full life - 57 years married to Anne, six children, eight grandchildren, 59 caps for Republic of Ireland and seven major trophies.



But the loss of Hunter, to coronavirus in April, has led to much thought.

‘It was a terrible shock, I was only with him at Christmas. I’m terrified of this now. At my age, If I get it, I’m a goner. I’ve driven my good lady mad. I’ve had the virus about six times, in my head anyway.

‘So yes, I think about mortality, all the time. But you know what, when it comes, I can’t have any complaints, the life I’ve had.’

Ahead of his landmark birthday, and with the sadness of the summer eased ever so slightly by the joy of Leeds finally winning promotion back to the Premier League, Giles is ready to reflect.

Anne arrives from the kitchen with a pot of tea, and Giles begins. Much like on the pitch, he doesn’t hold back

 
We begin at the end - or at least the beginning of the end for the Leeds we knew - and Brian Clough’s arrival as Don Revie’s replacement in the summer of 1974.

‘There shouldn’t have been a problem. We’d just won the league and wanted to win it again,’ says Giles.

Only, there was a problem. Clough’s opening salvo to the squad is infamous - ‘You f***ing lot, you can take all your medals and throw them in the bin’.

Giles - who had joined Leeds in the Second Division from United 11 years earlier - recalls: ‘We were stunned, “What the f*** is this all about?”. We’d worked our b******s off over the years and he’s telling us that.

‘He said to me, “It’s not my fault you didn’t get the manager’s job, Irishman”. I didn’t want the job!

‘Norman was great. Clough says, “Hunter, I know you want to be loved, don’t you?”. Norman says, “I couldn’t give a f***”.

‘We were experienced players, the best in the country. When he went into Derby or Forest and said, “You’re all f***ing useless”, he was right! But we were the f***ing champions!’

What piece of advice would Giles give Clough were he able to go back?



‘All he had to say was, “I know you didn’t like me. I didn’t like you. But we’re in this together now”.

‘But he never stood a chance after that first meeting. I think he was very insecure. It was needless, so stupid.’

Clough was gone after 44 days, a period immortalised in The Damned United, the book by David Peace subsequently made into a film.

Giles successfully sued the publishers after he objected to being characterised as a ‘winking, scheming leprechaun’ who made life difficult for Clough, and his irritation has not faded with time.

‘He (Peace) never spoke to any of us, he portrayed us all in a totally unjust way. A lot of people said, “You didn’t come out of that book too well”. I’m sure I didn’t, because most of it didn’t happen.

‘Then the movie… well that was a misinterpretation of a misinterpretation. There was no need to embellish the story, it was crazy enough anyway.’



Crazy is one word to describe Clough’s first game in charge, the 1974 Charity Shield versus Liverpool at Wembley in which Leeds captain Billy Bremner and Kevin Keegan were sent off after trading punches.

Not that theirs were the first thrown. ‘No, that was me,’ says Giles, who somehow escaped a red card when landing a right hook on Keegan’s jaw.

He shuffles to the edge of the sofa, fist and palm readied for the reenactment.

‘Kevin was a great lad, a superstar. But I got the impression that day he was in a bad mood, looking for trouble.

‘He got into a challenge with Norman and buried him. You’re thinking, “What’s up with him?”. Next thing, he’s jumping on my back, all over me. I lost my head. So as he came past…’

There it is, fist on palm. Bang.

‘I caught him a beauty. I should have been off. But none of the Liverpool lads complained, it was as if they were saying, “F***ing well done”.’

Giles is somewhat unique in that he is remembered as both a wonderfully gifted ball-player and, in his own words, ‘a dirty little b*****d’.

‘I had to be to survive,’ he offers in defence. ‘I remember the moment I knew I had to change, when Chelsea’s Eddie McCreadie did my knee ligaments. I said, “That’s it, never again, if I don’t handle myself, I’ll be kicked out the game”.

‘I had to start scaring people who wanted to hurt me. I had to get my retaliation in first!’

So did he ever settle the score with McCreadie?

‘I had to be patient but there was later a moment when Eddie was chasing the ball down… I’d dreamt of this. As he cleared it, I smashed him.

‘He said, “What the f*** was that about?”. I said, “That’s from Stamford Bridge”. He said, “That’s seven f***ing years ago!”.’



 
THERE is a scene in the TV comedy classic Auf Wiedersehen Pet when Oz, played by Jimmy Nail, likens his bedroom liaison with an attractive older woman to ‘playing with someone like Johnny Giles for 90 minutes’.

It is a compliment, the suggestion being that, as Giles got older and slowed his game, he became better for it.

Giles knows the scene. ‘I loved that. My kids actually sent me a copy, I still watch it.’ We laugh at the response to Oz from the character Moxey… ‘Funny you should mention footballers, because the only older women I’ve ever had looked like Billy Bremner!’

But it leads us into conversation about Giles and his genius with a football. It has long been said that he could ‘land a ball on a sixpence from 50 yards, with either foot’.

He takes us back to an incident in a pub in Dublin.

‘This fella comes into the toilet, p****d out of his head, clearly doesn’t like me. “See you Giles, I could do what you do”. I thought, “That’s great, if I’m making it look that easy”. It was one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever had!

‘I don’t want to be too sanctimonious, but I had a gift. Thankfully, I realised that, and I had a responsibility to that gift.

‘As a kid, people used to stop in the street and watch me kick the ball. Later, I’d lie in bed and think about the game, visualise what I could do. You have to live it, never be satisfied with how good you are.’


That hunger ran through Revie’s team, who won the First Division and Fairs Cup twice, FA Cup and League Cup.

Giles knows where this is going and is ready for it… ‘But you’re going to mention the six finals we lost and five times we finished second?’

Well, yes.

‘‘People always said, “Leeds, runners-up again, losing finals”. But we finished second the first season we were promoted in 1965, we shouldn’t have been near it.

‘For f***’s sake, we would have been better off finishing 10th to avoid the criticism! Same season we made the FA Cup final. What’s better, ducking out in the third round?

‘You have to win a hell of a lot of matches to be runners-up or get to a cup final. So no, we weren’t chokers, we were consistently brilliant over a long period, one of the greatest teams ever.’

Not that missing out on those trophies does not irritate him to this day.



‘Sunderland in the ’73 Cup Final, we didn’t deserve to win, didn’t play well, it happens. After that game it was all, “Giles finished, Bremner finished”. It fired us up. Twelve months later? We’re champions.

‘I wish we’d done the double in ’72, of course. We won the FA Cup on the Saturday and needed a point at Wolves on the Monday for the league. We lost.

‘I was sat with Peter Lorimer on the bus going back to Leeds. There was a celebration at the Queens Hotel but no one wanted to go.

‘Peter said, “I’m going in, I think we’ve had a great year”. You didn’t feel it at the time, but he was right. I said, “You know what, I’ll come with you”. So there we were, me and him, the spread to ourselves, the only two sat having a drink, celebrating winning the FA Cup.’

It remains the only time Leeds have won the competition.

‘So we did right to enjoy it, didn’t we!’

 
When Leeds kick off the Premier League season at champions Liverpool next month it will be on the ground where they won their first league title in 1969.

‘I smiled when I saw they’re going to Anfield, although it’s hardly good news. Without the fans though… not the same.

‘The Kop applauded us the day we won the league, that was special. Saying that, someone then threw a brick through the bus window!

‘It finished 0-0 and Bill Shankly came into the dressing-room and said, “The best team drew”. He could never admit it. But we knew we were the best.'

Mention of that title win causes Giles to revisit his exit from Old Trafford, six years earlier.

'I fell out with Matt (Busby), or at least he fell out with me. We played the great Spurs team in the '62 FA Cup semi-final and I had a nightmare. I was 21, up against Dave Mackay, Danny Blanchflower and John White. From that day Matt lost confidence in me. He never spoke to me, I was just out.


‘I actually played in the final when we won the FA Cup the following year, but I was only in because Nobby (Stiles) was injured.

'I didn’t think Matt was fair with me, I’d had one bad game, so I put in a transfer request and he didn't object!

'But there was a big thing at Manchester United, no one was supposed to leave there and do well. I didn’t subscribe to that. I said to my wife, “I’ll come back to haunt him”.'

So who was right - Giles or Busby?

‘We both went on to do okay! He did win the European Cup after all, one of the great managers. But it worked for me as well. We were champions the year Manchester United were relegated.'

Giles means no malice by that, it is a statement of fact. He had been sold to a second-tier club who weren't considered a threat and, under Revie's guidance, helped transform them into the best team in the land.

‘What Don did - taking over a Second Division club with no real support or tradition and leaving them as English champions - that is why Leeds is the magnificent club it is today.’

Giles was on the phone to his Leeds team-mate Eddie Gray last week. The old boys are planning to meet in Leeds to remember their lost friends when it feels safe.

‘We’re lucky really, you know, to have these wonderful memories together. It’s been sad this year, but we’ll raise a glass to the good times too - and there were plenty of them.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8675249/Leeds-legend-Johnny-Giles-reflects-Don-Revies-glory-years-pals-hes-lost-hardman-reputation.html
Tell me - I've got to know
Tell me - Tell me before I go
Does that flame still burn, does that fire still glow
Or has it died out and melted like the snow
Tell me  Tell me

Dylan