This weekend in the media there have been very generous tributes at Leeds United for Terry Yorath known by his team-mates as Taff. One of the players leading the tribute was my long-term friend Paul Reaney. Whilst Taff played for and managed a number of clubs, Leeds United were very much his club. Indeed, they have been guests at games between my team, Manchester City, and Leeds United.
Terry was a strong midfielder who joined Leeds shortly after leaving school where he was a good rugger player. Unfortunately he faced fierce competition from Bremner, Giles, Bates and Hibbett. Although he made his debut in 1968, he was not a regular, adopting a number of different positions until the 1972/73 season. From then until his transfer to Coventry, he appeared in the losing Cup Finals against Sunderland and Milan in the European Cup Winners’ Cup, but was a regular in the Championship-winning side of 1973/74, and picked up a losers’ medal in the European Cup Final against Bayern Munich in 1975. He also won 59 Welsh caps and was involved in the controversial game against Scotland, won by a goal from Joe Jordan, his colleague and close friend at Elland Road.
He came into his own after Bremner and Giles left Leeds following the defeat to Bayern. Whilst the manager, Jimmy Armfield, initially saw him as a replacement for Bremner and Giles, he ultimately used him as a squad player. This did not always find favour with Terry. On one occasion, Armfield told him that although he would not be playing on the Saturday, he would be playing the following Wednesday. Taff went crazy, and it was one of the moments that helped fuel the nickname for the manager, as his “indecision was final”.
In 1976 he was transferred to Coventry, where I felt he really was “the main man”, something I witnessed at a midweek Cup replay. It was there that he struck up a friendship with John Hendrie, whose career he helped nurture. Whilst at Coventry, he played in a relegation match that resulted in all games on the final weekend being played at the same time. For the last five minutes, no one dare touch the ball, as a subsequent draw was sufficient for both teams to survive relegation. Hard as it is to believe, during those final minutes he spent some of the time talking to his old playing colleague Norman Hunter. In normal circumstances, that would be difficult to imagine given the competitive nature of both players.
His next stop was Tottenham from 1979 to 1981, where he met and was heavily influenced by the elegant football of Glenn Hoddle. His full-blooded approach was not always appreciated by his colleagues, except when he was playing against Graeme Souness, who had great respect for him.
After a spell at Vancouver Whitecaps with his former colleague, John Giles, he returned north to play for Bradford City, where he was both a player and coach alongside another former colleague, Trevor Cherry. As is well known, he was involved in helping people survive during the Bradford fire. Given the various grounds Bradford had to play at in the season that followed, it was something of a miracle that they survived in the old Second Division.
After Trevor and Terry were sacked, Terry went on to manage Swansea City and Wales, famously beating West Germany in the process, although unfortunately failing to qualify for the World Cup. After that, he managed Bradford and Swansea again and even had a spell managing in Lebanon.
Later, on returning to England, he became a coach at Huddersfield, where his captain was Manchester City legend Andy Morrison. Whilst the manager and Andy had words, to say the least, and Andy was sold shortly afterwards, Terry did try to calm the situation down. His last formal appointment was at Margate in non-league football, where his brother was involved. Later still, Terry and his family suffered terrible bad luck when his son died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy while kicking a football around in the family garden with Terry, just a week before Daniel was due to join Leeds United. As those who have been in similar situations know, the blow is devastating.
My final word is about Terry’s autobiography, Hard Man, Hard Knocks, published in 2004, a book well worth reading. It was a privilege to be in his company, and he was certainly someone you would want in the trenches with you.
Raymond Ashton