Leeds United AFC players
2004-05 Season
Coca-Cola Championship
Defenders

Gary Kelly   Gary Kelly of Leeds United   Real name Gary Kelly   Height 5'8"   Weight 152lbs   Date of birth 9 July 1974   Place of birth Drogheda   Position Defender   Nationality Irish   Int. Caps 51 (2 goals)  Signed on 24 Sep 1991   Fee Free   Term -   Squad # 2 Signed from Home Farm in the Irish Republic on 24th September 1991, Gary Kelly is our longest serving player. Had a new lease of life under Terry Venables in 2002-03 when he frequently played right midfield. Many fans thought it was his best season for ages. Loyal and committed to Leeds United, in fact, at the end of 2003-2004 he was the only full-time professional who was definitely NOT leaving Leeds. Eventually Duberry stayed too (sob!) Despite little difference in ages, he is the uncle of former Leeds United left-back, and fellow Irish international, Ian Harte who now plies his trade at Levante in La Liga. At 26/2/2005 his stats were as follows: (subs) League 351 (11) 2 goals; FA Cup 29 (1) 1 goal; League Cup 26 (2); Europe 35 (1) Last Update: 26 February 2005

Danny Pugh   Danny Pugh Postion: Left-Back/Left-Wing Squad Number: 12 International: none Kevin Blackwell's first signing as Leeds United manager. Danny signed on a two-year contract at Elland Road. He arrives in Yorkshire as part of the deal that took Alan Smith to Old Trafford. Being part of any deal that took Alan Smith away from Elland Road would, up to last week, be to effectively end your Leeds career before it started as far as the fans were concerned. However, since Smith's hypocritical move to the Scum, Pugh will now be seen in a very positive light as he chose to leave the Reds and come to Elland Road. The 21-year-old made seven first team appearances for Manchester United, including three in the Champions League. Kevin Blackwell said Danny offers him a lot of options: "Danny is a young up and coming player who I was aware of and he has the hunger to do well that I want to bring to this club. "He hasn't had a lot of first team experience but he knows that if he does well then he will get the chance to play regularly. "He can play in a number of positions and that could prove very useful to us. I have already mentioned that bringing him in allows us to fill that left hand side and move James Milner, a right-footed player, to the right wing or even upfront." Reading what Danny has to say in response, he could certainly make a living as a diplomat. In the following interview with the offcial Leeds website he pushes all the right buttons: "I've had a look around the place today and got a good feeling about it. I'm just looking forward to getting started here now. I got to a stage at Manchester where I needed a change and I think this is the perfect place for that change. "Obviously when you are at a club you want to play as many first team games as you can, that's what you are judged on, I would have liked to have played more games but it didn't happen and I believe I can do that here now. "High standards have always been expected of me at Manchester United since I've been there, and hopefully that's what I can bring here and carry it on."   Danny Nets vs Terriers   "I met Kevin today and I was very impressed with him, he's very enthusiastic and you can tell he wants to take the club forward and that's what I am looking forward to as well." Danny follows some illustrious footsteps in making the short trip from Manchester to Leeds, such as, Johnny Giles, Brian Greenhoff, Gordon Strachan and Lee Sharpe. All those players were taken to by supporters at Elland Road, and he's hoping to follow suit and with his attitude we have no doubt that he will. "I don't know how the fans will take to me, but if I am performing well on the pitch then I am sure they won't have a problem with me. It won't matter then who I played for before - as long as I am doing a job for Leeds United it will all go well. "If I have half the impact of someone like Gordon Strachan then I will have had a great start. "It's definitely a challenge, but I'm looking forward to that challenge and hope I can succeed here. If I can play as many games as possible and establish myself as a regular then I will be happy. I know it's not going to be easy to get into the side but I will work as hard as I can." June 2004

Paul Butler   Paul Butler Postion: Central Defender Squad Number: 6 International: n/a The 31 year-old was club captain last season during Wolves' Premiership campaign which ended in relegation along with Leeds Utd. He has a vast amount of experience at League Championship level. He will sign a two year contract with Leeds on July 1st, 2004. Wolves were only prepared to offer him a one-year contract and so he opted to take a free move to Leeds United. Manchester-born, (2nd November, 1972) Began at local club Bury before a £1m move to Sunderland in 1998 and then onto Wolves two and a half years later, for the same price. June 2004

Clark Carlisle   Clark Carlisle Postion: Central Defender Squad Number: 4 International: England U-21 Kevin Blackwell's 2nd signing is a former Blackpool man. Signed by Leeds on a free transfer he made 33 appearances for QPR during 2003-04 having joined them four years ago for a fee of £250,000. Worringly, he missed a portion of the 2003/04 season after being admitted to a clinic for treatment on alcohol-related problems. Born 14th October, 1979, Clark Carlisle is a former England Under-21 international, 6ft 3in tall and came through the ranks at Blackpool although he was born in Preston. When his contract expired at QPR he was keen to return north. The 24 year-old will formally join Leeds on July 1st, 2004, but he has already talked to Leeds' local paper the Yorkshire Evening Post., where he revealed that Leeds United have Eddie Gray also to thank. "For me to land a club like Leeds United is tremendous. I couldn't have asked for anything better than this. "My agent had been talking to Eddie Gray during the last transfer window, but there was nothing concrete. When Kevin got installed my agent put a phone call to him and things have gone from there. Impressively Clark broke his holiday to speak to Leeds once he knew of our interest. "I came back from Tenerife to speak to Kev [that's Mr Kev to you!-Ed] because it was the only time we could really get together before he went away. I didn't have any doubts - we had a chat and things have moved quickly. "Leeds is a magnificent club. I was almost in awe of the facilities when I looked around Thorp Arch and I've not even been around Elland Road yet. "Kevin talked about what he wanted to do here and he says there will be 35,000 there and the ground will be packed next season - I just can't wait to get started." Well you do your bit Clark and we'll fill the seats, OK? Updated 14th June 2004

Stephen Crainey   Stephen Crainey Postion: Left full-back Squad Number:3 International: Scotland U-21 After starting the 2004-05 season with Kilgallon filling in at left full-back following the departure of Ian Harte during the close season, Kevin Blackwell made Stephen Crainey his first cash signing after signing 10 other players on free transfers. Crainey joined Leeds on a loan deal on Friday 6th August, before his move from Southampton was made permanent for £200,000 the following Monday! With Celtic from a youngster, he broke into the first-team in 2001-02 and went on to play 13 times for the Bhoys. But injury limited his chances the following season when the Hoops reached the UEFA Cup final. He was then left in the cold when Celtic manager Martin O'Neill switched to three centre backs while Crainey is an orthodox left back in a back four. So he made an ill-fated move to Southampton in the Xmas 2003 transfer window. But Crainey saw his chances of holding down a first team place evaporate when the man who bought him, Gordon Strachan promptly decided to quit his post at St Mary's! Towards the end of 2003-04 season he picked up a groin strain that required surgery at the start of the summer, but that went well and he arrived at Elland Road fully fit. He made his full Leeds debut in the 0-0 away draw with Wolves on August 14th 2004 Stephen was born in Glasgow on Monday 22nd June 1981, and stands 5ft 9 inches tall. After just ten games for Leeds Utd Crainey was struck down with Osteitis Pubis a painful overuse condition that affects the pelvis, causing pain during and after exercise, and commonly occurs through kicking activities. After the Cardiff game on 2/10/2004 he hasn't played since as the decision was made to give the problem time to heal itself before sending him in for an operation which would have put an end to his season. In mid-January he started jogging again but is still along way from playing. Crainey hadn't been at Leeds long enough to catch the eye before his injury but it is interesting to note that after the last game (Cardiff Away 0-0) in which he played, Leeds also kept a clean sheet in the following game against Preston. However, there then followed a string of 19 games without a clean sheet by Leeds. In his ten games for Leeds United at the start of the season we kept six clean sheets. Of course statistics can be misleading and contain spurious correlations but that is a dramatic difference between stats. The return of Crainey (or a similar performance of his temporary replacement, Michael Gray) could be the difference between mid-table or a play-off place. Updated 3rd Feb 2005

Dubes Michael Duberry Defender Central Squad Number: 22 International:England U-21 Duberry signed from Chelsea for £4 million. O'Leary never really gave him a chance and Venables didn't use him much either. Obviously he's had a professionally difficult time at Leeds. Off the field he got embroiled in the Najeib, Bowyer, Woodgate court-case by doing them a favour and giving them a lift back to his house after the incident. Duberry was criticised by Woodgate for telling the truth at the second trial as a witness for the prosecution. Some knuckle-draggers in the Leeds crowd blamed him Duberry for this! It didn't help when drama-queen Woodgate said to Dubes, dramatically, "You've killed me!" Wanker. Duberry, announced in the summer of 2002 that he wanted to leave for first team fooball but he's still here. He played in most of the 03-04 pre-season games under Peter Reid and best friend Jody Morris signed for Leeds. Things were looking up for Dubes and it seemed like Reid would give him his chance - and then bad luck and irony hit Duberry in the face and broke a cheekbone and was sidelined for eight weeks. The culprit? Angel. Playing for David O'Leary's new side Aston Villa in the Dublin pre-season tournament. That bastard O'Leary just won't stop blighting Duberry's life! Of course, it seems like Duberry has again missed his chance as Reid had to bring in central defensive cover in the form of World Cup winner Roque Junior and French international Zoumana Camara, who is already winning plaudits and scored his first goal for Leeds. Unlucky Duberry loses out again. Updated 3th Sept, 2003 Well, Duberry got his chance after Eddie Gray sent Roque Junior packing. He made a number of vital goaline clearances, won a number of penalties and even scored. He was often seen in the final minutes of games pushing forward as a makeshift attacker. One cannot blame him for lack of effort but sadly Michael really wasn't in the class of the men he replaced. Now highly paid we need to shift him as we cannot afford his wages in the First Division. Updated May 2004 Well no one wanted Duberry AND his wages. Wolves wanted him but only if we paid £18000 A WEEK towards his wages. Blackwell decided at the last minute that we might as well keep him as the squad is so small. But after a few appearances Blackwell decided that he could do without Duberry and in Oct 2004 he was parcelled off to Stoke City on loan for 3 months; much to the relief of the Leeds fans and the player who was coming in for a lot of stick. Update Feb 3rd 2005 Duberry played well during his loan at Stoke and Blackwell had to recall him one game earlier than expected due to a crisis in the Leeds United central defence for the 3rd Round FA Cup match versus Birmingham City. Duberry returned to form within 15 minutes making a play that led to Birmingham's second goal. Blackwell substituted him almost immediately and that will probably be the sad end to his jinxed Leeds United career. Incredibly new Wolves manager Glenn Hoddle is strongly rumoured to be looking at him! He eve turned dowm a move to Nottingham Forest under new manager Gary Megson. A successful manager like Megson could have revived Duberry's football career. The fact he turned it down means he has no interest in football, only the ridiculous Ridsdale contract that he is on. Update March 2nd, 2005: Duberry agrees a free transfer to Stoke City. Signs a 2½ year deal. Here's Duberry's Leeds United record 09/07/1999-02/03/2005: League Played 53 (4 sub) Goals 4; FA Cup Played 4 (2 sub); League Cup Played 0 (4 sub); Europe Played 9 (1 sub) Total 66 (11 subs) = 77 appearances and 4 goals.

The Chief Lucas Radebe Defender - central Squad Number: 5 International: South African full Signed by Howard Wilkinson for just £250,000 in 1994 Lucas went on to captain both club and Bafan Bafana, the South African national side. Tremendously loyal, a footballing icon and ambassador in his own country, Lucas has been plagued with knee injuries over the last three seasons. 2002-03 under Venables he played at the end with crippling pain in his knees to save the club from relegation due to an inexplicable shortage of England international-class central defenders (Rio and Woodgate- where are they now? Answers on a postcard to Pillock Ridsdale, c/o Barnsley FC). It was so bad that after games he couldn't train or even walk up the stairs at his home! After surgery in the summer of 2003 the problem hasn't completely gone away. Following relegation Lucas was forthright about some of the players not trying. Despite relegation the club offered him a one-year extension to take him into his testimonial year and he will take on coaching duties this season (2004-05). Lucas expects to return to South Africa eventually to coach there.. www.leedsutd365.co.uk verdict: great servant to the club, simply the best

Kilgallon Matthew Kilgallon Defender Squad Number: 26 International: U-21 The season started disappointingly for Killer as he was farmed out on loan to West Ham. Later he and his agent went into dispute with Leeds over a renewal of his contract. Leeds were relegated and suddenly Killer got his opportunity in the next game against Charlton and scored a good goal. The same week a new contract was signed by Killer and Leeds. He will be invaluable in the First Division. 13th May, 2004

Frazer Richardson Frazer Richardson Full Back - Right Squad Number: 15 International: England U-20 Frazer is a future United right-back as he continues to understudy Republic of Ireland, international Gary Kelly. His job has been made easier by the departure of Danny Mills to Middlesborough on a season-long loan "I was glad to see the back of the treacherous, bald bastard," said Frazer bluntly. (Nah, he didn't, only kiddin'). Despite being born in Rotherham, Frazer Richardson is a lifelong Leeds fan who has emerged through the Leeds United Academy ranks to become an established youth international. He was rewarded with a four-year contract which he signed in the summer of 2002. But he had to wait another season for his debut which cam in August 2003, when he came on as a substitute against Southampton in the 0-0 draw, at Elland Road. I've heard the comment that he's a bit one-footed, but he's young enough to overcome that and anyway, it hasn't done Saint Michael of Owen any harm has it?

Michael Gray   Michael Gray Postion: Left-sided defender Squad Number: TBA International: England full - 3 caps Gray was brought in 3rd Feb 2005 as cover for long term injury sufferer Stephen Crainey. Gray spent over 11 years at Sunderland, including being Captain, just like Paul Butler. He spent four months on loan with Celtic, Crainey's old club before a move in Jan 2004 to Blackburn. However, he hasn't played for Rovers since the end of Oct 2004 and welcomed the loan move to get back into action. He made his debut after 2 days in the away win at Burnley on 5th Feb 2005 Update: Dec 2005 - Attempts were made to make a permanent move to Leeds United happen, during the summer, but apparently Leeds could not meet the wage demands of Gray.