Leeds United Playing Squad for the
Championship 2004-05 Season

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.

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