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Leeds United Players
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Danny Pugh Position: 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 official Leeds web-site 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."
"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
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Clark Carlisle Position: Central Defender Squad Number: 4 International: England U-21 Preston-born Clark Carlisle was Kevin Blackwell's 2nd signing as Leeds United's new manager. His transfer to Watford on the eve of the 2005-06 season came as a shock to most Leeds United fans. Admittedly, despite the financial problems at Leeds United, we are well blessed with central defenders and so the constant need to keep the budget tight is probably the reason why Clark was released rather than any problems with the defender or his play. We also received a fee of £100,000 for Clark from Watford which is something of a novelty to the Leeds United bookkeepers, who have seen multi-million pound players walk away for free over the last three years as we desperately sought to get their "Ridsdale" wages off the books; indeed we had to pay other clubs to take them in some cases, and still do apparently (via subsidising their wages)!!
It's always difficult to sum up the season of a player in a sentence but here goes; his start was promising as was his relationship with Butler at the heart of the defence and we kept a tight ship at the beginning of the season 2004-05. But then we started to ship goals in a disappointing fashion and Clark made mistakes (as did other defenders). He was dismissed on a couple of occasions too. But in case that sounds negative he made a definite contribution up front with a big, powerful threat at corners and set pieces. He netted four times for us in the 2004-05 season and was the fifth top-scorer in the squad! Hopefully KB has decided who else is going to score those goals in the 2005-06 season. The lasting impression of Clark Carlisle in a Leeds United shirt? Probably during the away loss to lowly Rotherham, for which he takes no blame as he was taken off injured after about 15 minutes, on a miserably, cold night which he brightened considerably by hitting the woodwork three times in ten minutes!!! I'm sure Clark goes to Watford with the best wishes of Leeds fans and thanks for his efforts in his sole season with the Whites. Clark made his debut for Watford on 6/8/2005 in their 2-1 defeat to his home-town club, Preston North End
Here's Clark Carlisle's Leeds United record: 1/7/2005 - 5/8/2005
Updated 6th August 2005
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Stephen Crainey Position: 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
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Paul Butler Position: 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
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Matthew Kilgallon
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Sean Gregan Position: Midfielder Squad Number: 8 International: Sean arrived at Elland Road after weeks of transfer negotiations for a fee of £500,000 that could rise to £1m based on appearances and promotion bonuses.
The midfielder arrived in Leeds with over 450 games under his belt and the type of experience Blackwell was desperately trying to add to his squad.
The former West Bromwich Albion captain brings real leadership qualities and is an uncompromising, tough tackler.
6ft 2 inch Gregan began life as a defender with Darlington and helped guide them to the old Fourth Division championship (now "League Two") before David Moyes signed him for Second Division Preston North End in a £350,000 move in November 1996.
It was whilst at Preston that he was turned into a midfielder, and made captain. He was voted Preston North End Player of the Year in 1999/00 - the same year he helped them win the Second Division championship (now "League One").
He joined West Brom in August 2002 for £1.5m and quickly became a crowd favourite there too, taking on the captaincy and guiding them back to the Premiership at the first time of asking last season.
Inexplicably he fell out of favour with (now ex-)Baggies boss Gary Megson and that allowed Kevin Blackwell to make his move.
Guisborough-born (Friday 29th March, 1974) Sean once "did a Beckham", scoring from the half-way line, playing against Norwich in March 2001. Only don't tell Neil Sullivan!
October 2004
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Frazer Richardson 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.
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Walton, Simon Position: Central Defence, Midfield Squad Number: 18 International: N/A Made his debut, aged 16, in the centre of midfield for Leeds Utd versus Claudio Raneiri's Valencia in a pre-season (2004-05) friendly. Memorable as he scored a penalty and then got sent off! He immediately became a crowd favourite replacing the recently departed Alan Smith in their affections.
He was rapidly signed on a a full professional contract and he became a Blackwell midfield regular at the start of the season and against Portsmouth in the Carling Cup, in October, he played in the centre of defence after Butler and Kilgallon were suspended.
October 2004
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