Good Morning. It's Saturday 25th May, and here is today’s Breakfast Debate…
Leeds United have always felt like a superstitious club to me. It harks back to the time of Don Revie. Leeds United’s longest serving, and most successful manager was a deeply superstitions man. Revie summoned a gypsy from Scarborough to Elland Road. Her job was to exorcise whatever curse might be hanging over the ground bringing his team bad luck in crucial matches. Did it work? Leeds would lose FA Cup semi-finals in the next two seasons and finish fourth in the League. They did win the League Cup in 1968 and their first league came in 1969, so perhaps the gypsy had done some good after all.
In September 1970 Leeds wore an orange kit for the first and only time. After a disappointing 2-0 loss away to Stoke City, Revie is said to have insisted on burning the strip after the game. It wasn’t the only time he took issue with Leeds United’s kit. The team had worn owls on their crest ever since the clubs inception in 1919, but to Revie birds were bad luck. In 1971 the owl was finally ditched in favour of the LUFC script, yet another attempt to stave off the bad luck.
In more recent years Massimo Celino famously thought the colour purple and the number 7 were bad luck, something the fans would later goad him with. Celino even repeated Revie’s curse ridding attempts by inviting Monsignor Philip Moger of St Anne's Cathedral in Leeds to bless the pitch and dressing room with holy water. In our interview with Mark Viduka earlier this week, we asked him if any of the 2000-2004 team had any superstitions before the game.
“I don't know about other players, but I had something. I wasn't really a superstition, but it was something that I liked. Maybe it was a superstition, I always used to put one shin pad on before the other for some reason. I don't know why, I just I just did it. I don't think it was a superstition. It I think it was more of a routine I would say, that you go into and I've done that since I was really young.”
But it’s not just players and managers that have their traditions and superstitions, the fans do too. Be it a lucky pair of socks, a pre-game routine or taking the same route to Elland Road every week, plenty of fans have their little ways that if not followed could, in their minds, affect the outcome of a match. With this weekends big game ahead of us, are there any superstitions or traditions you’ll be making sure you stick to ahead of 3pm on Saturday to make sure we come away from Wembley victorious?
