Early days at Leeds
On trial:
Having represented Scotland schoolboys on four occasions, most notably in April 1958 in a televised schoolboy international against England at Wembley, Bremner began to receive considerable interest from clubs north and south of the border. In his autobiography You Get Nowt For Coming Second published in 1971 Bremner explains how he and Tommy Henderson, another Scottish schoolboy international, decided to stick together “in search of Soccer fame and fortune”. He recalled:
Arsenal and Chelsea invited us down to the big city, to have a look round, and we spent a fortnight in London, enjoying the hospitality of these two great clubs. They both offered us terms, too, at the end of our stay. So off we went, back north of the border, to think things over.
Billy Bremner
No sooner had Bremner and Henderson returned home than Celtic invited them to train at Parkhead. A week later the chairman of Leeds United Harry Reynolds, and the club manager Bill Lampton, offered the two teenagers with an opportunity to visit Leeds. Bremner admitted he didn’t know much about the club or the city at all:
Now, geography has never been one of my strong points. And you can believe this, or you can call me a liar, but it’s gospel truth that until they came along, I never even heard that there was a city in England called Leeds. As for Leeds united, I knew exactly nothing about their football standing.
Billy Bremner
Bremner and Henderson decided to take the trip more or less for the fun of it at the club’s expense. Reynold’s down-to-earth and no-nonsense approach won over Bremner and on 2nd July 1958, aged 15, he decided to sign for the club and joined the ground staff. Willie McQullian also remembers why Bremner ultimately chose to move south of the border:
I felt when Billy moved down there that he was doing the right thing. Billy, he was Celtic daft, and we used to say you’ll play for Celtic but seemingly Celtic never ever showed any interest in him. I believe it was a teacher from the school St Modans. Who was it? I believe it a French teacher Mr Sykes it was him that advised him, “don’t sign for Celtic, get yourself down to England” and I think that’s what made him do it. I think he made him go there, but I still think if Celtic had came in, he’d probably had signed for them.
Willie McQullian
While Willie’s comments regarding Celtic are not historically accurate, because we know Bremner did train with the Glasgow club, there is also a strong sense that both his teachers and Pop Bremner encouraged the teenage Bremner to consider a playing career in England. No sooner had Bremner and Henderson moved to Leeds both boys were having regrets at being so far from home.
Debut season for Leeds United
Homesick after only a short time, Tommy Henderson was allowed to return home by Leeds in March 1959 at the same time Bill Lampton was sacked by the club. Henderson obtained a free-transfer to Hearts in July 1960 making his debut for the Tynecastle side on 18th October 1960.
Bremner, however, decided to stay which according to his friend Willie McQuillian reflected his determined character. “Ambition, Billy had ambition”, Willie says, “He had ambition, he knew what he was going to do and nothing was going to stop him. That’s my opinion.” Under Leeds United’s new manager Jack Taylor an opportunity to gain his first-team debut soon came around when he replaced another young inside forward Chris Crowe, who was called up for National Service. Bremner debuted on 23rd January 1960 in a 3-1 victory over Chelsea playing right wing in front of veteran Don Revie who took the youngster under his wing. The Yorkshire Post reported Bremner displayed “enthusiasm, guts, intelligence, most accurate use of the ball and unselfishness”. Bremner made his home debut against West Bromwich Albion two weeks later, whose side included another teenager and former Scottish Schoolboy from the Stirling area Bobby Hope. In March 1960, Bremner scored his first senior goal in a 3-3 draw in a relegation clash with Birmingham City.
Under Jack Taylor the side struggled to maintain form in the First Division, but media reports reveal Bremner continued to impress in spite of being in a struggling team, with eleven appearances and two goals. Bremner also continued to play for Leeds United’s youth squad, and his autobiography shows him lining up for an international youth tournament in 1960.
At the end of the 1959-60 season Leeds United were relegated, and Taylor was replaced as manager by Bremner’s teammate Don Revie. Under Revie, and now playing in the Second Division, Bremner was moved into a more central position and began to hold his place in the side, playing 31 games and scoring nine goals. As the following match report reveals, in spite of the team continuing to struggle, Bremner shone out from the competition on the pitch, as the following excerpts from match reports reveal:
Bremner was working overtime to get the Leeds side moving, and some of his passes were first rate without getting any result from his colleagues… Leeds looked a hundred percent better side than last season with Bremner continuing to fling out delightful passes – surprisingly mature play for a boy of his age.
Match report from The Liverpool Echo and Evening Times of a 5-0 win for Liverpool which still found space to mention Bremner’s impact (26 August 1961).
A slip of an 18-year-old with the hallmark of a future international showed his elders the brand of play the public expects from the new Soccer character. Leeds inside-right little Billy Bremner and to a lesser degree Peyton and Johannson lifted the forward play above a very low key.
The People, 20 August 1961.
Bremner’s professional career had taken off, he had established himself as a regular in the Leeds side at the age of eighteen, gaining plaudits from reporters, but inside he was in turmoil and suffering with intense homesickness.
Homesick and lovesick
It is widely revealed in biographies of Bremner that he suffered from a period of homesickness during his initial years at Leeds. Our interviewees recall how they remember Bremner’s desire to return to Scotland and what the club did to keep him at Leeds.
When Billy first went down to Leeds Billy was, I would say, homesick. With all his friends and pals up here. And so you saw him come up regular, he used to come up quite regular. And there were thoughts that he was going to come back up here and play. The story was Hibernian had offered £25,000 for him. But Revie had turned that down right away. And then Revie decided to get his girlfriend down getting them married and go down there and that seemed to work. That seemed to work ’cause once Vicky was down there, and they got a family life the two of them, that was them, they settled down. It was better, it was better for him, better for his football career anyway. Because I just wonder that if Billy would have joined the gang at the pub, and that if he was up here before he made it, he might not have made it.
Willie McQuillian
As Willie notes, Bremner’s restlessness is well known, and we have discovered his desire to leave Leeds had begun to appear in the sporting press. The Sunday Pictorial (7 May 1961) noted Arsenal’s chief scout Len Thompson was watching Bremner and their manager George Swindon was reported travelling to Peterborough in August 1961 to watch the “boy wonder” (Sussex Express and County Herald, 18 August 1961).
With all the speculation around Bremner’s future, Revie clearly felt a need to publicly resist the idea of his emerging superstar from leaving. It would also have been a signal to Bremner that the club wanted him to stay. Bremner later revealed that on one occasion when he decided to drive home to Stirling he had a bump in his car near Scotch Corner. He called Revie in the early hours of the morning who promptly drove an hour or more up the A1 to fetch his young prodigy.
Mr Don Revie, the Leeds United manager, has some news for the wealthy clubs in Division One. Billy Bremner, their 19-year-old inside forward, is not for sale at any price. Two of the clubs interested in this brilliant young prospect are Arsenal, who are always willing to pay big cash for the right player, and Chelsea, who still have thousands of pounds paid for Jimmy Greaves in the bank. The Yorkshire club regard Bremner as their brightest prospect since they unearthed John Charles in Wales. Born in Stirling, Bremner joined Leeds from junior club, Gowan Hill Juniors. He graduated through the club’s junior sides and now, besides his youth, has established a regular place at inside right. Although he is on the small side, 5ft 5ins, and 9st 11lb, Bremner is tough and fearless and seems to have unlimited energy and he fulfils the true function of an inside forward which is “fetching and carrying”. Because of his size he started at outside right in the 1959/60 season but has now settled down at inside forward. Combined with his skilfull ball play Bremner has a powerful shot and last week scored with a tremendous 30 yards drive at Brighton. Bremner’s ambition is to win a Scottish cap and it could well be that he will be a successor to Denis Law, who is now with Italian club, Torino.
The Liverpool Echo and Evening Times, 29 August 1961.
His Scottish teammate at Leeds, Eddie Gray, reiterated Revie’s determination to keep Bremner and build the side around him.
Billy almost left the club, you know. Don was a player at the club then became player manager. I think Don saw something in Billy that made him think, “Yeah, I’m going to keep him with the football club. He could become future captain in the club”. And you know, become the icon at Leeds United that he was. And you know, not only for Leeds United, but for his country. Billy was very patriotic
Eddie Gray
It is well documented in respective biographies that Revie travelled to Stirling to visit his girlfriend Vicky Dick and explain his plans to build a side around Bremner’s talents. The club would support the couple should the pair decide to settle in Leeds. In November 1961 Billy and Vicky were married. The young couple, both eighteen, were settled into a semi-detached house in an East Leeds suburb.
The Yorkshire Post later interviewed a nephew of the Bremner’s first neighbours, Peter Teal, who shared his memory of the couple’s early days together in Leeds:
They were accommodated in a semi-detached house, number 4 Plantation Avenue in Temple Newsam, which was next door to my late aunt and uncle. My aunt liked to feel they played some part in helping them both ‘settle down’, so to speak. Showing friendship, helping with household chores etc, although neither of them went to Elland Road.
Yorkshire Post, 20 December 2017.
Nevertheless, in January 1962, with Leeds still struggling to survive in Division Two, Bremner put in a formal transfer request to the club.
The next day The People newspaper carried the headline “Bremner WILL leave Leeds” revealing:
Billy Bremner, Leeds United’s Scots-born wonder inside-forward, will be up for sale tomorrow night. Eighteen-year-old Billy made a shock transfer request yesterday because he was homesick and couldn’t settle in Yorkshire. United rate him in the £50,000 class, so that almost certainly rules out any Scottish club.
The People, 28 January 1962.
The paper reported that Everton, Manchester United, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Wolves were all interested in signing Bremner.
The Daily Mirror reported that no Scottish club was prepared to pay the kind of money that Leeds were asking, which would have broken the then Scottish transfer record. “Only Spurs. Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton can afford to pay that.” reported the Ken Jones, “And I expect Arsenal to step in with the first firm inquiry for Bremner as soon as they have settled tonight’s FA Cup battle with Manchester United.” The bid never came.
Revie travelled back to Scotland to seek new fresh talent to bolster his team, and new rumours emerged of a deal with Motherwell in a part-exchange transfer for Scottish international inside forward Pat Quinn. However, either Quinn declined the move or Revie lost interest as the deal went cold.
Hibernian also made an official bid of £25,000 for Bremner which, in his eagerness to return to Scotland, he was ready to sign. However, Revie placed a minimum fee of £30,000 for Bremner, knowing full-well through his contacts in Scotland the Edinburgh club could not afford the additional £5000.
Whether it was his domestic life with Vicky which began to allay his homesickness for Scotland, or the club’s desire to build a young team around him, and probably a mixture of both, Bremner decided to stay at Leeds United, which was reported on by the Evening Express (13 February 1962).
The Scots Influence in Revie’s Revival
It is clear from very early on in Don Revie’s managerial career at Leeds that Bremner was viewed as his prize asset for the future, and he was determined to keep him at the club. Scotland and Scottish players were a fertile field of recruitment for the club. In March 1962, after several weeks of trying, Revie signed veteran Scotland international midfielder Bobby Collins from Everton. Collins, originally from the Southside of Glasgow and a former Celtic player, was soon the captain of the side and his skill, leadership and uncompromising approach to the game soon saw the club progress up the league table. He also mentored fresh talents like Bremner, who as a teenager on the terraces, had no doubt watched Collins playing for Celtic. Revie also re-signed Bremner’s Scotland schoolboy pal Tommy Henderson for £1,500 from St Mirren in November 1962. This was partly to ease Bremner’s continuing homesickness.
Eddie suggests Bremner’s troubled experience of homesickness led him to take on the responsibility of helping other young boys from Scotland settle at the club:
My first memory of Billy is when I was a young boy because when I come down and when I was 14 from Glasgow, just to have a look at the place and Don took me training with the first team Billy was very helpful. We knew he was a young lad coming from Scotland, you know. And I embraced what Billy brought to the club. What he did for the young Scottish boys that come down in that particular time. We’ve lots of Scottish boys coming down. Revie’s great scouting network in Scotland. His chief scout in Scotland was John Barr, and John got a lot of Scottish school boys down and a lot of them made it. But a lot of them never, but the they came in Leeds United and it was a great grounding for them, and a great start in football. Lots of them went on to have careers elsewhere. Yeah, Billy was obviously a big influence in all the Scottish boys
Eddie Gray
Forever the boy fae the Raploch
Bremner and Vicky frequently returned to Stirling to visit family, Billy in Raploch and Vicky in Cornton. We asked those who knew him what Bremner was like when he returned home. Willie saw Bremner as someone full of life:
Bouncy, his character. Billy’s character was bouncy. Really, really so sure of himself, and sometimes you would think he was brash. If you didn’t know him, you can fall out with him easy. But we all knew Billy, that was his way, doing things that’s what he done. And he used to come on back from Leeds with his nice-fitted suit. He looked the part, and we all just had the jeans and the t-shirt and he had this suit on. But he still went out and changed, came over for a game of football. Still done that.
Willie McQuillian
He also liked a laugh:
The ones I’ll tell you about, like I told you, we used to play snooker in Burtons. And I remember he came up from Leeds and I went down the snooker hall, and he was there, so I had a game with him. And I remember the hit record at the time was Elvis Presley “All Shook Up”. Billy went round that table singing “all shook up” all round this table. I said I said to him, “you know all the words to that”. He said, “I just sing it” so that’s another character, another side of his character.
Willie McQuillian
Asked if Bremner changed when he went down to Leeds, Willie remarked:
Did Billy change? Well, the first thing I would say about Billy going to England, he came back speaking English. It was a hard job, it was yeah. But otherwise it was still Billy Bremner, we all knew him he was a Raploch boy. Oh Billy never acted like a massive star, no, in my eyes anyway. His father-in-law lived in the Cornton, so when he went for a drink they went to the Bridge of Allan so they wouldn’t be bothered with people in the pubs saying “oh there’s Billy Bremner” that is what he done. Just for a game of dominos or a few pints or something like that. He didn’t act like the big star. I’ve never, never known him to. I’ve never known him to do that. He always said “hello” to me. I met him down in Leeds a couple of times. Like I say but he never, never acted the big star he was just Billy Bremner to me. Brock Bremner was his name.
Willie McQuillian
