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Season summary
At the beginning of the 1969–70 season Don Revie completed the signing of Allan Clarke from Leicester City, in the hope of trying to win all three of the major competitions – the League, the FA Cup and the European Cup. In the end, they won none of them – in the League, Leeds were runners up to Everton, and in the European Cup they went out in the semifinals to Celtic. Leeds also reached the FA Cup final and, despite a memorable performance from Eddie Gray, lost to Chelsea after a replay. Revie's Leeds were victims of their own success; FA rules at the time stipulated that a squad of only 20 players could be used, and as a consequence some of the Leeds players took part in 62 competitive games that season. Additionally, FA rules only allowed the use of one substitute, and even then only in case of injury. Other factors, such as fixture congestion and the FA's insistence that Leeds play 9 games in 22 days (the 1969–70 season was foreshortened by England's early departure to Mexico to defend the World Cup) meant that Revie was often forced to field tired players. Geoffrey Green of the Times wrote: "It has been a strenuous slog, greatly pressurised by the loss of a month because of the demands of Mexican acclimatisation for England's players in the World Cup. None have suffered more than Leeds United's players ... At the beginning of March, Leeds looked capable of winning everything and anything, including the General Election. At that time they seemed unbeatable, but in the end a condensed programme of highly competitive fixtures overwhelmed them. Should it be any consolation to them, Leeds have now probably won something more in defeat as good losers than they would have done in many hours of victorious celebrating – universal public sympathy."[1]
At the end of the season, Leeds won only the Charity Shield, although consolation came in the form of Manager of the Year and Player of the Year awards for Revie and Bremner respectively.
Source: World Football Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal average; 3) Goals scored (C) Champions Notes:
^Chelsea qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup first round as the 1969–70 FA Cup winners.
^Derby County and Manchester United qualified for the Watney Cup as the two teams with the most goals that hadn't already qualified for a European competition.
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