Manager of Leeds
Bremner's life after playing was mainly notable for his topsy-turvy spell as manager of Leeds, following in the footsteps of old team-mates Allan Clarke and Eddie Gray to try to restore happier days to the club after their relegation in 1982. As manager he quickly reinstated Don Revie's philosophy and his little traditions, for example he reinstated the sessions of carpet bowls on Friday evenings. They never regained promotion under Bremner but came close, losing a play-off final to Charlton Athletic in 1987 and reaching the FA Cup semi-finals in the same season, losing to eventual winners Coventry City.
In June 1986, interim Scotland manager Alex Ferguson rejected the offer to manage the national side on a permanent basis (having been in charge since the sudden death of Jock Stein nine months earlier) and Bremner's name was linked with the job, but it went to long-serving coaching staff member Andy Roxburgh instead.
Bremner was sacked on 28 September 1988 to make way for Howard Wilkinson who would within three and a half years not just achieve promotion but would bring the League championship back to Elland Road in late April 1992.
Read more about this topic: Billy Bremner
Famous quotes containing the words manager of and/or manager:
“I knew a gentleman who was so good a manager of his time that he would not even lose that small portion of it which the calls of nature obliged him to pass in the necessary-house, but gradually went through all the Latin poets in those moments. He bought, for example, a common edition of Horace, of which he tore off gradually a couple of pages, read them first, and then sent them down as a sacrifice to Cloacina: this was so much time fairly gained.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“I knew a gentleman who was so good a manager of his time that he would not even lose that small portion of it which the calls of nature obliged him to pass in the necessary-house, but gradually went through all the Latin poets in those moments. He bought, for example, a common edition of Horace, of which he tore off gradually a couple of pages, read them first, and then sent them down as a sacrifice to Cloacina: this was so much time fairly gained.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)