Howard Wilkinson

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Born in the Netherthorpe district of Sheffield, Yorkshire, Wilkinson began his playing career with local team Sheffield United, before joining cross-city rivals Sheffield Wednesday, signing for them on 25 June 1962. After making just 22 league appearances, he joined Brighton & Hove Albion on 9 July 1966 where he played over a hundred league matches as a winger. He left the club in 1971. His final club was Boston United. Whilst there, he won several Northern Premier League titles. It was at the Pilgrims where he began his managerial career, being appointed player manager in 1975. He won two more Northern Premier League titles as manager. In December 1976 he was enticed away from Boston to join Mossley as Player-Manager and guided them up the table to finish 9th, being unbeaten in 19 successive games. He played 30 matches for the club, scoring one goal. He has a degree in education from what is now Sheffield Hallam University, where he graduated from in 1975.

In Their Own Story

The atmosphere shifted dramatically when Wilkinson finalized his best squad by bringing in Eric Cantona in February 1992. Yet, a pivotal moment of contention occurred on 27 November 1992, when Wilkinson made the decision to sell Cantona to Alex Ferguson's Manchester United for £1.2m. The Frenchman went on to become a linchpin for United, winning four Premier League titles in five seasons, while Leeds struggled with a 17th-place finish that season. Despite this, Wilkinson had established Thorp Arch as Leeds' first modern academy and training facility in 1994. Named 'The Grange' after Barcelona's La Masia (translated as The Farmhouse), it was intended to nurture players for domestic and European honours by the mid-2000s. Although his plans at Leeds were never fully realised, he later applied this blueprint to the national game as FA Technical Director.

Reader's Guide

Wilkinson began his full-time coaching career in December 1979 at Notts County when he was appointed a coach. He was taken on and tutored by County's manager Jimmy Sirrel. After Sirrell became the club's general manager in August 1982, Wilkinson became team manager for the 1982–83 season and County managed a reasonable return of 52 points, achieving a finish of 15th in the First Division. In June 1983, Wilkinson dropped down a division to become manager of Sheffield Wednesday, where he established his reputation as a manager despite never having been a big-name player. Wednesday won promotion from the Second Division in his first season and Wilkinson maintained their place in England's top flight for the next four years – with a highest finish of fifth in the 1985–86 season. Wilkinson's greatest success as a manager came after moving to Wednesday's Yorkshire rivals Leeds United in October 1988. He soon drilled discipline into a lacklustre squad and earned the affectionate nickname 'Sergeant Wilko', a play on the old TV character Sergeant Bilko. The team won the Second Division in 1989–90 after the signings of Gordon Strachan who became captain, hardman Vinnie Jones (who Wilkinson guided to a whole season with only three yellow cards), Mel Sterland, Chris Fairclough and Lee Chapman. Following the promotion, Wilkinson immediately offloaded Jones and brought in Gary McAllister from Leicester City and John Lukic was brought back from Arsenal. He also helped players who had come up through the youth team, Gary Speed and David Batty, to mature to the new level of football. In Leeds' first season in the First Division they performed very well for a newly promoted team and ended the season fourth in the league. Wilkinson felt further improvement was required on the squad and brought in Rod Wallace, Tony Dorigo and Steve Hodge finalising his best squad with Eric Cantona in February 1992. Leeds won the last championship of the old style Football League First Division in 1992. As of 2026, Wilkinson is the last English manager to have coached a team to the English league championship title. However, his subsequent time at Leeds was less successful. Leeds finished 17th in the 1992–93 season, which is among the worst performances by a team who were reigning English champions. Leeds improved with consecutive fifth-place finishes in 1993–94 and 1994–95, the latter earning t

Did You Know?

• Wilkinson was the last English manager to win the First Division championship, doing so with Leeds United in 1992.
• He earned the nickname 'Sergeant Wilko' for drilling discipline into the Leeds squad.
• Wilkinson sold Eric Cantona to Manchester United in November 1992 for £1.2 million.
• He was instrumental in developing the academy system and the National Football Centre as FA Technical Director.