Totally Extra: Leeds living the Champions League dream
The Totally Football Show with James Richardson
The Athletic
4.5 • 4.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2026
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jimbo is joined by Duncan Alexander, Amitai Winehouse and Richard Sutcliffe to open up the Totally Extra Almanac on the Ridsdale era Leeds United.
Local businessman Peter Ridsdale became chairman of his hometown club in 1997 and took them on a 6 year rollercoaster. They were 90 minutes away from the Champions League final, 3 seasons later they were relegated and 6 seasons later they were in League One.
In their pomp, David O'Leary had a fantastic young team featuring the likes of Harry Kewell, Ian Harte, Lee Bowyer, Jonathan Woodgate, Rio Ferdinand and the lethal strike duo of Alan Smith and Mark Viduka. They went toe to toe with European powerhouses Barcelona, Milan, Real Madrid and Lazio in an unforgettable 18 game European run.
So where did it all go wrong? And was it worth it? The panel ponder whether they were just unlucky with the timing of their financial mishaps.
Plus a Leeds themed quiz question from Duncan Alexander.
Produced by Charlie Jones and Jesse Howard.
RUNNING ORDER:
• PART 1a: Richard’s book + Leeds’ legacy (0.40)
• PART 1b: Duncan’s quiz question (5.25)
• PART 2a: The Totally Extra Almanac (6.35)
• PART 2b: Ridsdale rejuvenates Leeds Utd (10.30)
• PART 3: Leeds' Champions League run (22.30)
• PART 4a: The road to relegation (42.30)
• PART 4b: Was it worth it? Were they unlucky? (1.02.00)
• PART 4c: The answer to Duncan’s quiz question (1.08.40)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC. |
| 0:09.2 | Totally extra. |
| 0:10.8 | Today we're doing doing a Leeds. |
| 0:13.7 | The football, the fish tanks, the finances, the fire sale, the whole effing story of how they chase glory. |
| 0:19.5 | And then things got gory. |
| 0:20.8 | From the top of the game to the bottom of League One, living the dream on this totally extra. |
| 0:26.6 | Unbelievable. Friday, February the |
| 0:44.7 | Saturday, February 6th, |
| 0:47.4 | Duncan Alexander. |
| 0:48.8 | Hello, James. |
| 0:49.3 | Hi, Duncan. |
| 0:50.4 | Also here with this Amitai Winehouse. |
| 0:52.3 | Hi, James. |
| 0:52.9 | All right, Amitai, lovely to have you with us. Leeds fan. Leeds fan. Since year dot. Yeah, 1992. Indeed. Year dot for so many exciting things. It's when it all began. Yeah. And also joining us on our biggest of screens, Richard Sutcliffe. How do you? Hi, Richard. How are you? Richard, |
| 1:12.9 | of course, Leeds fan and Leeds author. Indeed. Indeed. I chose a good season to write a book |
| 1:19.2 | as the fans' adventures following Leas United. Yeah. Richard went to all 18 games. As you possibly |
| 1:26.1 | know, listener of that Champions League run in the 2000-2001 season, |
| 1:30.3 | which is going to be, I suspect, the bulk of today's show |
| 1:34.7 | and wrote a book about it called Marching on Together. |
| 1:37.9 | Do you know what? |
| 1:38.8 | You'd have to pay for that book on Amazon right now. |
| 1:43.1 | I don't know if they all got pulp, so maybe it's a rarity. |
... |
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