How Football Cheated Leeds United

No Glossing Over It

The myriad misfortunes of Leeds United Football Club are entertainingly revisited by writer and diehard fan Gary Edwards

An entertaining look at how events have conspired against the Whites down the years

Gary Edwards is the author of two football-related memoirs, Paint It White: Following Leeds Everywhere and Leeds United: The Second Coat. He writes for Leeds Leeds Leeds, the official magazine of Leeds United, and for the club's match-day programmes.

Between 1964 and 1992, Leeds United won eleven fabulous trophies, but the team were runners-up just as often. They missed out on many more titles and cups, not least club football's greatest prize, the European Cup, in 1975. 
 
 In No Glossing Over It, lifelong Leeds United fan Gary Edwards reveals why the club has dramatically lost out on victory in many of these competitions and how it has been the victim of a pattern of serial abuse by the footballing authorities - most recently seen in the unprecedented 15-point sanction meted out at the start of the 2007-08 season. 
 
 Featuring the views of former Leeds players and managers, as well as top-flight referees and diehard fans, No Glossing Over It examines the injustices that have befallen Leeds United and sheds new light on the shocking events that have long rankled with the club's supporters.

Following Leeds Everywhere

Paint it White

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Superfan!

As well as being a painter and decorator, Gary Edwards is the resident cartoonist for the Open University newspaper and magazine. He is a former columnist for Leeds Leeds Leeds, the club's official magazine.

In his dedication to Leeds United, Gary Edwards has no rivals. He has seen every Leeds game since 17 January 1968, home and away. League, Cup and Europe. And pre-season friendlies.* Hell, he even watches the reserves in his spare time. Following Leeds, he's been there, done that and designed the T-shirt. Although a painter and decorator-cum-signwriter-cum-cartoonist, he's never taken a break from his life as a full-time football fan. He's made a name for himself covering over red paint with white for free. He's visited every country in Europe and flown all over the rest of the world to watch Leeds play. If Leeds organised a five-a-side on the moon, he'd be on the first shuttle flight there. Travelling the world to watch hundreds of players run around acres of grass, he's also found time to drink gallons of ale, see oceans of flesh and protect hundreds of animals. He's saved lobsters in Barcelona, clay pigeons in Worksop, frogs in Kuala Lumpur and worms - yes, worms - in Yorkshire. He's been shot at in Greece, run over in Denmark, frightened the king in Sweden and had a beer with an elephant in Bangkok. All this and still found the time to never miss a match or another chance to rid the world of the evil that is red in all its forms. Behind him are almost four decades of Leeds, lunacy, laughter and white paint.

Gary Edwards

'When it comes to true fans Gary Edwards takes some beating'.

'Edwards treats the reader to some cracking tales from his many years on the road...This is as entertaining a sports book as you're ever likely to read. A book for all football fans, written by one of the biggest fans of them all'.

'Hilarious...Too many books written by fans wallow in self pity and noble defeat. This one's just a hoot'.

The Second Coat

He made you cry with laughter with Paint It White, now the celebrated Leeds-supporting, cartoon-drawing, painting-and-decorating eccentric Gary Edwards is back. It turns out that his first book was only an undercoat and now the story of his crazy life following Leeds needs a second coat. 
 
No wonder: Edwards, you see, has seen every Leeds game - competitive and friendly anywhere in the world - since 17 January 1968*. During those 37 years, he's been there, done that and bought the T-shirt. So, after subtle prompts from his travelling companions, he's back with more tales that simply would not fit into the first volume. 
There's barely a pub in the land he can step into without some well-meaning soul coming up to him and demanding, 'Loved the book, Gary! When are you going to do another - with me in it?' So here it is - another fabulously entertaining collection of travelling tales and friends remembered. Eventually. 
 
In this follow-up instalment of high gloss and drama, Edwards recounts how he befriended a real-life Leeds-supporting Dalek, convinced Rolf Harris that the earth was flat, was accosted by firemen while trying to paint a fire engine white, appeared on the sides of buses with his face painted in Leeds colours and received letters from the Queen and the Prime Minister after he complained about David Beckham getting an OBE! 
 
Leeds United: The Second Coat is another hilarious account of the scrapes, adventures and moments of comedy that a life's passion for Leeds United has brought Gary Edwards. 
 
*OK, he missed one but he still has the match ticket, and only a strike by Spanish air traffic control stopped him getting to a one-off friendly in Toronto.

Gary Edwards

Praise for Leeds United

'When it comes to true fans Gary Edwards takes some beating'.

'Edwards treats the reader to some cracking tales from his many years on the road...This is as entertaining a sports book as you're ever likely to read. A book for all football fans, written by one of the biggest fa ...

'Hilarious...Too many books written by fans wallow in self pity and noble defeat. This one's just a hoot'.

'When it comes to true fans Gary Edwards takes some beating'.

'Edwards treats the reader to some cracking tales from his many years on the road...This is as entertaining a sports book as you're ever likely to read. A book for all football fans, written by one of the biggest fa ...

'Hilarious...Too many books written by fans wallow in self pity and noble defeat. This one's just a hoot'.

'When it comes to true fans Gary Edwards takes some beating'.

'Edwards treats the reader to some cracking tales from his many years on the road...This is as entertaining a sports book as you're ever likely to read. A book for all football fans, written by one of the biggest fa ...

'Hilarious...Too many books written by fans wallow in self pity and noble defeat. This one's just a hoot'.

Books by Gary Edwards

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