1996 should have been the summer Leeds hit the big time. Bill Fotherby had negotiated the biggest sponsorship deals in the Premier League, with Puma and Packard Bell. Howard Wilkinson was refreshing his squad, bringing in the best striker of the 1980s to play with the best of the 1990s, pairing Ian Rush with Tony Yeboah. As outgoing chairman Leslie Silver was selling his third of the club – now a PLC – and handing over to Fotherby, there were promises of more investment and more transfers to come. More of the quality of Tomas Brolin was surely following.

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