What if one unsigned contract changed the course of English football?
- Published
For 52 years, a document sat untouched in a filing cabinet inside a Wirral bungalow - a lucrative offer from Everton to Don Revie that was never signed. Had it been, Leeds United, Everton, and the wider game might have looked very different.
Unsigned: When Don Revie Turned Down Everton tells the story of a true sliding-doors moment. Of power, money and control. Of a gold Mercedes, Greeks bearing gifts, and a "beast from Bolsover" at the height of his influence.
As BBC Radio Leeds' Adam Pope reveals, Everton's offer was extraordinary for its time: a seven-year deal starting in June 1973, a salary of £15,500 per year - worth about £240,000 today - with the potential to double that through bonuses. League titles, FA Cups and European glory all came with substantial financial rewards, alongside first-class travel, a club board house near Goodison Park and full control over team selection, coaching, scouting and medical staff.
Everton statistician and historian Gavin Buckland believes the Goodison Park board were ready to spend big.
"That would have been the top manager's salary," he said. "Revie's name and reputation were absolutely at the peak of the English game. Quite obviously, the best manager in English football at that time."
Yet the deal was never completed.
Why? And what did it mean for Leeds United, Everton, and the balance of power in English football?
This documentary explores the ifs, buts and maybes and the contract that was never signed.
