The Square Ball: Season 36, Issue 07

Written by: The Square Ball
Cover artwork by: Rob Palmer

This is the seventh issue of The Square Ball’s 36th season and Leeds United’s 2025/26 definitely-not-ending-in-relegation-but-might-win-the-FA-Cup campaign.

Well, just as we were preparing ourselves for an agonising end to the season, this last week has provided quite the twist, eh? Obviously it’s still going to be agonising, because it’s Leeds United, but after a long-awaited league win at Old Trafford and a trip to Wembley on the horizon it could also be… amazing?

Inside the mag, you’ll find from your favourite regular contributors:

Luke Brennan interviews David Wetherall about how he became the “clapped-out Morris Minor” that Leeds could always rely on
Chris McMenamy’s remarkable story on the shadowy figure who might provide the answer to exactly what happened in the 1973 European Cup Winners’ Cup final
Jon Howe provides an extract from his excellent debut novel ‘Days Of Treacle’
Plus taking over London, unlikely goalkeeping heroes, a happy reunion with Marcelo Bielsa and the perils of misplaced nostalgia

Subscribe to get this issue cheap with TSB+ — click here for info

How do I subscribe? Or read online?

Click here for more info on subscribing, and choose either TSB+ Mag or TSB Magazine.

Getting the magazine delivered to your home is a very good idea, as it will arrive free of beer stains and torn corners, unless your postie is having a bad morning.

The best way to buy The Square Ball is to subscribe and get every regular issue delivered to your home for the next twelve months.

That way we know how many to print, and we have the money up front to pay the printer. We’ll post anywhere in the world and you won’t miss an issue.

You can get £10 off a subscription to the paper magazine if you buy an annual membership of TSB+. TSB+ gets you all our podcasts advert free, early access and live streaming video of The Match Ball podcast, a digital sub to the magazine, a daily email, discounts and more — and that tenner off getting the paper version delivered.

If you don’t want to subscribe — why not?! — you can buy this issue on its own by clicking here, and we’ll post it out as soon as it’s printed.

Can I buy the magazine at Elland Road?

As always since 1989, barring pandemics and badly timed World Cups, The Square Ball magazine will be on sale outside Elland Road, for the match against Wolves on Saturday 18th April 2026. Just look out for our windswept but friendly sellers by the Lowfields tunnel, Billy’s Statue, the Kop gates, and anywhere else someone is holding a fanzine in the air, until about fifteen minutes before kick-off.

I’m a TSB+ member, where is the online magazine?

TSB+ members can read the magazine online now here.

What else is in this issue?

Our now twelve times-nominated and two-times FSF Award winning fanzine, plus one for the podcast and as of 2022 one for ‘Fan Media’, includes lots of pages of articles and artwork about what used to be the pain but now is the glory which still involves pain of being a Leeds United supporter, for more than 100 long, long years.

Can I read something now? For free? Ah go on?

Free to read from this issue is David Wetherall telling Luke Brennan about life at Leeds in the 1990s, being welcomed to the Premier League by Tony Adams and what he makes of Leeds United’s current defence — click here to read that for free.

Also free to read from this issue is Chris McMenamy unravelling the controversy of the 1973 European Cup Winners’ Cup final with even more controversy. Read that for free here.

You can order paper copies of issue seven from our online shop now, and they’ll be sent out as soon as they’re printed. To read a digital version online, please become a TSB+ member, with a one month free trial, here.

As Howard Wilkinson always used to say, thank you for your magnificent support. ⬢