Project Wham

Top 5 chaotic summers: 1996

A collage by Joe Gamble showing characters involved in the chaotic summer of 1996

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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Gaslighting
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Power Grab
Thunderbastard
The cover of TSB 24/25 issue 05 โ€”ย featuring an incredibly Chris Moran illustration of Tony Yeboah scoring a hat-trick in Monaco. It's stunning
Transcending the volley
Bird Fight
John Squire impersonator John Lukic staring intently at the camera, presumably wondering why the hell he chose to be a goalkeeper
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Keeper!!!
Tony Yeboah, Gary Speed, and Gary McAllister all look resplendent in the 95/96 Thistles Hotel home shirt, pretending not to be irritated by the high collar
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Big in Japan
A white on white image of Tony Yeboah striking his volley against Liverpool. It looks like perfection
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THWACK!
A disgusting, harrowing, truly abhorrent image of lots of floating Giuseppe Bellusci heads
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Clear distress
An image of our agony aunt, The Problem Chimp, outside Elland Road with his hood up. It looks an awful lot like Michael Normanton, or ET
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Dog(ging)
A collage of black and white images of Tony Yeboah playing for Eintracht Frankfurt
TSB
Bring the sausages, please
An illustration of Tony Dorigo hugging Tony Yeboah alongside the words, "Wut a fockin volley mayte!"
Tony on Tony