Gordon Strachan revealed that Vinnie Jones was a great character to play alongside at Leeds United and shared a story about him.
The former Leeds player said that ahead of Jones’ first game for the club, away to Newcastle United, he had been on the Terry Wogan show wearing a silver suit and had opted to wear that instead of a tracksuit on the team coach the next day.
Strachan shared that Leeds coach Mick Hannigan was told by Howard Wilkinson to inform Jones that he had been fined £100 and the legendary hardman responded by giving Hannigan £300 and a message to get himself a silver suit.
“He’s was a great character, in his first game here, we were playing away to Newcastle, and he had been on the Terry Wogan show with a silver suit and he turned up Saturday with it, we normally wear tracksuits,” said Strachan on Radio X (Thursday February 21st, 8:45am).
“And Howard Wilkinson is at the front of the bus with a guy called Mick Hannigan, who was a lovely lovely fella, who looked like Steptoe and Howard says to him, Vinnie just got on with a silver suit, tell him it’s tracksuits, he’s fined a £100.
“So Mick goes up to him and tells him, Vinnie it’s a tracksuit you’ve got to wear not a silver suit and the boss has fined you £100, and Vinnie went into his pocket, took £300 out and said here you are Mick get yourself a silver suit as well.”
OPINION
The Radio X team were live at Elland Road on Thursday in order to celebrate Moyles’ birthday and it saw a lot of Leeds United stories being exchanged. This one from Stachan is a classic from a great time in their history. While Kamara was also complimentary of Jones from their time together at the Whites, it was Strachan who kept producing the stories about him. It seems that both loved working with Jones at Leeds United and had nothing but kind words to say about him, despite his rather fierce reputation. While Leeds fans are enjoying some good times this season, they will no doubt appreciate a throwback story to another successful time in the club’s history. Also while there are many fan favourites at Elland Road among the current Leeds squad, it’s fair to say that no one quite has a similar headline-generating career quite like the one Jones had.