Legendary Leeds boss Wilko's Hall of Fame honour is long overdue

He was the disciplinarian who embraced mavericks, the hard taskmaster with a human touch, the progressive pragmatist, a quick-fixer with an eye for the long term. But Howard Wilkinson's greatness lies less in what he was but what he - ridiculously - remains to this day.

- by Harriet Sutton

MAGIC MOMENT: Howard Wilkinson proudly holding the 1991/92 Championship trophy with Gordon Strachan and Rod Wallace.

(PICTURES: VARLEY PICTURE AGENCY)

This week, at last, he will be recognised.

On Wednesday he will be inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame before Leeds United's home game with Chelsea. Last month the Whites announced support for a statue of Wilkinson outside Elland Road. A host of former players will be at Friday's tribute lunch to help raise funds for it and pay tribute to a boss most owe a huge debt to.

"I'm greatly honoured, surprised, a little bit. I've not won the European Cup or taken England to a World Cup final, have I?" protests the 82-year-old, as he tries his best to share the glory and conveniently overlooks the magnitude of what he did do.

"He was way in front of anybody," insists Mel Sterland, a right-back Wilkinson inherited at Sheffield Wednesday and bought for Leeds. "Howard was the top."

Wilkinson achieved plenty before and after Leeds - taking the Owls from Division Two to fifth in Division One, and later provided much of the thinking behind not just the buildings but the philosophies of the St George's Park talent factory.