Howard Wilkinson OBE (born 13 November 1943) is an English former footballer and manager.
As a manager he won the First Division championship in 1992 with Leeds United, the final season before the creation of the Premier League.
As FA Technical Director he was instrumental in the planning and development of English football's first National Football Centre.
To date, he remains the last English manager to win the top-flight league in England.
One morning in October 1988, Howard Wilkinson walked into history. History was Elland Road; the great football stadium in Leeds, built by the efforts of Don Revie; home to one of the greatest club sides in Europe, built by Don Revie. But on that morning, Leeds United were 21st in Football League Division Two, and now Howard Wilkinson was here, history had to go. He met his new employers, cracked jokes with the press, and got to work.
A compelling account of Leeds United's 1989/90 season in which the team, rebuilt by Howard Wilkinson and led by skipper Gordon Strachan, swept aside the competition to propel themselves back into the top flight of English football. The season marked the end of many great careers (Mervyn Day, Ian Baird, and Peter Haddock to name a few) and the birth of others (David Batty, Chris Fairclough, and Gary Speed).