Tomas Brolin at Leeds: the worst signing ever? He doesn't think so

We all know that it did not end well. In fact, Tomas Brolin's spell at Leeds United was nothing short of a disaster. He arrived at the club in November 1995 with much fanfare and a hefty price tag but left two years and 17 starts later with his reputation in tatters.

Most observers in England think Brolin is one of the worst signings in Premier League history. He is mentioned up there with Marco Boogers, Massimo Taibi, Bosko Balaban and Winston Bogarde. His spell as player and joint-manager with Attilio Lombardo at Crystal Palace did nothing to change that perception.

Brolin has said nothing about what turned him from the player who starred at the 1994 World Cup to the player who walked away from Leeds in 1997. Until now.

In an open interview with the Swedish magazine Offside, Brolin finally gives his version of events. It is a tale of broken promises, broken windscreens, confiscated passports and underperforming on purpose.

This is one man's view, of course, but it is interesting reading. Was Brolin the victim of two managers – Howard Wilkinson and George Graham – who did not understand how to get the best out of him? Or had he just lost interest in football after his horrific ankle injury in the autumn of 1994? I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

First a quick recap. Brolin was pretty brilliant – if I may say so as a Swede – between 1990 and 1994, one of the best players in the world. He shot to fame in 1990 when he scored against Brazil (6min 30sec into the clip) in the World Cup as a fresh-faced 18-year-old. In 1992, even England fans realised he was quite good with the famous Brolin-Dahlin-Brolin goal against Graham Taylor's England. In those years he helped Parma become one of the best sides in Europe before reaching the pinnacle of his career when Sweden finished third at the 1994 World Cup.

So Leeds thought they were buying a world-class player. Brolin thought he was still a world-class player – and that he should be treated as one. That's the background. Here's what Brolin says happened when he met the Leeds manager Wilkinson to discuss a transfer: "The first thing he asked me was: 'How much money do you want?' I said the important thing was not the money but what my position in the team would be. He then got out some A4 sheets of paper and started to draw things. I was going to be the spider in the middle of the web, pulling the strings in midfield. I was the one who was going to play the decisive pass to Tony Yeboah. Everything was great … so I signed."

Brolin, however, had to start in attack because Wilkinson was missing players through injuries. After half a dozen games leading the line, Brolin was switched to the right of midfield. He protested but, he says, was told that it was for one game only. Yet he was asked to play there again. He did – and scored both goals in a 2-0 win over West Ham.

When, in the following game, against Liverpool, he was asked to play on the right again he snapped: "It may not sound that bad, to be a wide midfielder at Leeds, but the defensive responsibilities I had … it was not like when I had Roland Nilsson behind me in the Swedish national team," he says. "At Leeds I was going to run up and down the right like an idiot. That wasn't me. So I decided … I was going to be piss-poor against Liverpool."

Leeds lost 5-0 against Liverpool and Brolin was, as he admits, "rubbish". He started only one more game, against Nottingham Forest on 31 January 1996, then was consigned to the bench or the stands. "Everyone thinks I was rubbish all the time at Leeds but there you can question the journalists. Against West Ham I scored both goals and was voted man of the match. The fans were singing my name. The papers wrote that I was a success. After the Liverpool game the Swedish papers wrote that I was rubbish. And they were right. But nobody – nobody – asked me why. How the hell can you go from being a success to being a disaster in one week? And, as I wasn't picked any more, everyone just assumed I was rubbish."

Asked whether his stubbornness had a detrimental effect on his career, Brolin answers: "I am a person who will not take any shit. If someone is lying to me, straight to my face, time and time again, then I lose respect."

Brolin's relationship with Leeds was never fully repaired. In the summer of 1996 Brolin asked Wilkinson, through his people, whether he could play in his favoured position the following season but "the bloody man didn't listen". Wilkinson said: "We have asked him to come back and reminded him of his obligations, but he has chosen to stay where he is in Stockholm. Quite frankly, I would rather have anyone in any position in my team who wanted to do well for Leeds United than someone who didn't."

Brolin agreed to be loaned to FC Zurich for three months, where he says he played for £800 a week, showing once again that he did not play football because of the money.

George Graham took over from Wilkinson but he was "an even bigger idiot", according to Brolin, and things deteriorated. In the summer of 1997, when he set off to the airport in Sweden to fly to England to join up with the rest of the squad for pre-season training, a bird flew into his windscreen and he was unable to catch his plane. Graham took it as the final insult. In England, Brolin's excuse for not turning up on time was voted the worst ever (not helped by the fact that it was reported that he had collided with an elk). In Sweden, the newspapers printed pictures of his broken windscreen.

When Brolin finally arrived in Leeds, he says Graham was so furious that he confiscated the Swede's passport and locked it in an office when the rest of the team went on a pre-season tour. Brolin, remarkably, still managed to leave the country – this was pre-9/11 remember – to go to Sweden for a weekend. The result? He was not included in the team photo, did not get any training gear and was no longer allowed in for free at Elland Road to watch Leeds play – despite still being a Leeds player.

"In hindsight I have thought that it was actually bullying. It was lucky that I decided just to smile about the whole thing from the beginning, otherwise I would have gone under as a person," he says.

Graham said Brolin had "showed disrespect for the club" after missing training and added: "If anybody is interested in [buying] him, give me a call! I want committed people. If a footballer doesn't want to stay at the club, fine. I want talented players who want to sweat." Brolin says Leeds did nothing until he said he was going to reveal all in a BBC documentary. Then the club arranged a meeting. "I think they got nervous," Brolin says. "I went to a meeting and demanded back all the money they had fined me and a bit extra to keep quiet. I also demanded a written document which stated that I hadn't misbehaved, that it was them who had treated me badly. I got that. Finally, I was as free as a bird."

It was October 1997 and he was only six painful months at Crystal Palace away from retiring. Leeds never saw the best of Brolin – and both parties remain certain where the blame lies. For the rest of us, the only certainty is that a football talent was allowed to fritter away at remarkable speed.

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