Howard's way was years ahead of rivals: Wilkinson reveals the tricks that won Leeds the title in 1992

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Ten different managers have won the title since he did it with Leeds in 1992 and none of them English, although Howard Wilkinson shows little affection for this particular claim to fame.

'It's never been the English game,' he says, reeling off the names of legendary Scots such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Bill Shankly and Sir Matt Busby. 'It was always the British game, and since it became the Premier League we've recruited players from all over the world and the best foreign coaches.

'What has also changed is the nature of boardrooms. They are no longer full of British people. The game is international.'

Ten different managers have won title since Howard Wilkinson did and none of them English

Wilkinson was never one to let an easy platitude pass unexamined. Not while achieving success with Sheffield Wednesday, Notts County, and Leeds. Nor as the architect of the modern academy system and technical director of the FA, who twice stepped in as England's caretaker manager.

At 75, he is still influencing the modern game via coach education and in his role as chairman of the League Managers' Association... and still doing it on his terms.

'Large parts of the media always thought me prickly,' smiles Wilkinson. 'Gordon Strachan's always telling me my problem was my PR and he's right, as usual.'

On Wilkinson's first day as Sheffield Wednesday boss, a reporter asked if it was true he had been a teacher. 'He knew the answer,' says Wilkinson. 'I was a PE teacher when I was player-manager at Boston. So I said it was true. Then he asked me what I taught. So I said, "children" which I thought would provoke a laugh.'

Next day, Wilkinson picked up his newspaper to read the Owls had 'hired a smart-a**e'.

'Sometimes I did get a bit too bothered about things,' he says. 'At Leeds, we went to West Ham and won and then got slaughtered by the London press and it really annoyed me. We'd outplayed them and we had outfought them and it was reported as if we were guilty of offending the game. But the lads at Leeds got to welcome that. Isn't that the aim, upset the opponent?

'Now, if I'm asked my advice by would-be coaches, one of the things I ask them is, "Are you brave enough to be different?" Authenticity, Respect, Trust. It spells ART which is nice but I think they are really key. If you're not brave enough to be yourself, it's not going to work.'

Wilkinson dared to be different. He was clambering through the rafters in a quest for the details long before Marcelo Bielsa arrived at Elland Road and armed his scouting staff with wire-cutters.

'There was an old television gantry at Notts County and I'd climb up an iron ladder outside the stand and then across the top and I'd watch from up there,' says Wilkinson, who would watch the players from on high with his manager down below. 'If I saw anything important I'd write it on a scrap of paper, wrap it around a pebble and throw it to Jimmy Sirrel on the touchline.

The whole Leeds squad that won the league title in 1992 under Wilkinson's guidance

'I went to the university and polytechnic in Nottingham to identify students who could analyse our games. With pencil and paper, they marked down entries into the final-third, shots, set-pieces, etc.

'Getting the information is easy. Sifting through what matters isn't. At Wednesday we weighed the players every Monday morning and if they were overweight they got fined. By the time I got to Leeds, we had gone much deeper into things. We carried out urine tests for each player so we could prepare drinks appropriate to their needs. Now they carry computers around, tap in information and by the time they get to training the manager knows what time they went to bed, how long they slept and what they had for breakfast. When was the last time you saw a fat Premier League player? In the 1980s and 90s you saw a few.'

Wilkinson's Notts team was famed for its passing style, orchestrated by Scotland's Don Masson in midfield and with Pedro Richards converted from a right back to a sweeper. 'I learned a lot of it from basketball,' he says.

'Full backs would go wide and push on, centre backs would split, Masson would drop for possession and the goalkeeper had to throw it. We played Bristol City in a friendly and they had a well-known midfielder playing, and we are walking off and he said, "Play like that this season and you'll get relegated".' County finished second and went up, success which prompted England manager Ron Greenwood to make a scouting trip specifically to see Richards.

At Wednesday, Wilkinson's football was direct. 'Jack Charlton had been manager and there were centre backs everywhere,' he says. 'So I went with three at the back. We were one of the first in this country to do it. Good centre halves. Mick Lyons was a titan, talk about leadership.'

As well as successes at Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday, he was also twice England caretaker

Quickly taken free-kicks and throw-ins, and an intense work-rate generated pressure and hustled opponents into mistakes. The Owls went up, stayed up and finished fifth in 1986.

'These were tactical extremes, based on the players we'd got. On both occasions, it took people until Christmas to work out what we were doing. These days they would suss it in two weeks. I was getting people to do what they did best and by doing what they did best we were winning, which is what footballers want.'

Reviving Leeds was his masterpiece. In 45 years since the Don Revie era ended, he remains the only manager who has delivered a major trophy to Elland Road.

'There were two things I knew I could change quickly,' he says. 'Thanks to Don they had a players' restaurant where they could have breakfast and lunch.

'The first day I checked on the menu and said we have to change this. No more fish and chips as an option every day, we are going to a sportsman's diet. So that went down well in the kitchen. Who does he think he is? And with the players. The next one was easy to do but was a gamble. I had them take the pictures down. The club was living in the past. It's not being disrespectful. I told them when we are anywhere near as good as they were, we'll put the pictures back up. And we did.

Wilkinson (L), Leeds' owners and captain Gordon Strachan with the Barclays League trophy

Jon Newsome scores during Leeds' vital 3-2 win at Sheffield United on route to the league title

'Fortunately, Strachan came that season for about £125,000 and that was a big plus,' he said. 'Lee Chapman, Gary McAllister, Tony Dorigo, Rod Wallace, Mel Sterland, John Lukic, not all at once. Chris Fairclough was very important at centre back and a great team man.' Gary Speed and David Batty had emerged from the youth system and would forge a famous midfield quartet with Strachan and McAllister.

'The great thing about Gary Speed was his ability in both boxes. He scored goals and he stopped goals. He was as good a centre half as he was a centre forward. The number of goals he got at the back post coming in.'

Then there was Eric Cantona, signed on loan from Nimes, although Leeds never expected to take up the option of a permanent deal until a typically extravagant individual goal forced chairman Leslie Silver to find £900,000.

'We had an understanding that if we wanted him after a certain date we had to pay,' says Wilkinson. 'We expected him to go back but then we're in the title race, and Chapman got a serious facial injury. The plastic surgeon thought it would have to be a skin graft.

'So I rang the boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who I'd got to know and respect. A few days later he turned up with this concoction he used on his fighters' cuts. Chappy had to bathe this on his face every hour. Three weeks later, he played.

'We were playing Chelsea and Cantona scored a goal where the ball came in the box, he flicked it over his head, over the centre half's head and volleyed it in and the Kop went crazy. The chairman is sat next to me. He digs me with his elbow and says, "That's just cost me a million quid".' 

Wilkinson was clambering through rafters in a quest for the details long before Marcelo Bielsa

The title seemed to have slipped away when Manchester United moved two points clear at the top with a game in hand and Leeds had only three to play but United lost three in a row against Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Liverpool. On the day they lost at Anfield, Leeds played at Sheffield United at noon. They won 3-2 and Wilkinson retired for Sunday lunch.

'I was on my second bottle of red when we won it,' he said. 'Given the original plan, we did it too quickly. We hadn't developed the resource to do as well as we could have done. So the year after was an anti-climax. But then we got back in the groove and qualified for Europe, finished fifth a couple of times. The big thing was these kids coming through.

'I'd already given Ian Harte and Harry Kewell their debuts. Gary Kelly was in the team. Alan Smith, Jonathan Woodgate and Paul Robinson were coming through nicely, but then the club was sold.

'Lots of clubs were going public at the time. I was at a dinner a few years later and sat next to the chairman, he was very apologetic about selling the club.'

Wilkinson got Eric Cantona on loan before Leeds signed him after wonder goal against Chelsea

Wilkinson was sacked by new owners Caspian in October 1996, a year after turning down the chance to manage Arsenal.

'Although Leeds could be big, Arsenal is and was big,' he said. 'I met Peter Hill-Wood for lunch and talked. I got a phone call from their secretary, Ken Friar, asking me to another meeting and I said, "I don't think it's right to do it now". We'd just started the LMA and I was chairman and I thought I couldn't say one thing and do another in terms of what the LMA wanted to stand for.

'I made some good decisions but I made as many mistakes. Sunderland was the worst I ever made because I made it for the wrong reasons, because of a problem that had developed at the FA. I didn't do my usual homework.

'I talked to them on Thursday night, said yes and was there on Tuesday morning. I made all the mistakes I hadn't made before.'

He briefly managed in China after an ill-fated five months at Sunderland - which he still regrets

Those ill-fated five months at Sunderland and a brief sojourn in China are Wilkinson's only jobs as a club manager in 23 years since leaving Leeds. He has worked in the background helping Leicester, Notts County and Sheffield Wednesday but his attention has been trained on the welfare of managers and developing a new generation of British coaches.

'The coach education in this country is better than most,' says Wilkinson, whose son Ben is an assistant coach of Manchester City's Under 23s.

'The coaches we are producing are easily among the three or four best-educated and most able in Europe. However the Champions League now sets the bar.

'So coaches who come into the Premier League have invariably shown they can take a team into the Champions League, or the Europa League. What would solve it? If a dozen up-and-coming British coaches went to Portugal or Scandinavia and showed they could take a team into that level. That might be a start.'