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With composure and effervescent footwork for a defender, Brian Greenhoff was one of a group of young stars who came through the the ranks at Manchester United in the mid 70s, aiming to restore the club's glorious fortune of the past. Although ultimately this didn't quite go to plan, England reaped the benefit of such a strong policy on youth, with Greenhoff completing a superb opening brace of seasons with United by earning his first international call-up for the 1976 Home Internationals. Just a week after being led from the Wembley field in tears after losing the FA Cup final, Brian was making his England debut in Cardiff and enjoying a happier result thanks to a 1-0 win. He stayed in the side three days later for a 4-0 thumping of Northern Ireland before coach Don Revie opted to look at other players available to him prior to jetting off for the US Bi-Centennial celebration tournament.
Greenhoff had his summer break but was almost as quickly back in the England groove as he was for Manchester United when the new campaign got underway, earning a third cap in a friendly draw with the Republic of Ireland. The relaxed but concentrated Greenhoff display convinved Revie of his competitive credentials, and he kept his place in the centre of defence for a 1978 World Cup qualifier against Finland at Wembley which England won 2-1. However, a flawed selection policy, half-dictated by the media, forced Revie's hand for the crunch qualifier in Rome a month later and Brian suffered from this. Although not unused to playing in midfield, doing so in such a cauldron-like atmosphere with a whole nation's hopes adding the pressure did not do wonders for Greenhoff's game when Revie moved him into a holding position. Brian was swept aside, England looked bereft of ideas, and Italy won 2-0. In 1977, Greenhoff played in seven of the first eight internationals, including a tumultuous Home International championship, which saw England beaten at home by both Wales and Scotland. During this period he also produced the FA Cup tears again, but this time of joy as Manchester United won the 1977 competition.
A buoyant Brian went on the England tour of South America that summer and this time played more steadily when pitched into midfield, but Don Revie's shock resignation amidst the tour brought Greenhoff's own hopes crashing down. Whereas Revie showed faith, sometimes a little blindly, in the Manchester United defender, replacement Ron Greenwood decided that Brian had been unsettled too much by his switch from defence and discarded him from the reckoning until the spring of 1978, when he was recalled, as a defender, in a relatively experimental side which drew a Wembley friendly with Brazil. Greenhoff then featured in all three Home Championship matches - England won all three - and then came on as a sub in a 4-1 win against Hungary but was then discarded by manager Greenwood.
Shortly afterwards, Greenhoff began to lose his first-team guarantees at Manchester United, culminating in a place only on the bench for the 1979 FA Cup final, and his England prospects looked bleak. A transfer to Leeds United in the summer of 1979 did little for him, although a run of late form in an unremarkable season prompted Greenwood, who was resting his main players for the forthcoming European Championships, to include him in a futuristic squad for a game in Australia. Greenhoff came on as a sub for Bryan Robson in what proved to be his final appearance in an England shirt. (Matthew Rudd).
On 22 May 2013, Greenhoff died at his
home in Rochdale.
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