The former Whites midfield warrior was faced with a choice he wished he didn't have to make in the New Year of 1987.

United were going nowhere fast for most of the 1980s and if ever a phrase succinctly summed up Snodin's brief stint at Elland Road, it was "right club at the wrong time".

That said, it didn't stop the footballing giant that is Leeds United stirring the soul of the Yorkshireman when he arrived in a £200,000 deal from Doncaster Rovers in May 1985.

Snodin, a fully-fledged man in a footballing sense despite only being in his early 20s when he joined United, kicked on apace under first Eddie Gray and then his former Rovers mentor and Whites legend Billy Bremner.

The quandary was that while he blossomed, United were stuck in the slow lane in the old Division Two.

Ultimately, reigning champions Liverpool and city rivals Everton – fighting tooth and nail at the summit of the first division – came calling, not that Snodin wanted to jump ship and throw in his lot with either of Merseyside's finest.

But money talked for cash-strapped United – all £840,000 of it – and Snodin was reluctantly forced into making a decision, with the blue half of Merseyside winning the day.

Given that he won a league title with the Toffees the following season Snodin, appointed skipper by Bremner on his arrival at United, had seemingly had his decision vindicated. But you sense that in a perfect world, glory would have landed in his lap with Leeds United – just a few years down the line under Howard Wilkinson.

Now 45, Snodin – who combines media work as a summariser for Setanta Sports with duties behind the microphone with Radio City in his "second home" of Liverpool – told the YEP: "I just wish we'd have gone up into the first division, because then I wouldn't have had to move.

"I only had 18 months at Leeds, but loved every minute of it. I became club captain under Billy, which was a great honour, and had a great rapport with the fans in the short time I was there. I hope I did okay for the supporters at Leeds. I know they didn't want me to leave and, to be fair, I didn't.

"Everton and Liverpool came in with bids of £650,000 and then £750,000 and it was me who told Billy I didn't want to go to either club, to be honest. But when both raised the bar to £840,000, I think it was taken out of Billy and my hands and the chairman Leslie Silver said 'you've got to go'.

"So I had to go. But I felt I was also doing the club a favour because I thought that with the money they were getting for me – which was good money at the time – they could have bought three or four players in to push higher in the league and hopefully get promotion back to the first division.

"But in the end, Billy didn't get that much money in fairness. But everyone saw what happened when Howard took over.