Different they certainly were, but theirs was a match made in heaven. Jones was the first to make the journey to Elland Road. "I remember it was a Friday back in September 1967," the former number nine recalls. "I was at Sheffield United. I was quite happy, we had a fairly good side and everyone seemed to know I was going to Leeds apart from me!"
The £100,000 deal that took Jones to the Blades' Yorkshire rivals was then rated a big-money transfer. "In today's transfer market my fee looks like peanuts, but back then it was considered a lot."
Mick always knew the move to Leeds would be a good one. The Yorkshire giants were just beginning to stir and the great Revie side was taking shape. Things didn't happen immediately, though. The former England front man remembers it was a difficult start. "I played up front with Peter Lorimer and Jimmy Greenhoff to begin with and I always thought there was something lacking. About 18 months later the gaffer moved in for Allan and our partnership began. It took us about six months to really gel properly, but after that we enjoyed some great years together."
Mick enjoyed eight glorious seasons at Elland Road, as the club won just about everything. And the highlight? "There's no doubt that winning that first League title in 1969 stands out above all the rest," he says. "The FA Cup and playing in Europe is all very well, but I always said winning cups is the icing on the cake. What really matters is the championship, that's the proper test of a team during the season. The side that wins the title can rightly claim to be the best in the country. When I was at Leeds we were lucky enough to win it twice, in '69 and '74."
Few supporters who followed Leeds' success through the late '60s and early '70s will forget seeing Mick being helped up the steps at Wembley after dislocating his arm in the FA Cup victory over Arsenal. It's a memory made all the more poignant because it was Jones whose run and cross provided his old mate Clarke with the opportunity to head a stunning winner. The man who helped Mick up to the Royal Box for his medal was defender Norman Hunter, and to this day Norman believes the injury to Jones cost Leeds the championship that year. The striker was missing when Leeds played Wolves the Monday night after the final, needing only to draw to complete the double. Wolves won and the championship went to Derby Country.
That near-miss was an undoubted low point for Mick at Leeds, but it certainly wasn't the lowest. That point came three years later when a knee injury forced him to miss the ill-fated European Cup final against Bayern Munich, and worse was to follow as the injury forced a premature end to an illustrious career.
"I travelled to Paris with the team but my playing days were already over," he remembers. "It's my biggest regret that I missed out on the chance to play in the big one. I was still in my twenties and if the injury hadn't happened I could have played for another seven or eight years. I can't grumble, though. I had 11 years as a pro and I know plenty of other players who had to pack up even earlier because they were unlucky with injuries. I had some great years, especially between 1970 and '74."
During his 11 years in the professional game, Mick enjoyed many of the trappings of success, but never earned anything like the riches today's footballers enjoy. "I admit I get a little bit peeved when I hear some of them are earning nowadays," he told us. "You can't help when you're born and I suppose I was earning good money in my day but it's not in the same league with what they get now. Lads of 18 and 19 are beconiing rich before they've even got themselves established. I think some of them lose their hunger for the game and end up just going through the motions. And I don't think there are as many good sides around now. There are probably three or four quality teams challenging for the title every year. In my day there were 15 or 16 very good teams in the old First Division."
The former striker had no interest in going into coaching or management once he learned his on-field career was over. "I just never had the temperament for it," he admits, and goes on to confess that life after football proved a very difficult time of transition. "As a footballer you're wrapped in cotton wool, you are molly-coddled. It isn't the real world at all. I was out of work for a year after I finished and I got quite depressed, but my family was a tower of strength and I eventually got a job working in the sports equipment business."
These days you are as likely to see Mick selling sportswear on market stalls across South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire as you are to see him at Elland Road. But he still runs into Sniffer at matches now and again. "Allan hasn't changed much over the years," he says with a smile. "We remain good friends... but we're still like chalk and cheese."