Brian Deane recalls “tough” Sheffield United experience after big managerial career claim

Asked about his experiences as a prominent black player in the top divisions of football during the 1980s and 1990s, Brian Deane pauses momentarily for a breath. “Yeah, it was tough,” the Sheffield United legend admits. “We had to be better to get anywhere.

“It was like having to knock someone out to get a draw. Black players leading the line wasn’t something people wanted to see at that time, I don’t think. People will say: ‘What’s he on about?’ but I know. Because I lived that life. It was difficult at times. But we were more resilient I think, because of what we’d gone through in the 80s and as kids. You had to have a rhino skin, with some of the things that used to be said.”

Although much has changed in the years since, the issue of racism still rears its ugly head in 2023. Earlier this season United goalkeeper Wes Foderingham was racially abused and received threats against his family after defeat at Tottenham Hotspur and the Blades’ clash with Fulham at the weekend fell during the Premier League’s designated ‘No room for racism’ weekend, with both sides taking a knee ahead of kick-off and anti-racism branding featuring prominently.

“When I was 14 or 15 I played a game for Leeds City boys and we played in the north-east somewhere,” adds Deane, casting his mind back to an incident that has stayed with him in the years since. I walked in the working men’s club after the game and this guy was playing pool. He just looked up and said: ‘You black b******’. I was just a small kid and I froze.

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“Everyone else in the room was white, and those things used to happen. Regularly. The one way you could pay people back was by scoring goals, by dominating the opposition. It doesn’t make it right but the problem is that there are those people out there and in wider society, there are still these unconscious biases that people don’t realise or want to face.

“People talk about white privilege. That’s not something to bash white people with, it’s more a case of because you’re white you don’t have to deal with some of the things we have to deal with. So face up to it. Realise that that is your privilege. It isn’t mine.”

After hanging up his boots as a player, Deane entered management with newly-promoted Norwegian top-flight side Sarpsborg 08 FF, keeping them up in his first season. Sarpsborg then finished mid-table in his second before Deane returned to England, looking for his next steps on the managerial ladder. He never took charge of a professional team again.

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“We’d better get real, because these are the questions that people need to reflect on,” Deane adds. “At the end of the day, someone like myself and others have been lost to football because someone doesn’t like the way I look. I haven’t had a chance to go in a boardroom and tell people my views. I’ve not had the chance to show them that I’m the same as them, except in colour. Because people don’t know how to deal with it and they’re scared of what they don’t know.

“That’s what realistically people have to do. To caveat that, I’m comfortable in the skin I’m in and with where I am at. I’m not here to challenge anybody. I’ve always been extremely proud to be a black man. But we have to be more inclusive. Otherwise, we’ll just keep getting the same people making decisions at the top.”