Black History Month Players: Brian Deane

 As October is Black History Month in the UK, I will spend this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read (Thanks Elon). Feel free to read last year's threads, via this link or the one at the bottom of the page,  but this post and today's thread on X is on Brian Deane. 

Brian Deane Playing in the mighty Claret & Blue

Born on the 7th of February 1968 in Leeds, Deane grew up in the Yorkshire city, where his footballing prowess was recognised at 14 and he was offered a trial with the city’s only professional football club, Leeds United,  which ultimately didn’t work out. Going back to amateur football, Deane was also playing football at a county level as a teenager for Leeds City Boys, where he would unfortunately experience his first piece of racial abuse as a player. Speaking to the Yorkshire star in 2022, Deane discusses a time around the age of 14 or 15 when he was racially abused in a working men’s club in the northeast of England & how it impacted him so greatly that it’s shaped his worldview ever since.

With racism rife in football in the 80s, Deane said this kind of experience was a regular occurrence & felt that one way to combat this was to let his football do the talking for him, stating: “The one way you could pay people back was by scoring goals, by dominating the opposition”. Deane also goes on to point out that we all have unconscious biases, racial or otherwise: “It doesn't make it right, but the problem is that there are those people out there & in wider society, there are still these unconscious biases that people don't realise or want to face.” Deane believes that he felt he & other black players had to be the best to succeed, saying: “We had to be better to get anywhere; It’s like having to knock someone out to get a draw. Black players leading the line wasn’t something people wanted to see, I don’t think”. 

Whilst some people may have not wanted to see Deane leading the line for a club and eventually his country, Doncaster’s manager at the time, Leeds legend Billy Bremner decided otherwise and signed Deane to the club at the age of 15. However, it was his successor, Dave Cusack who gave him his first team debut. Making his debut in early 1986 at the age of 16, Deane would play for Doncaster for 3 years, making 66 appearances & scoring 12 goals in the old second division, but unfortunately couldn’t prevent Doncaster’s relegation to the old third division in 1988. Following Doncaster’s relegation in 1988 and amidst financial trouble for the club, he was sold to local rivals Sheffield United for a measly £25,000. However, this is where Deane’s career really took off.

"Black players leading the line wasn’t something people wanted to see, I don’t think”. 

Scoring on his debut, Deane would have an amazing 5 years with Sheffield United, scoring 106 goals in 244 games, firing them back to the old first division & into the first season of the Premier League in 1992, where Deane would make history as the first goalscorer in the new league. And whilst Deane believed that many did not want to see black men leading the line, many Sheffield United fans at the time would have disagreed, where Deane and fellow black striker Tony Agana terrorising defences and scoring plenty of goals as Sheffield United promoted twice in three years. 

On an additional side, during this spell with Sheffield United, Deane would also be capped for England, earning 3 caps under manager Graham Taylor in 1991 and 1992, although he would often find himself not being picked due to the plethora of quality English strikers in the 1990s.

In 1993, Deane would move for a then-record fee of 2.9 million pounds to Leeds, the club who had turned him down at 14. In 4 years with his hometown club, Deane scored 38 goals in 168 games and would appear in the 1996 League Cup final, albeit to end up with a runners-up medal.

 “We better get real, because these are the questions that people need to reflect on”

In 1997, after 4 years with Leeds, Deane would return to Sheffield United for a brief second spell with Sheffield United, scoring 13 goals in 29 games, before making another brief move to Portugal, where he was signed for 3 million pounds by Benfica. After these two spells back in Sheffield and Lisbon, which took place over 15 months between July 1997 and October 1998, Deane would return to England with Middlesbrough, where he’d spend just over 3 years, scoring 19 goals in 95 games before moving to Leicester in November 2001. Deane would spend 18 months at Leicester, where he scored 19 goals in 56 games and would once again become a history maker when he scored the first two goals at Leicester’s current King Power stadium in 2002. However, Deane was released in 2003, before joining West Ham in October of the same year.

Becoming one of then manager Alan Pardew’s first signings for the club, Deane would score a brace on his debut to put West Ham 3-0 up against West Bromwich Albion and then made it a hat-trick when he scored an own-goal to inspire West Brom to make a comeback and win 4-3 (classic West Ham). Deane would score 7 goals in 32 appearances in his solitary season with the club, including a last-minute equaliser against Wigan Athletic on the final day of the 2003/04 season, which allowed Crystal Palace to make the playoffs, where they would go on to beat West Ham & be promoted. Ironically, when Deane came on in that year's play-off final, he was applauded by both sides. 

After his sole season with West Ham, Deane would return to Leeds for a second spell scoring 7 goals in 33 games, before brief spells with Sunderland & Australian side Perth Glory, before returning to England to see out his career in a third and final spell with Sheffield United.

Retiring at the end of the 2005/06 season, Deane got involved in football coaching with Leeds University and establishing the International Academy for Football & Education (which sadly folded in 2018), before becoming involved in the youth system at Sheffield United in 2019. Additionally, Deane also tried his hand at management, managing Norwegian side Sarpsborg 08 Football Club between 2013-2015 and also works as a sports consultant. More bizarrely, Deane is also a small shareholder in Kosovan football club FC Ferizaj.

“I've always been extremely proud to be a black man. But we have to be more inclusive"

But despite having a relatively decent career in football after retiring, Deane correctly highlights that we are nowhere near where we should be when it comes to racial equality within football: “We better get real, because these are the questions that people need to reflect on”...  “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've always been extremely proud to be a black man. But we have to be more inclusive. Otherwise, we'll keep getting the same people making decisions”. Deane also points out that some of us have privilege & we can use it where appropriate to benefit others: “People talk about white privilege. That's not something to bash white people with, it's more a case of 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.” And Deane is right, if we are going to reach equality, it’s not a one-sided issue, but something we all must contribute towards to make a reality.  So let’s recognise our privileges & biases and help out where we can to try and push for equality within the game. 

Thank you for reading today's post. If you like what you see, please leave a comment or give me a follow on X(formerly Twitter). I am open to taking requests on players that people want to see, so drop me a message and I'll try my best to accommodate your suggestions. As I always do, my sources were: 

Brian Belton's book 'The Black Hammers' 

This interview with Brian Deane from the Yorkshire Star: 

And this interview with Brian Deane on the Sheffield United Blog, 'A United View':