Creative Thinking: Brian Deane and Sarpsborg

 

 

Few British managers take the chance on managing overseas; even fewer make that move as their first in management. One of the small number in that latter category is Brian Deane and on Sunday he takes his Sarpsborg 08 team to the Arasen Stadium, Lillestroem, on the opening day of the Norwegian Tippeligaen season. Taking his first steps in top level management.

To those who know of Brian this will come as little surprise. A strong advocate of players gaining experience of different cultures and playing abroad, something he did in Portugal and Australia, it seems only natural that he follows in the footsteps of Roy Hodgson, David Hay and George Curtis in managing in Norway.

In fact there is already one Englishman out there; Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s assistant at Norwegian champions Molde is Mark Dempsey, a former coach at Manchester United and a name familiar in South Yorkshire after spells both at Sheffield United and Rotherham United.

Whilst Hodgson had two mid-table finishes with Viking Stavanger and Hay took Lillestrom SK to the title, it is a less well known and less established name in Norwegian football for Brian. Sarpsborg is a city of over 50,000 people, about 100km south of Oslo. It is a city that has seen football success with Sarpsborg SK six time winners of the Norwegian Cup, albeit the last of those was over 60 years ago.

In recent years, local clubs had struggled to gain a foothold in the upper echelons of Norwegian football and in 1999 sixteen local clubs decided to collaborate and combine into what is now, after further tweaks to the structure and name, Sarpsborg 08. The way the club was formed, becoming a single focal point for the city, means it has a culture that appealed to Brian.

"It is a well-structured community club, with a young board who are realistic and good fans who are realistic. It is such a good opportunity for me personally.”

The new club gradually progressed from the 4th tier of Norwegian football and reached the top flight Tippeligaen in 2010, only to be relegated the following season. 2012 saw the club promoted again, as runners-up and they made a move to appoint Brian as manager for their return to the Tippeligaen.

Brian had spent quite a bit of time in Norway, with the Football & Education programme he was running in Leeds, visiting colleges and making connections over there. He liked the country and its culture. One of those contacts, former Oldham, Blackburn and Wimbledon defender Tore Pedersen, was the man who facilitated his move into club management. Over three interviews Brian convinced the management of Sarpsborg of his footballing philosophy and the way in which he would take the club forward.

“I have joined a sensible club. After Promotion, Relegation, Promotion in the last three seasons, we need to establish ourselves and stay up; that’s important to me and important to the club. Steady progress is good and it is about putting a structure in place, introducing new ideas and changing certain aspects of the club."

For Brian it has been a positive first few months; "I got to know the players and they have got to know me and how I want to do things.” With budgets limited, Sarpsborg probably have the smallest budget of any club in the Norwegian top tier, Brian is largely working with the squad that took the club to promotion last season. Some adjustments have been made, such as bringing in Icelandic pair Gudmundur Thorarinsson and Thorarrin Valdimarsson.

Joining as his assistant is Ian Burchnall, who worked with Brian in the Football and Education Academy at the University of Leeds. The partnership is in some ways forged in adversity. Both had knock backs in trying to progress their careers and on coming together, despite quite different backgrounds, they found shared philosophies and beliefs, a mutual respect and developed a cohesive working relationship.

“Ian was a good semi-professional footballer and a talented coach with ten years of experience, but breaking into professional coaching is very hard for someone who hasn’t played professionally. For me, I had the professional background, but as an example, when I was doing my coaching badges I was asking people if I could join them on the coaching ground and try things, the existing team were looking over the shoulders. It wasn't easy to get the opportunities to develop myself.”

“If you were going into something like this you could bring your mates in with the same football background, same career path, but they are not going to offer you anything different. Ian is academic, with a sports science degree. He has come through in a more modern era. We build on each other’s ideas using our contrasting backgrounds; it works well.”

Results for the pair have been good, with the club unbeaten throughout pre-season.

“There is one thing I know from my time in football, you take pre-season games with a pinch of salt. Yes to be unbeaten is nice, but with the budget constraints we have we have to beware as a couple of injuries and it could be really tight for us.”

The players will be very clear on the standards he expects and he knows that, despite the results, there is still plenty of work to be done. Last weekend the unbeaten pre-season culminated in a 3-3 draw at second tier club Mjondalen with Sarpsborg coming back from 3-1 down. Post-match the manager talked of his disappointment with the naivety of some of his side’s play and recognised there was further work to be done.

Changing things is always going to be tough when monies are limited. Even when faced with offers of players, Brian is rarely in a position to accept.

“I get calls from agents, as you can imagine, offering me lots of players, but our budget is that tight we have to be creative.”

Brian has already mentioned in previous interviews how he sees the Development squads back in English football as a potential source. Loaning young talented players who cannot get first team experience at their club is one potential avenue. He also has plenty of contacts and knowledge of promising players from his work at Leeds University and at the colleges and universities in Norway. However, he won’t bring players in for the sake of it.

“I have had calls about players wanting to come out here, but the reality is I only want to bring players in who are going to add to what we have got. We are going to have to try and develop players and bring players through as well. That is important for the longevity of the club and the finances.”

Brian mentions that there are probably calls he hasn’t returned, something he recognises from a player's perspective when he was the one making calls to managers late in his career. Now he recognises that it isn’t necessarily ignorance on the manager's part, but a need to find the time and focus to devote to his job and his team. We speak very late on a midweek night, with Brian having spent the rest of the evening meticulously preparing for the weekend fixture. 

“Management is about managing and making sure that your players are prepared. You are ensuring that they are alert mentally and physically; you could be mentoring them, getting them in psychologically prepared so they believe that they can take the World on.”

 In a long and varied career, Brian benefited from playing under a whole host of different managers, each with their own characters, ways and methods. In the time since joining Sarpsborg, he has sought the counsel of people he has played for such as Alan Pardew and Peter Taylor and those who have experienced playing and managing overseas, such as Roberto Martinez. Each give him ideas about how he could manage.

“I have looked at the managers I have had and draw on what they did well and what they didn’t do so well, balancing that by looking at what I am doing from a player’s perspective. Respect plays a big part and it is two way. I don’t mess about. That’s one thing I learned under George Graham, you have got to have discipline."

"There is one manager, the moment you let your players have an opportunity to have a say it doesn’t always work and I don’t think it would work for me. I think I am fair, but there is only one captain of a ship.”

When asked which managers he played under influence the way his teams are set up to play, he emphasises how he is trying to build on existing foundations.

“We have inherited a philosophy here of playing very good football through the thirds, something the club is renowned for. I reviewed a lot of last season’s games and I have worked on increasing the tempo, because we are going to need to do that. The fitness and discipline are going to be key. Sometimes it is just about being a little bit more professional.”

With these incremental changes across the piece, increasing the intensity and sharpness, focusing on maintaining possession in small areas, Brian is confident that the club can start to make great strides.

It may not be at Premier League level, but the standard of football is good and when the opportunities are not there for young ambitious managers in the football league, you have to be creative in your thinking. Creativity is a word that comes up frequently when talking to Brian, it is one of the reasons he finds himself in Norway now and is something he will need to apply to his thinking in ensuring the survival of what many would perceive as the league's smallest club.

So with a strong pre-season behind them and the long term foundations starting to be built, Brian can look forward with some positivity to Sunday’s game against a team they drew 1-1 with at the start of pre-season back at the end of January. That should give his team some confidence, but they also know that in their manager’s words that the pre-season result and performance is meaningless, it is getting off to a positive start on Sunday that matters.

Unwanted Visitors

With ticket pricing in the news again a real set to started on twitter with fans of various clubs, journalists, fan organisations and fanzines all having their say on the issue of ticket pricing. Sadly much of the debate with fans sinks to two trains of thought. One driven by partisanship where fans are happy to criticise other clubs, but see little fault in their own club.  The other prevalent train of thought seems to be "well I can afford it so what is the problem if some cannot?". This again misses the point and seems symptomatic of an increasingly selfish wider society, where it is all about "me" and balls to everyone else. A survival of the shittiest, if you will.

My piece on Huddersfield fans boycotting Bramall Lane last season, over the prices being charged by for a League One match, caused a bit of debate at the time. My point then was that it needed a concerted national focus on ticket prices and discretionary pricing on the back of the cases being highlighted. As much as there were elements of the Huddersfield boycott to be admired, their fans seemed to direct ire personally at Sheffield United whilst remaining oblivious to their own club doing exactly the same to other clubs (United included); albeit with marginally lower prices.

Nothing has changed in my view. The FSF and other fan organisations need to ride off the back of the current media storm and push the authorities for controls and caps to be in place. This has to be at all levels, not just the Premier League, regardless of whether this creates problems for clubs lower down the leagues. How can Alfreton Town charge £18 for Blue Sq Premier League football? Obviously, the Premier League are in a much better position to absorb these reduction; as the FSF Chairman Malcolm Clarke pointed out last week, the new Premier League TV deal would allow clubs to reduce existing prices by an average of £30 per ticket.

Whilst many focus on the generic issue of high prices for all fans; after all you cannot charge away fans more than a home ticket in an equivalent part of the stadium, others focus on the price discrimination in play with game categorisation and the added difficulties of the away fan, the debate set me thinking on a different track - whether football clubs really want away fans in their stadiums at all?

In some ways it seems like a vaguely romantic notion that clubs would see the benefits of away support; the thrilling atmosphere of fans chanting support for their team, shouting down the opposition, generating a buzz and a visceral roar to the game. Two sets of fans going verbally head to head in a to and fro of songs and chants is an integral part of going to the match. Yet, with a few exceptions, is this becoming a thing of the past?

Maybe I notice it more as clubs come to Bramall Lane with away support proportionate to their home attendances; dwarfed by empty red seats around them and 18,000 fans in the other three sides. But switch on Match of the Day or Super Sunday and you will see it in the upper echelons of the game. How many clubs sell all their away tickets, how many times can you hear the away fans chanting in and amongst the home support. How often is a match played out to the sound of Martin Tyler and Gary Neville and little else, aside from moments of goalmouth action?

Are the clubs bothered? Are the TV executives bothered? When the Premier League started and ticket prices were more affordable there were empty seats, what is there incentive to do anything about it?  You could even see them sticking on a pre-recorded tape of crowd noise, who in the millions of Sky subscribers, those that seemingly matter most these days, would notice? They seemingly aren't botheredabout empty seats, the only people who are bothered are opposition fans who have another verbal stick to attack the opposition with.

Having given it a bit of thought over the last week I can see why clubs might want to minimise away support. At first I thought the theories set out below might only benefit clubs in the Premier League, where capacity is reached and demand for tickets outstrips supply, yet some could still be applied to Football League clubs and maybe the increase in costs for handling away supporters outstrips the often minimal uplift in turnover from them being there?

Financial benefits of selling those seats to home fans

Obviously there are segregation issues to address and this is not always straight forward depending upon ground design, access routes etc. but if tickets are returned and sold to home supporters there could be a significant financial uplift for the club.

With tickets priced between £30 and £65 the cost of attending as an away fan could be anywhere between £100 and £200 depending upont ravel costs, food and drink, programme etc. In most cases the home fans have much lower additional costs of attending and more likely/comfortable to spend that on a ticket.

Certainly at the larger Premier league clubs, where there are more members than seats and limits on match-day availability the lack of opportunities to see their team will encourage the casual fan to look past the ticket price. After all, it is not like they are spending this amount week in, week out.

Additional discretionary spend

Money made from other discretionary spend  should increase as well. Firstly as a home fan there is a greater willingness to spend money at your club on food and drink for example. Then there is the additional spend in other club concessions and the club shop. Granted not every additional home fan will do this, but whatever proportion does, it is all additional income the club wouldn’t have had with away fans in those seats.

Sale of alcohol to away fans vs. home fans

Some grounds still impose a ban on the sale of alcohol to away fans. Obviously this will be relaxed if home fans take up the seats. Again it is a marginal financial benefit, but it is still additional profit.

Cost of policing and stewarding?

The greater the away support; the greater the costs incurred. Policing bills increase with increased resources deployed to maintain segregation and control outside the ground. The clubs' stewarding contractors will charge more for managing and maintaining safety in the ground. For the same sized crowd, the stewarding requirements will increase, the higher the proportion of away fans.

Partisan atmosphere

It could be argued that minimising the number of away supporters gives the home team an edge. Many clubs already try to marginalise the impact of away support; usually by placing them in a distant part of the stadium and making them barely seen or heard - take the rafters of St James' Park as an example.

The Premier League has said that it will encourage clubs to bring in new incentives to encourage away fans but will not intervene directly over ticket prices. There have been calls for a cap on the amounts clubs are charging away fans - particularly where the categorisation of matches is in place - but the league insists tickets are a matter for individual clubs. Yet again complete avoidance of the issue.

There have been various proposals put forward on the ticket price issue, many focusing on the problem for away supporters. One suggestion was that coaches should be subsidised for travelling fans, a laudable suggestion to some and the kind of incentive the Premier League were clearly angling for; but the cynic in me sees it differently.

Not all fans want to travel by coach, be held at service stations, be deposited next to the ground close to kick off, without the chance to explore a town/city and have a choice over where they eat and drink beforehand. This kind of suggestion just plays into the authorities' hands. We have already seen examples of "coach bubble" tactics from police,where fans have to buy joint match and coach tickets, and must travel to their home ground for a journey, escorted by police to the stadium. This has been used for high profile games, where they see a risk of violence, but this is hardly going to discourage them from making its use more widespread. At times it is the clubs as much as the police that are advocating such controls.

Yet again, what is proposed as a solution ends up being a punishment for the majority and reduces their civil liberties. Add in legislation that means that you can’t drink in a mini bus or coach going to or from a ground, it adds little to the supporter experience. Meanwhile, for those who arrive by train, it’s not unusual to be met off the train by police,corralled to a local pub and effectively made to stay there until shortly before kick-off.

I, as a shirt wearing fan, have been told where I will drink, not been allowed to leave for the ground well ahead of kick off and then been escorted there (arriving as the match kicked off), all the while having police dogs straining on the leash and cameras trained on us. Away fans are the enemy treated with contempt and suspicion, with no attempt to recognise the differences amongst them. So what if they miss a few minutes of the game.

I accept that there are some clubs taking positive steps and a look at the site of The Fan Experience Company http://bradleyprojects.com/blog.php?id=5 highlights interesting and welcome initiatives from Brighton, Cardiff and AstonVilla.

As an example; Cardiff addressed explored each visiting fantouch point with all of the key club representatives involved (including the Safety Advisory Committee, stewards, police, fans and those responsible for the away fan experience within the club itself), unravelled it and effectively re-engineered it. Yet the irony in Cardiff’s stance in trying to make visiting fans more welcome is that their away support can sometimes suffer from restrictions on their travel and allocations. I heard recently of potential issues they face going to Leeds, whereby restrictions on ticket collection and an early kick off are being imposed, with a threat of tickets being withheld otherwise.

The initiatives mentioned above have reduced instances of crowd trouble and increased pre-match revenues from away supporters, yet they are the exception rather than the rule. They will remain the exception unless the mind-sets of those running the game change. Talking about the Manchester City game Arsene Wenger commented;

"I am really worried they are high for our supporters.For the visitors, it only happens once a year, so that is less of a concern. We sell out our games, but ideally you want ticket prices to be affordable to everybody. It is a very delicate subject." You can argue that he is focusing on his club and the specifics of the ticket price furore and also that he is not in a position to influence club policy, but if that self-serving attitude pervades the whole of the football club that has to be a concern. As long as our fans are okay, we don't care about the rest.

The game of football has devalued away fans for many years; demonised by the authorities, treated like second class citizens by clubs, police and stewards, their football watching made more difficult by television schedules and prohibitive costs, and all without a second thought. Not all of this is driven by the clubs, but they are complicit in it happening. Away fans are a vital component of a British football match, more so than in other countries and aided by geography and a culture of travelling support. It seems at the minute that host clubs have only a little interest in their well-being or experience. There may come a point in the near future where they don't care for them at all.

An assault on the game of football

I have become increasingly dis-illusioned with football in recent months. Those that do not know me and wish to draw lazy conclusions would point to my team’s prolonged stay in League One and the inevitable Blades failure at Wembley. To which I would reply that we are one of three teams unbeaten in England at present. You might say that our home form plays a part, after all you can only see your team fail to hold on to a lead so many times in a two month period. But you would be wrong.

Football is a game I have loved playing and watching since I was a small boy. I have watched through awful times; Heysel, Hillsborough, Bradford, yet at this moment in time football has lost its spark for me. I was going to write about it here, but a fellow Blade Eddie Chapman has summed up my feelings very well in his first ever blog post, which you can read here. So instead I want to focus on events of Friday night at Hillsborough, when we not only witnessed despicable scenes during the match, but I watched the desperate double standards of football fans and local media in the aftermath. 

 

 

Whilst the assault understandably grabs the headlines, what went on around it is glossed over but paints a desperate picture that many were not willing to acknowledge and a past that many were determined to airbrush from history. Vile chants from fans of both sides. Missiles exchanged between stands, a smoke bomb hurled on the pitch from the home fans (a missile so dangerous that it scorched the pitch as a steward tried to kick it away) and seats destroyed and thrown in the away end.

Firstly the pitch invasion and deplorable assault on Chris Kirkland. This was something I haven’t seen the like of before and I hope I don’t see again. I am also pleased that the typical throwaway comment that Neil Warnock threw into his post match interview, regarding Kirkland’s ease of fall, has since been retracted.

It was an unprovoked, unexpected and cowardly attack that the perpetrator should be ashamed of. Sadly that hasn’t stopped people writing tweets suggesting that he went down easily or that he wouldn’t have gone down like that if he had been attacked in a pub. Those people want to take a long hard look at themselves and their lifestyle, if they think such comments are acceptable.

Three seasons ago Wednesday escaped punishment for a pitch invasion against Crystal Palace. A match which saw opposing supporters clash on the pitch and Palace player Clint Hill attacked by several Owls fans. This was all mysteriously forgotten by Owls fans over the last couple of days as they desperately tried claiming the moral high ground in an argument that was based down in the depths to start with.

One claimed that what happened against Palace was nothing like last night. How was it not? In fact it involved more protagonists and still ended in assault. The only way it was different was that it was the final game of the season, winner stays up match.

 Amazingly, Wednesday escaped FA sanction for failing to control their fans. A quote from a delighted stadium operations manager John Rutherford said; 'I am pleased with the outcome of the investigation. It fully vindicates our matchday operation here at Hillsborough and underlines the fact that the club did everything possible in its planning and preparation to manage any incidents following what was an extremely tense game against Crystal Palace.'

What can he say now? Given the heavy stewarding presence in front of the Leeds fans for much of the match, how was Kirkland’s assailant able to enter the playing area, attack the goalkeeper and leave again, re-entering the away following without being apprehended? There is no way  Wednesday can suggest their match-day operation is successful when we have now had two on-pitch assaults, a distress flare thrown on the pitch and bottles and missiles thrown between fans?  

In fact, although I am happy for it to be proved otherwise, I don’t think any punishment was meted out to Hill’s assailants. Were they ever identified from the film of the incident? Have they ever been banned by the club? I don’t recall any reports of arrests or of club bans. Surely strong and highlighted action can play a big part in prevention. It would actually be in the club and police’s interests to utilise them media and show what happens to the trouble causers. I don’t recall hearing anything.  How can that be seen as any sort of deterrent?   

Moving on to the chants heard during the match. Sick and abusive chanting has been a part of football for as long as I can remember attending. That doesn’t make it palatable, that doesn’t make it acceptable. Chanting and support of your team is one of the great communal aspects of attending football, but far too often the tribalism takes hold and it goes too far.

 I have been at Old Trafford as Blades supporters have sung Munich songs and I have been at Tottenham when anti-Semitic songs have been sung at the home support. Only in the last week, there have been complaints from a majority of the Blades away support, as the minority sang songs of support for the jailed Ched Evans during games at Notts County and Preston. And if you want my views on that situation, read this.

The thing is those vile chants had faded into the background. I am not saying they have ever gone away, but you certainly haven’t heard as much about them in recent years. Yet in this modern world, where “banter” is the god awful buzz-word and a risible excuse for a multitude of spoken and typed sins, and in a society where the motto “Everyone else has got one, so why shouldn’t I?” is prevalent, people see such bile as acceptable. One justification I read last night, in a tweeted response to my criticism of events was; “Everyone (sic) teams’ fans have a go about Turkey”. So, the over-arching belief is, if every team’s fans do it – which they don’t – why shouldn’t we?

One tried justifying their chants about Istanbul with a “Well they started it with the Dave Jones and Jimmy Saville ones.” Like two (or three) wrongs make a right; displaying flawed logic on so many levels.

Dave Jones’ understandable focus on the personal abuse he received, due to past and unproven allegations, is bound to hurt. But in focusing on that and admonishing Neil Warnock for encouraging his team to acknowledge the away support, he has allowed elements of allegiance and club tribalism to cloud his emotional judgement. If Leeds should not acknowledge the away support, due to the widespread abuse and chanting, then Wednesday should not be acknowledging their support in the area of the North Stand where the Istanbul stabbing chants came from. Chants from a small proportion of the overall crowd in both instances, but a failure to acknowledge or admonish elements of his own club’s support for their failings.

Even when interviewed on 5Live Sportsweek on Sunday morning, he failed to acknowledge this, skirting around the subject referring to the chanting going on around the ground. It was Neil Warnock, who raised the issue of the subject matter used by an element within the Wednesday support. How can clubs deal with the problem if senior officials cannot publicly admit there was one? People too worried about upsetting their supporters; local media too worried about souring relations with the club they rely on for stories and therefore circulation/listener figures.

Albeit, and thankfully, isolated incidents football authorities and the police need to be seen to be taking strong action, by which I mean action which hasn’t been seen before. Whilst Wednesday received no punishment for the Palace game, West Ham were fined a small six figure sum for the repeated pitch invasions and trouble at their game with Millwall in 2009. These are hardly a discouragement from a repetition of those scenes when a volatile situation arises again. Fans don’t see any impact of club fines and for clubs of the size of West Ham or Wednesday or Leeds the amounts involved are hardly material amounts.

The problem for me is that the police are frequently looking for easy arrests at football matches. We have all witnessed instances of police or steward over-reaction leading to un-necessary action. Read the twitter timeline of Amanda Jacks the FSF Fair Cop, you will see many examples of this. Thankfully, you will also read many examples of what can happen when the right help is sought by fans after the event, or what greater awareness of their rights can help them avoid.

Police must focus on policing the minority, not the majority and be seen to take appropriate action when required. The same goes for stewards, many of whom seem keen to look for a fight rather than doing their job.

As for punishments for clubs....Banning away support is not an equitable answer. In fact this impacts on other clubs as much as the club whose fans have the transgressors. They suffer a lack of income that the away supporters provide, both in terms of gate receipts and discretionary spend. Therefore clubs need to be punished by a points reduction if their fans enter the field of play. If this then leads to an act of violence against player, opposition fan, then this should increase; as should the punishment for clubs with repeat offences.  A potential points deduction should also encourage fellow fans to restrain those who put their club at risk.

As for the clubs who fail to control fans in their stadium then ground closures should follow. After incidents with persistent standing, the firing of distress flares etc at Bramall Lane some 9 years ago we had the parts of the ground nearest to the away end closed. This should be more widespread, after all how many times have you heard this having been applied since?

I am not suggesting the management of thousands of individuals, amongst which a small proportion are intent on causing problems, is easy. However, they owe a duty of care to the people in the stadium that when they buy a ticket, they are not going to be caught in the crossfire of verbal and physical abuse that they do not want to be a part of.

They also need to act when clubs undertake wanton destruction of the opposition’s ground. When Leeds visited Bramall Lane in 2003, seats were smashed and thrown on the pitch. I am not aware of any action being taken. There should be compensation to the home team for damage caused and a fine on top as well.

Recent surveys have shown the average age of football supporters at British matches is increasing as the young and families struggle to find the money for increasing gate prices. Yet when they do go, they risk being exposed to this and the next generation is deterred. I have already heard, on local radio, one father saying that his 8 year old doesn’t want to go to football again after witnessing events of Friday night.

One final point. If football needs its fans to clean up their actions, then they need to sort out those who hurl abuse, use physical violence on the pitch. Why in football is it deemed okay for a worker to abuse those who employ him (Ashley Cole – no punishment), to use racist language and abuse (John Terry and Luis Suarez), assault other players (Joey Barton). You can go back to Di Canio and his assault on Paul Alcock. If this was anything but sport, anything but football, these people would be out of a job and finding it extremely difficult to be re-employed. Not receiving a six-figure weekly salary, retaining their captaincy and edging towards 100 caps for their country. What fine examples they are to those watching on from the stands. They are the untouchable generation, suffering minor inconveniences in terms of punishment. It hardly sets an example in terms of behaviour or punishment.

Football has to get its act together and it is incumbent on all involved in the game from stands, to pitch, to the administrators to play a part.

My Favourite Blade (Number 1) - Keith Edwards

In the first of a new close season series, a number of Unitedites share their memories of their favourite Blade. The player that filled up their senses at Bramall Lane and beyond.

To kick things off I am remembering my childhood hero, the goal-king Keith Edwards. This article first appeared in an edited form in the Blades matchday programme.

I didn’t see my childhood hero play live that often, yet he was the player I always aspired, unsuccessfully, to be.  He wasn’t the most talented footballer, he wasn’t the hardest worker, and you could even argue he wasn’t a team player.  He could spend a large proportion of the match not touching the ball. Yet, for many Sheffield United supporters, he was the talisman behind the resurrection of the Blades in the early 80’s, winning both the Fourth Division Championship in 1982 and promotion from the 3^rd Division in 1984.

He played with a level of confidence that was bordering on arrogance and his forceful opinions and personality are probably contributory factors as to why he never played at the highest level, why a striker with such a prolific scoring record wasn’t always selected and why his career at each club he played for often came to an abrupt end.  It is also why he now divides opinion as a pundit on Radio Sheffield today.   

He first played for United from 1975, joining as a 17 year old, before leaving for Hull in late 1978.  I was too young to remember him then.  He returned during the early stages of the 1981-82 season. United had suffered the ignominy of relegation to the Fourth Division at the end of the previous season.  A last minute penalty miss at home to Walsall in the final league game had condemned United to the lowest level of professional football for the first time in their history. My Grandad, who took me to that fateful Walsall game passed away shortly after and, with my dad working Saturdays, I had no-one to take me to matches unless they were midweek ones.

The season started well for United and Keith rejoined from promotion rivals Hull early in the season, for what proved to be a bargain £100,000. He straight away benefited from a great supply line; Bob Hatton, a much travelled striker was reaching the end of his career, yet provided a perfect foil and link player for Edwards.  Colin Morris joined the Blades in February 1982 and was a fantastic right winger who seemed to have a telepathic relationship with Edwards on the pitch.

Keith wasn't a tall man, but he was quick and agile. The ability to turn his man and get a shot away was probably his greatest asset.  He contributed little to team play, by his own admittance, but he had the knack of always finding himself in the right place at the right time. He was a predator and played in a way that's a bit like every schoolboy does; obsessed with shooting and scoring.  That is why his play struck a chord I think.

He would always look to break the offside trap, although that would also lead to frustration as he would be caught offside plenty of times during a game. When he did time his run to perfection he would find himself at his strongest position, running at goal with just the keeper to beat. When he made it that far without a linesman’s flag being raised, you could almost guarantee a goal.
As a 7 year old reading Shoot every week, Keith Edwards was the visible face of my team, topping the goal-scoring tables in the results section and winning the Adidas Golden Boot in both promotion seasons.  The excitement of seeing him play was huge as a young fan.  The fact that the matches I saw were mostly at night, under lights, just added to the buzz and sense of occasion.  I remember a game against Wigan, a top of the table clash. Midweek, Division Four, yet over 20,000 there witnessing what was looking like a 0-0 draw, until the final seconds when he was in the right place at the right time.  Not a spectacular goal, just a simple tap-in, but such an important one. 

Attending end of season Open Days was a chance to fill your autograph book with unintelligible signatures, to have photos stood on the hallowed turf, in the changing rooms and with the players. There was only one player that I wanted a picture with.  Several pictures.  He must have been a patient man.

Within five years of returning to United Keith was gone, again. Ian Porterfield had been sacked as manager and in a clash between new disciplinarian manager (Billy McEwan) and outspoken star striker, there was only one winner.  Keith moved on to Yorkshire rivals Leeds, the only way it could have been worse would have been if he had joined Wednesday. For the next few years, until the resurgence under Dave Bassett, there were no real heroes, nothing to lift supporters who were watching a mediocre team under-achieve. 

His goalscoring record at Leeds though was poor and, after a spell at Aberdeen, he returned to Hull where he found his goal scoring mojo again.  Short spells with Stockport, Huddersfield and Plymouth  followed.  His final career stats show a league return of 256 goals in 553 appearances, a record most strikers would be proud of.  His two spells at Bramall Lane garnered 143 goals in 261 games; an average of a goal every 1.8 games.  Not many strikers achieve that sort of record in the Football League these days.

As you get older the clamour to be the striker, the goal scoring hero, fades as your own hopes of ever being a decent footballer also dissipate.  In later years the players I have admired most are defenders, more closely aligned with the position I settled into playing, to no great standard!  However, whenever the opportunity arises, be it a book launch at Bramall Lane or a Sportsman’s Dinner, I always take the opportunity to shake his hand and say thanks for what he did for the Blades and for a young boy’s interest in football. 

I am 37 now and the fact that I still do it seems quite sad, but then I see other, slightly older fans doing the same with Tony Currie. I see how happy my dad (then aged 69) was to meet some of his heroes like Alan Hodgkinson, Mick Jones and the players he remembers from his youth, like Colin Collindridge and Fred Furniss. That is when I think - why shouldn't we do it?

Football has changed massively in the lastdecade.  Players are much more detached from everyday life in terms of lifestyle and earnings and the separation from the fans is much wider. These past generations of players generally have very few of those trappings, given the relative success they once had. Recognition is important.  Besides, we would all like to be remembered - wouldn't we?

And that is why I have started this series, which allows fellow Blades to remember their favourite players and if you want to share your memories of each featured player, why not add them in the Comments section below.

Interview with Brian Deane - Part 3 (Broadening Experiences)

As we left Part 2 (which you can read here) Brian was facing a difficult time at Leeds. In the end he was at Leeds for one more season before a return to the Blades.

The Summer of 1997, was it a surprise to find yourself back at Bramall Lane?

Yes and No. I came to the end of my contract at Leeds. I bought into what I was being told by the Chief Executive at the time (Charles Green) as to what they wanted to achieve at Sheffield United. I was really up for it. They even offered me a two year contract and I said, “Look, I’ll sign a one year contract and we will review it”.

I had been in the Premier League with Leeds on Premier League wages, although nothing like what they are today. It was a contract where I thought that if we aren’t promoted it is going to be hard for the club to be able to afford it in this division. At the time I was thinking that I really want to be here and if you’re telling me that we are going to build a team that is capable of going up and then competing in the Premier League, then I’m in for that. I’d seen Paul Merson go up to Middlesbrough, he was still at the peak of his powers, so they obviously had a plan and I wanted to do the same at United.

Sheffield United is that big a club, I think that Sheffield United deserves to be up there amongst the top of the top, as one of the best twenty clubs in the country in the right circumstances. I saw an opportunity for me to be right in the middle of that. 

I think the fans were led to believe it was going down that route at the time as well. Did the adulation received on your return make up for the abuse you got from an idiotic minority when you returned with Leeds?

I never really took any of that stick seriously. If you leave a club maybe the ones that are most disappointed are the ones that didn’t want you to leave in the first place. I have to take that on board, I enjoyed coming back and scoring – I know that! It was only because I think I had that kind of relationship with the fans. If I had come back and not performed then they would have been fully justified in thinking he can’t do it anymore. I thought whenever I am coming back I want them to know that I am still the same person they used to cheer and support.

It was a turbulent time in the club's history, things going incredibly well on the pitch then, out of the blue, you and Jan Aage Fjortoft left on the same day? How did the Benfica move come about?

It came about quite suddenly. I had always wanted to play abroad and in my previous spell at United, whilst Harry was the manager, I had been told of overseas interest. One day Harry had called me into his office and told me of interest from Marseilles. At that time it was quite a big thing. Chris Waddle had been there and a few English players had been abroad and I thought if I could define my career with a successful spell abroad it would help set me aside from many other players. I was keen to do that and I backed myself that if I could get to the right club I could do well. I had spoken to Feyenoord in the summer when I had left Leeds and also at some stage I had spoken to Fenerbahce, but at the time I chose to return to Sheffield.

There is a lot about leaving United that I still cannot get to the bottom of. There are some things that I am still in the dark about. When I heard that I had wanted to leave, I wondered where that came from. I never said that.

Well if you are in the dark, the fans have got no chance.

When Benfica showed an interest I honestly didn’t appreciate how big a club they were. I obviously knew about the European Cup final against Manchester United, but it was only when I went over there I really appreciated it.

70,000 fans at home games and huge travelling support to the extent that they outnumbered the home fans at some grounds. I’d tested myself against some of the best defenders in the country back in England; Bould, Adams, Keown, Pallister, now it was time for a new and exciting experience.

What would you take away from your time in Portugal and would you recommend it to any ambitious footballer?

There were positives and negatives. Lots of things went on at the club which were a mystery; at times we didn’t get paid, the president at the time - by all accounts - is in trouble with the Portuguese authorities at the moment.  At times it all felt a bit unsavoury.

I’d still recommend going abroad though. I think that is why we don’t so well in international football, because we haven’t got any players who want to go abroad and sample something different.

I think probably your most prolific spell after that was at Leicester was that due to being back with Harry and the fact that he knew how to play to your strengths?

Possibly, but it was more to do with the whole atmosphere around the club. It was a great place to be. The changing room was perhaps the best I’ve been in, in terms of that togetherness. Sheffield United was a different stage in my life but very similar. At United we were the underdogs and that unified us, but at Leicester we had the problems with going into administration and we had to pull together. We became very tight as a unit, in the same ways as we did at Sheffield United. There were some characters in there, we had a right laugh; Frank Sinclair, Ian Walker, Andrew Impey, Gerry Taggart. All are good, down to earth lads; funny lads.

A final spell at United followed a brief time at Perth in the A League. Obviously you had been hit with injuries, did you see this as a swansong at the time or were you hopeful of prolonging your career further?

I knew I was coming to the end of my career, I’d had a few injuries and I had already kind of retired when I came back. I was visiting Bramall Lane as a guest on the pitch and Kevin McCabe had seen me. He got in touch with Mick Rooker and asked him to find out if I was interested in coming back to play. Of course I wanted to, but it wasn’t up to me to decide that. I met with Neil Warnock, we had a chat and he explained that he thought I’d be good to have around the changing rooms and help us get over the line. I jumped at the chance.

I met some good pros and good people – Rob Kozluk’s a very funny bloke and Nick Montgomery is a very emotional character. Everything means a lot to him. There are very few people I have seen as upset as Nick is at losing. He really does wear his heart on his sleeve.

A nice way to finish though, with Blades fans singing your name for a third time?

It was. By then I was 38 and when I came back from Australia Mick Rooker said to me “you can’t go out like that, Brian.” It didn‘t work out for me in Australia because the players were not of a standard that I needed. I didn’t have a support network and the players were not good enough to get the best out of me at that stage of my career. They needed a Brian Deane aged 30. I needed more intelligent players who would be doing the running. I remember playing for Leicester versus Coventry and Gary McAllister played himself in a 5 man midfield and they were all like little satellites buzzing around him. In Australia I needed the ball put into the box where I could try and use my nous. We didn’t play that way.

I took a bit of stick out there and I could have responded, but I took it for what it is and came back. I played in a reserve game for United v Stoke and got a hat trick which showed what I could do. Realistically, out there, I was in a no win situation and the best thing for me to do was leave.

I am grateful to United for allowing me to bow out on the back of the club getting promotion to the Premier League. Just being part of it, even if it was on the outside, it was nice to be there. I was trying so hard. I had come off the bench against Brighton and nearly scored, then in the final game against Palace I came on and Danny Webber could have played me in, but didn’t. I was like, “Aaahh!” That’s life; it wasn’t meant to be. It would have been nice to have signed off with a goal, but it didn’t happen.

Why did you set up the International Academy for Football & Education? Was it based on your experiences a youngster, where you kept up your studies whilst at Doncaster?

Yes but there have been a few things. My own experience of trying to get into an academy left me feeling undermined. I had gone down and asked the director if I could do coaching whilst working towards my UEFA B licence. I was encouraged to do my bit with the lads and then one of the coaches said we were doing different things and I was frustrated, I knew that I had permission to do what I was doing. There was no point arguing about it, I realised that I would have to find another way to do it.

I got involved with Leeds University. Three years ago we had best team in country we won the BUCS Premier trophy. One of the players, David Syers, finished his degree, went down to Bradford City, scored ten goals and won Players’ Player of the Year in his first season. I do believe that there are boys out there who are still developing between the ages of 18-21 and who can go back into the pro game. The clubs don’t have the time and money to keep coaching them so it is an idea to get a qualification behind them whilst pursuing their dreams of playing football. If they make it, they have a career and a qualification. If they don’t make it they have a qualification they can use. It is not easy, but it is very rewarding. Especially if you have got both sides of it like Dave Syers has.

It is not like being at a club, I’d love to be at a club but that has not happened to me yet. I’m doing my apprenticeship as such and I am enjoying doing what I am doing. Setting up games against other universities or football clubs, I get an insight into being a manager and a coach. I can be a little bit fiery – I have standards. Sometimes kids don’t understand what it takes to make it all the way and that is my frustration. I try and be a mentor/guardian and give them the best advice and they can’t always see it. Having said all that, I absolutely love it!

On that positive note our conversation ends. At a time with EPPP and academies very much in focus it is great to hear how Brian is ensuring that late developers released by clubs get a second chance, or at the very least have a great chance of forging a different career with qualifications behind them.

Once again I would like to thank Brian for taking time out of his extremely busy schedule to speak with me. Again, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Interview with Brian Deane - Part 2 (Making a Name and Switching Uniteds)

As we left Brian's story in Part 1, United were pushing for a second successive promotion and a return to the top flight for the first time in 14 years. It all came down to the final game of the season, where a win at Leicester would secure promotion and, depending on the Leeds result, possibly the title. The Blades won 5-2, with Brian scoring.

 

What are your memories of 5th May 1990? When I interviewed Tony Agana, he spoke about this incredible belief he had and felt that the team had that day as well, would you agree with that?

I think we knew we had done the hard work over the season. The likes of Newcastle, Sunderland had more experience and what was perceived to be a better squad. We had taken a couple of beatings that season, 4-0 by Leeds, 5-0 by West Ham, but looking back, if we had lost those games 1-0 we would have been champions. We knew that we were up there on merit, as good as anybody else those two results aside.

It’s interesting that in the excitement of promotion and Wednesday’s relegation, the small margin by which we lost the title to Leeds is kind of forgotten about.

Yes and we were as good as Leeds!

Your goal that day, where the ball came back off post, goalkeeper, rebounded off defenders and was eventually slammed home was recently described to me as an era defining goal. Not the classiest of goals, quite scruffy in fact, but what it meant and the way you sank to your knees in celebration make it stand out.

It’s my over-riding memory of the day. It was a really weird day, the fans all in fancy dress; it was like a festival of football. It was almost like the fans were saying, ‘Look guys, whatever happens, happens. We have had a fantastic time and thanks for everything that you’ve done for us this season; it has been a great ride. Whatever will be, will be.’

 

Playing in the top division of English football it must have been a dream come true walking out at Bramall Lane v Liverpool, especially after the setback as a young lad?

It was almost like a natural progression. We had an unshakeable belief that we could match anybody out there. We went out and Trace broke his cheekbone, but I think we didn’t disgrace ourselves. We were hungry for it.

 

It was an era where things were changing in football. Dave Bassett knew that he didn’t have a team that could compete technically with some of the better teams. We couldn’t afford some of the players that some of the other clubs had, they wouldn’t be attracted to come to Bramall Lane and play. But we found ways of equalising the situation by being a little bit more scientific in our approach to games.

 

I can’t say we were the first but we were certainly one of the first. If you look at what happened up to the point of us having four points just before Christmas; we actually introduced a new diet, we introduced new training methods, we had a fitness trainer (Ed Baranowski) come in twice a week and we became fitter and stronger than other teams. We scored more goals in the last ten minutes than other teams and they struggled to cope with us. In the end we survived because we adapted and changed and no one else had cottoned on to what we were doing. If they had been doing it, then the probability is that we would have struggled.

The 3-2 victory over Forest on 22nd December 1991, which you scored in, was a catalyst for a complete change around in form and some amazing results given what had gone before. To finish 13th - 12 points clear of relegation was a fantastic performance.

Going back to Liverpool, the goal against them past Bruce Grobbelaar the following season, is that your favourite Blades goal?

I think that, along with the goal at Leicester on promotion day are my favourites. I think people have this notion of me being just somebody who was big and tall and even now, some people I meet, they don’t understand (maybe they’ve never seen me play) how I played. They don’t realise that I had a lot of assists in those days. I could go wide and I could cross with either foot, I would set other players up.

 

That goal was a long time before you had David Beckham scoring his goal from the halfway line. I actually robbed the goalie and I’ve seen Stevie Nicol running back towards goal. That’s some skill really to score from there.

Does it gall you that you scored a goal that good and it doesn’t get the television repeats and acclaim that it deserves?

It does actually. Some people know their football and some don’t. If you ask me would I rather have scored that goal or the one that David Beckham scored I would say my goal because I had to beat somebody. It wasn’t just a case of taking a shot from the halfway line, Grobbelaar has come out and I’ve robbed him. As you can see I’ve then rolled it inside, I’ve rolled it back outside, I’ve looked up and I’ve had to do all that in a split second. I’ve then had to judge the flight. I almost didn’t have time to think, I instinctively did it.

I was right behind that on the Kop and the flight of the ball was inch perfect between crossbar and Steve Nicol’s jump on the line.

By then I had got used to not getting the credit I felt that I deserved. You just have to get on with and do what you do. Most of the influential reporters, shall we say, couldn’t be arsed going outside of the M25.

 

How does a Sheffield Derby match rank in terms of an occasion to play in?

I tried to divorce myself from that to be honest and get on with the game. I didn’t really try and take on the additional meaning so much, all I was bothered about was are we going to get three points and am I going to score. It is an occasion for the city really and I left it to the lads who knew what it was like growing up as a fan to enjoy and immerse themselves in it.

What are your memories of Sheffield at Wembley? Was it similar?

I treated it like another game. I didn’t think it should have been at Wembley, it should have been at Old Trafford for the size of crowd. It seemed wrong to have all those fans going down on coaches and having to spend lots of money down in London. It’s nice that people can say that they have had a day out at Wembley, but I feel that it should just be the final at Wembley and that’s it.

You did pick up England caps on the tour of New Zealand and it’s a dream to play for your country, but is it disappointing that it didn’t progress beyond those two caps?

Yes it was, because I don’t think I ever got a chance really. I never got a chance to settle into it and I sometimes saw players coming in to the England squad, players that I had heard so much about, and when I was training and playing against them I was thinking what was all the fuss about. It happens still today, there are players who are playing and I don’t get all the excitement surrounding them. They don’t get me excited, but they still seem to be darlings of the media.

Playing for my country was strange in the sense that it was so far away. For whatever reason, I never really felt as though some people thought that I deserved to play for England, even though I was 23 and I had scored a load of top level goals. It is quite hard to take, but I guess that there are ways, or better ways, to train yourself and your mind for that now, than at that time.  

What a strikeforce

How much do you hold to scoring the first Premier League goal?

It is a massive thing for me. As far as I am concerned I am very proud of that record and I am glad that people can look at me when they say that rather than me having to look at anyone else. I guess that will define me and wherever I go I am remembered as being that person. The day was even more special because I got both goals in beating Manchester United. It was a great day for the club and for me.

 

Did you ask for the move from United, or was it more the club seeing you as a valuable and sellable asset? How close were you to signing for Wednesday?

I went to see them, I spoke to Trevor Francis and the chief executive at the time, but I never really believed it. I thought there was a bit of an agenda to be honest; I couldn’t actually believe that they put a bid in for me knowing how fierce the rivalry was. So I didn’t really take it seriously and that is no disrespect to the club at all. It was just that I didn’t really see how it was going to work.

 

They were a big side at the time and the manager was looking to pair me up with David Hirst which would have been a good combination to be honest.

 

Hirst was also picking up his first England caps around that time.

Yeah, we were always on the periphery, I think we had to work extra hard to get any kind of recognition. Match of the Day, or whatever was always “What’s happening down at Tottenham.” There was the 6-0 victory over Tottenham in the 1992-93 season, we beat Chelsea 5-0, we beat Manchester United....Liverpool, without really being noticed.

 

Was it difficult adjusting to the expectation at Leeds? Was a £3m fee a heavy weight to carry?

It wasn’t at all. Let me clear this up now, it wasn’t anything to do with that. I’m not Lee Chapman and I never have been, yet that is who I was expected to play like. When I went there I found myself not playing with wide players. If you buy a player, a forward, then you’ve got to have an idea of what his strengths are. At that time for me it was all about being in the box quickly, getting past people using my pace. Yet, for a long period of that first season, I just felt as though I was like a wall-ball.

The team were playing lots of intricate football in the midfield area then, all of a sudden, they would lend me the ball, or expect me to get to the far post. That just wasn’t my game. My game was get the ball into me quickly and I fancied myself one v one versus any defender in the country. Yet for that first season my game changed, I found myself getting deeper and deeper, looking and searching for the ball, it just didn’t suit me.

 

I scored on my debut and to all intents and purposes I should have gone on. In each of my seasons I scored on the opening day of the season so it shouldn’t have been any different. It just didn’t feel like the priority of the team was to attack, I suppose. It’s a tough one, but for me the game is about creating chances and scoring goals and that is what a good team should revolve their play around.

Despite that frustrating first season, you are held in high esteem by Leeds fans and that must be a positive?

Yeah, we are talking about the first season and after that it changed a bit for me in that I played in a different position. We played a different type of football and it meant me getting back to what I liked to do and use my assets.  In fact I got Player of the Year in that second season and probably my favourite goal for Leeds was scored on the last day of the season away at Tottenham. I picked the ball up halfway into our half and I ran the length of the pitch and scored. We drew 1-1 and qualified for the UEFA Cup. Things turned round – I had a lot of highs and a few lows at Leeds.

The biggest low was the 1996 League Cup final against Villa. The week before the final we were on the box against Everton. We played a weakened team, but before the game Howard (Wilkinson) came up to me and said; “I haven’t decided on the team yet, it’s up to you whether or not you are going to play in the final”. I got man of the match and scored both goals in a 2-2 draw so I thought I must be playing. Then as the week started I could tell, in fact almost immediately after the game I could tell I wasn’t going to be playing. That was a big disappointment for me and at that point I wanted to leave the club, because I couldn’t really see where it was going.

I tried harder at Leeds than I did at Sheffield United, in terms of trying to fit in. I shouldn’t have done that. I tried to do it in the first season, the second season I did it my way and the third season I tried to be a team player again. Sometimes, when you offer yourself selflessly, you don’t always get what you deserve and that was an example to me. You have to get the balance right.

You were still a young player. This isn’t something you are taught, it’s something that experience teaches you.

Yes and it would have been hard for me to leave Leeds at the time, we had been a Top 5 club and then that third season had been a disaster. So if I left the club, where would I go?

Brian was to leave Leeds at the end of the following season and in the final part of the interview (which you can read here) he talks about two returns to Bramall Lane, his time in Portugal, happy days at Leicester (despite the club being in administration) and the work he is doing now with young players.