Black History Month: An evening with Viv Anderson

As part of Black History Month, the People’s History Museum, located in Spinningfields, Manchester hosted a talk with Viv Anderson—the first black footballer to represent England, against Czechoslovakia, at Wembley Stadium in 1978. Anderson would eventually earn England 30 caps over a ten year period.

Anderson was born in Nottingham in 1956 and as a young boy, he had trials with Sheffield United and Manchester United—whose academy he subsequently joined. Anderson and his father would travel back and forth between Nottingham and Manchester, and had the amazing opportunity to train with professional footballers like George Best, Dennis Law and Bobby Charlton. But it was not to be at United, as they decided to let him go at the age of 12.

His big footballing break came when, while working as an apprentice, Nottingham Forest asked him to play youth matches, leading him to become a member of their academy. It was at this club that Anderson’s distinguished club career would begin. He played for Nottingham Forest between 1974 and 1984, during which at the time—under the manager-assistant duo of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, he gained promotion to the old First Division, and won the First Division title and two European Cups.

After leaving Forest, Anderson went on to play for two of the most successful clubs in English football, Arsenal and Manchester United. From there he moved to Sheffield Wednesday, regularly playing for a team that reached the League and FA Cup finals of 1993 and finished seventh in the first Premier League season, before becoming player-manager at Barnsley and then assistant manager to Bryan Robson at Middlesbrough—where injuries forced him to make his final two appearances as a footballer.

Anderson was a chatty, jovial guest throughout the talk, never shying away from a question asked and was always willing to provide insights and anecdotes from his playing career. Naturally, many of these stories involved the mercurial Brian Clough. Anderson also had the distinction of being Sir Alex Ferguson’s first signing at Manchester United. When asked to compare the two managers, Anderson felt that they were very similar; they commanded the respect of the players—even once players had left the club, they commonly refused to divulge either manager’s methods to the press; and they had an innate ability to infuse players with a sense of self-belief that translated to improved performances.

In spite of all the accolades garnered in his club career, Anderson called his first appearance for England his favourite game of all time because he was so proud to be given the opportunity to represent his country—a fact complemented by his possibly optimistic, but hopefully prescient, prediction that England would reach at least the semi-finals of Euro 2016. Anderson cheekily claimed that he got an assist on the night: A pass to Steve Coppell who ran 60 yards with the ball, and crossed it for the striker to head into the net!

One subject that was not at the forefront of his mind in the build up to the game against Czechoslovakia, was the historical milestone that he was about to achieve. To him, he was just a strong lad from Nottingham, whose job was to kick people for a living. He recounts the instructions given to him by Clough at Forest: “Keep the ball out of my net and give the ball to those who could play”—which he applied to all of the games he played in.

Anderson came up against racism many times during his career, with Newcastle away being a particularly bad ground to go to. Recounting one away match at Carlisle, when he was on the substitute’s bench, Clough told Anderson to go and warm up. Two minutes later, Anderson would return and explained to Clough that the crowd were throwing apples, bananas and pears at him. Clough told him to go out there, and bring him back a pear and a banana!

Clough later brought him aside in the changing room and told him that Anderson would never get far in football if he let people dictate his life and get to him emotionally. Clough told him to let the football do the talking and Anderson used this as a mantra for the rest of his career.

One focal point of the evening was Anderson’s thoughts on the lack of black managers within the English game. Anderson remembers going into management at Barnsley and being only the second black manager in England, to which the media stated that this would be the start of things to come. Today it saddens Anderson that despite being 15 years on, the situation hasn’t changed.

Anderson puts this down to the perception that notable black candidates are seen to be good players, but people doubt their ability to go into management. He called for the FA to make a stance. Whether this came in the form of the ‘Rooney Rule’, like they have in America, Anderson declared that something had to be done to help people from minority backgrounds to enter football management.

Anderson recognised that into today’s games, it is increasingly difficult for managers to get a chance to prove themselves as the game has become essentially, a results-orientated business.

Martin O’Neil, Anderson’s former teammate, lost his first 13 games as manager of Leicester City, yet the club stood by him and he went on achieving great things. Another former teammate, Terry Butcher, has just lost his job after eight games in charge of Newport County.

Gordon Taylor, the Professional Football Association’s chairman was present and he echoed Anderson’s claims for a fairer recruitment policy. Taylor encouraged people to start at a good club lower down the leagues and cited Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink—currently working wonders with Burton Albion. Taylor, also, was greatly concerned about the lack of people from Asian backgrounds working in football today and encouraged a recruitment policy that would help them become integrated as players, referees and even coaching staff. For him, studies needed to be done in areas with higher Asian populations such as Blackburn and Bradford to understand why these people are not coming through in football.

Football has come a long way since the days when the likes of Viv Anderson were subject to torrid racist abuse from the sidelines. Today, the England team has plenty of black stars within the squad. But clearly, football still has a long way to go. Perhaps the FA should stand up and take note of Anderson and Taylor’s sentiments and ultimately, take action.