Brian Deane: The Hard Way
"I never forget looking back at all those people who had got their wish," says Deane. "And thinking, you are not going to beat me. This isn't it for me."
One day in Leeds in 1984, when Brian Deane was sixteen, he was lying on the backseat of his brother-in-law's Daihatsu, thinking what he was always thinking: he was going to be a professional footballer.
The pain in his leg didn't matter. A tackle in a match on Chapeltown Rec had just broken his tibula and fibula and dislocated his ankle, but that was secondary. He could still hear what the older lads on the sidelines had been shouting during the match: 'Five pounds if you break Deano's leg! Ten pounds if you break Deano's leg!', but they could stay on the sidelines. Brian Deane was going to be a professional footballer.
"I never forget looking back at all those people who had got their wish," says Deane. "And thinking, you are not going to beat me. This isn't it for me. I can't let this happen. I don't know what I was hanging on to, but I just felt there was somebody, something guiding me. A lot of things about me have been about proving people wrong."
1984 was a great time for teenagers in Leeds who wanted to be professional footballers. John Sheridan, Scott Sellars, Tommy Wright and Denis Irwin were all playing in Eddie Gray's young Leeds United team at Elland Road; kids like Peter Swan and David Batty were getting apprenticeships. Deane knew them all, from local matches, junior trials, or in Batty's case, from school.
"Me and Batts went to Allerton Grange," says Deane. "We used to go past his house up in Chapel Allerton, on the way to school and back; he had a lovely family, they were such nice people. At school Dave was always a bit quiet but he was mentally strong, he would tell people what he thought. I used to see him on his own a lot but he didn't give a shit."