Vivian Alexander Anderson (born 29 July 1956) is an English former professional footballer who played as a right-back. He is best known for his ten-year stint with Nottingham Forest, with whom he won the First Division title in 1978, as well as the European Cup in 1979 and 1980.
In 1978, he became the first black footballer to play for England's senior men's national team, and from 1980 to 1988, was selected in the England squad for four major tournaments. He also had a short-lived managerial career with Barnsley, before joining Middlesbrough as assistant manager to Bryan Robson, where he remained until 2001.
Early life
Anderson was born in Clifton, Nottingham. His parents, Audley and Myrtle, were both from Jamaica. Audley came to England in 1954, while Myrtle arrived in 1955. Despite the racial tensions at the time, Anderson has said his childhood was relatively untroubled by discrimination and his parents must take a lot of credit for protecting him from the worst excesses of the environment they lived in. He spent a year as a schoolboy with Manchester United before being released. He returned to Nottingham where at school he sat and passed three CSEs. He then worked for three weeks as a silkscreen printer that he described as "a glorified tea boy really. I'd get the tea, and get the sandwiches at lunch time. I was just a dogsbody."
Club career
Nottingham Forest
Anderson had broken into the Nottingham Forest team during 1974 and became a regular after the arrival of Brian Clough as manager of the East Midlands club, then in the Second Division, in January 1975. He was part of the side that won promotion to the First Division in 1977, winning the title, along with the League Cup, a year later.
Anderson was one of the first black players to represent top English clubs at the time, and regularly suffered racial abuse from fans of rival teams. He was regularly pelted with bananas and targeted with racist chants.
Anderson was part of the Forest team that retained the League Cup (though he missed the final through injury) and then clinched the European Cup in 1979 with victory over Malmö. He picked up his second European Cup winners' medal when they retained the trophy with victory over Hamburger SV in Madrid. Forest did reach a third successive League Cup final that year, but lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Additionally, the 1980 European Cup win was to prove to be their last trophy for nine years.
Arsenal
In the summer of 1984, he aimed to revive his career with a move to Arsenal for £250,000. His time at Arsenal saw the club develop from underachieving in the First Division, to enjoying a victory over Liverpool in the 1987 League Cup final, and he finally enjoyed some club success for the first time in seven years since the European Cup. He also scored a vital goal against rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the second leg of the semi-final. He scored 15 goals in his three seasons at Highbury, a spell that saw him make 150 appearances for the club. Much of Arsenal's upturn in fortunes at this time can be attributed to George Graham's arrival in May 1986. The side was built upon a strong defence whose training involved being connected with rope to ensure they learned to work together. At this time, Anderson provided much inspiration to the young Tony Adams. The 30-year-old Anderson was rewarded with a three-year contract offer from Arsenal at the end of the 1987 season. Arsenal expected Anderson to agree to the new deal but he instead signed with Manchester United, the same club who had released him as a teenager.
Manchester United
After a tribunal agreed £250,000 fee, Coach Ron Greenwood was insistent that no political issue was at stake, despite the ever-rising number of young black stars in the game, born and raised in England. His second cap was in a friendly against Sweden in June 1979. His third appearance was his first competitive international as England defeated Bulgaria 2–0 at Wembley in a qualifier for the 1980 European Championships.
England had duly got through to the European Championship finals in Italy and Anderson was named in Greenwood's squad, playing in the final group game against Spain as a replacement for Phil Neal. England won 2–1 but did not progress further. Anderson later made his World Cup qualifying debut in a qualifier for the 1982 competition in a 4–0 win over Norway.
Injury to Kevin Keegan had meant Greenwood needed to call upon an experienced club captain to lead the team out in Spain, so Ipswich Town's skipper Mick Mills, normally a left-back, was put in the right-back slot (with regular incumbent Kenny Sansom remaining on the left) and both Neal and Anderson missed out. Neal played against Kuwait in the final group game to rest Mills when qualification had already been assured, but Mills returned for the second phase, from which England were eliminated. Anderson, meanwhile, never kicked a ball.
Anderson's England career seemed to be stalling. After the World Cup and Greenwood's departure, he did not feature at all under new coach Bobby Robson until 1984, with Neal still mainly getting the nod. England failed to qualify for the 1984 European Championships during this period. Anderson finally won an 11th cap, in April 1984, almost two years after his tenth.
After his move to Arsenal, Anderson revitalised his international standing and he won six consecutive caps from 1984 and into 1985, including four qualifiers for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico; in the first of which he scored his first of his two international goals in an 8–0 victory over Turkey. Then Robson gave a debut to the young Everton right-back Gary Stevens. Anderson won three caps at the end of 1986 as England began their quest to qualify for the 1988 European Championships in Germany. In one of the qualifiers against Yugoslavia, Anderson scored his second and final international goal.
Meanwhile, Stevens had forced his way back in as England qualified for the European Championships and Anderson won his 30th and (what proved to be) final cap in a Rous Cup game against Colombia though was again in reserve when the squad went to West Germany for the finals. They lost all three group games and Stevens came in for criticism, but maintained his place. For the third time, Anderson had travelled to a major international competition without getting a minute on the pitch. Robson began to look to the younger end of the playing spectrum for competition for Stevens, and Anderson's international career ended.
Coaching career
Barnsley
In June 1993, Anderson left Hillsborough to be appointed player-manager of Barnsley, following the departure of Mel Machin. Anderson has not been employed in football since leaving the assistant manager's job at Middlesbrough.
Personal life
Anderson has three children with his ex-wife. One of his sons is professional footballer Freddie Anderson. He was awarded an MBE in January 2000,
Career statistics
International
:Source:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year
|-
! National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
| rowspan="12" | England
|-
| 1978||1||0
|-
| 1979||2||0
|-
| 1980||2||0
|-
| 1981||3||0
|-
| 1982||2||0
|-
| 1983||–||–
|-
| 1984||2||1
|-
| 1985||7||0
|-
| 1986||5||1
|-
| 1987||4||0
|-
| 1988||2||0
|-
! colspan="2" | Total||30||2
|}
International goals
:Scores and results list England's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Anderson goal.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of international goals scored by Viv Anderson
|-
! scope="col" | No.
! scope="col" | Date
! scope="col" | Venue
! scope="col" | Opponent
! scope="col" | Score
! scope="col" | Result
! scope="col" | Competition
|-
| align="center" | 1 || 14 November 1984 || BJK İnönü Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey || || align="center" | 8–0 || align="center" | 8–0 || 1986 World Cup qualifying
|-
| align="center" | 2 || 12 November 1986 || Wembley, London, England || || align="center" | 2–0 || align="center" | 2–0 || UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying
|}
Honours
- PFA Team of the Year: 1978-79 First Division, 1979-80 First Division, 1986–87 First Division
References
External links
- Viv Anderson photos, biography and statistics at sporting-heroes.net
- 100 Great Black Britons profile
- Profile
- England's black players
- English Football Hall of Fame Profile