Brian Deane reveals weight of expectation behind difficult spell at Leeds United - Leeds Live 23/9/22
Deane joined Leeds for a club record fee of £2.9million in June 1993.
In his mind, Brian Deane had reached the promised land when
he signed on the dotted line to join his hometown club Leeds United in 1993.
The Whites had paid a club record £2.9million to prise him
away from Sheffield United and Deane headed to Elland Road off the back of a
goal-laden campaign 36 miles down the M1 at Bramall Lane.
Deane notched 11 goals in his debut campaign in West
Yorkshire and a further nine times in his second season as Leeds registered
back-to-back fifth place finishes. However, by his own admission, the former
England international says the weight of expectation was something he'd never
experienced before.
"Yes [I did feel the pressure], because Leeds had won
the title a couple of years before and I was signed to try to help them do it
again," Deane told FourFourTwo.
He added: "I was also a Leeds lad and still live there,
so I had pressure from people I grew up with who loved Leeds. I never had that
much expectation at Sheffield United, as I was young and making my name in
football.
"I didn’t show my best at Leeds, sadly. I went in there
thinking I’d made it a little bit. I was slightly cocky and stopped doing the
basics I’d got right in Sheffield. I didn’t look after my body as well and my
game dipped."
Howard Wilkinson was sacked less than a month into the
1996/97 season following a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester United in
September 1996. He was replaced by George Graham, who often deployed Deane as a
winger as opposed to his natural role at centre-forward.
Although Deane had also played out wide under Wilkinson, his
goal scoring figures dropped under Graham, although he still concluded the
season as United's joint-leading scorer in the Premier League with a mere five
goals. Deane returned to his former club Sheffield United in the summer of 1997
and believes his sacrifice for the team was often overlooked.
"I was played out of position a lot," Deane
revealed. "I was a striker and wanted to score goals, but I went wide for
the team because I simply wanted to play.
"Sometimes people talked about my goal record and said
I wasn’t scoring enough, but I wasn’t playing up front so that was difficult to
take. It was frustrating because I felt like my sacrifice for the team was
overlooked at times."
Deane returned to Leeds during the twilight of his career
after taking in spells at Benfica, Middlesbrough, Leicester City and West Ham
United respectively.
He struggled to make an impact in his second spell but did
score four times in a 6-1 thrashing of Queens Park Rangers in November 2004.
After a brief spell at Sunderland and a short adventure in
Australia with Perth Glory, Deane hung up his boots after a third and final
spell with the Blades in 2006.