Vivian Alexander Anderson MBE (born 29 July 1956) is an English former professional footballer who played as a right-back.
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.
[5] 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.
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.
The side was built upon a strong defence whose training involved being connected with rope to ensure they learned to work together.
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.
At Old Trafford, Anderson was a significant part of Ferguson's rebuilding plans as he attempted to create a title-winning side to end the wait that had started at the club in 1967.
Following a dismal start to the 1986–87 season that had cost Ron Atkinson his job on 5 November, Ferguson had steered United from 21st to 11th of 22 First Division clubs in the final six months of the campaign.
He played just three more games for the club, and on his final appearance for them in the League Cup second round, second leg against Halifax Town on 10 October 1990, he scored their first goal in a 2–1 win that gave a 5–2 aggregate victory.
Anderson joined Sheffield Wednesday on a free transfer in January 1991, helping them to promotion from the Second Division, although he missed the League Cup final triumph over Manchester United as he had played for his old club earlier in the competition.
Despite originally being thought of as a short-term signing, Anderson established himself in the Wednesday first team and captained the side on many occasions.
[10] 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.
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.
At the end of the 1993–94 season, Anderson quit Barnsley after just a year to become assistant manager of Middlesbrough under former Old Trafford teammate Bryan Robson.
[8] Anderson appears as an occasional guest pundit on MUTV, Manchester United's official TV station.
[12] This includes the shirt he wore on his on his debut match against Czechoslovakia in 1978 which had previously been displayed at the People's History Museum in Manchester.