Dean Richards: The forgotten man that must be remembered

In the six years between his retirement in 2005 and his sad passing last month, Dean Richards seemed to evaporate from football. It was when searching through YouTube videos that I truly realised this – with only two or three clips to his name there are players with far less talent with much more acclaim.

A towering player at centre half with the rare ability to match elegance with strength, Richards optimised what a defender should possess and if it wasn’t for a run of injuries and illness his career would surely have been decorated with more titles and England caps.

As it was, Richards never gained a full England cap and instead had to settle for 4 Under21 caps in the 1995 Toulon tournament where he skippered a young England team including David Beckham and Phil Neville. To display leadership skills at an early age was a sign to come for the career of the young man.

Playing for his hometown club of Bradford City, Richards broke through the ranks in the 1992/1993 season and went on to gain 86 league caps for the team, scoring 4 goals in the process. He moved on to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1995 for a fee of 1.85 million and quickly settled in the team. Richards enjoyed a good run in the first team during his first year with the club. However the first injuries began to dog Richards’s career in the 1996/97 season after a car crash left the defender with damaged knees meaning he missed most of the campaign. Wolves suffered without his influence when they narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League.

Richards moved on in 1999 on a free transfer seeking Premiership football with Southampton. Although some fans at the time were upset, Richards’ desire to test himself at the top level pushed him to go ahead with the move and leave the club he made 122 league appearances for. Although his stay at Southampton was only for a brief 2 years, he established a well-remembered defence partnership with Claus Lundekvam which helped the Saints to a 10^th place finish in the 2000/2001 season, which at the time was a great success.

Glen Hoddle was the manager for most of Southampton’s 2000/2001 season but left in acrimonious circumstances to take charge of Tottenham in March 2001. Although he had recently signed a new contract, Hoddle managed to persuade Richards to follow him out of the door in the summer to join Spurs for a fee of 8.1 million, which was at the time the highest fee ever paid for an English player yet to be capped for his country. Despite this exciting start to his Tottenham career, injuries restricted Richards to 73 league appearances in his four seasons at White Hart Lane.

It was towards the end of 2004 when Richards was forced to seek medical attention after complaining of dizzy spells and headaches. He was advised to have a brain scan and although the results came back negative he took the doctors advice against carrying on with his footballing career.

So although some fans of Wolves and Southampton may feel Richards left their respective clubs in an unsatisfactory fashion, it needs to be recognised that he was simply showing the ambition anyone must show in their profession, and he was always looking for the next challenge to push himself to a higher level. His passion, commitment and drive to succeed at the highest level should be looked upon positively and be seen as an example for any young player suffering with injuries today. He never let the constant battles with his body bring him down and always strived to be the best he could.

His recent passing will also be felt at his home town of Bradford where he was working as a part time coach with the clubs youngsters. If he passed on any of his immense qualities there should be some bright prospects coming out of Bradford academy in the not-so-distant future. The 6’2’’ defender will always be remembered for the talent he showed and the courage that it took for him to keep fighting through adversity in his personal and professional life.