Ex Saint Dean Richards passed away this weekend.
Dean Richards started his career at hometown club Bradford city where as a youngster he was unfortunately present at Valley Parade when their main stand burnt down claiming many lives, he made hsi debut for the club aged 18 and was a regular for several seasons prompting Wolves to come knocking and pay £1.85 million for his services.
In his four seasons at Molyneaux Richards was club captain and an ever present when fit, a serious car crash restricting his appearances and also causing back problems that would prove to be troublesome at times, it was rumoured that both Arsenal and Man Utd were interested but perhaps the doubts over his fitness led to them stepping back, Richards though angered Wolves fans when he refused to sign a new contract and in 1999 excersised his right to a Bosman free transfer and joined Saints.
He was an insstant hit at the Dell and ended the season as player of the year as Saints fans looked forward to what they hoped would be a great final season at the Dell under Glenn Hoddle.
But this would not only be the final season for the old ground, but Hoddle himself and the last full season for Richards at Saints.
Hoddle had immediately tried to take Richards to White Hart lane with him and Saints fans thought the danger of losing their star defender was over when Richards signed a two year contract extension in the summer of 2001, but Spurs had clearly tapped up the Saints man and within a matter of weeks it was clear that he was no longer content to stay
Tthe move to St Mary's saw much upheaval and it wasnt over when the season started, Richards started in the first four games, but after weeks of intense speculation when Rupert Lowe bowed to the inevitable and accepted that Richards wanted to follow Hoddle to Spurs and took the £8.1 million that was on the table, it should be noted that for much of the period before the move that Spurs were offereing much much less and lowe still smarting from the Hoddle debacle six months earlier refused to budge and got what was a magnificent profit on the player. He had made a total of 78(1) appearances scoring 7 goals.
Richard though was now public enemy number 2 in Saints fans eyes after Hoddle himself and when they arrived on Boxing Day, both manager and player were booed throughout the game which saw Saints win 1-0 through Beattie.
The following season saw Richards and hoddle receive their traditional warm welcome at SMS, again it was a 1-0 Beattie win and the goal was scored as he turned our ex defender inside out much to the delight of 90% of the crowd, three days later Spurs were back at St mary's for a cup tie but Richards missed the game with a knee injury.
Richards time at Spurs was marred by injury, in four seasons at Spurs he managed only 73 league appearances, only six more than for Saints in twice the time, but the feeling was that for some reason he wasnt the player he was at the Dell, when he left Saints there was the feeling that he was a cert for the 2002 England world cup squad but he dropped out of view, but hindsight will show that sadly for the man he was suffering from an illness that was clearly effecting his game and in March 2005 he retired admitting that an inner ear infection was causing him dizzy spellls and he had been advised to retire or perhaps suffer worse health problems.
He took his coaching badges and returned to his home City of Bradford taking on part time coaching work at his first Club from207 to the present day.
All football fans will be saddened at the death of Dean and all will send their condolences to his family, sadly though there wont be many fans of his former clubs that remember him with much affection, Wolves fans certainly after leaving them under a cloud, Saints supporters for the drawn out saga and his demands to leave and Spurs fans who saw little of the form that prompted them to pay over 8 million pounds and high wages for him will certainly mourn his passing but not as much as they really should have been able to do, Dean was a great footballer but he clearly had a streak in him that saw him chase what he saw was best for him and whilst there is nothing wrong with that, it meant that he usually left a club with a little sour tate in the mouth.
Football is not always a matttter of life and death and certainly I am very sad that Dean has died and i dont want to speak ill of the dead, I would much rather have given a glowing tribute to the man, but I cant change history and what has happened has happened, for two years Saints fans revered Dean Richards for the sterling performances he put in in our shirt and no one can take that away from him, but in the last ten years you wont have found many Saints fans with a good word to say about him so I feel it better to give an honest tribute rather than one that whitewashes history.
As I have said it is very sad news to hear of Dean's death, Im sure i speak for all Saints fans when I send our condolences to his family and friends.