Tribute to Dean Richards
By Nathan Lloyd - 27th February 2011 at 09:02PM
At around 3:15pm on Saturday 27th February, the Molineux crowd begin a chant in unison of ‘Deano’ followed by ‘there’s only one Dean Richards’ and finished with a spontaneous round of applause. And I’ll admit that I started to fill up.
The reason for the tears was that I’d heard only a few hours earlier of the passing of Dean Richards, a tremendous centre-back who spent four years in the gold & black from 1995 -1999.
I’m not usually one for outpours of emotions at the best of times, especially at football matches. In my 20+ years of going to Molineux, this was only the second time I can remember feeling this way. The only other occasion was when Matt Murray came onto the pitch and gave a heartfelt speech about his love for the club and his reasons for his premature retirement.
It is always sad when an ex-Wolves hero passes away, but usually it’s because they are in the twilight of their life and have reached an age where the old clichés are trotted out about having a good innings and so on.
But like Paul Birch and Mark Kendall before him, Dean Richards’ untimely death makes Shankley’s quote about football being more important than life itself seem like irrelevant garbage.
I remember seeing his debut in a dull scoreless home game against Luton in March 1995. Instantly, you could tell he had something special; he had quality and vision with the ball you would rarely see from a defender at the time. He would often take the ball out of defence and instigate attacks
Today this type of player is not uncommon, but back then, Richards was as rare as hen’s teeth. I like to think that the Molineux crowd is quick to spot a good player and after a few chants of ‘sign him up’ Graham Taylor turned Richards’ loan from Bradford into a permanent deal for a fee just shy of two million quid.
The next season, Mark McGhee, probably many Wolves fans least favourite manager from the past 20 years, took over the reins and at least did something right by bringing in Keith Curle from Man City.
Over the subsequent seasons, Richards and Curle formed what I still consider to be our strongest central defensive partnership in the last 30 years. Both read the game fantastically well and both were good on the ball, but Richards had that something extra that set him apart.
His Molineux stay was a bit of a bumpy ride. He suffered a car crash on his way back from a cup game at White Hart Lane in 1996 and struggled to regain his form when he came back into the side. On his return to the side, he ensured his name in Wolves folklore by banging one in against the Albion with a belter of a header.
He was a colossus in the air and after all his injury problems; Richards became an ever-present in his final season at Molineux. By then his talents had been spotted by many clubs, but it was future Wolves manager Dave Jones then at Southampton who snatched him away from Wolves on a Bosman.
He stayed injury free on the south coast and played 79 games in just over two years, compared to just 112 appearances at Wolves in four years.
And when Sol Campbell left Spurs for North London rivals Arsenal in 2001, Hoddle shelled out £8.1m to take Richards to White Hart Lane. Scoring against Man Utd on his home debut immediately endeared himself to the Spurs supporters, although that was the game that Tottenham let a 3 goal lead turn into a 5-3 defeat!
Still in his early Thirties, Richards retired from football after just 73 appearances for Spurs in four years, blaming an inner-ear infection on dizzy spells and headaches.
And in 2007, after passing his coaching badges, Dean took up a part-time coaching post at Bradford City.
As well as proudly witnessing at first hand the elegance of Richards in Wolves colours, I also remember meeting him at an end of season awards function at Molineux (below). He came across as quiet, unassuming and almost the antithetical football player.
These sentiments were echoed by Steve Froggatt, a superb winger who played in the same Wolves team as Dean for 3 seasons, who spoke eloquently about his devastation about losing his former colleague on local radio at the weekend. He said in a dressing room of big characters such as Mike Stowell, Kevin Muscatt and Steve Bull, Dean was absolute loved and was part of a group of players that were very, very close.
Froggy spoke how Dean had the talent to go on and play for England alongside Rio Ferdinand had his career not been so cruelly cut short.
Wolves fans and Spurs fans will get their chance to pay tribute to Deano at next week’s fixture when the two clubs meet at Molineux. It’ll be an emotional and poignant occasion, but importantly we all should remember what a great talent he was and our thoughts will be with Dean’s family and friends.
R.I.P Deano
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