Dean Richards

Rest in peace, absolutely tragic.

Wish I'd seen him in claret and amber even the once.

 

Great player

 

Absolutely agree with that, looked a class above even in his first few gashes at 17 years of age. I always thought he was good enough to be capped by England too but for whatever reason was always overlooked.

 

Remember when he 1st came into the side, you knew straight away he had something.
An absolute Rolls Royce of a player.
Cryuff turns in his own Penalty box D. Quality
RIP

 

Without doubt for me the best centre half I’ve seen for us, and possibly the best player I’ve seen for us.
Quite a few memories, scoring a wonder goal at (I think) Scunthorpe and at Grimsby.
Always remember him though for seeming to have Andy Booth in his pocket every time we played Town despite Booth being the best forward in the division at the time.

 

Always had that quality of never looking flustered.Had everything you need to be a great centre half.Pace when needed,calmness in a tight spot but wasn’t afraid to mix it if required.And a local lad which always makes it a bit more special when you see them go on to bigger and better things.

 

I remember talking to him in that dodgy pub on Thornton Road (Was The Devonshire at the time), he must have been 16, underage and not as tall as he turned out to be. We all had City scarves on which was why he talked to us, and he said (with massive pride) how he was in the youth team at City.

I'd never heard of him at that point (We had no real knowledge of youth players at that point, not like now) and was amazed when he made his full debut, having sprouted six inches) less than 18 months later.

What a talent he was. Apart from McFarland, who was on his way down when we had him, he is far and away the best CH ever to play for Bradford City and it's criminal that he never got a game for England. Him and (my mate !!!) Sol Campbell (or him and Rio) would have been superb and as they were the same age could have dominated the England backline for years.

Pallister should never have got a look in,

 

Can only agree , with other comments
What a player ! Had everything , pace , skill
Calmness personified , from the 1st time i saw him play it was obvious to us all that he was a class above
Lovely fella too , what a sad loss to all at such a young age
Will be remembered forever by those of us who were privileged to see him play
R i p deano

 

Saw him at Plymouth way when we thrashed them he was superb. I was in a Plymouth VIP box lol and was told in no uncertain terms to stop cheering by my ex wife....thats why she is an ex

 

Great player, personality. RIP

 

Yeah I almost mentioned the amount of good English centre backs around in those days. He genuinely could have replaced any of them though for any given game and wouldn't have liked out of place.

 

Remember that game. One piece of skill when he received a throw in under pressure from Plymouth players he did a Cryuff turn to get out of trouble.

 

All the above ... would be in my top 10 City team. Probably best defender we ever had technically. RIP Deano.

 

Agree with what everyone has said, class player taken far too young. I remember seeing his debut at Bournemouth, when he scored in front of the away end. Could tell then we had a player on our hands.

 

Norwich at home in the cup. Deam robbed their striker then ran the length of the pitch. He made higher league strikers look rubbish. Sean at the other end was on fire

 

And Jimmy Quincy didn't get a look in

And keeping Jimmy Quinn in his back pocket all game.....no mean feat for a teenager......what a player RIP Dean

 

For me the best player we've produced who actually played a good chunk of games for us. It was a joy to see him bring the ball out of defence. Sure I once saw him in Maestros too!

 

Used to see him regular Friday night's Dukes and Silks before he broke into first team ,remember coming out to warm up first game of the season and thought oh dear we're in trouble here , soon changed my mind very quickly great defender and tried to help us get to prem with that foul in box for the pen that Beagrie missed

RIP Deano