In a Guardian tribute to Dean Richards, a week after his untimely death, ex-colleague Matt Le Tissier Commented on the way

Dean had “fitted in really well with that relaxed spirit we had, genial and unassuming off the pitch on it he was an absolute rock. Deano was a very clever player, a strong boy and deceptively quick.

In training you would be up against him and getting ahead. Then you’d think: ‘hang on a minute’, and he would cover the ground with his big long strides and whip the ball away”. Although it was public knowledge that Dean had had to prematurely retire at Tottenham in March 2005 after suffering from dizzy spells and nausea, his death still came as quite a shock to most of the football world. In particular the Southampton fans who arguably had seen Dean at his peak before Glenn Hoddle rancorously prised him away to North London for £8m, then a record fee for an uncapped player. Having arrived from Wolves on a Bosman it represented a tidy profit for Saints but no one wanted to see him go, least of all Southampton’s chairman who described the Tottenham Board as north London yobbos after the way they conducted themselves during the negotiations.

Dean was an elegant, cultured centre-half thoroughly at ease on the ball and throughout his two years on the south coast hardly any opposing forward got the better of him.

His first season ended with him being voted player-of-the year by the fans and being tipped for England honours but then, all of a sudden he was gone leaving a void almost impossible to fill. At Spurs it was predicted he would flourish but niggling injuries and the onset of the symptoms described above held him back until he was sadly forced to give the game up for good. He turned his attention to getting his coaching badges and in 2007 rejoined his original club Bradford City as part-time youth coach but three and a half years later fate intervened to take the life of one of the nicest guys in the game.