The Hammers' legendary full-back wasn't afraid of getting stuck in and also scored 65 goals for the East London club in 326 games
WHEN you think of Julian Dicks, you think of the kind of bone-cracking tackles that could end careers and/or cause minor earth tremors.
Nicknamed the Terminator, his wholehearted approach to the game endeared him to fans, most notably at West Ham where he played 326 games, scoring 65 goals.
"I wasn't dirty – I never went out to hurt anybody,” he says. “I just wanted to win."
And in the wake of a revolution at the Hammers, they don't come more old school than Dicks, as you'll find out.
All that tough tackling wasn’t always perfectly timed. Dicks was sent off no fewer than nine times during his explosive career.
In fact, Dicks penchant for picking up red cards was such that West Ham manager Billy Bonds took the captaincy off him.
“I always used to fall out with Billy but I understand why he didn't want his captain to keep getting sent off,” he said.
“Even though I once said to him, ‘It's a bit hypocritical coming from you’.”
Though he played four times for England’s Under-21 side and two games for the old England B team, Dicks never won a full cap for his country.
It was such a source of frustration for him that when he bumped into England assistant manager John Gorman on holiday in 1997 he asked him what he had to do to get in the squad.
"He told me to grow my hair long and I would get in the England side,” he said.
“I ask you, what sort of s**t is that?"
While he was known for being fully committed in games, Dicks’ approach to training wasn’t always the same. Take pre-season conditioning, for example.
“We’d train in the morning, have five pints for lunch and come back in the afternoon for a ten-mile run.”
You’ve got to re-hydrate, haven’t you?
He could take it as well as give it…
In 2000, Dicks was granted a testimonial by West Ham, so naturally he arranged a match against their old enemy, Millwall to mark the occasion. Bad idea.
“I got abuse from the first whistle to the last,” he recalled.
“I should have known what was coming because the time before I had a house brick thrown at me.”
Dicks also had a benefit game against Atheltic Bilbao that ended in a 17-man brawl and with police and stewards having to get involved to separate the players.
Imagine how bad it would have been if it wasn’t a friendly?
Dicks and Bilic used to room together when they were at West Ham and soon found they shared the same interests, not all of which were ideal for professional athletes.
“We’d have a bottle of wine, half a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, we’d listen to Iron Maiden,” he recalled. “We had great times together.”
Signed by Graeme Souness in a bid to toughen up his Liverpool side, Dicks played just 28 times for the Reds, scoring three goals.
But one of those goals was very special.
At the end of the 1993/94 season, Liverpool were playing Ipswich in the last game at Anfield before the famous old Spion Kop was replaced with seats.
And it was Dicks who scored the last ever goal in front of it, slamming home a penalty to give Liverpool a 1-0 win.
“I know it didn't really work out for me at Liverpool but I always look back and think to myself, for a year, I played for one of the greatest clubs in the world,” he said.
“I still scored the last ever Liverpool goal in front of the old standing Kop and that will be in the record books for ever.”
Dicks is a dog man.
Yes, forget your felines, it’s dogs all the way for him and there’s one breed in particular that’s really captured his heart.
“Once you’ve got a bull terrier you never want another dog,” he once said. “I’ve got six bull terriers, a rottweiler and a bulldog.”
He was never going to say Pekingese, was he?
With his playing career over, Dicks turned to his next favourite sport – golf.
He had been playing the game since he was 22 and by the age of 27 he was playing off scratch. He even had the same coach as Colin Montgomerie.
But having turned professional, he soon found that his problematic knee wasn’t suited to the demands of tour golf.
That fact that he wasn’t quite good enough also rankled.
“Golf’s meant to be a gentleman’s sport but I tended to lose my rag when I fluffed a shot," he revealed.
"I ended up smashing loads of my clubs.”
When he called time on his golf career, Dicks took over the Shepherd and Dog pub in Langham, near Colchester.
But he soon found that his long-standing knee injury was still causing him grief, especially as he was on his feet all day.
How did he cope? By having “a couple of glasses of red wine and a couple of glasses of whisky and then it’s fine.”
Most recently, Dicks was sidekick to mate Bilic at West Ham, until both were sacked last year.
He's reportedly eager to get back into coaching at the top level.
