One-on-one: Dion Dublin talks Fergie, Cov, Villa, daytime TV and living with Jason Statham
COULD HE HAVE MATCHED CANTONA AT UNITED? HOW CLOSE WAS HE TO GOING TO A WORLD CUP? WHY IS HE HOSTING HOMES UNDER THE HAMMER?
On these pages down the years, we and our One-on-one interviewees have answered the biggest questions – questions that are on the lips of football fans across the world. What did Rafa Benitez say at half-time in Istanbul? What exactly happened to Ronaldo before the 1998 World Cup Final? Did George Best really prefer blondes? Now, though, it’s the biggie: how on Earth did Dion Dublin end up hosting Homes Under The Hammer?
It’s simply a fact that any UK resident with cause to be sat at home at 10am on a weekday will have watched the renovation-and-auction-themed show. Since 2015, then, tens of millions have seen the former Manchester United, Coventry and Aston Villa forward act as co-host. So, how did that come about?
“When I was still playing, I purchased a few properties,” the 49-year-old tells Fourfourtwo. “The production company found out I had a bit of a portfolio going on and approached my manager, Jo, to see if I’d be up for doing a dummy run. It went well, thankfully, so here we are!”
As we make ourselves comfortable at Premier League Productions’ plush west London headquarters, Dublin answers your questions about his early dealings with Alex Ferguson, narrowly missing out on England’s 1998 World Cup squad and being, to FFT’S knowledge, the only Premier League footballer ever to invent a musical instrument... What’s your earliest football memory? Jennifer Bailey, via Facebook Cyrille Regis was my football idol, and I tried to do as much as I possibly could to be like him. I probably didn’t get that close, but I did end up meeting him and we became friends. It was a very tough one to take, losing him [Cyrille passed away in January 2018].
As a kid I just enjoyed playing with my mates, really – for a few local teams, for the county, for Leicester from under-10s through to under-15s... You start to hear coaches say, “You’re a good player; work hard and you’ll do OK”. My ears pricked up and I started to believe that maybe it could happen for me. When I was 13 I was playing at under-16 level, then at 15 I was in the under-18s. Being tested from a young age helped me to impress.
Were you a particularly musical child? Was it a choice between pursuing your music or sport when you left school? Gregory Williams, via Facebook I was brought up around music – there was always some jazz on in the house. My mum played the mandolin and my dad played the bass – in fact, dad still plays bass for a reggae band now, and he’s into his eighties. My older sister and three brothers are all musicians as well. I’m a natural percussionist, but I picked up the saxophone a bit later in life, too. I loved music, but there wasn’t a point where I could have been a pro musician, although when I was 15 I did have to choose between professional basketball and football. Some people would say I should’ve gone for basketball [laughs]. How did it feel when you were let go by Norwich as a 19-year-old? Joshua Moore, via Twitter I signed my first professional contract at Norwich as a 16-year-old – I think it was a three-month deal worth £80 per week, and I thought I was absolutely minted! I was living in Great Yarmouth with my brother, Ash, who was a DJ and owned a nightclub there at the time.
Let me tell you a story that not many people will know: we lived with Jason Statham. He and my brother were best friends and they played in a few bands together [FFT: Did the three of you ever have a jam at home?] We’d have a few jams, but I was never on their level! He was a good housemate – he didn’t have any bad habits, although I’ve not been in touch with him for a long, long time.
You played under the infamous John Beck at Cambridge United – what was the maddest thing you saw him do? Terry Henderson, via Facebook Oh wow, just one? There were so many things. John used to leave the visiting team’s footballs for the warm-up in the bath so they’d be as heavy as anything, he’d put two or three bags of sugar in their tea, and he’d turn the heating off in their dressing room. The players were never involved but we knew what was going on. Teams hated coming to play Cambridge, but as we weren’t quite as technically gifted as some of the other sides, we had to find different ways of gaining an advantage. We knew it was wrong, but it didn’t hurt anybody. Well, unless they drank the tea...
“I DIDN’T THINK I’D GET CUT FROM ENGLAND’S SQUAD IN ’98. EVERY TIME HH EJ SN EO ET SL ME ER GLENN HODDLE SAYS SORRY...”
You helped Cambridge to reach two FA Cup quarter-finals back-to-back, scoring against Arsenal at Highbury in 1991. How huge an achievement was that, given the size of the club? Samuel Robertson, Biggleswade I don’t know Cambridge United’s history like the back of my hand, but I’m fairly certain it was the biggest achievement in the club’s history. We went on two great runs and lost to two great teams, Crystal Palace in 1990 being the other. For us to face players like Ian Wright and Tony Adams when we were in the Third or Fourth Division was incredible. We knew we weren’t going to win the FA Cup, but at least the club would get a few quid. That cash probably helped the club to keep its head above water.
Do you remember exactly where you were when you found out Man United wanted to sign you? Matthew Cooper, via Twitter [Closes eyes to picture the scene] I was at my house, in my lounge, on my own. The telephone in the kitchen rang, so I went through and picked it up. It was Becky [John Beck]. He said, “Dion, are you sitting down?” I was worried that it was going to be something really bad. Then he said, “Alex Ferguson has been on the phone... he wants to take you to Manchester United.” I think there must have been about two minutes’ silence while I took it all in. I was gobsmacked. The funny thing is that Alex had never seen me play live before – he had just seen a video compilation of my goals for Cambridge. Obviously his scouts had come to watch me in the flesh a few times and he backed their judgement.
Having scored so many goals for the U’s, you were linked with quite a lot of teams – were you made aware of other firm interest in your services? Alex Fern, Warrington Once other clubs got wind of the offer from Manchester United, they quickly got in touch. In one single day, I ended up having talks with Chelsea, Everton and Manchester United. Ian Porterfield, the Chelsea manager, told me that he wanted to build his whole team around me, which sounded exciting. We spoke for a couple of hours, then I headed up north to see Howard Kendall at Everton. The moment I arrived, he popped open the champagne to welcome me there. I spent another couple of hours with him, and suddenly I was thinking that I had a big decision to make.
Then I went over to Old Trafford, and Alex Ferguson was already waiting for me. He put his arm around my shoulder and, without saying a word, walked me from the club car park into the stadium, down the players’ tunnel, out onto the pitch, into the centre circle, and plonked me on the centre spot. “So, how do you fancy playing here every fortnight?” he asked. I couldn’t sign for United quickly enough. Even before he’d won that first league title [the following season], Alex had that incredible aura around him – he just knew exactly what to do to turn a footballer’s head. How often do you remind people that you scored the winner in Manchester United’s first Premier League victory, 1-0 away at Southampton? Ben Clarkson, via Facebook [Laughs] It was a Monday night match and the team flew down on the Sunday morning, but I missed the flight. I went to the wrong meeting point. I spoke to the manager and explained what had happened. He told me not to worry and to catch the flight down on the Monday morning. I did, then headed straight to the hotel. I arrived as the other players were having their pre-match meal. Four or five of the lads – Incey, Sparky, Pally, Brucey – lobbed their bread rolls at me. I got loads of abuse, but then the gaffer told me that I was starting upfront. So, there was pressure, but thankfully I was able to repay him and the boys.
How differently would your career at United have gone if you hadn’t broken your leg so early? Do you think Fergie might not have signed Eric Cantona? Would you back yourself to have made the same impact as Eric? Matt Wicks, via Instagram I think it would be very arrogant of me to say I could have had a similar impact to Eric – I don’t believe there are many players who could have done what he did for United. I do think I would have scored goals, though, both because of the supply line from each wing – Lee Sharpe, Ryan Giggs, Andrei Kanchelskis – and because with all of those terrific
"CHELSEA SAID THEY'D BUILD A TEAM AROUND ME, EVERTON WELCOMED ME WITH CHAMPAGNE, BUT FERGIE KNEW WHAT TURNS A FOOTBALLER’S HEAD”
guys around me, I would have become a better player. I don’t have any regrets in the game, but I’d love to know what could have happened in my career if I’d been able to sustain a long spell in the Man United team.
While playing for Coventry, you were stood right next to David Busst when he broke his leg at Old Trafford in ’96. Did seeing that affect you? Phil Harris, Warwick Yeah it did, and it made me appreciate what I had and how fortunate I was to be a footballer. It was a freak accident, nobody’s fault. Suddenly his leg was in a position that it just shouldn’t be in. It didn’t bleed for about two minutes, but then it suddenly started gushing out like a tap. Dave was nearly unconscious and I was lying on the floor, trying to keep him awake. That was five or six minutes into the match, so the rest of the game was a non-event. We didn’t care about the result, about how we played, about anything. As soon as we got back in the dressing room having lost 1-0, Gordon Strachan, our assistant manager, just said, “Come on, let’s go home.”
The next day, all the papers ran a horrific photograph of the injury. That wasn’t nice for anyone to see, but it did show the severity of what he went through. I still meet with him regularly. He’s a brave man. Was Coventry’s Great Escape in 1997 the best in Premier League history? How on Earth did we do it?! How did you celebrate safety? Rob Bailey, via Facebook The thing I remember is our last game at Spurs being delayed by 15 minutes because of traffic problems. We had to do our job and win at White Hart Lane, but also hope that Sunderland slipped up at Wimbledon and Middlesbrough dropped points against Leeds. Luckily, I managed to nick an early goal and Willo [Paul Williams] scored the winner, while everything else went our way – but it was very tense. We never gave up, which was down to [player-manager] Gordon Strachan. I had two relegation fights with Coventry and it’s hard to know how much to celebrate. When we stayed up in 1996, [manager] Ron Atkinson asked us why we were all celebrating. In reality you’ve not really achieved that much, but in both of those campaigns we had to dig so deep towards the end.
You must have spoken to Shay Given a few times since your cheeky goal against him for Coventry in ’97 – do you ever mention that goal?! Carolyn Morris, via Facebook Oh yes, I’ve worked alongside him a few times on TV and it’s definitely come up. He’s a really nice bloke but, as the joke goes, “Given’s the only Irishman who doesn’t know where Dublin is!” [Laughs] I went up to head a cross, Shay caught the ball and I tumbled towards the fans. I tiptoed onto the pitch quite slowly, he didn’t see me and dropped the ball, so I snuck in and scored. Some people said it was ‘ungentlemanly conduct’, but you have to make the most of advantages wherever you can.
How frustrating was it to be dropped from England’s 1998 World Cup squad after finishing the season as joint-top scorer in the Premier League? Keith Long, via Facebook I was in the provisional squad of 28 that travelled to La Manga, but I was one of the six who unfortunately missed out. It was frustrating as it had been the best season of my career. I’d won the Golden Boot, tied with Michael Owen and Chris Sutton. Glenn Hoddle was very honest – he’d just told Paul Gascoigne he wasn’t going before I walked into the room, so dealing with me was a doddle for him! He said, “Regardless of what I’ve had to deal with, this is the toughest decision I’ve had to make.” He said he needed to take a forward with a little more pace, and was going with Les Ferdinand over me. I’d had a brilliant week in training – Glenn and the other players kept telling me I was doing well. I wasn’t expecting to get cut, although I wasn’t expecting to go, either. Every time I see Glenn he says, “Dion, I’m so sorry.”
The six of us who were cut – myself, Gazza, Ian Walker, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and Andy Hinchcliffe – were taken straight to a people carrier that took us to the airport for our flight home. The mood on that flight back was horrible – tears, anger... I watched the World Cup thinking, ‘I could have been there’. I was in Spain and had to go to a bar to watch the matches. I couldn’t watch it sober!
I remember all of the legal wrangling around your exit from Coventry, with confusion about your release clause. What was that like for you? Paul White, Birmingham There was no release clause. The issue was that the Coventry chairman, Bryan Richardson, wanted me to have talks
with Blackburn, because they’d offered £6.7 million for me. When other clubs, such as Leeds and Aston Villa, heard that Coventry were letting me speak to Blackburn, they made their own offers. I just sat tight – I didn’t go for talks with Blackburn because I wanted to join Villa instead. There was a suggestion that it was all about money, but Villa’s terms were the same as I was on at Coventry. Living in Stratford-upon-avon, having children in school and everything else... moving to Villa just made much more sense for me, and they were top of the table at the time. Gordon Strachan had come up to me a few weeks before all of this fuss started and said he wanted to give me a new four-year deal, and I told him I’d be happy to sign it. But then the bids started coming in and the new contract offer never came.
How nervous were you in the shootout with Bolton when you stepped forward to take a penalty to put Villa in the 2000 FA Cup Final? You looked calm… Alan Gray, Hull That was pretty nerve-wracking. I’d broken my neck four months earlier and this was only my second game back in the team. I came on after 70 minutes and the match finished 0-0 after extra time. We all stood arm-in-arm back on the halfway line, watching the shootout. We scored our first three; Bolton missed two of theirs. I think there’s a photo of our players reacting when David James made his second save, and I’m the only one not celebrating because I know I’m up next and that if I score, we’re in the final. I went through the same routine as I did for any other penalty, and then pinged the ball into the top corner. Four goalkeepers wouldn’t have stopped it!
How mad were you with David James after his mistake cost Villa the 2000 FA Cup Final against Chelsea? Jimmy Robinson, via Twitter He was a world-class goalkeeper who got berated for a few errors. I missed loads of chances as a centre-forward and nobody says a word, so I’d never call him out for that – he was superb.
Peter Crouch has previously spoken about how much you helped him in his early days at Aston Villa. Do you feel a sense of pride looking back at how his career developed? Harry Edwards, via Instagram Yeah, I love Crouchy and always have done. When he first joined Villa he was just a young lad and not fully developed as a footballer. He came up to me and said, “I’m not quite ready yet, Diz” – he used to call me Diz for some reason – “Would you mind helping me out?” He’d ask questions, which was pretty brave as a young lad dealing with a senior member of the first-team squad, and he’d listen. He always had quality, and he has personality as well. Crouchy’s a down-to-earth bloke – he hasn’t changed at all. He deserves all the plaudits he’s had down the years.
You’re a member of the Premier League’s 100 club, Dion! What does it mean to you to be part of that illustrious group of players? There aren’t many of you... Clive French, via email [Smiles] Even now, there are only about 30 players in that club, and it’s great to be one of them. It’s pretty rare. I think I was probably the ninth or 10th person to do it. I can remember the 100th goal really well: it was at home to West Ham at Villa Park. It was only a tap-in from about three yards, but I was celebrating as if I’d scored a 30-yarder! All the other players were jumping over me because they knew that I had hit the milestone.
You’ve always seemed such a chilled bloke, so what was it that made you headbutt Robbie Savage in that 2003 Villa game against Birmingham? Is it a bit awkward when you run into him now on the punditry circuit? Jamie Berger, Luton No, it’s never awkward – we just get on with it. The red mist descended that day. The hatred on and off the pitch in those derbies between Villa and Birmingham is just incredible. Robbie did absolutely nothing wrong – it was my tackle that was late, then there were a few verbals and I completely lost my rag. I was so embarrassed that I’d let my temper get the better of me, but unless you’ve been in that situation, you can’t really judge. The way I dealt with it all was possibly wrong, and I got ban and a big fine. It cost me a lot of money!
Did you always have in mind that you wanted to ‘come home’ to Leicester one day? Was it a bit of a bad time to join the club? Joel Bruno, Kirby Muxloe It was great to play for my hometown team. I went to watch them play with my sister when I was a kid. I don’t think I was really prepared for that pressure of playing for your hometown club and having all your family there watching in the stands. If you have a bit of a stinker and the fans are reacting to that, then it’s difficult for the family to take. It was good to play for the club for a couple of seasons and score a few goals, even if it wasn’t the greatest years in their history. Had you planned to be a centre-back towards the end of your career? How differently do you approach matches when you’ve switched from the other end of the pitch? Paul Warner, London When you’re playing as a striker, you’re creating things; when you’re playing as a centre-half, you’re destroying. I would say making that switch is much easier than the other way around. Whenever I played in defence, I was thinking like a forward, so I knew where the ball was going before the strikers did. I wasn’t the quickest – which is the real reason I ended up playing back there [laughs] – so that helped me to gain a couple of yards. I found it easier playing at the back, but the mistakes are more likely to be punished. [FFT: Did you enjoy that as much as playing upfront?] Yeah, of course. Making a clearance off the line to stop the ball going in the net? Love it!
How did your instrument, the Dube, first come about? Do you have a load of them in your garage? Joe Cox, via Instagram [Laughs] The Dube came about during my second spell with Norwich. One day,
after training, instead of going back to my flat, I went to a hardware store and bought six pieces of wood, a hammer and some nails. I then spent the next three hours making a hollow box. I had cuts and bruises all over my hands, but it made a great sound. I love rhythms and making noise, and thankfully it has gone from strength to strength. They’re made up in Manchester these days, not in my garage!
I heard on a podcast that you played the Dube with Toploader, of Dancing In The Moonlight fame. Is that true, and have any other famous musicians asked you to play with them? Nick Goode, via Twitter I played with Toploader at a festival and with Ocean Colour Scene at their gig at the University of East Anglia. I used to manage some bands, and one of the groups I was looking after at the time – The Establishment – were supporting Ocean Colour Scene on tour. I knew the OCS boys from way back anyway, and they invited me to play with them. My boys went on first, before Ocean Colour Scene came on, played a few songs and invited me on the stage. I played a tune with them and was as nervous as you like. Luckily there were a lot of Norwich fans in, cheering me on. The Toploader thing followed on from that.
Which was the more nerve-wracking: making your Premier League debut or recording your first episode of Homes Under The Hammer? Jordan Grant, via Instagram [Laughs] I’d probably say Homes Under The Hammer, as playing football was my job, my life and my skill. Even though it was nerve-wracking, when you’re trying to present for the first time, it takes you a while to get it perfect. The worst thing I’ve seen in a house? Well, I presented with a rat at my feet at one point. I had seen it out of the corner of my eye, but it wasn’t until I watched the video back that I realised how close it got to me.
What’s the one TV show you would like to present more than any other? Laura Griffin, via Facebook I’d love to host a music show like Jools Holland’s, live from an enormous studio with around 10 bands on. Dion Dublin’s Hootenanny? Yeah, that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
“OCEAN COLOU RH SJ CN EO NT EL CE AR ME E ON, PLAYED A FEW SO NE GH ST AE NB DO THEN INVITED ME ON THE STAGE TO PLAY THE DUBE WITH THEM...”