Alan Dickens
Personal information
Full name	Alan William Dickens
Date of birth	3 September 1964 (1964-09-03) (age 45)
Place of birth	London, England
Playing position	Midfielder
Youth career
1981–1982	West Ham United
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1982–1989 1989–1993 1992 1993 1993–1994	West Ham United Chelsea →West Bromwich Albion →Brentford Colchester United	192 (23) 48 (1) 3 (1) 15 (1) 32 (3)
National team
1984	England U21	1[1]
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Alan Dickens (born 3 September 1964) is an English former footballer who played as a midfielder. He played the majority of his football at West Ham United and Chelsea.

Dickens was born in Plaistow, East London, and played for West Ham United as a youth, winning the FA Youth Cup with his local club in 1981. For England, he gained four caps at Youth level and later played for the Under 21 team.^[2]

He signed for the Hammers as an apprentice on 14 July 1981 and as a pro on 2 August 1982. He scored on his debut, a 2-1 win at Notts County on 18 December 1982. Although a central midfielder, Dicko had to play most of the 1987-88 season partnering Tony Cottee as a striker following the departure of Frank McAvennie. He made a total of 231 league and cup appearances for the Hammers, scoring 29 goals, playing his last game for them on 23 May 1989 against Liverpool.

Dickens made the move to Chelsea for £635,000, a fee set by a Football League tribunal that included his former manager John Lyall.^[3] He made 22 league appearances for the West London club during the 1989-90 season under Bobby Campbell, with his debut coming in a 1-0 away win against Wimbledon on 19 August 1989, the opening day of the 1989-90 season. He was regularly substituted during the first half of the campaign. He scored his first league goal in a 4-2 defeat at QPR on 9 December 1989, but made just one appearance between January and the end of the season (as a late replacement for Peter Nicholas in the last game of the season away to Millwall).

During his second season at Chelsea, Dickens failed to make a league start until mid-February. He did, however, keep his place in the side for the remainder of that campaign. Campbell's replacement at the end of the 1990-91 season, Ian Porterfield, signed Vinnie Jones and Dickens added just three games to his 1991-92 tally upon Jones' arrival on 30 August 1991. He played his last first-team game in February 1992, a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest, after which he appeared only for the reserve team.

After periods on loan to West Bromwich Albion and Brentford during the 1992-93 season, Dickens moved to Colchester United where he made 32 league appearances. He later played non-league football with Chesham United, Collier Row, Billericay Town and Purfleet.

After retirement from football, Dickens went on to live in Barking^[4] and work as a black cab (hackney carriage) driver^[5].

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Hogg, Tony (2005). Who's Who of West Ham United. Profile Sports Media. pp. 66–67. ISBN 1 903135 50 8. 
• "Alan Dickens". westhamstats.info. http://www.westhamstats.info/westham.php?west=2&ham=190&united=Alan_Dickens. Retrieved 2009-01-19. 
• "Alan Dickens - Chelsea FC". sporting-heroes.net. http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/displayhero_club.asp?HeroID=17236. Retrieved 2009-01-19. 
• "Since 1888". http://allfootballers.com/. Retrieved 2009-01-19. 

Persondata
NAME	Dickens, Alan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION
DATE OF BIRTH	September 3, 1964(1964-09-03)
PLACE OF BIRTH	Plaistow, London
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH