A striker for Derby County who never saw action for the Rams cost £650k: Look at
Derby County’s high-profile acquisition of former Stockport County striker Liam Dickinson may have left them with some misgivings.
The towering attacker had just finished an amazing 2008 season with the Hatters, one so good that Derby, who were in the Championship at the time, felt compelled to make a serious bid.
Dickinson never played a competitive minute for the Rams and was loaned to many teams before being sold to Brighton & Hove Albion at a huge loss, so it turned out to be a misplaced move.
Though Dickinson is still highly regarded in Stockport, it is unlikely that he will evoke too many pleasant memories at Pride Park.
A fantastic season in Stockport led to the change.
Dickinson had been playing for the Hatters for a few seasons, but it wasn’t until the 2007–08 season, in his early twenties, that he truly made an impact. In his late teens, he was selected from non-league Woodley Sports.
Prior to his transfer, the 22-year-old scorched through 40 League Two games that season, racking up 19 goals and four assists. He added two more goals in the play-offs, one of which was in the Wembley final and proved to be the game-winning goal that sent Stockport to the Championship.
His career appeared to be going in only one direction, so it was not a major surprise when the Championship side called. After having their first proposal of £250,000 refused, they increased their final accepted bid to £750,000.
“Two and a half years ago I was playing in non-league so to get to the Championship with a massive club like Derby is unreal,” Dickinson said at the time, speaking to BBC Radio Derby.
For Dickinson, it turned out to be a jump too soon.
Though it’s understandable why the Rams were enticed to make the move given the enormous sum of money they were willing to spend on a new forward, Dickinson’s tenure in the Midlands did not have the expected effect.
He only ever appeared in one competitive game for Derby before going on short-term loans to Leeds United, Blackpool, and Huddersfield Town. For the former pair, he found his scoring touch again, but it was insufficient to get him into his parent club’s starting lineup.
The place where it all started, the striker, will be most warmly recalled
Dickinson will not evoke any fond memories at Derby, despite their seeming amicable split. Dickinson cost the team a considerable sum of money and never saw the field.
The 38-year-old, who is considered as one of the team’s modern heroes, started his Football League career at Edgeley Park, where the same could not be further from the reality.
It’s evident from a cursory look through his career history that Dickinson never really settled anywhere after that first move, always looking for the next challenge. Dickinson obviously feels the same way about the Hatters, though, as he is regularly spotted mingling with supporters on the concourse prior to Stockport games, gatherings that usually result in fans chanting his name.
Derby will undoubtedly regret wasting the money on the transaction because it appears like Dickinson may have already found his ideal home before moving to Pride Park.
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