Dion Dublin
Dion Dublin is an English former professional footballer, television presenter and pundit. He is a club director of Cambridge United.
As a player he was a centre-forward, notably playing in the Premier League for Manchester United, Coventry City and Aston Villa. He also had spells in the Scottish Premiership with Celtic, in the Conference with Wycombe Wanderers, and in The Football League with Cambridge United, Barnet, Millwall, Leicester City and Norwich City. He was capped four times for England.
Following his retirement from football, Dublin moved into the entertainment business. He is also an amateur percussionist, and invented a percussion instrument called "The Dube". In 2011, he accompanied Ocean Colour Scene in a gig at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. In 2015, he joined the presenting team on the BBC One daytime show Homes Under the Hammer and has appeared as a regular pundit for BBC Sport on Football Focus, Match of the Day and Final Score. He also occasionally provides co-commentary on live televised FA Cup games.
Club career
Norwich City
Dublin was born in Leicester. While at school he played for several Leicestershire youth teams, including Wigston Fields and Thurmaston Magpies. He then went on to begin his professional footballing career with Norwich City after leaving school in 1985, but never made a first-team appearance and was released by the club in 1988.Cambridge United
In August 1988, Dublin joined Cambridge United on a free transfer, as a centre-forward, which had been his position at Norwich City. However, due to injuries he had to make a number of appearances at centre-half. His prolific goalscoring helped United to successive promotions. During the 1988–89 season, Dublin was then loaned out for short spells in the Conference with Barnet and Wycombe Wanderers. The 1989–90 season saw Cambridge promoted from the Fourth Division via the play-offs, when Dublin became the first ever scorer in a Wembley play-off final.In the 1990–91 season, the club were champions of the Third Division, and the club also reached the quarter-final of the FA Cup in both seasons, with Dublin scoring at Arsenal in 1991. In the 1991–92 season, he played a big part in helping Cambridge to their highest ever finishing position in the football league, by finishing in fifth place in the last season of the old Second Division, but when Cambridge failed to win promotion to the new Premier League via the play-offs, Dublin was put up for sale. He has since spoken many times of his affection for Cambridge United.
Manchester United
Having scored against them in a League Cup tie the previous autumn, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson signed Dublin for £1 million on 7 August 1992, fighting off competition from Chelsea and Everton. Dublin was something of a surprise purchase for United, after Ferguson had tried to sign Alan Shearer from Southampton but lost out to Blackburn Rovers.He scored in United's fourth Premier League game of the 1992–93 season, a late winner in United's first Premier league victory as they beat Southampton 1–0 at The Dell. However, on 2 September, he suffered a broken leg against Crystal Palace in a 1–0 win at Old Trafford, after a tackle by Eric Young, and was out of action for six months. By the time he had recovered, however, United had signed Eric Cantona and the Frenchman was firmly established as first choice strike partner to Mark Hughes. United won the league that season for the first time since 1967, but Dublin failed to make the 10 Premier League appearances required to automatically gain a title winner's medal. However, he was given a medal as a result of special dispensation from the Premier League.
In the 1993–94 season, Dublin regained his fitness, but his first team chances were restricted by the successful partnership of Cantona and Hughes. In December 1993, Ferguson agreed a deal with Everton manager Howard Kendall, that would have seen Dublin moving to Goodison Park, but a member of Everton's board of directors, apparently feeling that Dublin was not worth the money Kendall had offered United, intervened to prevent the transfer going through – this dispute sparked Kendall's resignation as manager. Dublin would remain a United player for another nine months, but never managed to claim a regular place in the first team.
He managed five league appearances that season, scoring once in a 3–2 home win over Oldham Athletic in early April, his goal helping secure a vital victory in the title run-in during a spell when United started to drop points and Blackburn Rovers were closing in on them. He also managed a further goal in the Football League Cup second round first leg, as United were beaten 2–1 by Stoke City at the Victoria Ground. The goal against Oldham was the only competitive goal that Dublin scored for United at Old Trafford. He was left out of the FA Cup winning team against Chelsea and failed to make enough appearances to merit another Premier League title winners medal.
In September 1994, he was sold to Coventry City for £2 million, which, at the time, was a record signing for Coventry City and one of the largest fees received by Manchester United.
Coventry City
In four years with Coventry, Dublin established himself as one of the Premier League's top strikers and during the 1997–98 season won the first of his four full England caps. That season, he equalled the Coventry City record for most goals in a top division season, with 23 goals in all competitions as they finished 11th.Following Phil Neal's departure in 1995, the arrival of Ron Atkinson and Gordon Strachan would see Dublin fit into an attacking team in the typical Atkinson mould. It included the likes of Noel Whelan, John Salako and Darren Huckerby to add to the already attack minded Peter Ndlovu. The addition of Gary McAllister, following UEFA Euro 1996, was expected to provide mid-table stability after two narrowly won relegation battles, but the team's defensive frailties often undermined Dublin's scoring at the other end. This culminated in possibly one of the greatest escapes in Premier League history in May 1997. Despite having won away to Liverpool and at home to Chelsea at the start of April, the Sky Blues could only manage two points from their following three games. City went into the final day second from bottom of the table, needing not only to beat Tottenham away from home, but also for results elsewhere in the league to go their way for them to escape relegation. They achieved the most unlikely of escapes; first-half goals from Dublin and Paul Williams gave Coventry a 2–1 win at White Hart Lane, while Sunderland lost at Wimbledon and Middlesbrough could only manage a draw at Leeds. Coventry finished the season in 17th place, one point outside the relegation zone.
The following season, the Sky Blues improved at home and enjoyed a season of mid-table security. Dublin formed an impressive partnership with Darren Huckerby which not only produced some memorable goals, but also propelled the Sky Blues to the FA Cup sixth round against Sheffield United; a game they narrowly lost in a penalty shoot-out.
On 8 November 1997, Dublin scored one of the most bizarre goals in Premier League history. Early in the match against Newcastle, goalkeeper Shay Given collected a cross from the right and placed the ball in front of him. The ball was still in play, and Dublin, who had attempted to meet the cross and was now behind Given, reappeared and calmly slotted the ball into the empty goal. This led to the joke: "Shay Given, the only Irishman who doesn't know where Dublin is." The match ended 2-2, with Dublin also scoring City's second goal in the second half.
The 1997–98 season also saw Dublin share elite status as the Premier League's top scorer with Blackburn Rovers' Chris Sutton and Liverpool's Michael Owen – each Englishman scoring 18 league goals. During this season, Blackburn manager Roy Hodgson tabled a bid which Dublin rejected. He remained at Highfield Road and contributed to Coventry's best finish to date in the Premiership.
Aston Villa
Dublin was controversially excluded from the England 1998 FIFA World Cup squad, despite being the Premier League's joint top-scorer in the 1997–98 season. However, his exploits at club level were still attracting attention from other clubs, and in November 1998, the 29-year-old chose to move to Aston Villa for £5.75 million. In his first four games for the club, he would score seven goals, including a memorable hat-trick against Southampton in only his second game for Villa. As a result, he is one of only six players to score in the first four consecutive games for a Premier League club.In December 1999, while playing for Aston Villa against Sheffield Wednesday, he sustained a life-threatening broken neck, as a result of which he permanently has a titanium plate holding three neck vertebrae together. Just days before suffering this injury, it was reported in the News of the World that Dublin would soon be sold by Aston Villa for a fee of around £6 million as the club looked to finance a fall in its share value as a result of manager John Gregory's heavy expenditure on players.
However, the injury did not end Dublin's career and he was back in action three months later.
In April 2000, a week after returning to the team, he helped Aston Villa reach their first FA Cup final in 43 years, which they lost 1–0 against Chelsea, scoring a penalty in the semi-final shoot-out against Bolton Wanderers.
Faced with competition for a first-team place by new signings Juan Pablo Ángel and Peter Crouch, Dublin spent several weeks on loan at First Division Millwall towards the end of the 2001–02 season. In his time there, he scored two goals, against Stockport County and Grimsby Town in five league matches to help them into the play-offs, where despite Dublin's goal in the first leg of the semi-final, against Villa's arch rivals Birmingham City, Millwall lost 2–1 on aggregate.
Following Millwall's elimination from the play-offs, Dublin returned to Aston Villa in time for their final game of the season, against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. He replaced Darius Vassell in the 84th minute and scored Villa's third goal in a 3–1 win.
Dublin once again found himself a first-choice striker at the start of the 2002–03 season, partnering Vassell up front. In March 2003, he was sent off at Villa Park for a headbutt on Robbie Savage in the Birmingham derby match, which ended 2–0 to Birmingham City.