Everton are traveling to Seamus Coleman’s former club, Sligo Rovers, where Dixie Dean played late in his career. Everton’s news that they will return to Seamus Coleman’s former club Sligo Rovers has rekindled memories of the two teams’ past relationship, when the Blues’ most decorated star Dixie Dean was tempted across the Irish Sea in a stunning deal.
Sean Dyche’s players will begin their preparations for Everton’s historic final season at Goodison Park on Friday, July 19, when they travel to The Showgrounds to face Sligo of the League of Ireland Premier Division. Coleman, a Killybegs-born right-back who is now captain of both club and country, left Sligo for the Blues in 2009 for his now-famous “Sixty grand” fee, immortalized in the Goodison Park terrace chant, but it was the promise of a big payday that persuaded Dean to move to the Emerald Isle seven decades ago.
While Saudi Arabia has recently become a popular destination for players looking for a big income, Dean’s decision to relocate to what was formerly considered one of football’s backwaters appeared odd over 80 years ago.
In the Shadow of Benbulben, published by Pitch Publishing, Paul Little analyzes Dean’s tenure at Sligo Rovers, shedding light on this intriguing story. The title refers to the massive flat-topped rock, part of the Dartry Mountains, that dominates the landscape around the seaport on Connacht’s wild Atlantic coastline, where Everton’s record goalscorer briefly played in 1939.
Sligo’s team, affectionately known by their supporters as the ‘Bit O’Red’, had only been formed in 1928 – the year of Dean’s record-breaking 60-goal season (nobody has since come close to this total in English top flight football), but they were an ambitious outfit eager to sign a big name from England to spearhead their attack.
Dean, who had moved from Everton to Notts County and was just recently recovered from an injury, was initially contacted by Sligo with the request to find them a centre-forward, but when he was unable to discover any appropriate targets, he returned to them offering his own services. Ireland had gained complete independence from the United Kingdom two years prior, and Dean recalled: “I asked one or two players, and the first thing they said to me was, ‘Isn’t it a little dangerous out there with all this IRA lark going on?'”
Dean’s citation refers to what Little describes as “a sabotage and bombing campaign being waged by the Irish Republican Army across 1938 and into 1939 aimed at customs outposts along the partitioned island and that also stretched to targets in mainland Britain” along with the fact that “tensions were high, and so it was hardly surprising that going to play in Ireland wasn’t an especially attractive proposition for some Englishmen at the time.” Dean could never be accused of a lack of bravery, and after admitting that Sligo had returned and “offered me terms I could not possibly refuse,” the Goodison Park legend was on his way.
While Dean made no bones about the financial incentives that facilitated the audacious swoop, back in devoutly Catholic Ireland, local newspaper the Sligo Champion hinted at possible divine intervention, proclaiming: “Given the enormity of what they had pulled off, the club’s committee members would have been forgiven for wondering if some greater power was at work.” And, as it happens, they may have been correct!” It turns out that Sligo-based cleric the Right Reverend Monsignor Pat Collins claimed to have began the club’s contact with Dean after meeting him during his Everton playing days while working in Liverpool.
Regardless of how the arrangement came about, the Sligo public was stirred up into a frenzy over the potential of Dean’s presence, which he confirmed in a six-word telegram stating: “Offer accepted.” “I’ll be there Friday.” However, Little recalls how the great centre-forward kept an ecstatic 2,000-strong greeting committee, including the club’s committee and the town’s mayor, waiting and sweating when he did not arrive on time.
He writes: “The train arrives, steaming slowly into the station as if deliberately heightening the excitement and tension.” And there is a surge of enthusiasm as the passengers disembark. Eyes strain and necks crane. The welcome is ready. But Dixie Dean does not arrive. “William Ralph Dixie Dean is not taking the early train from Dublin. And one can only picture the disappointment, the astonishment, as the train disembarks and the platform clears and the biggest star ever to visit Sligo does not arrive.
Imagine how the club authorities must have felt. Hearts in mouths. Had it been a ruse? Had they been set up? Were they going to appear foolish? What about the fans and people? “Ah, that could never happen. What on earth is football’s best centre-forward doing here? Had everyone lost their heads?
“Perhaps the report in the Irish Independent the previous Tuesday, stating that Dean had only agreed to help find players for the club and that he had ‘definitely declined to make a personal appearance’, was true after all?”But then came a call from Dublin, with an update and an apology. And relief all around. Dixie Dean promised to come, and he will, but on a later train. He’ll be there at 6:40pm.
“I sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding. The former Everton midfielder had taken the opportunity while in Dublin to pay a visit to an old friend – Dean was known for his loyalty to friends – Billy Lacey, the former coach of Bohemians FC and former Everton player.
Dean’s time at Sligo lasted only four months, but Little describes it in detail. Having been on the verge of retiring from Notts County prior to his move, the then 32-year-old’s time in Ireland, where he netted 11 goals in as many appearances, including in the FAI Cup final against Shelbourne (they’d draw 1-1 before losing the replay 1-0), appeared to rekindle his love of football.
He began the following season with Cheshire County League club Hurst FC (now Ashton United), who, like Sligo, were not bound by the Football League maximum wage rule and were thus able to make him one of the best-paid players in the country. However, a mere week after his debut, Britain declared war on Germany, competitive football was halted for the duration, and Dean’s illustrious career came to an end.
