Julian Dicks

Julian Dicks is a former professional footballer turned coach and team manager,  whose professional playing career spanned three decades. Retiring in 2002, Julian is now best known as an after-dinner speaker and club manager.

Julian began his career playing at Birmingham City in 1985, however, he is best known for spending ten years with West Ham United from 1988 to 1993 and again from 1994 to 1999. Julian spent time on transfer to Liverpool during the 93/94 season, where he played in the Premier League for the first time. Julian’s career took place during one of UK football’s most impressive eras, with his work as a football speaker frequently discussing the magic of that period.

Making almost 200 appearances for West Ham during his playing career, it came as no surprise when Julian accepted the offer to manage the West Ham United Ladies club in 2014. Already established as a dedicated sports speaker for the club Dicks had managed a number of other teams prior to joining West Ham Ladies.

Julian began his coaching career back in 2009, after appointment as manager at Wivenhoe Town. After that, he acted as a manager at Grays Athletic and Sealand before he got his big break with West Ham Ladies team. After coaching the ladies team, Julian was appointed to be the first-team coach of West Ham United, where he coached until 2017. In 2018 Julian was chosen as the manager for Heybridge Swifts, with his first two appointments as manager resulting in wins for the team. After a short period with the team, Julian joined the coaching staff of West Bromwich Albion in July 2019.

Alongside his work as a football speaker, Julian is known for his keen interest in golf, and he has even spent a short period playing the sport professionally. Unfortunately, a knee injury sustained whilst playing football forced Julian to retire from professional golf. Julian still continues to work as a sports speaker and appears at golf days and charitable events to enrich his passion for the sport.

Julian was famed for his tough-guy persona, which frequently came under criticism from footballing authorities along with his behaviour on the pitch. During his work as an after-dinner speaker, Julian has discussed the prevalence of violence in the footballing industry and even gave a tongue-in-cheek cameo appearance in the film Football Hooligan Factory.