Wolves keen for Bantams to be represented at Richards tribute

The 36-year-old died on Saturday after a long-term illness and Wolves want the defender’s first club to be involved. City also plan their own minute’s silence tribute before the home game against Rotherham next Tuesday.

A club spokesman said: “Wolves have very kindly invited Bradford City to send a representative to the Spurs game.”

Last night, the tributes continued to flow in for the Bradford-born defender, who moved to Molinuex from Valley Parade.

Former City manager Stuart McCall, now in charge of Scottish Premier League side Motherwell, said: “It is an absolute tragedy.

“I got a few texts on Saturday telling me about the sad news of Dean’s death through illness.

“I didn’t realise he had a long-standing illness and it came as a great shock. I had Dean in doing a little bit of coaching at Bradford a few years ago.

“He was a first-class professional as a player but a fantastic guy off the park as well and I was really sad to hear the news.”

Richards started his career at Bradford before moving to Wolves in 1995, making 145 appearances in a four-year spell and becoming a crowd favourite.

He subsequently moved on to Southampton, who were then in the top flight, where he spent two years before switching to White Hart Lane for £8.1m, despite the player not having any senior international caps for England.

Richards, who played four times at Under-21 level, spent four years in North London although his time there was dogged by injury.

He made almost 350 appearances in a career spanning 13 years before being forced to retire from the game at the age of 30 in 2005 when he was suffering from dizzy spells and headaches, an illness which was initially diagnosed as an inner ear infection. He returned to the game in August 2007 as a youth team coach at Bradford and worked alongside McCall.

Wolves had announced on Saturday their intention to hold a tribute to Richards ahead of next Sunday’s game with Spurs at Molineux.