Dean Ashton suffered a tragic end to a career that should have lasted much, much longer. He only had one senior England cap before being injured in training while on England duty in August, 2006 due to a mistimed tackle from Shaun Wright-Phillips. While he initially was able to recover from the ankle break, the injury never fully healed, and he was forced to retire prematurely in 2009 from what promised to be a very good career, aged just 26. In honor of Dean Ashton, let’s take a look at his career and what might have been.
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Ashton began his career at Crewe Alexandra and spent most of his senior playing days there, scoring 74 goals in 178 appearances from 2000-2005. From there Deano left for Norwich and was there from 2005-2006. At the time, he was Norwich’s record signing. He would score 18 times in 46 appearances for the Canaries. It was in January of 2006, however, that Deano came to the Boleyn Ground. Because of the injury that would come that August, the striker never got the run of playing he should have in Claret and Blue. Regardless, he was able to bag 19 goals in 56 appearances for the club. Aside from his strike ratio, what people will perhaps remember most is his size, strength, and dedication to win and hold a ball. His boot packed dynamite and for a big man (over 6’1″), he could be quite skillful, as his goal against Manchester City showed off his footballing ability and his overhead kick against Manchester United showed his athletic prowess. There are two things that I think would be different had Deano been luckier: He would be West Ham’s go-to target man playing up top, whether alone or partnered with a Baldock-type forward, AND I really think Ashton would have provided Wayne Rooney with the perfect foil in the England set up. After watching Capello fumble around with the strike force these past couple of years, I’m sure we can all agree that the big man would have been much better alongside Rooney than Bent, Defoe, and especially Heskey.
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As it stands now, Ashton has not returned to football in any capacity, though his old coach from Crewe, the legendary Dario Gradi, has mentioned that he would like to make him a part of his coaching staff. As skilled a footballer as he was, Deano appears to be an equally nice human being. With nothing but good things to say about any of the clubs he has played for, Ashton can be found on twitter, and spends lots of time with family, minding his health, and playing golf. Cheers to a cult hero, may retirement continue to treat him well.
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I would loved to have seen him partner tevez up front,they could gave been better than macavennie and TC. Maybe things would have turned out differently for us and challenging at top of perm like boys of ’86.