Club officials suspected transfer hoax after Everton icon kept 2,000 supporters waiting

Everton’s announcement that they are returning to Seamus Coleman’s previous team Sligo Rovers has brought back memories of the two clubs’ previous connection when the Blues’ most-celebrated player Dixie Dean was lured across the Irish Sea in a sensational transfer.

However the deal had come about though, the Sligo public were whipped up into a frenzy over the prospect of Dean’s arrival, confirmed in a six-word telegram he sent, stating: “Offer accepted. Will be there Friday.” However, Little explains how the legendary centre-forward kept an enthusiastic 2,000-strong welcome committee including the club’s committee and the town’s mayor waiting and sweating when he failed to arrive on time.

He writes: “The train duly arrives, steaming slowly into the station as if deliberately building the excitement and the tension. And there is a swell of excitement as the passengers alight. Eyes strain, necks crane. The welcome is ready. But Dixie Dean does not come.

“William Ralph Dixie Dean is not on the morning train from Dublin. And one can only imagine the disappointment, the shock, as the train empties and the platform clears and the biggest star ever to come to Sligo doesn’t in fact come to Sligo.

“Imagine how the club officials must have felt? Hearts in mouths. Had it been a ruse? Had they been set up? Were they going to look like fools? And the fans and the people?

“Ah, sure it never could happen. What on earth would football’s greatest centre-forward be doing coming 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 a phone call from Dublin, an update and an apology. And relief all round. Dixie Dean said he was coming, and Dixie Dean is coming – but on the later train. He’ll be there at 6.40pm.

“Sincere apologies for the misunderstanding. The former Everton man had taken the opportunity while in Dublin to visit an old friend – Dean was renowned for his loyalty to friends – the former coach of Bohemians FC and former Evertonian, Billy Lacey.”

In the end, Dean’s time at Sligo lasted just four months but Little covers it in detail and having been on the brink of hanging up his boots at Notts County prior to his switch, 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) seemed to restore his appetite for the game. He started the following season with Cheshire County League outfit Hurst FC (now Ashton United), who, like Sligo, were not constrained by the Football’s League maximum wage rule and were therefore able to make him one of the best-paid players in the country but a mere week after his debut, Britain declared war on Germany, competitive football closed for the duration and the final curtain came down on Dean’s illustrious career.