Deano

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The following season Windass added another 20 goals as Bradford City matched the previous season's 13th place finish. Though never far from controversy, Deano’s reputation as an old fashioned centre-forward, hitting the target over 200 times in his career, has made him popular with fans and players alike. This was officially recorded as an own goal at the time, but was later awarded to Windass after a review by the Dubious Goals Committee. On 21 October 2009, the Grimsby Telegraph reported that Windass had gone on record to state his interest in the vacant manager's post at Grimsby Town, following the dismissal of Mike Newell. The highs and lows of a career that has taken him from nonleague North Ferriby United to Hull City, Aberdeen, Oxford United, Bradford City, Middlesbrough, Sheffield's Wednesday and United, and back to Bradford again.

On 11 May, he scored his 200th goal in English football, in the Championship play-off semi-final first leg against Watford.The highs and lows of a career that has taken him from non-league North Ferriby United to Hull City, Aberdeen, Oxford United, Bradford City, Middlesbrough, Sheffield's Wednesday and United, and back to Bradford and then Hull again.

With the kind of passion that, in the past, has resulted in numerous red cards, he doesn't hold back on anything in telling his life story and, as a result, it gives you a very real taste of what it's like earning your living in the precarious world of football. For me, there was no real urgency in reading Windass’ autobiography, partly because of the unsavoury connotations of the subtitle. Drink, Divorce, Despair, Reinvention, Positive Mental Health, and learning how to live again, after football. More detail on how he spent the off season and more detail on team mates behavior he observed and more detail on the inner workings ofneach of his clubs.As you would expect from such a larger-than-life character, never far from controversy, his autobiography is a good read.

If it helps one more person than me, then I'm happy," says Deano, with that warmth and authenticity that won the hearts of fans at each of the clubs he represented. This memory is supported by the fact it’s this that forms the basis of my only (exaggerated) Dean Windass humorous anecdote, which loses quite a lot when written down.

He had predicted scoring the goal several weeks earlier: "When Phil Brown left me out against Sheffield United this year, I weren't [sic] happy about it.