disgrace to football" by journalist, Brian Woolnough. West Ham finished 7th in a season which saw the departure of Lou Macari and the appointment of former player, Billy Bonds as manager. Dicks and Bonds both had reputations as "hard men" and quarrelled frequently. Injury The 1990-91 season saw the start of Dicks' injury problems. On 13 October 1990, playing in a game against Bristol City at Ashton Gate, Dicks hit a dip on the edge of the pitch, his foot going over the edge resulting in a loss of feeling in his left leg. He continued to play but after the game he could barely walk. Against the medical assessment of John Green, who was soon to take over as club physiotherapist, he was told to "crash-on" and in the words of manager Bonds "if the knee goes, it goes". Green believed Dicks was in need of an operation on his knee cartilage. He was picked to play in the next game, against Swindon Town but lasted only 38 minutes. He played again in the next game on 24 October 1990, against Blackburn Rovers but again had to be substituted. A knee operation followed and he would not play again until 21 December 1991 by which time West Ham had been promoted back to the First Division. Another relegation and promotion He played in the second half of the 1991–92 season. Despite his presence, the team finished bottom of the First Division and missed out on the first season of the Premier League. The 1992–93 season was an eventful one for Dicks, mainly for the wrong reasons. He was sent off three times and picked up a string of bookings which saw him miss significant periods of the season and he was subsequently stripped of the captaincy by manager Bonds. His first dismissal came after he threw his elbow into the face of Newcastle United player Franz Carr. There had been no friction between the two players with Dicks saying of the incident "Not to this day do I know why I did it. I had it in my mind that I was going to elbow him, and that was it — bang!". Only four games passed before he was dismissed again. In a game against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Dicks clashed with Paul Birch and Steve Bull before being sent-off, with Billy Bonds having to stop him attacking Birch who was