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“I got the inkling before and sensed something wasn’t quite the same.”
The date was August 19, 2012. It was a sunny Sunday morning in Manchester and Southampton’s players had just woken from their overnight stay in the team hotel close to the city. In just hours time they would be back on the sport’s grandest stage, a return to the intoxicating theatre of Premier League football.
After years of hardship and false dawns, today was the day dreams were set to be realised. The late Markus Liebherr had pulled the club back from the oblivion and the plan, which he so sadly never got to see fulfilled, was actually happening. Southampton were back. Back to where Liebherr, players and supporters had long yearned to be.
The first fixture pencilled in was away to Manchester City, a side beginning a defence of the title they sensationally won three months before. Sure, a match away to the champions was daunting. But who was really going succumb to fear? After all, the Saints squad were still riding the crest of the promotion wave, overflowing with excitement and a chance to test themselves on the most glorious of platforms.
Players began to surface from their rooms and made their way down to breakfast. Though they were now about to embark on top-flight football, pre-match preparations remained the same. The team would sit down to have their early morning meal before making their way into a conference room in which boss Nigel Adkins would run through the starting line-up and deliver any final tactical or technical points.
As far as the majority of the squad were concerned, everything appeared to be running as normal.
Dean Hammond was one of the members at the team hotel having travelled up on the team coach. The midfielder had been a feature in pre-season and was feeling good within himself. After a protracted build-up to the season’s curtain raiser and months waiting in anticipation, Southampton’s captain could be forgiven for feeling a little more giddy than most. Hammond had worked his way up through the rungs of the football league ladder, his fortunes and hardship in direct alignment with the club he was now representing.
But unlike the hours leading up to those League One and Championship matches, something felt different; a lingering feeling he couldn’t seem to shake off.
“I got the inkling before and sensed something wasn’t quite the same,” Hammond told Prost International. “The club had invested in some players so I knew I had competition in midfield. I was competing against Morgan Schneiderlin, Jack Cork and Richard Chaplow. Steven Davis had come in as well.
“I knew it was going to be really difficult but I just really wanted to be part of the plans. James Ward-Prowse was also coming through from the academy and was getting pushed towards the first team.”
Hammond understood it certainly wasn’t uncommon for a newly-promoted outfit to add quality and competition to a squad. More often than not, it is the only way for most teams to bridge the gap in class and compensate for the disparity between Championship and Premier League football. But the former Brighton and Colchester man was prepared for the challenge – all he wanted now was the opportunity.
That morning, boss Nigel Adkins asked Hammond if they could have a chat in his room prior to the team meeting. Requests such as this were not out of ordinary. The pair had enjoyed a close relationship during the club’s ascent into England’s top division, with the captain regularly providing a sounding board to his manager’s thoughts or queries.
“It was just before Nigel had named the team. He brought me in out of respect and the relationship we had. He just wanted to personally tell me that I wasn’t going to be involved in the squad, that I wasn’t going to be captain for the foreseeable future.
“He told me James Ward-Prowse was going to play and Adam Lallana was going to be captain from now on.”
Waking up to what was supposed to be the defining day in his career, within hours he had found himself in the blue seats of the Etihad, gazing on as his teammates, many of whom had shared the same taxing experiences on the way up, take the game to City and almost pull off a memorable victory.
And if it wasn’t for the game being played on a balmy summers day, you could forgive Hammond for feeling an overarching sense of being left out in the cold.
Now retired, Hammond can look back on that day in rather philosophical mood. While the eternal maxim of time healing everything is often misleading, being blessed with acceptance does. Almost nine years on, Hammond admits though it was difficult to take at the time, he understands Adkins and Southampton’s reasons.
“There’s been a few players that had been there for a long time, achieved a lot with the club but football keeps moving forward. And that’s one of the reasons why we were successful at Southampton, because they were forward thinking. Always investing in players, always looking for the next step.
“One thing I’ll always be grateful for with Nigel was that he was honest with me and that’s what you want from a manager. I was obviously gutted that I wasn’t going to play in the first team but there was a few things going on and you kind of got that feeling ‘I might not be part of this’ and that was disappointing.
“But on reflection, as you get older, that’s football. It happens all the time. He did a good thing to inform me but I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t disappointed or felt I deserved a chance, but every player feels like that. You work hard to get to that and you just want the opportunity.”
Admission from the opening day squad effectively spelled the beginning of the end for Hammond. He would go on to play a season fruitful years at Leicester, including promotion to the Premier League and a rekindling of some sorts with Adkins at Sheffield United.
That brings us onto the now. During our 40 minute chat, Hammond’s response to each and every question displays a natural enthusiasm and an entrenched understanding for the game. But only as our conversation comes to its natural end, do you really understand the forthright honesty that made the midfielder such a successful Southampton captain, the man selected by two different managers to lead a dressing room already brimming with characters.
“One thing I did lose when I came out of the game was my purpose,” Hammond says when on the subject of life after football. “I lost my way and I’m not ashamed to say that. It’s very very difficult. I’m 37 now and at this time of life It can happen especially when you’ve had children and you have become a different person.
“I did have a plan. The plan was I was always going to play until 40. I was very fit, wanted to play and was going along nicely in my career. I had the year on loan at Sheffield United and it kind of fell apart from that really.
“I was 33-years-old and no inkling I was going to leave the game. Physically I was fit enough to continue and my stats were as good as ever. But mentally, I was drained and I didn’t expect that. I started doing my coaching badges, and started to invest in property so I definitely had an idea but it didn’t work out as I planned.
“Quitting football at the age of 33 was huge surprise to me but I was just mentally drained. And that was one of the reasons why I set this platform up – that’s where my passion comes from.”
That platform is Dean Hammond Elite Fitness. A personal training business, led and taught by the man himself. Its aim is to provide high intensity workouts from the comfort of your own home. And in a world where the only current guarantees in the world are death, taxes and Zoom calls (despite no one having ever heard of them 12 months ago), Hammond’s new line of occupation is relatable to most in society.
Having lost purpose in life in the following weeks and years after retirement, the Hastings born man decided he needed to refocus and rediscover his goals. Weekends were now free and Saturday, especially, used to drag. So Hammond had to find something that could provide an alternative to playing in every division of the football league or turning up to training every day for 21 years. “You lose that structure of being told what to do, where to be, how to do it, ‘this is what you’re going to do, what you’re going to wear’.”
Soon he made the decision to get back into a regular routine of exercise and get fit again. The first lockdown offered ample time to do exactly that.
“I was training a bit with my kids and spoke to a few friends and they said ‘why don’t you do a few bits on Instagram’. I was training anyway and thought if I can help myself, maybe I can help a few other people. So that’s how it started.
“And it got some interest. People starting doing and enjoying it, and its just developed from there. It’s changed a lot from that initial creation, my initial vision. Now I’ve got a real passion to reignite dad’s passion or people my age purpose.”
This writer mentions he noticed Hammond was a regular poster of motivational and inspiring quotes on his Instagram feed. Was that reflection of his state of mind or the times we all currently live in?
“I really believe in them (the quotes). I really do and I didn’t for a long time. I got lost as a person and lost my identity as a footballer. That was who I was having left school at 16 and been a footballer for 18 years. I lost my purpose and felt lost in life if I’m honest.
“I had a few issues that I went through but got past thankfully. So everything I say on Instagram and everything I reflect on is all real. I want to try to give people some positivity and say that it’s going to be okay and if you can find your passion and structure in life. That is what you lose as a footballer.”
It’s rare for a professional sportsman to be as candid or display the vulnerability they are or were suffering. Given Hammond was the captain of Southampton and the leader of a typical testosterone fuelled dressing room which featured the likes of Kelvin Davis, Jose Fonte and Rickie Lambert, his courage in speaking out should be viewed as a testament to how far he’s come since those dark times.
“I want to pass on my experiences because for two or three years I hid away from it. I didn’t want to be involved in football or talk about it. But now I’ve got past that I really want to pass that lesson on that if you can find that purpose if you can find that passion, things will be okay.”
On the side of running a burgeoning business, Hammond is also enjoying a role back at Southampton, providing pre and post match insights for the club’s YouTube channel. Hammond says his work on ‘Saints Live’ and being involved within the football media has reignited an old spark.
“It’s kind of brought me back to life. It’s something I really want to try. It’s almost like I am starting again as an academy player during my playing career. The club have given me so much and I’m really grateful for the opportunity. I love talking about football again. I love being at games, analysing the game and passing my knowledge on.”
That sunny August morning in Manchester will always be a day Dean Hammond remembers. It will always leave an indelible, chastening end to a glittering playing career at Southampton. But football is football and there are bigger things to life, as the circumstances which transpired after his retirement surely testify.
On and off the pitch, every setback has resulted in Hammond returning with renewed vigour. While a new budding chapter is unfolding in his career and life, nothing will ever replace his first love. And you might not have been able to say that a few years ago.
“I’m starting from the beginning and I’m going to try and work my way up and learn and enjoy that, but I love it. But talking about the game is my passion and I’ve got that back after a couple of years. To have it back again and to think on a Saturday “right, I’m involved in football again’ is a blessing.”
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