Dean Saunders (born 21 June, 1964 in Swansea) was a Welsh footballer and was a prolific forward.
He is probably best known for playing for Aston Villa. However he also played for Swansea City, Cardiff City(on loan), Brighton, Oxford United, Derby County, Liverpool, Galatasaray, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United, Benfica and Bradford City.
He is currently an unemployed coach, after Gareme Souness's removal as manager at Newcastle United.
Saunders began his career with Swansea City on leaving school in 1980, and during his time at the club was loaned out to neighbours Cardiff City. He joined Brighton on a free transfer in 1984 and remained there until February 1987, when he was snapped up by First Division strugglers Oxford United. Saunders immediately settled into the Oxford squad and his goals helped them avoid relegation at the end of the 1986-87 season. But his efforts were not enough to save Oxford from going down in bottom place at the end of the 1987-88 season. Just after the start of the following season, Saunders was sold to Derby County for £1million and Oxford manager Mark Lawrenson was later sacked by the club's board after he complained to them about selling Saunders.
Saunders helped Derby finish an impressive fourth in the 1988-89 First Division table - their highest finish since they were league champions in 1975. He scored 24 league goals in the 1990-91 season but Derby still went down in bottom place. Derby's relegation saw most of the country's top clubs queue up in their bid to capture his services, and Everton were favourites to sign him. But Saunders ended up at Liverpool, who paid a then English record fee of £2.9million to capture him as successor for Everton-bound Peter Beardsley.
In 1991-92, Saunders partnered Ian Rush (also his strike partner for Wales) in a formidable strikerforce backed by young Steve McManaman which saw the club win the F.A Cup for the fifth time in its history in manager Graeme Souness's first full season in charge. In September 1992, Saunders was transferred to Aston Villa for £2.5million and was an instant hit with the Villa Park faithful. He developed a strong partnership with Dalian Atkinson and the pair's goals guided Villa to an impressive runners-up finish in the inaugural Premiership. Although Villa's league form slipped in 1993-94, Saunders scored twice in the League Cup final to secure victory over Manchester United at Wembley. Saunders hit the target 15 times in the 1994-95 Premiership campaign but Villa came one place short of relegation - two years after they came one place short of the league title.
As part of new Villa manager Brian Little's rebuilding programme, which resulted in most of the Ron Atkinson era of players being jettisoned, Saunders was off-loaded to Turkish club Galatasaray and old Liverpool manager Graeme Souness. In fact, according to Shelley Webb's book Footballers Wives, the first Saunders wife Helen knew of the move was when she went to Turkey with him one weekend, to find that by Monday he'd signed for the Istanbul club and this was her new home.
Saunders spent one season at Galatasaray, before he returned to the Premiership with Nottingham Forest in 1996. His only season at the City Ground was a disappointment with a shortage of goals which contributed to Forest's relegation. He then joined Sheffield United in Division One, where he remained for two years before moving back to the Premiership with newly promoted Bradford City. He remained at Bradford for three years until he finally hung up his boots in 2002, by which time the Bantams had slipped back into Division One.
Dean Saunders was one of the Welsh national side's most prolific goalscorers. He made his Welsh debut as a 21-year-old against Ireland in 1986. He was capped 75 times and scored a creditable 22 goals, putting him fourth on the all time Wales list behind Ian Rush, Ivor Alchurch and Trevor Ford. No Welsh fan will ever forget his goal which secured a famous 1-0 win over the mighty Brazil in Cardiff in 1991. He won the last of his 75 caps as a replacement in the World Cup qualifier against the Ukraine on the 28 March 2001. Saunders is rated alongside the likes of Ian Rush and Mark Hughes when Welsh fans discuss who the greatest Welsh striker of all time was.
He initially became a coach at Bradford after his retirement, and than moved to Newcastle United in 2004, initially as strikers coach, and then first-team coach under old boss Graeme Souness. Souness was sacked on 2 February 2006 due to a run of poor results, and his entire backroom team including Saunders were also replaced.