Richard Dryden
English association football manager and former player
Richard Andrew Dryden (born 14 June 1969) is an English former professional footballer turned manager and coach, who was most recently first-team manager at National League side Yeovil Town.
Playing career
Born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, Dryden started his career as a trainee with Bristol Rovers, joining them as a professional on 14 July 1987. He then joined Exeter City on loan on 22 September 1988 before signing permanently on 8 March 1989 for a fee of £10,000, where he first played under manager Terry Cooper. During Dryden's time at Exeter, he made a total of 92 appearances and also spent time on loan with Manchester City. While at Exeter, he played a major part in their 1989–90 Fourth Division title triumph. Notts County was the next stop for Dryden, joining on 9 August 1991 for a fee of £250,000. He moved on to Birmingham City for £165,000 on 19 March 1993, where he was re-united with Terry Cooper. After Birmingham, Dryden moved on 16 December 1994 to Bristol City for a fee of £140,000, the rivals of his first club, Bristol Rovers.
On the recommendation of Terry Cooper, now Southampton's chief scout, Dryden moved to Southampton on 6 August 1996 for £150,000. He made his debut on 18 August 1996 at home to Chelsea and successfully marked Gianluca Vialli out of the game in a 0–0 draw.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Richard Dryden” as english association football manager and former player. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as english association football manager and former player. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7325283. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1969, 1987, 1988 and 1989.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Dryden” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.