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 still on the ground. Barely three months passed before his third dismissal of the season. In January 1993 after two bad fouls on Derby County midfielder Ted McMinn he was sent-off, having to be escorted from the pitch by teammate Clive Allen. Despite his disciplinary problems he earned a Division One runners-up medal as West Ham reached the Premier League. Despite his dismissals he played 34 league games of a possible 46 in the promotion season, scoring eleven goals, placing third in the list of highest goal scorers for that season behind only Clive Allen and Trevor Morley.