A man born in the North East but now so in love with a team from North London 
As the sat-nav informed me that this quiet rural road was the destination of one of the greatest midfielders England have ever produced, it was hard to imagine that this was the home of a twice FA Cup and once UEFA Cup winner. Micky Hazard is a man remembered incredibly fondly in the blue and white side of North London.
In his 17 years as a professional footballer, Hazard made 312 first team appearances. 103 of those games were for “his” club, Tottenham Hotspur, during his two spells there. Yet it all could have been so different if Tottenham had given up on Hazard on one of the many occasions he escaped the team hotel and ran back to the North East.
Hazard explained that during the early stages of his Spurs youth development he found it incredibly difficult to settle in and get used to being away from home.
“It was the toughest thing I’ve ever done; I spent the first six months running off home. I used to get up at night, crawl down the drain pipe, run to the bus stop, catch a tube at Seven Sisters to Kings Cross and off I went back to the North. I’d refuse to come back [to London], I just missed my family,” he admitted.
“I stormed out of the ground and drove home, absolutely fuc*ing fuming – swearing my head off in the car”
It was hard to comprehend that this confident, open speaker used to be a shy, strictly family orientated individual. Hazard was full of praise for his old club, particularly over the way he was treated whilst going through the difficult moving stages and recalls a defining day in both his and the club’s history after he was called into the manager Keith Burkinshaw’s office one afternoon.It was hard to comprehend that this confident, open speaker used to be a shy, strictly family orientated individual. Hazard was full of praise for his old club, particularly over the way he was treated whilst going through the difficult moving stages and recalls a defining day in both his and the club’s history after he was called into the manager Keith Burkinshaw’s office one afternoon.
“The club were amazing. Absolutely amazing. I used to go home once every six weeks and they would pay my train fare, give me expenses to have food on the train and give me money for whilst I was back home and then one day they called me into the office. They brought my Dad down and said: ‘We’ll do you a deal. We’re prepared to send you home every tenth day.’ I’d go home on the Saturday and have the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday at home and then come back to London on the Wednesday and the club were prepared to pay for this for two years. ”
The gesture from Tottenham left Micky stunned and he admitted that it gave him a tremendous amount of self-belief and showed him how much they thought of him. The faith they showed in him demonstrated that this was the right place for him. This is where his Lilywhite love affair began.
“The way they were prepared to help and fund me showed how much they cared and believed in me. They were amazing and when I look at my love for the club today, this has a big bearing on it – the fact that they weren’t just looking at Micky Hazard the footballer, but Micky Hazard as a person who, at the time, was very, very homesick. If it wasn’t for the faith Bill (Nicholson –ex player and manager) and Keith (Burkinshaw) showed in me, then I’d probably have been working on a building site.
It was clear how passionate he was about Spurs. This wasn’t someone who kissed a badge on the shirt to win over the supporters – this was love like a hardcore fan would demonstrate and show, this was precisely what Hazard was and still is – a fan.
“There will never ever be another club – this is my club, simple as that. My grandchildren are Spurs supporters, my son is a Spurs supporter and it will keep going down generations more because my love for Spurs is instilled into my children, their love for Spurs is installed into their children. It will keep going on and on until even after I’m gone.”
The passion of Hazard was clear, and it was genuine passion. Therefore it seems odd that he transferred to bitter rivals Chelsea in 1985. It was clearly a sore subject but he remembered the events like they were yesterday.
“We played Newcastle on the Saturday and I didn’t have an inkling that something was in the air, no inkling whatsoever. A lot of clubs had tried to sign me in the past and I had been tapped up before – including by Arsenal. I’d just won the UEFA cup, was picked by England and signed a new four year contract – everything was hunky dory.”
The club had just beaten Newcastle 5-1 and Micky himself had scored during the game, but after he arrived in the players’ lounge, he got the shock of his life when Peter Shreeves (then manager) asked to ‘have a word.’
“I was told they had accepted a club record fee for me from Chelsea (£350,000) and they wanted to meet with me on Monday,” he added.
” I had gone from Swindon to a massive club like Spurs and all I got out of it was a club car, but I loved it”
It was clear that the move still annoyed Hazard and the hurt he felt over it still lingered in his eyes.
“I was shocked and left speechless. As I look back, I think to myself ‘Why didn’t I just turn around and say no, I’m not going?’ I just can’t believe I didn’t, but I know why I didn’t – I got angry, you fuc*ing what? I’ve been here since I was 12, I’m now fuc*ing 25, just picked for England and signed a four-year contract and you’re going to fuc*ing sell me? I’m the best fuc*ing player in the country, other than Glenn Hoddle, I’m his perfect replacement – we’re both so gifted and naturally talented.”
It was clear that the anger over the move is still there. He continued: “I stormed out of the ground and drove home, absolutely fuc*ing fuming – swearing my head off in the car. I was just in shock; I’ve won two FA Cups and one UEFA Cup.”
As Micky then referred to his beloved club as ‘fuc*ing bas*ards’, he admitted that his rage started to cloud his judgement.
“I decided that I would meet Chelsea on the Monday. I sat down with their manager John Hollins and he made me an incredible offer financially and I signed for them that afternoon.”
It wasn’t until Hazard’s first training session that the consequences of what he had done sank in.
“As you know, your heart sometimes rules your head, but it subsides. I got into the Chelsea car park and I thought ‘shi*, what have I done? It’s actually happened’.”
His eyes then lit up as he spoke about his transfer back to Tottenham in 1993 – he recalls the moment he ran down the High Road to sign the deal.
“It was the quickest contract signing ever. I didn’t even negotiate a pay rise – not even 1%. I had gone from Swindon to a massive club like Spurs and all I got out of it was a club car, but I loved it,” said Hazard with a huge smile on his face.
The record book shows that Hazard has won three main major trophies, but in the mind of the now 53-year-old, he won many more as a youth team player in an indoor training centre all on his own.
He joked: “I don’t know whether you know this, but I’m the most decorated player in the history of the game because in that gym I played in 360 World Cup finals, 485 FA Cup finals and won 365 League titles – and in all of them I got the winning goal.”
The solo hours Hazard put in clearly paid dividends as he became one of the most technically gifted players around. However he fondly, but somewhat embarrassingly, remembers a certain afternoon in that gym when a solo ‘competitive’ game suddenly had a spectator.
“I was running crazy, playing fantastically and had just won a World Cup, but as I looked up at the gallery whilst in mid celebration, who’s sitting watching? My then assistant manager, Peter Shreeves. It embarrassed me so much that I had to stop for a while.”
In the world away from Hazards active imagination, his crowning achievement came on the 23rd of May 1984, as Tottenham took on Anderlecht in the second leg of the UEFA Cup final. Anderlecht – who were the defending Champions at the time – were leading with five minutes to go before Hazard’s cross was eventually turned home by his good friend, Graham Roberts.
The tie was drawn 2-2 – Hazard with the assists for both goals – and the game went to a penalty shootout. The ex English international recalls the moment he was close to stepping up to take the defining penalty only to have to stand down from the potentially glorious moment.
“I was actually supposed to take Danny Thomas’ penalty but I had been suffering from cramp so Danny took his one ahead of me.”
After Thomas missed his penalty, Hazard believes that it was the home fans that got the team the victory. He insists that – to this day – he has never heard an atmosphere like it and believes the supporters spurred them on to victory on that famous evening at White Hart Lane.
“It was just amazing, nothing will ever get close to that night and I genuinely believe the fans won us the cup that night. We had the cup won when little Danny Thomas stepped up to take the penalty – all he had to do was score and the cup was ours – but he missed. In the terraces it could have gone either way, but they sang his name like he was the hero and I truly believe that inspired Tony Parks to make the match winning save.”
The Sunderland born star then criticised UEFA for somewhat devaluing the UEFA Cup and Hazard believes that the Champions League has made “great clubs and great players become losers.”
He added: “If you want glory, then it’s not how much is in your wage packet every week, it’s what happens on the pitch and, believe me, when you walk up those steps to pick up a trophy for the first time, that replaces any amount of money you have. You cannot buy the feeling that you get when lifting a trophy.”
The ex pro believes that the modern day footballer’s stance towards cups – in particular the FA Cup – has changed far too much and is disrespectful to those in the past.
He added: “Modern day footballers are more than happy to finish fourth at the expense of an FA Cup and it drives me mad. In the past just look at some of the players who have played and won the competition – some of the greatest footballers that ever lived.”
He questioned how UEFA can call the competition “The Champions League” when teams who have finished third and fourth were competing with teams who had won trophies during the course of the season.
Nowadays, Hazard’s main focus is his role with Sevenoaks Town where he coaches every weekend. Hazard had experience coaching at Tottenham, but is now enjoying his role working with younger players. He managed the Sevenoaks under 18’s to victory in the Ryman Youth League for the first time in the club’s history.
Hazard, now the first team coach, believes that it’s vital to get younger players in and around the first team at that age, rather than go with older players like most teams at that level.
“I wanted to get a balance, so we kept all the under 18’s as a first team and blended in five or six older players to get the mix right.”
He also stressed how important it is to be patient with the younger players: “With kids you can be a very good side and still lose, but the important thing is how you respond to that. The aim and goal is long-term and we’re already building a team for next season.”
Hazard’s other main responsibility and role at the moment is nothing short of exceptional, it is heart-warming but also heart-breaking at the same time. Micky regularly attends charity functions to help others – in particular children’s charities, a cause particularly close to his heart.
The ex-footballer, who is often referred to as a “legend” and “hero”, insisted that footballers aren’t heroes and it was the men and women who do hours upon hours of unpaid, and also un-noticed, charity work who are the real inspirations and heroes.
“You talk about sporting people being “heroes”, but they’re not – there are people out there who do far, far more than any of these people.”
Micky then spoke about a function he attended the previous day which would bring tears to the eyes of even the hard men of the modern game.
“There’s a charity called Starlight who aim to grant terminally ill children one wish. One of the girls wish was ‘Can you name three stars after me and my two brothers, so when I’m in heaven I’ll be able to see them?’ Her words will stay with me for ever.”
The look in his eyes showed how much this meant to him and how much the boy who used to climb down a drain pipe to run home to his family, had changed and would do anything in his powers to help others have the family love he enjoyed whilst growing up.
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