Spurs stories | Micky Hazard - Eintracht Frankfurt ‘82

Each matchday, Andy Greeves speaks to one of our former players who has a notable connection to our visitors or had a memorable moment against them for our Official Matchday Programme.

As we prepare to face Eintracht Frankfurt in the first leg of our UEFA Europa League quarter-final this evening, Andy caught up with former midfielder Micky Hazard, who scored 25 goals in 170 appearances for us in two spells between 1980 and 1985 and from 1993 to 1995 and started in both legs of our 3-2 aggregate victory over the Bundesliga side in the European Cup Winners’ Cup of 1981/82.

Having beaten Ajax and Dundalk in the previous rounds, we hosted Eintracht Frankfurt in a Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final, first leg match at White Hart Lane on 3 March, 1982. What are your memories of that game?

Micky: "I can remember we scored two good goals that night. Paul Miller scored and so did I... two players who had come through the ranks from schoolboy level to first team. Tony Galvin, whose first professional club was Tottenham, made an assist. Eintracht Frankfurt were a good team, but I felt confident - as I always did in Europe – that we’d get through to the next round. If I’m honest with you, I thought we’d win in Europe every season because we had such good players. In the slower pace of continental football as it was at that time, we really flourished."

You mentioned your goal in that 2-0 win in the first leg. Can you describe it?

Micky: "Tony Galvin broke through with the ball and I ran to the right of him and he fed the ball to me. As the defenders were coming across to me, I went across the one, dropped my shoulder to go to the right and came to the left. The second defender came over and I did the same thing – dropped my shoulder to go right and then went left – before rifling it into the keeper’s bottom right-hand corner from about 20 yards out. This was all done with my ‘wrong’ foot. I am right footed, but I didn’t touch the ball once with my right foot from picking it up through to striking it. I’m always happy when I see a clip of that goal again. I had a body swerve that I used a lot during my career and that goal captured that."

We were 0-2 down early on in the second leg. What were your feelings at that time?

Micky: "We were in such a comfortable position from the first leg and suddenly, we’re 0-2 down on the night. So, of course, it was a shock. Glenn Hoddle got a goal back for us late on, which took as through. We ultimately won the tie, so that was all that mattered, but yes, they certainly gave us a fright!"

We were beaten 1-2 on aggregate by Barcelona in the semi-finals that season. That defeat must have been a hard one to take given the ‘physical’ nature of Barça’s approach to those two matches?

Micky: "We got kicked from pillar to post in that game in the first leg at White Hart Lane. I’ve never played in a match like that before. You see the modern-day Barcelona and the incredible football they play. This performance couldn’t have been any more different... they just wanted to kick us off the park. Ahead of the second leg, both teams got a warning from UEFA not to repeat the kind of scenes we’d seen in the first game, even though we hadn’t been responsible. Barcelona did exactly what they’d done in the first leg in the second game. It was such a shame lose to them, as we were a better team."

Despite that disappointment, the season ended on a real high, as we won the FA Cup...

Micky: "Yes, although there was still maybe a tinge of disappointment because as I say, I think we really could have won four trophies that season. In the League Cup Final, we were 1-0 up against Liverpool with a minute or so to go. Steve Archibald went round Bruce Grobbelaar and missed. They go up the other end and Ronnie Whelan equalised and then we lost in extra-time. If we’d beaten Liverpool in the League Cup Final, I think we’d have had a great chance of winning the other three trophies."

You were a key member of Keith Burkinshaw’s side that won the UEFA Cup in 1983/84. How do you look back on that incredible campaign?

Micky: "We played some top teams that season. We knocked out Drogheda and then we beat Feyenoord - who had Johan Cruyff in their team. We beat Bayern Munich after that, who had a great team with the likes of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. Austria Vienna were another good team, who we knocked out in the quarter-finals. They had an incredible midfielder called Herbert Prohaska, who was a key player for Austria at the time too. And I was able to score the winner in the semi-final against Hajduk Split which I was delighted about."

How do you reflect on the final against Anderlecht?

Micky: "The irony is that we won the UEFA Cup missing half of our regular starting XI. Ray Clemence, Steve Perryman, Glenn Hoddle and Garth Crooks were all out for the second leg of that final and Ossie was only substitute as he was injured. We were brilliant in the first leg and the tie really should have been over out there. We could and should have won 3-0, even better, out there. Anderlecht were a good team full of internationals… top players like Morten Olsen and Enzo Scifo. To win it in the way we did in the second leg, on home soil, was incredible. Sometimes it feels like it only happened the other day. That’s what I love about football. You can create a memory that is 30, 40, 50 years old. But it remains with you and here we are talking about it today!"

What was it like re-signing for Spurs in 1993?

Micky: "Each and every football club I played for during my career played a special part in my life. So, there is absolutely no disrespect intended when I say what I’m about to say. But, from the day I left Spurs to the day I re-signed in 1993, I spent my free time dreaming that one day, I’d get to play for Spurs again. If ever there was a football club suited to myself, the way I saw the game and my abilities, it was Tottenham Hotspur."

While you won two trophies as a Spurs player, we understand your most precious memory of the club was our last day at White Hart Lane back in May 2017?

Micky: "That’s right. I’m a backstreet kid from Sunderland, 300 miles away. But here I was, invited as a guest of the club to the last-ever game at White Hart Lane - one of 49 former players. I was sitting in the Bill Nicholson Suite having a meal with different generations of Spurs players. We had a menu with a list of the former players who attended and I got that signed by each and every one of those former players. I felt like a kid at Christmas getting these autographs! The day got better and better. We went down to the tunnel ready to go out onto the pitch to be introduced to the crowd. There was a little bit of anxiety because I just wanted the crowd to remember me. The names were read out alphabetically, so in front of me was David Ginola and behind me was Glenn Hoddle! So that added to my nerves, given they are both crowd favourites. But when I came out, the reception was amazing and both the relief and sense of pride… I was buzzing. After that, we lined up with the current team, we did a lap of honour around the pitch and sang ‘Can’t Smile Without You’ on the pitch. And then, we got confirmation that God is a Spurs supporter when he sent a rainbow that ended on the cockerel on the Shelf roof! When I arrived home, someone had posted a photograph of me in the tunnel that day, looking out on the pitch as I was about to go out. They captioned it ‘if pride had a face…’ I had a lump in my throat seeing that because it just summed up what the club means to me. And I felt pride that day like never before."

And a few years later, you played for our Spurs Legends team against Inter Legends. An eventful day for you to say the least?!

Micky: "All the players reported to the training ground that day. I had to report to the stadium though, as I was there working prior to the game. I came down to the dressing room when I knew the players were due to arrive to greet them. All these legendary players walked in… Jürgen Klinsmann, Robbie Keane, Dimitar Berbatov. I was shaking all of their hands and as I looked down the row of players, there was Gazza. And he saw me and he said ‘wow, it’s Micky Hazard… what a player you were by the way’. And I thought to myself ‘blimey, one of the greatest English footballers of all-time knows who I am and also said the words that he did’.

"To get the opportunity to play on that pitch was incredible, especially as I was the oldest player in both squads. I couldn’t wait to come on and that happened with about 30-35 minutes of the game remaining. When I came out onto the pitch, it felt surreal. It felt like I was living in an alternate universe... I was so happy, so content. Then, with about 30 seconds left to go, I snapped my Achilles. I ended up in a wheelchair for four months and I wasn’t able to travel to Madrid for the Champions League Final. People say to me regularly ‘I bet you wished you’d never played’ and I always say ‘I wouldn’t change a thing’. As a former player, you dream that one day you might be back out on the pitch. So, it was still a dream come true for me, despite my injury."