IN DEPTH WITH...Micky Hazard

The joy of promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history, thanks to a play-off victory over Sunderland at Wembley, soon wiped out by an embarrassing off-the-field debacle.

A club in chaos because of a financial scandal.

It does not sound a desirable destination for any player, let alone one with an impressive career at both Tottenham and Chelsea and with UEFA and FA Cup medals to his name.

For a player but seeking a new challenge having recently turned 30, with a World Cup winner still in the manager’s chair, Swindon remained an attractive option.

So when Micky Hazard was given the chance to link back up with former Spurs colleague and ex-Argentina international Ossie Ardiles after a brief stint at Portsmouth, it was a no-brainer.

“I’d gone to that play-off final when they’d played Sunderland to watch and loved what I saw,” said former midfielder Hazard, now 55.

“The quality of the football they played was amazing and having Ossie there totally attracted me to the club. He was absolutely the reason I went.

“I didn’t actually join until two or three months into the next season but you could detect that there was not a great vibe.

“Everyone was despondent and everyone was feeling like they had been hard done by and it was hard to push it aside.

“I’d not been part of it but was fully aware of the goings on and the way it made people feel and it took maybe a full season for people to accept and come to terms with it.

“To be demoted for financial irregularities is punishing the wrong people.

“Financial irregularities should incur a financial punishment to the people that carried out the deed but they were punishing the players, who had worked incredibly hard to achieve what they had, and the fans, who pay good money week in, week out to watch and have no say in what goes on behind the scenes.

“That first season was very, very tough. It was a bit like being given a Christmas present but then, at the last second, have it taken away from you.

“People were down-heartened and it took a bit of time to fight back.

“There was a season of consolidation almost and then we’d go again. We were ready to go back to war and try to put the injustice right, so when we finally did go up in 1993, it was a sense of justice.”

Hazard, pictured in action against Norwich City

Ardiles resigned from his post in March of the 1990-91 season but just a month later, Town turned to another of Hazard’s famous former Spurs cohorts to reignite life at the County Ground, with Glenn Hoddle convinced to take the reins and kick-start his managerial career.

Glory, glory Tottenham Hotspur may be the chant in North London and the small pocket of White Hart Lane favourites that had nestled in Wiltshire were growing in influence all the time.

“Ossie first introduced the style and built a team that played that wonderful flowing passing game and then Glenn came in and carried that on a stage further,” said Hazard.

“He introduced himself to the team, which was going to strengthen any team at that level because he was such a special talent.

“They are both massive figures in the history of Swindon Town. What they built in those three or four years was possibly the best period in Swindon Town’s history.

“Not just in terms of the quality of football they played but also the players that came to the club because of them. They were able to attract players that maybe would not have looked at Swindon Town prior to them arriving.”

That Town resurgence was capped by what remains their finest-ever moment, with the demons of 1990 finally banished for good with victory in the 1993 Division One play-off final and that unforgettable clash against Leicester City.

Although surgery at the turn of the year meant Hazard had to settle for a place on the bench at Wembley, it did not diminish his elation at the achievement.

“I’m not disappointed at all, it happens in football,” said Hazard.

“I had played for quite a while that season needing a cartilage operation and decided out of the blue to get it out of the way.

“I did manage to get back in the team and I played well in the six or seven games prior to the play-offs, but I was up and down because I was trying to regain match fitness and trying to overcome a knee that was a bit vulnerable.

“I think I played every game up until I had the operation. The one game that people remember is the one that gets you promoted but it’s about the 46 or 47 games that have gone before.

“I probably appeared in about 42 of those games so I played a big part in that promotion, even if I missed out on that final.

“Ultimately it didn’t matter because it wasn’t about me, it was about the team and as long as we won we got the prize I had chased all season.

“That’s what I aimed for at the start of the season - to win promotion - and that’s what we got.”

Hazard shares a joke in training with then-Town boss Glenn Hoddle

Sadly for Swindon, Hoddle was heading out of Wiltshire before the new campaign had begun after being handed a plum job at Chelsea.

His exit meant Town’s Premier League party soon turned sour and a season-long relegation scrap ensued, which ultimately ended in heartache.

Hazard believes that had Swindon been able to keep hold of Hoddle, then the story could have been very different.

“When you look at that squad, it was more than capable of holding its own in the Premier League,” said Hazard.

“Glenn was a great manager and I still maintain to this day that if he had stayed that season, then they probably would have stayed in the Premier League.

“We were never going to win it because of the size of the club, but consolidating in the Premier League; it was well within reach.

“When Glenn left, it was almost like we accepted it was going to be a tough survival fight when really, it could have been more than that. We could maybe have been mid-table.

“We certainly came away with a lot of plaudits that season. People talked about us and the quality of the football we played but we just didn’t score enough goals to sustain us up there.”

Hazard collects his medal for being selected in the First Division team of the year

If the Chelsea job was too big for Hoddle to refuse, then so too was the chance to head back to North London for Hazard.

He played just nine times for Town in the top flight before Spurs swooped back in for his services less than two months into the new season.

If Hazard’s stints at White Hart Lane were arguably his most memorable and fruitful, then Swindon were a close-run second.

“I was incredibly happy at Swindon and really thought I was going to finish my career there and maybe go on to the coaching staff, but when Spurs came back in for me, it was too big a cross to bear. I had to go,” said Hazard.

“I would never have said no to them in a million years and it felt like I was going home when I went back there.

“Spurs are my club, I make no bones about that. I joined them when I was a kid and had many successful years there and we were FA Cup and UEFA Cup winners.

“It was an amazing club for me, but I was equally as happy at Swindon.

“Sometimes, the way you play the game is not suited to certain styles and the way I played the game was suited to the Spurs style and the Spurs way.

“But with Swindon appointing Ossie and appointing Glenn, they introduced the Spurs style of the beautiful game, which was the way I had always been made to play.

“It was easy for me to go to Swindon and play good football because I didn’t have to adapt my style in any way, shape or form.

“There are other clubs I played for that didn’t quite suit my style and I had to adapt my game to them and they had to adapt their game to me. While it was still very, very good it was never natural. But when I arrived at Swindon, it was natural because Ossie and Glenn were preaching my style so it fitted perfectly.

“It was like a hand in a glove so it was easy for me to settle in and play well for Swindon.

“It was a fantastic experience. The three years I was there were fantastic. I loved every single second of it.”