Bob Hazell On City, An FA Cup Final & Retiring At 30

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Bob Hazell On City, An FA Cup Final & Retiring At 30

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, Bob Hazell, who played for us as a centre-back between 1983 and 1985, reviewed his career in football.

2025-04-17T17:00+01:00

by John Hutchinson

Published

17 Apr, 2025

Bob Hazell On City, An FA Cup Final & Retiring At 30

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, Bob Hazell, who played for us as a centre-back between 1983 and 1985, reviewed his career in football.

John Hutchinson

2025-04-17T17:00+01:00

Bob Hazell On City, An FA Cup Final & Retiring At 30

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, Bob Hazell, who played for us as a centre-back between 1983 and 1985, reviewed his career in football.

John Hutchinson

2025-04-17T17:00+01:00

Bob Hazell On City, An FA Cup Final & Retiring At 30

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, Bob Hazell, who played for us as a centre-back between 1983 and 1985, reviewed his career in football.

John Hutchinson

2025-04-17T17:00+01:00

Bob Hazell On City, An FA Cup Final & Retiring At 30

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, Bob Hazell, who played for us as a centre-back between 1983 and 1985, reviewed his career in football.

John Hutchinson

2025-04-17T17:00+01:00

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he grew up in Birmingham and started his career at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Not only recalling his time at Molineux and at Filbert Street, but also his time playing for Tommy Docherty and Terry Venables at Queens Park Rangers, he starred in the 1982 FA Cup Final and finished his career at Port Vale.

“I played for Birmingham Schools,” Bob began. “At the time, I had one foot in the Birmingham City camp and the other foot in the Wolverhampton camp, but through my Sunday league manager, I ended up at Wolves.

“We reached the FA Youth Cup Final in 1976 and got beaten 5-0 by West Brom. I was signed as a professional by Wolves manager, Bill McGarry. He brought me into his first team squad and he almost put me in the team, but he got fired. His number two, Sammy Chung, became manager.

“I blossomed under him and he gave me my debut in an old First Division match in December 1977. This was at St. James’ Park against Newcastle. A few months later, we played Arsenal in the FA Cup, and I got sent off. My defensive partner was George Berry. At the end of that season, I won the club’s Player of the Year award. That was terrific, especially as they’ve still got it at Wolves with my name on.”

In September 1979, after another season at Molineux, Bob was transferred to Queens Park Rangers for a fee of £240,000. By this time, he had had played for England Youth, England Under-21s (playing alongside the likes of Glenn Hoddle, Kenny Samson and Cyrille Regis) and the England ‘B’ side.

Called up to represent the young Lions.

“We had a change of management at Wolves,” Bob continued. “I had been liked and favoured by Sammy Chung, but not by the new manager, John Barnwell, and his assistant Richie Barker. They saw me as not being for them. That’s the world, isn’t it? I could have joined my old manager, Bill McGarry, at Newcastle, but I wanted to go to London, so I signed for Queens Park Rangers, who had been relegated to the Second Division at the end of the previous season.”

His two managers at Loftus Road were Tommy Docherty (for the first year) and then Terry Venables. They had very differing styles on management.

“Tommy seemed to float above things,” Bob recalled. “He’d come round and have a laugh and a joke with you and then fall out with you. Terry, on the other hand, controlled everything. All the training went through him and was exactly as he wanted it. He always gave you the impression that it was all free and easy, but he had a structure within there and it was all pretty tight.”

In 1982, Venables’ QPR just missed promotion, but they did reach the FA Cup Final.

Bob continued: “When the semi-final draw was made, the team I wanted to avoid was Leicester, which we did. We beat West Brom and then faced Spurs in the Final. I remember coming out of the tunnel at Wembley and I was in deep concentration, feeling the buzz. Then I just kind of let myself go. I could feel myself floating and could feel the noise.

“I remember Princess Anne asking me: ‘Are you going to win today?’ I was about to say: ‘You bet we are!’ But I stopped myself just in time! It was a pretty boring game though. It went into extra-time. There weren’t many chances. I can’t remember their goal, but I remember being 1-0 down. Then there was a long throw-in, and I flicked it onto the far post and Terry Fenwick headed it in for the equaliser. We lost the replay 1-0.”

In action for the Hoops against Watford.

In 1983, Rangers returned to the old First Division as champions, along with Gordon Milne’s Leicester City, who also gained automatic promotion by finishing third.

Early the following season, after only six games, Bob left Loftus Road to join Leicester, who had lost all six of their opening games in the top flight.

“At the time,” Bob added, “I was negotiating a new contract with QPR, but I’d been told a few months before that Arsenal was interested and I was speaking on the phone to the Arsenal manager at the time. Then he told me that they weren’t going to go through with it in the end. I was disappointed.

“I signed a new contract with QPR and, the following weekend, I got knocked out in a game and found myself in hospital.

“When I was discharged, the club told me not to come in for a few days. That’s when I got the call from Terry Venables. He came on the phone and told me that Leicester were interested in signing me. I spoke to Leicester and then asked Terry what his thoughts were. I was enjoying it at QPR, I was in the team and had this cult hero status at QPR. He told me that Alan McDonald was coming through and it could be a bit of a fight to get into the team.

“It was at that point that I wanted out. I was disappointed that the manager offered me the chance to leave. We had just won promotion and it had taken us a long time to like London. You want to feel wanted, don’t you?”

Sliding in on Garth Crooks during the 1982 FA Cup Final Replay at Wembley.

An early problem Bob faced at Filbert Street was the size of his shorts.

“When I arrived, none of their shorts would fit me!” he laughed. “I thought: ‘They are making shorts for 12-year-olds, they are not used to having fit athletes like me!’ The shorts just weren’t big enough. In the end, I had to wear shorts which came from an old kit store as they were the only ones big enough for me.

“My wife was born in Birmingham and she wanted to come back to the Midlands. One of the first things Leicester said to me was that they had no problem with me living in Birmingham because they had a few players already living there.

“Leicester had some good players. I had loads of respect for my centre-back partner, John O’Neill. I really enjoyed playing with him. We had a fearsome attack with [Gary] Lineker, as well as Smudger (Alan Smith), and Steve Lynex, who were both Brummie boys. We used to travel in together.”

Bob’s presence in the City side for the rest of the season coincided with his new team rising up the table from bottom to 15th. He was, however, injured for a fixture at Loftus Road in April of that season.

Thinking back to that game, Bob remembered: “In the first half, I watched the game with friends, who had a box at QPR, but because I’d got tickets for some family and friends in the stand, I decided to watch the second half with them.

Battling Spurs' Clive Allen at White Hart Lane during City's 1984/85 First Division campaign.

“As I took my seat among the home fans, they stood up and started applauding me and then all the Main Stand stood up and started singing: ‘There’s only Bobby Hazell’ and then fans on the other side of the ground joined in. Then the Leicester City fans said: ‘Hold on, he’s our player!’ So, they started singing and chanting my name too! That was one of the best days of my life!”

The following season (1984/85), Bob was struggling with injuries: “During the pre-season, we were at Lilleshall, and we played Telford. This fella came straight into my ankle. Foot and lower limb injuries take forever to get better.”

Bob was able to play regularly for the first part of the season, but in September 1985, he went back to Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan.

When Bob returned to Wolves, they had slipped from the top two flights and had just been relegated to the old Third Division.

“Because of all the injuries, I hadn’t played, so for me, moving back to Wolves on loan was for recuperation,” Bob explained. “And then, lo and behold, 10 minutes after I’d given my word to Wolves that I would go back, Frank Worthington, who was then manager at Tranmere, rang me to say why didn’t I go to do a job at Tranmere for him? I said: ‘Frank, I swear that only 10 minutes ago I gave my word to Wolves that I would go back there! You are 10 minutes too late!’

Bob came through the ranks at Wolves before returning later in his career.

“I always liked Frank. I have so much time for him. I remember once, I smacked him in a tackle. Later in the game, he did me back. I was seething but he just said: ‘You did it to me and I didn’t complain did I?’ The way he said it, I just started laughing. Then we both had a laugh and we were good friends ever since. He was an absolute diamond.

“Wolves were in decline when I went back. You could feel it in the dressing room. When I remember how disciplined the place had been, that had all gone. There were kit bags strewn all over the place. There wasn’t enough money to cut the grass or reseed the practice field or the first team pitch. It was really horrible.

“In my first game back, I remember chasing a ball and, all of a sudden, I heard a whack. I looked round and there was nobody there. Then I thought perhaps I’ve had a stone thrown at me, but there were only about six people in the stand, and they were too far away as the ground developments meant that it was about a mile from the pitch.

“I was in pain, but it wasn’t excruciating. The physio came on and kept saying: ‘It’s gone, it’s gone’. I’m thinking: ‘What’s gone?’ He said: ‘Your Achilles tendon has snapped’. This was in the first half of my first game.”

Bob was sidelined for nine months. At the end of that season, Wolves were relegated to the Fourth Division and City gave him a free transfer. Four months later, in December 1986, Bob signed for Port Vale in the Third Division for a two-and-a-half-year spell. This culminated in promotion the Second Division, at which point injury forced his retirement from playing just before his 30th birthday.

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