Former watfordfc defender Darren Bazeley recalls his career at Vicarage Road, and why he left after helping the club get promoted to the Premier League
Having made his debut on the final day of the 1989/90 season, Bazeley was not involved in a team that finished any higher than seventh in the second tier for the next seven seasons.
“When Graham came back he galvanised the whole club. He worked with Kenny Jackett and Luther Blissett to form this management team which was so successful,” said Bazeley. “We had no star names, but when you looked down the squad we were a group of players who had already formed a bond. “The Championship is hard. It’s a tough slog. You play lots of games, and it’s often Saturday/Tuesday/Saturday/Tuesday.
“I had messages from John Barnes and Gerry Armstrong for example, two great players, who left Watford before I played. But being a Watford player truly makes you part of a family, and that is another legacy of Graham Taylor and the way he worked.” “We had been so drilled in taking penalties, doing it every day after training, we were all full of confidence,” Bazley explained.
“I wasn’t the biggest goalscorer in the world but at that moment, I felt fully confident I was going to score.”Fast forward to the final, and fans will always talk about the two goals with warm memories. “But then when I’m past both of them and I’m in the box, for some reason I take my touch wide rather than towards goal. That would have allowed me to have a shot – but like I said, so much about the end to that season was meant to be.
“No, I’m not like that. I don’t believe you should ever regret things. I knew it was a big decision and I took a long time to make it,” he said.“It was just the right time. It was really difficult to leave having just secured promotion to the Premier League, and the hard thing was that I’d been at the club for so long and now there was the offer of a long contract in front of me.
“My agent had been talking to clubs but I wasn’t really that bothered because we’d been promoted,” Bazeley recalled. “It snowballed from there. I wasn’t thinking of leaving but that suddenly opened my eyes. I spoke to a lot of people. I’m really close to Gary Porter and Nigel Gibbs, and I talked to them – they said they’d had similar opportunities to leave but didn’t, but also then wondered what it would have been like.
“Then Steve Bull announced his retirement in pre-season, and Robbie Keane was sold to Coventry for £6m two games into the season. “Watford is a great club, it’s a big part of my life. I have their shirt on my wall in my office at home.It’s not just the football club that the converted Kiwi remembers with fondness when he talks about Watford – it’s the hospital next door too.
“I was in the hotel, rooming with Steve Palmer. We were watching Match of the Day and it was about 11pm, and my wife Sandy rang me to say her waters had broken. “Of course we won that game and it was a great day, and obviously while I was playing Sandy and Abbie were next door in the hospital!” However, when Watford played at Tottenham in the FA Cup Third Round in January 1999, I couldn’t help Bazeley avoid a very swift lesson in media management.