The title of Ian Baird’s biography “Bairdy’s Gonna Get Ya” is a huge clue as to what sort of character and footballer Ian Baird was. Although Rotherham-based when he was born, Ian Baird’s family moved to Southampton, via Glasgow, when he was a young lad, his father having sailed from the port when he worked on the Queen Mary. Surviving meningitis as a six-year old, Ian came to the attention of Southampton when appearing in the same boys team, Sarisbury Sparks, as Lawrie McMenemy’s son, Sean, and schoolboy forms were duly presented.

He won England schoolboy caps and was offered pro terms by Swindon, but he chose instead to sign for his adopted home town

and making a big impact in the Reserves as a strong, fearless bustling forward, broke into the first team late on in the 1982-83 season.

But he was unable to establish himself and had only spasmodic appearances between loan spells as McMenemy brought in first Frank Worthington and then Joe Jordan. Jordan’s arrival particularly irked Baird who admits in his biography he was “ far from happy” and after spending the summer in Spain came back to pre-season training seriously unfit and then didn’t help his cause by, along with Rueben Agboola, Eamonn Collins and Dennis Wise, getting into a fracas in a nightclub.

Just when his career prospects had reached the crossroads, Jordan took him to one side and read him the riot act.

A successful loan spell at Jack Charlton’s Newcastle followed but the move was not made permanent, however, shortly afterwards, he did sign permanently for Leeds (Joe Jordan again advising him to make the move) for a fee of £75,000. Eddie Gray was their manager but was soon replaced by Billy Bremner and Ian fared well, top scoring as Leeds reached both the FA Cup semi-final and the Division II play-offs in 1987. But then attracted by the thought of playing for Alan Ball and seduced of moving up a division he rejected advances from Celtic and on the advice of ex-Saint David Webb who was friends with his father, joined Portsmouth for £250,000 in “the worse move I ever made”.

His short stay was beset with injury and his customary disciplinary problems and he returned to Leeds to become their Player-of-the Year in 1989. But then Howard Wilkinson signed Lee Chapman and Ian “spat his dummy out” and departed Elland Road for a second time, joining Middlesbrough. He then played for his Saints mentor, Joe Jordan at Hearts and Bristol City, before winding down at Plymouth and finally Jimmy Case’s Brighton, where a knee injury finally got the better of him.

After the obligatory non-league circuit interspersed with an unlikely managerial spell managing Hong Kong’s national side for three Asian Cup-qualifiers, Ian finally put down roots back in Southampton, developing business interests in the vehicle sales/leasing and sports gear industries, dabbling in the a football agency business, while spending five years managing Eastleigh. More recently he has teamed up with Paul Doswell at Sutton and then followed him to Havant & Waterlooville.