Dennis Wise was part of the Wimbledon 'Crazy Gang', captained Chelsea and won 21 caps for England (oh, and he was a contestant on I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! too).
He shared a changing room with the likes of Vinnie Jones and John Fashanu, winning the FA Cup alongside those two characters in 1988, before he became Chelsea's club record signing.
Here, Sportsmail spoke to Wise about his career, his highs, his lows and his reputation as a hothead as he launched the inaugural 'Sportsperson with a Personality Award'.
You debuted for Wimbledon at the age of 18 and became a crucial part of the 'Crazy Gang'. Did you actually like that nickname?
It was always there. We didn't even think of it. We were a group of boys who got a second chance. We'd been released, people told us we weren't good enough, players from the lower divisions had been bought for small fees. That was us.
Because we got a second chance, we all wanted to take it with both hands. Also, we wanted to enjoy it. It was the manager's way of wanting to do things. Dave Bassett. We wanted to enjoy things and he was just as crazy as us. More crazy than us!
So we knew what we could get away with but we also knew what we couldn't get away with. There was a lot of discipline but that was part of it. There were characters. There were some strong personalities inside that dressing room.
The 1988 FA Cup victory over Liverpool must have been the pinnacle of your Wimbledon career?
It was the best. That was the stage where it kicked all of us on to different ways. I went for a record buy to Chelsea. Andy Thorn and Dave Beasant went to Newcastle. It seemed to really kick start a lot of people's next-level careers. That helped.
Vinnie being Vinnie, people then saw what he was about. It would have been interesting if he had social media. What he would have put on there, God knows.
So is modern football lacking personalities?
Social media has really changed that. Every football club now helps with social media, from a young age, from a scholar all the way through.
The old days were different. We didn't have too many mobile phones. If we did, they were the NEC ones, they were bricks. You could get away with more enjoyment in the old times without it being put all over the place. People make a massive opinion of what you do, whether it's a joke or not a joke, it can be portrayed in different ways. That's the downside of social media now.
Nowadays people are really cautious with what's happening. By doing this award, it's really for characters in the game, not only football but all walks. It's great to have characters who say it as it is. Tyson Fury. Outspoken, says it as it is, not everyone will like him but some will. He's one of the nominees. Peter Crouch is another one. Tony Bellew. Alex Scott. Johanna Konta. They're not afraid to speak their minds.
Imagine if Vinnie Jones had Twitter back in the day…
Vinnie is a prime example. He was a character. These are sometimes characters who have now won loads of trophies, not been as successful as they would like to have been. Vinnie won a couple of medals, he played nine games for Wales.
But he's a character. He's a person who sticks out and will say it as it is. It's important to have people like that. He's gone on to be a film star. I'm very close to Vin, he was the best man at my wedding.
We were close. We had nothing when we were young boys, we ended up at Wimbledon together, he came a month after me. We had character. We had things about us that stuck out which was good.
You signed for Chelsea for £1.6million in 1990 and that was mad money back then?
It was. A lot of money. Wow. When I first went there, the personnel was Kerry Dixon, Vinnie came, Tony Cascarino, Andy Townsend, all characters. The quality changed and you had to go with it, otherwise you were set aside.
If your quality didn't pick up to the level of the personnel coming in, you were moved on, you were gone. That's what happened. I'm probably the one from the 1990s to see it all the way through to 2001.
I was fortunate enough with the quality that came in. Ruud Gullit, Gianfranco Vialli, Gianfranco Zola, Roberto Di Matteo, Didier Deschamps, Marcel Desailly. Wow. There were some exceptional players who came into that team.
You helped Chelsea beat Sheffield United 3-2 on the final day of the 1993-94 season and it relegated them. Tell us why you found that so difficult…
You played to win the game and I played to win the game. It wouldn't have been correct to do it differently. You play to win, you want to win. The sad thing about it was I walked past the away dressing room, popped my head in and I saw a lot of people I knew in there. Heads in hands, emotional, upset. It changed them. It changed their situations, whether or not you get a contract. It was quite sad really. But this is football.
You were shown the odd card in your day… did it bother you to be pigeon-holed as a hothead?
Not really! I'm not bothered. It is what it is. You get put in different boxes and I was in that box. It helped me in a way, it hindered me as well. I set up lots of goals, I scored lots of goals.
You're either the person that people look at from a character point of view or you're not, and people looked at me and said, "He's a bit lively. Something will happen". And it normally did. It was not that I meant it to be like that, it was just the way I was.
You were part of a certain breed of footballer back then… but Chelsea fans loved you for it?
You had your Roy Keanes, Nicky Butts, Patrick Vieiras. I came up against all of them. They had real bite between their teeth. They were real characters, real tough. Tony Adams. Martin Keown.
That Arsenal team we came up against were a tough group of boys and so were Manchester United at the time. They were tough.
Mark Hughes, when he came to Chelsea, wow. You realised what he was about, how strong he is, how focused, how single-minded these people are.
So what was your stand-out Chelsea moment?
My moment, from a personal point of view, was when we won the 2000 FA Cup final. I took my young son, six months old, to pick the cup up. That was a stand-out moment. It was quite an iconic photo. It was spur of the moment, we all decided to take the kids up.
There was also the San Siro, scoring that goal against AC Milan which meant we drew 1-1 in the Champions League. I still focus on Paolo Maldini chasing me. He couldn't catch me! Then the song. They did a song about it. It was wonderful. They still sing it now.
Claudio Ranieri came in as Chelsea manager in 2000 and you left the club in 2001. Did you actually want to leave at the time? Why did you go?
I'd been at the club for 11 years and no. No you don't (want to leave). I still had a couple of years left on my contract but was I going to stay there and not be involved? That's the part I found very difficult. I wanted to play football. I was getting older. Maybe it was the wrong decision at the time but you live and die by the decisions you make. I remember speaking to Claudio a little while ago. I told him, "You know what, Claudio? I should have stayed and listened and learned". He said, "Yeah, it would have been nice". It was the rotation I couldn't get my head around. I thought if you play well, you should stay in, but that wasn't the case.