Revealed! Razor Ruddock's 25 hardest players ever

25. Kevin Muscat

REPUTATION: In his Wolves days, the Aussie punctured Craig Bellamy’s kneecap and was sued by Matty Holmes for a challenge that almost led to the midfielder having his leg amputated. Muscat was sent off 12 times during his career, which ended not long after he was banned for eight games while playing for Melbourne Victory. This year, he became the manager of Belgian outfit Sint-Truiden. 

RAZOR SAYS: “I never played against him, but he’d have got it if I had – he was in my little red book. Muscat, you’re a bully: I’ve seen you do people and hurt little wingers – you’re at No.25, but you’re only on this list so you know I haven’t forgotten you. I hope to bump into you one day...” [Evil laugh]

24. Dave Macaky

REPUTATION: The Scot gained the nickname of ‘Iron Man’ during his time at Hearts. Nine years at Spurs followed, where striker Jimmy Greaves described him as a “genuinely hard bastard”. That glowing endorsement was best personified when Mackay schooled Billy Bremner in 1966 – angrily grabbing the Scot after the Leeds man had gone into a tackle targeting Mackay’s left leg, which the Spurs defender had twice previously broken. 

RAZOR SAYS: “I’ve got to pick Dave Mackay for that wonderful photo of when he had Billy Bremner by the throat – Bremner was meant to be a hard man...”

23. Billy Bonds

REPUTATION: “Six foot two, eyes of blue, Billy Bonds is after you” echoed the terrace chant for many of his 21 years at West Ham. The fearless Bonds occasionally saw red – he was lucky to escape suspension for the Hammers’ FA Cup final triumph in 1980 after being sent off for scrapping with Birmingham’s Colin Todd. The pair even continued to kick each other on the floor. Bonds later managed West Ham, then had the cojones to boss arch-rivals Millwall. 

RAZOR SAYS: “Billy’s era was before my playing days, but ‘Bonzo’ has to be on my list for all the stories I heard from my old West Ham mates and Hammers fans.”

22. Ron Harris

REPUTATION: Well, he wasn’t nicknamed ‘Chopper’ for his love of helicopters. Nope, the stopper was renowned for mercilessly hacking down strikers during two decades at Chelsea. He helped turn the 1970 FA Cup Final against rivals Leeds into one of the most physical finals of all time, taking out Eddie Gray less than 10 minutes into the replay as the Blues won. Several years later, Gray presented Harris with a screw-in stud. “Where’s that from?” queried Harris. “My kneecap!” responded the Scot. 

RAZOR SAYS: “I did a dinner with Chopper once and he didn’t look very scary to me. But if my dad said he was hard, he was.”

21. Norman Hunter

REPUTATION: The centre-back was an enforcer in Don Revie’s fearsome Leeds team, and famously floored Francis Lee with a right hook at the Baseball Ground. The pair were both sent off, then started scuffling again as they walked off-field. 

RAZOR SAYS: “He was my dad’s favourite – he always used to talk about ‘Bite Yer Legs’ Hunter, and I remember that fight he had with Franny Lee. When I made my debut for Tottenham, I think Bobby Moore was writing for The Times – he said there was a lad called Neil Ruddock who’d made his debut, and I reminded him of Hunter... but with muscles. That was a fantastic compliment to receive.”

20. Tommy Smith

REPUTATION: Bill Shankly once declared that, “Tommy Smith wasn’t born, he was quarried.” Nicknamed ‘the Anfield Iron’, the local defender was a crucial part of the Anfield club’s rise – it was often joked that Merseyside mothers used to have Smith’s picture on their mantelpiece to keep their children away from the fire. The terrifying Scouser missed out on the 1978 European Cup Final after dropping a pickaxe on his own foot – legend has it that the pickaxe was a write-off.

RAZOR SAYS: “The top players in my list are all people I played with or against, but I’ve got to put Smith in. Jimmy Case used to tell me some stories about him.”

19. Bryan Robson

REPUTATION: Robson became known as ‘Captain Marvel’ after starring for Manchester United and England, but he was also nails. The midfielder would never shirk a challenge and left his mark on various foes over time – not least a wince-worthy studs-up tackle on Nayim against Spurs at White Hart Lane. 

RAZOR SAYS: “Roy Keane wouldn’t make my top 50 and I didn’t really want to put Robbo in my list either, because he’s in my all-time top five of the best players I played against. But Bryan has to be in here, as he absolutely destroyed me on numerous occasions... he nailed me. If you’re tough enough to do that, then you’re tough enough to make the top 20 of this list.”

18. Paul Kitson

REPUTATION: After spells with Leicester and Derby, the striker was part of the Newcastle squad that almost won the Premier League title in 1995-96, before joining West Ham. At 5ft 11in, Kitson wasn’t especially renowned as a hard man during his career. However... 

RAZOR SAYS: “This is probably the shock of the 25. One of the toughest, strongest little f**kers I’ve ever met in my life. An absolute head-the-ball lunatic when he lost it. Paul decked Martin Keown off the ball once – he just smashed him, knocked him flying, out sparko. It was a beautiful thing.”

17. Cyrille Regis

REPUTATION: Regis was a trailblazer on the pitch, overcoming racist abuse from the terraces to become a legend – most notably with West Bromwich Albion. He could also handle himself when required, after a tough upbringing in non-league. 

RAZOR SAYS: “We were having a set-to when I was a player at Southampton, then he punched Barry Horne in the face and knocked both of his front teeth out. As a kid, I grew up watching Cyrille and he was a wonderful player – I got the last couple of years of his career at Coventry. I learned not to upset him after seeing him flatten Barry, though – it was better to just let him play with a smile...”

16. Mark Hughes

REPUTATION: Back in the days before he got mortally offended by rival managers refusing to shake his hand, Hughes was a combative striker at Manchester United. At Southampton, meanwhile, he became the first player ever to be yellow-carded 14 times in a Premier League campaign. 

RAZOR SAYS: “A freak of nature with massive legs. You’d run into his back and it was like running into a lamp post. He was a great player, but when you passed the ball, Mark would come through you like a Porsche at 100 miles an hour. He always got away with it – referees used to think, ‘He’s only a striker, so he didn’t mean it’. He f**king meant it, all right!”

15. Brian Kilcline

REPUTATION: Dubbed ‘Killer’, the stopper’s flowing locks were deceptive – Russell Brand he was not. It was once claimed that Kilcline ‘doesn’t go to sleep, he waits in a dark room’, such was his 24-hour menace. Known for sticking his bonce in for diving headers when the ball was barely inches off the ground, he was Coventry captain when they won the

FA Cup in 1987 – lifting the trophy despite his mid-match injury later diagnosed as a blood clot. It took more than that to stop him. 

RAZOR SAYS: “A huge mountain of a man, he could head the ball further than most players could kick it. You had to be tough to have that haircut, a perm like he had. Brian was a lovely bloke off the pitch, but with some people, as soon as they crossed that white line, they turned into f**king different animals, to put it mildly. And when you’ve got a nickname like Killer, that does help.”

14. Julian Dicks

REPUTATION: Surely the hardest man ever named Julian – the grizzled left-back earned his moniker of ‘The Terminator’ after ending many a winger’s afternoon. Dicks was sent off several times during his career, one for an elbow on Franz Carr. “I had it in mind that I was going to do it, and that was it – bang!” he helpfully explained. Signed by Graeme Souness at Liverpool, the skinhead returned to West Ham after a year and was tipped for a Euro 96 call-up... until he stamped on John Spencer’s head against Chelsea, then saw red for booting Ian Wright soon after. Even his testimonial was marred by a mass brawl. 

RAZOR SAYS: “A Tasmanian devil with a bad head. Enough said.”

13. Stuart Pearce

REPUTATION: Known as ‘Psycho’, Pearce was practically celebrated for careering into tackles at any opportunity. Roy Keane described him as “a man among boys” at Nottingham Forest; at Newcastle, Pearce thrilled colleagues by booting unpopular boss Ruud Gullit up in the air at training. 

RAZOR SAYS: “I absolutely smashed him in a challenge near the start of my career, when he was playing for Forest and I was at Southampton. And he’s never let it go – every time I see Psycho, he comes up behind me and punches me in the ribs.

It f**king hurts! At West Ham, he’d try to do me in training – all of it from that day I smashed him. It was all worth it, but Stuart, please: you’ve got me back tenfold now – we’re both in our 50s, let it go...”

12. John Fashanu

REPUTATION: ‘Fash the Bash’ developed a cuddly persona on Gladiators, with his regular shouts of ‘Awooga!’ (25 years on, still no idea what that means). But things were different on the pitch – the striker was a pivotal part of Wimbledon’s scare tactics. His elbow left Gary Mabbutt with a fractured skull and eye socket in 1993. 

RAZOR SAYS: “I was Fash’s apprentice at Millwall, and he was so lovely to me – but he had sharp elbows, massive feet with massive studs, and he’d trample all over you to score. He would elbow the post to score if he had to. If you stood up to him, you had a better chance – if you showed any frailties, then he’d get the better of you. He was a tough man, a fair man, an over-the-top man, a used-to-lose-it man, a nice man, a crazy man. He had it all.”

11. Pat van Den Hauwe

REPUTATION: The Belgium-born Wales man named his own autobiography Psycho Pat. One tackle from the Everton stopper ensured Vince Hilaire left Goodison Park on a stretcher; on another occasion, he ran 50 yards to deck QPR’s Simon Stainrod. He gained admiration from one of the Krays – declining an invite to visit them in prison – and later held a gun to a man’s head because he was owed £100. 

RAZOR SAYS: “I used to call him Pat van Den Mad Eyes – they were really close together, and whenever those eyes went, you thought, ‘Uh oh.’ I played with him at Tottenham and he had a wicked sense of humour – he was either laughing or wanted to tear your head off. The things he’d say were just nasty...”

10. John Hartson

REPUTATION: The targetman was sent off six times in the Premier League, but his most notorious incident came in training when he kicked Hammers team-mate Eyal Berkovic – caught on camera to make headlines. “If my head had been a ball, it would have been in the top corner of the net,” claimed Berkovic. 

RAZOR SAYS: “Big John was a gentle giant until he lost it – he had a short fuse. There were plenty of centre-halves who wouldn’t mess with him, and he left many a mark on them down the years. A wonderful man, a wonderful human being, and a wonderful hard man. I was there when he booted Eyal Berkovic – his fuse went, then two seconds later he was back to normal. Eyal was fine – it looked quite harsh on telly, but he didn’t catch him as good as it looked. It was only a kick in the face – I mean, come on!”

9. Graeme Souness

REPUTATION: At Liverpool, Souness broke the jaw of Dinamo Bucharest skipper Lica Movila with what he described as “the best punch of my life”. Later, an infamous clip
as player-manager at Rangers showed him diving knee-high into Steaua’s Gheorghe Rotariu; today a 10-match ban, but back then greeted with, “Ooh... that is a booking” by the rather understated commentator. “The studs were big and made of iron – his tackle left deep wounds,” said Rotariu. “The surgeon told me it could have been fatal if he’d caught me a few centimetres higher.” 

RAZOR SAYS: “I played against Graeme for Tottenham in Paul Miller’s testimonial back in the ’80s – I think I kicked someone and Souness then grabbed me around the throat. I was only 17 or 18, and that stuck with me for life. Ray Clemence came and saved me, thank God. During Liverpool’s great era, a few of their players had an edge: Tommy Smith, Jimmy Case, Souness, even Ronnie Whelan was a dirty little f**ker. Souness became my manager at Liverpool, and he was still the hardest tackler when he joined in five-a-side. He didn’t get on well with Don Hutchison – he two-footed him from behind a few times. You had to have some nuts to plant that flag in the centre circle at Fenerbahce’s ground, too, like he did when he was Galatasaray boss. He wasn’t wired up right.”

8. Duncan Ferguson

REPUTATION: Variously nicknamed ‘Big Dunc’ or ‘Duncan Disorderly’, the striker nutted Raith’s John McStay while playing for Rangers, earning him a three-month sentence inside Barlinnie prison (having previously coughed up a £100 fine for headbutting a copper). Ferguson later starred for Everton and Newcastle, and no player has ever surpassed his eight Premier League red cards. Not once but twice he put burglars in hospital, after particularly ill-advised break-ins.

RAZOR SAYS: “A tough man – Big Dunc was a player you didn’t want to upset. Most of these guys became better when they were annoyed and aggressive, and he was undoubtedly one of them. Keep him in a good mood! He was the greatest header of a ball I ever played against, so if the right cross came in, you had zero chance against him anyway. Duncan is No.8 on my list – there were only seven other houses in the country that those stupid burglars would have been worse off attempting to burgle!”

7. Vinnie Jones

REPUTATION: Jones’ tough guy reputation stretched so far that he became a Hollywood movie star off the back of it. The midfielder collected 12 career red cards, and grabbed Paul Gascoigne by the testicles during a 1987 encounter. Before Wimbledon’s 1988 FA Cup Final against Liverpool, he warned Kenny Dalglish that he’d “tear his f**king head off and puke in the hole”; when the game began, he settled for scything down Steve McMahon instead. Jones was known to headbutt toilet doors pre-match and received the fastest booking in history – requiring three seconds to ruin Sheffield United’s Dane Whitehouse. 

RAZOR SAYS: “I played with Vinnie on loan at QPR. He was a great fella and tremendous to have within the dressing room, but he had a fuse the size of an ant’s penis. Once, we were playing at Manchester City and he hit Georgi Kinkladze in the tunnel before kick-off. Vinnie’s gone, ‘I’ve f**king done him, lads!’ Kinkladze didn’t start the match, City began with 10 men, then he came running on with a bandage around his head, scored a worldie with his first touch and we were 1-0 down.

I thought, ‘Yeah, that worked well Vincent!’”

6. Steve McMahon

REPUTATION: “I’d kick my own brother if necessary – it’s what being a professional footballer is all about,” McMahon once said. Even when he was being taken out by Jones at Wembley, he managed to give some back – elbowing the Wimbledon man in his cheek on the way down, leaving a scar that Jones still wears today. Jones called McMahon his only real hard man rival, and the Liverpool midfielder got his revenge in a subsequent showdown at Anfield – McMahon’s studs-up challenge left his foe requiring eight stitches. 

RAZOR SAYS: “I played against Steve, and over the years I just watched him absolutely destroy players with ease. He was a fierce competitor, although not necessarily vocal all the time – these hard men always told me that you keep your mouth shut, because if you’re too loud, the referee’s going to keep an eye on you. They’re all silent assassins.”

5. Noel Blake

REPUTATION: The imposing defender began his senior career with Aston Villa, but signed for arch-enemies Birmingham in 1982. A year later, the two clubs met at Villa Park... and all hell broke loose. Again it involved McMahon, then with Villa – Blake squared up to his rival at the final whistle, landing a headbutt after his parentage was questioned.

RAZOR SAYS: “I remember seeing Big Noel Blake take Graham Rix out on the telly, when Graham was at Arsenal. That was f**king great. I played against him when he was at Portsmouth – I went up for a header and he absolutely ruined me. I was 17 or 18, but I’d always been tough – I had two big brothers, so I’d always played against older boys as

a kid, and played for Millwall reserves when I was 15. But when Noel whacked me, that was the first time in my life that I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve really got to man up here’.”

4. Terry Hurlock

 REPUTATION: The long-haired stopper was nicknamed ‘Terry Warlock’ and described as “Michael Bolton crossed with a pitbull”. “He just had to growl at the opposition and they’d be scared,” claimed former Millwall mucker Teddy Sheringham.

RAZOR SAYS: “Super Terry... I loved him. He was a better player than people gave him credit for. He was a warrior, but not a bully. Anyone can kick someone off the ball, but if the battle was on, Terry was rolling his sleeves up and the first one in. I played with him at Millwall and Southampton – I got sent off for fighting a few times, and Terry was always behind me. Some of the other lads were looking the other way and didn’t want to know, but he was always there for you. Once at Millwall, we were in the pub and playing Wimbledon a couple of days later. We asked what he was going to do with Vinnie Jones, and he got this pub door and ripped it off the wall. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness gracious me!’ Whenever people ask me what my favourite animal is, I tell them, ‘Terry Hurlock’.”

3. Mick Harford

REPUTATION: Moulded from girders in the shipbuilding city of Sunderland, Harford led the line during Luton’s top-flight days before spells at both Chelsea and Wimbledon. Alex Ferguson even wanted to sign him once. The forward was the victim of a Sam Allardyce elbow early on in his career, but soon got his own back. “I just tried to hurt him,” revealed Harford. “I went in two-footed and threw elbows until I caught him on the forehead.”

RAZOR SAYS: “Off the pitch you couldn’t meet a nicer person than Big Mick, with his low deep voice. On the pitch.... oh my word – just keep out of his way; just be his friend and play football. I saw him smash so many people. Running into him was like running into a brick wall, although he was also very fair. He wouldn’t go out there and hurt you, but if you took a liberty, he’d hurt you. A lot of players didn’t fancy playing against Big Mick – he was a brilliant player, but a scary man. His eyes would just go, and that was the moment you’d think, ‘Oh no...’”

2. Billy Whitehurst

REPUTATION: An ex-bricklayer who began his pro career at Hull and Newcastle, the forward’s menace was feared throughout the game. He was described as “a lunatic” by Martin Keown, while Vinnie Jones knew him as ‘Big Bad Billy’ during their days at Sheffield United. “It was fun around town with him, especially if we came across some Sheffield Wednesday fans,” said Jones. “He cleared out a pub of them once. Billy could have been a bare-knuckle champion.” 

RAZOR SAYS: “If you spotted Big Billy in the woods, you’d think you’d seen Sasquatch. He was that big, a man mountain. He scared the life out of me. I only played against him a few times until he retired, thank f**k. You just tried not to upset him. I played for Saints against Sheffield United and he wasn’t even playing, but I’d been kicking Brian Deane and getting the better of him, so I reckon Harry Bassett told Big Billy to go and find me at half-time. He ran onto the pitch with his suit on and ripped my shirt, all the way down –

it was like a cardigan with no buttons. I only had one shirt, so I had to pull it across and hike my shorts up like Simon Cowell for the second half. I let Deane win all the headers after that! Post-match, Billy was in the bar and said, ‘Well played’. I couldn’t understand it – one minute he was going to kill me, the next he was saying that to me. F**king hell!”

1. Jimmy Case

REPUTATION: Case won four league titles and three European Cups with Liverpool, but his mean streak was never far away. He ended the career of Everton’s Geoff Nulty and was involved in various off-field incidents – not least being charged with assault in 1981 following an altercation at a hotel in Wales. Case was sold to Brighton, and later spent six years at Southampton. 

RAZOR SAYS: “No one messed with Jimmy. He wouldn’t go out and deliberately smash someone, but he was old school. If anyone took liberties with one of his Southampton team-mates, particularly the younger ones like me, they were going to get Jimmy-ed. He had the knack of escaping punishment, too – I used to see him smash people and think, ‘How the f**k has he got away with that?’ I remember him two-footing Graeme Sharp under the chin at Goodison Park – they went in for a slide tackle on the floor, and Jimmy missed everything but got him. He was only 5ft 9in, a wiry Scouser, but he was tough as teak. A great player, too – he won a lot of trophies at Liverpool. Him and Bryan Robson had unbelievable battles, but Jimmy always came out on top and I never saw him get hurt. That’s why he’s my No.1.

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