During his 13-year spell at Liverpool in the 1980s and early '90s, the medals rolled in for Steve Nicol.
The former Scotland full-back won five league titles, three FA Cups and the 1984 European Cup.
It was a different era to the football of today and is told in his new autobiography 5 League Titles and a Packet of Crisps.
And he joined Off The Ball to chat about a career that has seen him manage in the USA and share a few tales and insights.
Nicol was at Liverpool when the Hillsborough tragedy took place and he spoke about the effect that had on him as a player and person.
In the book he writes: "I should have left Liverpool Football Club long before I did. That sounds like a terrible thing to say, but it’s true. I loved the club - still do, always will - but I simply could not rid my mind of Hillsborough. Consciously and subconsciously, it was eating away at me. Eventually, I just couldn’t take it any more. God alone knows how the survivors and families have coped."
Steve Nicol at Liverpool in 1983. Picture by: Peter Robinson / EMPICS Sport
Discussing that, he told Joe Molloy: "After Hillsborough, that focus that I personally had went and I started doing things that I just wouldn't normally have done. I started going out and drinking when I shouldn't have and at times I wouldn't have done before.
"And I couldn't stop myself. It's not like I didn't know I was doing it. I knew I was doing it because I could feel it in training. All of a sudden, you're a yard away from where you were. You don't feel good and your mind starts going [and] from just turning up and playing and having a great time, everything became hard. You start thinking about everything as opposed to before."
Finding a way of coming to terms with the tragedy and the sadness that followed proved difficult.
"Bruce and I after one day decided to go to our local. We got there and ordered a pint and the barmaid said 'by the way, nothing to do with Hillsborough but [someone] had died' and we just looked at each other, put our pints down and walked outside. I got in the car, crying my eyes out. I got home and my wife was asking 'what's up with you?' and I said 'I've no idea'. I'm just crying my eyes out. I guess that should have been a sign that you should go and ask for help but again, as I said, back then it wasn't what you did."
Nicol also discussed his early years at Liverpool as well as how the club changed when Graeme Souness became manager.
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