Ian Baird

Football player infobox
playername = Ian Baird
fullname = Ian Baird


dateofbirth = birth date and age|1964|4|1
cityofbirth = Rotherham
countryofbirth = England
height = height|ft=6|in=0
currentclub = Eastleigh (Manager)
clubnumber =
position = Striker
youthyears =
youthclubs = Southampton
years = 1982–1985
1983–1984
1984
1985–1987
1987–1988
1988–1990
1990–1991
1991–1993
1993–1995
1995–1996
1996–1998
clubs = Southampton
→ Cardiff City (loan)
→ Newcastle United (loan)
Leeds United
Portsmouth
Leeds United
Middlesbrough
Hearts
Bristol City
Plymouth Argyle
Brighton & Hove Albion
Total
caps(goals) = 022 00(5)
012 00(6)
005 00(1)
085 0(33)
020 00(1)
077 0(17)
063 0(19)
064 0(15)
057 0(11)
027 00(6)
040 0(14)
472 (128)
manageryears = 1998
1999
2004–2007
2007–present
managerclubs = Instant-Dict
Hong Kong
Havant & Waterlooville
Eastleigh

Ian Baird (born 1 April 1964 in Rotherham) is an ex-professional footballer whose most notable spell was as a player for Leeds United. He had two spells at the club with his first spell having a season as captain and his second spell including a player of the year award and, ironically just after he left, he got a second division championship medal with the club. He played as a striker.

Playing career

outhampton

Baird started his career at Southampton in 1982-83 He never really managed to get that many appearances under his belt. He spent part of the 1983-84 season on loan at Cardiff City having a fairly successful loan spell scoring 6 goals in 12 matches. At the start of the 1984-85 season he moved on loan to Newcastle United, but here he only made 5 appearances and scored only 1 goal.

Leeds United

In March 1985 after only 22 appearances and 5 goals for Southampton he moved to Leeds for £50,000. Baird's first spell at Leeds was fairly successful but never overly successful. He had a tendency to be dragged into situations which would often result in a booking. His aggression and goals, however, made him popular amongst the Leeds fans. Baird was made Leeds captain at the start of the 1986-87 season and his performances alerted Portsmouth to his abilities.

Portsmouth

At the end of the season with Portsmouth having just been promoted, he moved to Portsmouth to help them in their quest to keep their division one status. He was sold for £285,000 having played 101 games and scored 37 goals for Leeds. His time at Portsmouth wasn't successful scoring only one goal in his 20 appearances for the club in the 1987-88 season.

Leeds United (again)

Portsmouth were however struggling financially and in March 1988, Baird was sold back to Leeds for a snip of the price they bought him for (£120,000). Baird was once again successful at Leeds picking up player of the year in 1989 but with the arrival of Lee Chapman to help with the promotion push in 1989-90 Baird was deemed surplus to requirements by Howard Wilkinson, having played 91 games and scored 21 goals

Middlesbrough

In January 1990 he was sold to Middlesbrough for £500,000 . Baird's involvement in the championship didn't stop there. On the last day of the season Baird scored two goals against Newcastle United, and this along with Leeds' victory over Bournemouth clinched promotion for Leeds over Newcastle in third place (Leeds winning the title on goal difference over Sheffield United). With Leeds winning the title Baird picked up a winners medal, even though he wasn't at Leeds any more due to him having played enough games for the club in the season.

Baird stayed at Boro until the end of 1990-91 when he moved to Hearts. He later returned to England, playing for Bristol City, Plymouth Argyle and Brighton & Hove Albion before retiring in June 1998.

Coaching and management

After retiring from his playing career Ian went to Hong Kong taking charge of Instant-Dict, a team in their top division, and also the national side in 1999 for the 2000 Asian Cup qualifiers. He also played non league football for Salisbury City (1997-2000) and Farnborough Town (2000-2001).

After returning from Hong Kong he worked for a Leeds-based football agent but resigned after 3 years as he didn't enjoy the job. Ian set up his own contract hire and vehicle leasing company in 2003, called IBMH (Ian Baird Motor Holdings), and it is still successfully running.

He took over the part-time managerial post at Havant & Waterlooville in November 2004. He currently works for IBMH, living in Southampton with his second wife and two teenage children.

On 3 October 2007 he was appointed manager at Conference South rivals Eastleigh. [cite web | title=Baird confirmed as new Eastleigh boss
work= dailyecho | url= http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/football/display.var.1732696.0.baird_confirmed_as_new_eastleigh_boss.php | accessdate=October 3| accessyear=2007 ]

References

*cite book |title=Leeds United Player By Player| author=Andrew Mourant | year=1992| publisher=Guinness Publishing Limited| id=ISBN 0-85112-568-9
*cite book |title= Where are They Now? | author=Les Rowley And John Ray | year=2005| publisher=YFP Publishing| id= ISBN 0-9545333-3-X

External links

*soccerbase|334
* [http://www.leedsfans.org.uk/leeds/players/19.html Profile] @ leedsfans.org.uk
* [http://www.ibmh.co.uk Ian Baird Motor Holdings]