Chadwick, who counts West Ham, Norwich City and MK Dons among his past clubs, began his professional career with Manchester United, where he would be handed a first experience of senior football on-loan with United's then Belgian partners Royal Antwerp.
For the former winger, now 44, eight months with Antwerp is something he still treasures today and when looking back, admits the experience set him up for a playing career that lasted almost 20 years.
Chadwick recalls to Tribalfootball.com: "Yeah, I mean, to go at the time at Manchester United, I wasn't particularly near the first team. I was a reserve team player and I wasn't playing as well as I would have liked to. And I needed a new challenge. So to go out to Antwerp, experience something different, I think I felt a lot more comfortable in terms of the social environment because two of my friends from the youth team were already out there. They'd been there for a period of time. So I felt like I just slotted straight in and it just felt so sort of different.
"I felt so free being in a different country, playing for a different football club and had a really good start there, sort of came off the bench and scored on my debut and the fans started singing my name and that was the first time that I'd ever experienced that as a footballer playing in front of a crowd.
"You sort of tell that they (the coaching staff) like you the way that they play and it was a really positive start that I had there and from then I was just able to really sort of just play with so much freedom and express myself."
Recall regret
Luke continued: "I just absolutely loved my time in Belgium both sort of from a footballing experience having that first time playing first team football on a regular basis, but sort of as a life experience as well sort of living in a different country for a period of time and it was such a positive experience when Manchester United called me back I was absolutely gutted because I wanted to stay at Antwerp. So it was a real disappointment when my loan got cut."
Chadwick, who recently released his autobiography, 'Not just a pretty face', admits while upset with the decision to recall him, there was no way he was going to cross manager Sir Alex Ferguson at the time.
He adds, "I absolutely loved playing sort of overseas. As I said, it just felt different. It felt sort of freer. I think there was no way that I could have said to Sir Alex Ferguson at the time, 'I don't want to come back to Manchester United. I want to stay at Royal Antwerp'. So the decision was taken out of my hands to go back to United."
Chinese restaurant drama
However, though his time with Antwerp didn't last as long as hoped, Chadwick still spent long enough there to almost get into a clash with then manager Johan Boskamp.
The Dutch World Cup finalist and twice Belgian League Player of the Year took Chadwick under his wing, something the English youngster appreciated. Though he admits, things could easily have gone south during one team outing.
Now a director with the junior coaching firm, The Football Fun Factory, and also a MUTV pundit, Chadwick recalled: "So we went out and as a young, young player I was very shy, very introverted, though when I left Manchester United and went to other clubs (on-loan) and sort of grew into myself with more sort of confidence, I always used to enjoy having a laugh with the lads and that sort of thing - though sometimes it could go a little bit too far!
"I remember the incident with Johan, obviously. He was a big, absolutely lovely guy but someone you didn't want to cross that's for sure. We went out for a few drinks at a Chinese restaurant and we all had a little bit too much to drink and we started throwing the wet, hot towels about and I remember sort of getting a little bit giddy, a little bit over excited and throwing one at the staff table when they weren't looking and it hitting Johan's arm and his wine going everywhere! I was left absolutely sort of thinking 'oh my God what have I done?'
"And the whole place just went silent. And all I could do was to sort of look towards a teammate of mine, an Icelandic player who took the brunt of the blame.
"Yeah, a silent little nod to get away from it myself, which is completely wrong, but I wouldn't change it now because I don't know what Johan would have done to me if he knew that it was me. So it was one of them moments where you're just thinking, 'oh, God, I've taken it a little bit too far!'."
Luke Chadwick's book, "Not just a pretty face", is out now with Pitch Publishing and can be purchased in the web-shop, at assorted bookshops or right here.
