adminLONDON. — Former England soccer manager Glenn Hoddle is taking his new role with the FA, to get more English youngsters playing in the Premier League, very seriously. It’s the biggest thing in the world in many ways, football,” says Glenn Hoddle. “People don’t want to talk about politics, they don’t want to talk about religion, they want to talk about football — wherever you go.”
Hoddle, speaking the day after his appointment on an FA commission tasked with increasing the number of English players in the Premier League, is unaware of the inadvertent irony within his statement.
It was discussing religion, specifically reincarnation, which lost Hoddle his job as the England manager 14 years ago. The 55-year-old, sacked by the FA for controversial comments suggesting disabled people had sinned in a former life, is now the person they have turned to in an attempt to cure the alarming dearth of home-grown players turning out in the English top flight.
“I’ve always had my own opinions and have always been somebody who thinks outside the box,” says Hoddle. “Greg [Dyke, the FA chairman] has asked me to be part of this commission which I’m delighted to be involved in. I’ve got a lot of things that have been running through my mind for many years.”
Hoddle remains something of an enigma in English football. A midfielder who was one of the most-gifted technical talents the country has ever produced still divides opinion. There are those who see him as just that – a wonderful player, a Tottenham legend who tried to engrain his creative philosophies on the national side during his short tenure — and those that regard him as a figure who will always be remembered as a religious enthusiast.
Dyke is convinced that Hoddle still has something to offer. Following a two-hour meeting with the FA chairman over coffee at Richmond’s Carluccio’s in June, Hoddle has been thrust back into the international spotlight as the FA seeks long-term answers to England’s prolonged failure.
Certainly, his enthusiasm for the game has not wavered in the past seven years, despite taking a step back from management. The establishment of a successful academy in Spain, for players who had fallen out of the professional system, and a recent online app for youngsters to film their skills and be tested, are evidence of what he describes as “thinking outside the box”. When asked if he has any desire to one day return as England manager, Hoddle initially dismisses the notion — “It hasn’t crossed my mind. The bottom line is that I’m doing what I’m doing at this moment in time. I don’t see that arising at the moment” — before contemplating the possibility more seriously.
“I don’t know. I suppose it depends on how well the England team do in the near future,” he says. “I think we’ll get to Brazil and we need to use it as a platform to set ourselves up better for the Euros. No European team has ever won a World Cup in South America, Spain are probably Europe’s best chance.”
It is difficult to argue that England have progressed since Hoddle’s departure in 1999. Despite only reaching the second round of the 1998 World Cup in France, playing an adventurous 3-5-2 and bowing out on penalties to Argentina, the style and approach Hoddle brought to the side has rarely been replicated since. Sven Goran-Eriksson led England to three quarter-finals but Hoddle believes the side has regressed in the last decade.
“I had some very good players and some wonderful young players hitting the scene. Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Michael Owen, we had something tangible to work with and move forward.” — The Guardian.
Online Reporter