Glenn Hoddle and England - A match made in heaven?

Over the weekend a small article started doing the rounds on the new aggregators, Ray Wilkins, the erstwhile Chelsea Assistant Manager was championing the cause of Glenn Hoddle to return as England manager. It has now started doing the rounds on football forums and the notion which I thought might have been laughed out off by the majority of the footballing public, seems to have a decent level of support.

I make no apologies to introduce myself as a grown man who still idolises Glenn Hoddle. When you see the overrated mercenaries who currently pull on an England shirt, you realise what England are truly lacking. A genius. Glenn Hoddle was a footballing genius, the hype around the premiership era tends to now overshadow yesteryear but are the likes of Wilshere, Gerrard, Lampard et al a patch on Hoddle. Not really….in the barren period since we won our one and only World Cup I would argue we as a nation have produced only three truly special footballers, Wayne Rooney and Paul Gascoigne are two, the other was Glenn Hoddle and he was the most majestic of them all. Whether it was through ball through the eye of the needle, a pin point long pass or some astounding dribbling, in terms of pure skill Glenn Hoddle had it all and I idolised him.

I remember having a 1980s Le Coq Sportif Spurs kit as a 7 year old and having the shirt out untucked, the socks down to the ankles to look like my hero as I played football. I remember my dad once rebuking me after one particularly bad Saturday morning performance from me by saying “You might try and look like Glenn Hoddle but you certainly don’t play like him”, reality bites hard when you are seven. Even his rather disastrous reign as Spurs manager never dented my faith in him and I still believe he came to Spurs at a time where the club was far too turbulent and in the end the circumstances conspired to make his position untenable.

Even now though, despite failing at Spurs ultimately as a manager, he shows no bitterness or resentment and his love for the club he supported as a boy and served so well comes through as a pundit for Sky TV, so much so that after the last derby, it prompted that over-rated cretin Wilshere to embark on a bit of a Twitter crusade. It shows how far our stock has fallen when an obnoxious individual and a unremarkable footballer like Wilshere is hailed as some sort of saviour.

Is Capello fit to lead England?

So nailing my pro Glenn Hoddle colours quite firmly to the mast, when Capello goes I think re-appointing Hoddle would be a masterstroke. His record as England manager, albeit in a very short period of time is comparable to the best and he managed to get England playing in a cohesive and fluid style that could take on the world’s best. What English football needs is a visionary, Cappello was never going to do that, he was bought in for short term success and is now being pilloried from pillar to post because he hasn’t achieved it. However what the press seems to miss is that player for player England aren’t a great team. Germany Spain and Holland are far ahead of us both tactically and in terms of playing personnel.

France seem to have uncovered a new generation of players as well. Portugal and Italy probably have more inspirational individual players than we do. Capello is a top class manger, but not a miracle worker and it would take all these teams under performing and a great deal of luck to see England have even the slimmest of hopes of being crowned European Champions for the first time next summer.

What we need is a visionary, England have got to write off the next two major championships and down size our expectations. Our footballing pyramid needs to be restructured so that the national team at all levels plays in a fluid, expansive attacking style but still combining that with the team ethic and spirit that used to be a hallmark of great English sides of the past. Its a fallacy that English footballers lack skill, its just that the desire and pressure to win from an early age means that the good football skills that you cultivate as a child are lost in the hurly burly of competition. I’ve been in that mix and I’m sure most people reading, have.

I might never have been Glenn Hoddle but is it right to kill the dream so quickly. Much of Hoddle’s work is based on developing a foundation, a system of playing that means players from a very young level are educated a style that focuses on tactical flexibility and skill that when taught and honed at a young age, can be used as a player progresses to a higher level of competition.

The sacking

Before the witch hunt started which led to his sacking as England manager, there was the promise of a great England team emerging, I was actually in St Etienne on that fateful night watching in the stands as our World Cup Dreams went crashing as Argentina heartbreaking knocked us out of the World Cup on penalties. But the feeling I came away with was of hope that we could see a fantastic England team emerge from this wreckage that could once again become a major player on the world stage. Unfortunately within a matter of months that dream came crashing down as Glenn was set up by a journalist to reveal a “controversial belief that the disabled, and others, are being punished for sins in a former life” and he was sacked. I remember Prime Minister Tony Blair ( never one to miss a PR opportunity) basically being judge, jury and executioner by stating Glenn’s position was “untenable”, and so he was forced out.

Being raised in a Hindu family myself, Hoddle’s views are not something I find alien, as reincarnation is one of our key beliefs, whilst he should have known better than to realise how his comments would be twisted by our all powerful media, it remains a sickening reflection on our society that we can hound a decent man out of a job he was doing well and not only that but subject him to such a tarnishing of his character that even his young daughter was moved to have to defend her father in the national media, highlighting the work he did behind the scenes to help the disabled and underprivileged.

As so often happens, ultimately the England national team suffered, the 5-1 win over German in Munich aside ( and even the most partisan of England fans must admit that was a bit of a fluke) since Glenn Hoddle left we have never looked even remotely capable of challenging the world elite. Glenn was trying to cultivate an England team in his own image, a team built on skill and imagination and it was cruelly snatched away from him. English football more than ever needs his genius to rescue us once again. Its a crime that in any other country in Europe, Hoddle would have won over 100 caps and be a national icon but in England people view him as an object of ridicule, mainly down to the biased media.

Club over country

As happy as I was when India won the Cricket World Cup earlier this year, it was a detached happiness, I could never feel the joy that my parents or my wife, all born and bred Indians could feel, and my mind wandered to what would be my personal sporting epiphany. Nowadays Spurs mean more to me than England, they probably in many ways always have, its my hometown team and to be honest I’d take a Spurs triumph over an England one any day of the week. But is part of the reason because the English national team lost its magic, I remember crying myself to sleep as a kid when we went out to West Germany on penalties in Italia 90, likewise as a broke college student inter-railing around Europe, the feeling of despair and dejection I felt after England’s second round exit in 1998 was equal to any heartbreak I’ve suffered with Spurs.

There is an argument that club loyalties have become so intense my support for England increases if there is a sizable Spurs contingent present. But it wasn’t always like that, it didn’t matter before that Tony Adams was England’s captain despite being Arsenal. The England national team lost its way and now its time to bring that back. We’ve won a rugby world cup, a twenty twenty cricket world cup (although no one really cares about that), we are even the best test cricket nation on the planet officially( although the joy at being beating the Aussies in their backyard is tempered by my utter dejection at India’s capitulation in England this summer and also the fact there is a disturbing number of “South African” Englishmen in the side) but in this country nothing compares to football. Its what gives England our identity in so many ways; my wife often comments on how quickly two total strangers can bond in England because they support the same football team.

The England national team I believe can truly be a force for good and for change if we get the right personnel behind it, and we can then start to dream. That’s why I’d back Glenn Hoddle as England manager, because he can get us dreaming of a better day again.