Glenn Hoddle was England’s answer to Diego Maradona as Tottenham great fights for his life
SunSport's chief sports reporter, lifelong Tottenham fan and author of White Hart Lane: The Spurs Glory Years 1899-2017, reveals why Glenn Hoddle will always be an England great
IT is not just Tottenham fans who are praying for Glenn Hoddle.
In an age where England are crying out for a player with touch, vision and imagination, Hoddle’s fight for life is a reminder of what the Three Lions once had.
And why football is united in hoping he can win his biggest battle.
For Hoddle, with his glorious, brave and fearless approach to the game, encapsulates so much of what English football should aspire to be.
From the day he arrived on the scene as a 17-year-old, and scoring a stunning full debut goal for Spurs at Stoke in 1976, Hoddle was destined to be something special.
The Spurs supporters who are so desperate for the club to return to its roots in North London will tell you what Hoddle means to them.
Languid and with utter panache, capable of mesmerising feats, a scorer of brilliant, breathtaking goals, a passer unsurpassed.
And Tottenham through and through, with every essence of his body. Born into the club. Nurtured by the club. And running it, too, both on and off the pitch. More critically, crucially, a man who would never compromise on his football principles, whether he was on the pitch himself or subsequently guiding others at Swindon, Chelsea, England, Spurs or elsewhere.
Ask Arsene Wenger, so keen to lure Hoddle to Monaco in 1987 and make him the fulcrum of that side.
He knew, even if many in England would not see it, that Hoddle understood the game better than almost anyone.
But none of those who watched those 13 years of Hoddle at White Hart Lane needed to be reminded.
Born into a Spurs-supporting family in Harlow, he first visited the Lane to watch a reserve game against Leicester aged eight. Hoddle was destined to play for his chosen club. On the Tottenham groundstaff from the age of 12, and once sent up to clean the Cockerel above the main stand, Hoddle was attached by an unbreakable cord.
Hoddle explained: “The style of football Tottenham played was made for me and I was made for Tottenham.
“The club wanted players coming through who were Spurs lads.
“And the fans want players who can do things that are out of the ordinary and make a difference.”
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Hoddle was that player. In an era where the frustration is a lack of players who can split a defence, you could give Hoddle the ball and watch him split the atom.
Create goals and score them, too. Memorably and frequently.
Despite being a hero in N17, elsewhere Hoddle had to battle the doubters. He was frequently branded a luxury player — a label he found utterly disrespectful.
Hoddle said: “It made me laugh when people call me lazy.
“The real ‘luxury player’ is the one who keeps giving the ball away and doesn’t use it.”
Yet it was not just rival fans who felt they could never trust Hoddle. The fact that he earned a mere 53 England caps should still stand as a reprimand for the national game.
Those who knew him better and worked with him on a daily basis had a different take.
Ossie Ardiles described his midfield partner and friend as “Maradona without pace”, adding: “He was the most gifted English footballer I played with, the greatest passer of a ball, a magnificent talent who could win a game just like that.” Keith Burkinshaw, under whom Hoddle won two FA Cups, added: “Glenn was the best technical player I came across.
“One of my biggest disappointments was that England never really gave him the credit he was due. I think they should have picked the team around him. He was such a gifted player.”
Talents that were appreciated in France, too. And it was that spell with Wenger at Monaco that gave Hoddle his own managerial aspirations.
At Swindon, in a player-manager role, Hoddle took the Wiltshire minnows into the Premier League, although he moved to Chelsea before the next season started.
And when Terry Venables fell out with the FA ahead of Euro 96, Hoddle was offered the job virtually by acclamation.
His first act was to give a debut to a young talent named David Beckham. Sadly, it was his strained relationship with the golden boy of English football that undermined a reign which promised so much.
Hoddle was a hero when he masterminded the goalless draw in Rome which earned England their spot at France 98.
But man-management was perhaps never his strong point. Perhaps because he always found everything so easy, he sometimes struggled to get his head round those who were not quite so gifted.
Paul Gascoigne, the shock omission from his World Cup squad, and Teddy Sheringham both fell out with him. While dropping Beckham at the start of the tournament alienated Hoddle from the midfielder’s Manchester United pals. Yet it is fair to argue that no other England manager of the past 20 years could have adapted as a brilliantly as Hoddle did to Beckham’s red card against Argentina in St Etienne.
If only he had not subsequently suggested the dismissal had cost England the chance of glory.
It meant that when Hoddle later spoke out of turn, repeating his view that the disabled were paying the sins of a previous life, nobody significant rode to his defence.
Losing the England job hurt. Hoddle resurfaced at Southampton before Spurs came calling. It was the wrong time at the right club.
Hoddle later reflected: “I let my heart rule my head because of what the club means to me. I wanted the job so much.
“You need to feel the confidence of the board. I had a problem with the politics of the club at the time. It should’ve been the happiest place I managed but it was the most unhappy because of the politics that got in the way.”
Hoddle remained a Spurs legend. And, even for the current generation, an England one as well.
When John Stones spotted the former manager walking around the pitch after England’s shootout win over Colombia in Moscow this summer, he made a beeline just to say hello for the first time.
That recognition speaks volumes.
And it explains the shock and despair that many will feel this morning.