Hoddle? Twaddle

Finally, I have a few spare minutes to give my tuppenceworth about the hilarious story that Glenn "Goddle" Hoddle has put his name forward for the England Manager job. The one-time incumbent of the role has said his life would be "incomplete" if he did not get another chance to manager his country. Perhaps Mr Hoddle might like to remember that he had the chance to manager his country for longer than he did, and it was no-one's fault but his own that he decided to start rambling about disabled people and their supposed sins in a past life. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, however crackpot, but it is usually best kept to yourself if you are in a position prone to publicity and you are likely to offend many people. In a similar way, I can probably state my opinion here in a blog very few people will ever read that I consider Hoddle a Bible-bashing has-been who may have been a football manager in a past life, but if I was the main columnist on the BBC website I would probably be best advised to keep that opinion to myself. Then again, people choose to be Christians, but no-one chooses to be disabled (fake benefit-scammers excluded) so his comments are clearly more offensive than mine.


I was roughly entering my teens when Hoddle was previously in charge of England and I recall a man who liked to play three central defenders, a man who gave David Beckham his England debut before leaving him out of England's first World Cup '98 game, and a man who left out England's potential X Factor players, Paul Gascoigne and Matt Le Tissier, from his squad for the same tournament. How England could have done with Le Tiss and his penalty prowess as the goal-shy Paul Ince and David Batty were left to step up and miss penalties in the Second Round defeat to Argentina. Gazza would have been a handy addition, too, having netted in Euro '96 shootouts against Spain and Germany. Perhaps it would be unfair to rank Hoddle's achievements as England manager based on going out in the Second Round, given how valiant ten of the eleven England players were that day (and the subs!) - I surely need not cover in any depth the Beckham sending off - and how close we came to winning when Sol Campbell had a 'winner' ruled out, but I fail to remember England ever impressing me enough in that era to realistically be considered possible winners. Therefore, I would not class Hoddle as anything other than a run-of-the-mill England manager - decent team, not worldbeaters.


That was then, this is now. It is now nearly six years since Hoddle has managed in a conventional way, leaving Wolves after an unsuccessful 18 months that was littered with far too many draws for the team to make progress. His major project in recent years is an interesting one, running an Academy offering young players a second chance after rejection from professional clubs. However, there is a massive difference from being involved with Jerez Industrial and Hyde FC, the partner clubs that the Academy has worked with, and becoming England manager again. Whilst there is hardly a surplus of credible candidates for the role, there must surely be better left-field options should Harry Redknapp and co turn down the job than a blast from the past. I would rather see a recently retired international player or a credible young manager working his way through the leagues given a shot than Hoddle. I'm pretty sure I am not alone, given that it is Hoddle himself doing the touting rather than anyone else having actually suggested he has a chance of the job.


One man who has actually given his support to the idea is Alan Shearer. The former England captain, now working as a BBC pundit, has heralded the abilities of his former international boss, saying that "on the pitch everyone liked him". He also admitted to a slight bias, given that it was Hoddle who gave him the armband - "he gave me the England captaincy so I thought he was fantastic!" If only I could consider Shearer's punditry skills fantastic, then I may actually take on board his backing for Hoddle. Unfortunately, I find Shearer dull and uninspired in his post-playing role, a man lacking any original insight in his analysis which is a real shame when he comes from a position, as the top Premier League goalscorer, which should make him worth listening to. Stating the obvious is not what we tune in to Match of the Day for, and just goes to prove that the best players don't necessarily make the best pundits. Much like the best players don't necessarily make the best managers (Hoddle). Tune in tomorrow as I run the rule over Joe Kinnear's prospects of the England job...