-
The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...
Legend Glenn Hoddle
- Thread starter The Dane
- Start date
Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports
Interesting Wenger worked with Bergkamp and Henry and rates Hoddle as the most talented he worked with
"He is the most skilful player I have ever worked with. His control was superb and he had perfect body balance. His skill in both feet was uncanny... I couldn't understand why he hadn't been appreciated in England. Perhaps he was a star in the wrong period, years ahead of his time."
Didn’t fooking tackle like Bryan Robson, did he?
That was the issue back then, and it permeated every level of the game. No one wanted the creative players like Hoddle, they wanted Robson clones.
I can remember playing County games at U18 level when I was 15. I'd modelled my game on Hoddle who I absolutely worshipped at the time, yet got passed over countless times for years whilst watching units with a 10th of the talent get pro contracts.
I played with Ian Dowie, who was 3 years my senior. He was an absolute lump who couldn't trap a bag of cement, yet forged a professional career. The Captain of our team was even better, an absolutely sublime player who also played very much like Hoddle, but he never got a look in either.
I'm not saying we were Hoddle level talents, just reinforcing that that type of talent was looked on with disdain, whilst limited but powerful players were what everyone wanted. English Football in those days was in the Stone age, and nothing highlights this more than how Hoddle was treated by the National team managers.
It's an absolute travesty that he only got 57 caps.
Yeah, the idea that you play one striker and give someone like Hoddle the keys as the 10 just did not compute with English football in those days.
It was utterly archaic thinking that never really progressed beyond "win the midfield battle." After that it was just "get it to the forwards."
The only "creativity" that was considered was getting the ball to a winger and sling in a cross. They weren't interested in picking locks, just kicking the door down.
We fell so far behind Europe because of those days, it took us decades to catch up. Even then, we're still well behind the likes of Spain and, in our arrogance, think that we're top of the tree because our league is.
We get the odd top quality creative player every now and then. Since Hoddle we've had Gazza and Beckham, maybe Scholes?. Even now, who could we really say is a World class creative English player? Bellingham? The jury's out on him. Palmer? Far too early for him I think. After them, nothing of note really.
The top names in the PL, when it comes to that type of talent, have invariably been foreign players. De Bruyne, Zola, Silva off the top of my head. I can't recall any English players, particularly in the last decade, that come anywhere near them.
Hoddle really was the antithesis of the English midfielder, particularly of that era. Slow, unathletic, didn't really press, but blessed with divine skill and vision.
Palmer is good though, he's the creator we should build the current England team around. If someone like him succeeds for England, it can inspire the next generation.
Bryan Robson was a phenomenal midfielder.
Properly two footed and everything you want in a captain. Brave with a great drive and energy.
Comparing him and Hoddle is like saying Roy Keane should have been dropped for Scholes. Totally different players. Both top top quality.
Robson scored 26 times for England. 90 appearances.
Hoddle 8 in 53.
And I don’t think Robson tackled those goals in.
Properly two footed and everything you want in a captain. Brave with a great drive and energy.
Comparing him and Hoddle is like saying Roy Keane should have been dropped for Scholes. Totally different players. Both top top quality.
Robson scored 26 times for England. 90 appearances.
Hoddle 8 in 53.
And I don’t think Robson tackled those goals in.
They could have played together in more enlightened systems but nobody in England considered anything other than 442 back then. Even the sainted Bobby Robson apparently had to have the players twist his arm to play 3 at the back in Italia 90 which suited that squad much more.
Does make you realise how lucky johan cruyff was to be born Dutch, if he was around in the 80’s here getting less than 30 caps and being subbed on for Trevor Steven’s.
Also interesting how Spurs had the likes of Hoddle and Waddle, like we were an island of flair in a sea of thuggery. I bet deep down Hoddle wishes he was born later.
Also interesting how Spurs had the likes of Hoddle and Waddle, like we were an island of flair in a sea of thuggery. I bet deep down Hoddle wishes he was born later.
I don't care how many goals Robson scored he was half the footballer Hoddel was.
Are we talking about Ian Dowie and his caps for the North?
I once asked his brother Bob that question when he was playing against Enfield at Southbury Road. It was just before a corner was taken and I shouted out to him, he replied saying he had no idea either how he played for them
Yup.Are we talking about Ian Dowie and his caps for the North?
I once asked his brother Bob that question when he was playing against Enfield at Southbury Road. It was just before a corner was taken and I shouted out to him, he replied saying he had no idea either how he played for them
Dowie grew up in Hatfield, same as me. We both played for Mowlem over at their Welham Green depot. If you know the Football teams from back then, Mowlem were the Hatfield equivalent of Pansanger in Welwyn Garden City. Most of the talent in those areas played for either of those clubs.
Dowie was an insufferable prick, especially when I made him look a fool in the first training session I had with the seniors after getting bumped up from the U18's. I was still a kid (15 I think) and mugged him up in a training game. It pissed him off royally when the Captain, who happened to be my next door neighbour, took the piss out of him for the rest of the session!
I actually got looked at by Spurs off the back of my games with that team, as a Spurs scout was a friend of the Manager. I had a terrific game, scoring 2 and making another, but was told I wasn't the profile of player that they were looking for, which absolutely destroyed me. Again, they, or he, weren't looking for creative players, just units.
It still pisses me off just how many talented Footballers (there were more than a few better than me in the area) got passed over just because they preferred to bypass a wall rather than run through it.
Did you ever play in the Buntingford 5 a side tournament?
No. In all honesty I've never heard of it.
Used to play Cricket over in Buntingford though with Essendon.