To clubs like Everton and Liverpool and the two Manchester sides, it seems incomprehensible that someone could play for both clubs in the same city. The same sort of thing isn’t true when it comes to the London sides, with only really Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur seeming to have any sort of genuine enmity. So it is that Glenn Hoddle spent most of his career at White Hart Lane but then played for Chelsea just before his retirement. When he turned to management, the first major club that he took charge of was Chelsea, but he later ended up back where it all began, taking charge of Spurs for a couple of years.
Glenn Hoddle the Midfielder
Glenn Hoddle was born in Hayes, Middlesex on the 27th of October 1957. The family soon moved to Harlow in Essex and his mother established herself playing mixed darts with a local legend in the sport. Attending Burnt Mill School and becoming a Tottenham Hotspur fan when he was eight-years-old, he was first noticed by the club he loved when his boyhood hero, Martin Chivers, went to the school with Ray Evans to present a prize and noticed the skills of a then-11-year-old. He was invited to train with Spurs, joining the club as a junior when he was 12. He signed on as an apprentice on the 17th of April 1974 overcoming knee problems to also earn England Youth caps.
As a 17-year-old, Hoddle made his Spurs debut when he was substituted on for Cyril Knowles in a 2-2 draw with Norwich City. That was in 1975, with his first start not coming for six months, scoring the winning goal against Stoke City. It was the 1979-1980 campaign that really saw him flourish, scoring 19 goals in 41 league games from midfield. He was named the PFA Young Player of the Year award, with the following season seeing him star for Tottenham as the club won its sixth FA Cup. He scored in both the final and the replay of the final the following season as Tottenham retained the trophy, before injuries limited his appearances.
Becoming a Coach
In 1987 it was confirmed that Hoddle was leaving Tottenham in order to join a little-known French manager called Arsène Wenger at AS Monaco. Having won the UEFA Cup with Spurs in 1984, Hoddle felt that his style of play would work well on the continent. It proved to be true, winning Ligue 1 with the Monégasque side. He returned to England in 1991 in order to play for Swindon Town, scoring two goals in 67 league appearances as the club’s player-manager. The club was going through financial issues at the time, being stripped of promotion to the First Division and only just avoiding relegation to the Third Division.
Hoddle helped to improve the club’s standing, seeing them finish eighth in his first season in charge, only just missing out on a play-off place. The second season they reached the play-offs, beating Leicester City 4-3 in order to qualify for the newly created Premier League, with Hoddle scoring the first goal of the final. There were teams circling around Hoddle a the time, with bigger clubs keen to take him away from Swindon, believing that he had what it took to succeed as a manager. The team that won his signature, signing him just days after Swindon’s promotion was confirmed, was Chelsea, with his assistant John Gorman taking over at Swindon Town.
Managing Chelsea
In the June of 1993, Glenn Hoddle took over as the player-manager of Chelsea Football Club. The former Tottenham Hotspur hero brought in former Spurs manager Peter Shreeves as an assistant, taking the Blues to the FA Cup final in his first season in charge. They lost 4-0 to Manchester United in the final, with the Red Devils doing the double that season. It also meant that Chelsea qualified for the European Cup Winners’ Cup, which was the first time the club had played in European competition for more than 20 years. Although Chelsea finished 14th, they managed two wins against a United side that only lost four times.
Although he failed to get Chelsea any higher than 11th in the Premier League, he did manage to establish the club as a genuine cup side. In the 1994-1995 campaign, for example, the Blues made it to the semi-final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup, losing to Real Zaragoza by a single goal, with the Spanish side eventually going on to defeat Arsenal in the final. The following season Chelsea made it to the same stage of the FA Cup, losing to Manchester United who would defeat their major rivals Liverpool in the final. Hoddle was also responsible for bringing in some big-name players such as Ruud Gullit, Mark Hughes and Dan Petrescu.
Becoming England Manager & Life After Chelsea
In the summer of 1996, Glenn Hoddle accepted an offer to become the England manager, replacing Terry Venables after he had led the Three Lions to the semi-finals of Euro ’96. Hoddle secured England’s participation in the 1998 World Cup thanks to a 0-0 draw with Italy in Rome. He did cause controversy when he omitted Paul Gascoigne from the squad and brought Eileen Drewery onto the coaching staff, with Drewery being a faith healer. England made it to the second round of the World Cup by lost on penalties to Argentina. When the Euro 2000 qualifying didn’t start well, Hoddle came under criticism and some believed he would be sacked.
In the end, it wasn’t the team’s performance on the pitch that got Hoddle the sack but rather his own mouth. He did an interview with Matt Dickinson of the Times and said that he believed that disabled people were being punished for sins committed in a former life. He came under immense criticism for his idiotic beliefs, which led to the Football Association terminating his contract on the 2nd of February 1999. Some believed that it wasn’t what he’d said that actually got him sacked, but was instead used as an excuse by the FA. He did apologise and said that he hadn’t intended to cause any offence, fundraising for disabled groups after his sacking.
After his sacking as England manager, Hoddle took on the role as the Southampton boss when Dave Jones was suspended in order to clear his name after being accused of child abuse, which Jones was later acquitted of. He kept the Saints in the Premier League but then left to go back to his former club Tottenham Hotspur. After Spurs he went to Wolverhampton Wanderers and set up a football academy. Hoddle then moved into the world of media, becoming a pundit for the likes of ITV Sport, ESPN and BT Sport. Although he won several pieces of silverware as a player, his only achievement as manager was to win the Football League First Division play-offs.