Hoddle - for the younger ones who never saw him play

[Cruyff]

He was Dembele(possession and outrageous ball control), Eriksen (vision and freekicks), Alli (magic out of the blue) and Kane (goals galore) all rolled into one.

Please please watch this and know that you have witnessed arguably England's most skilful player ever, whose skills were not appreciated by the silly England managers of the 80s.

He's looks half decent - let's sign him up!

 

[Gassin's finest]

And yet Gerry Francis would've still passed him up for Chris Armstrong...

 

[Hoddlegenius]

Probably THE reason I became a Spurs fan - amazing player, hardly ever misplaced a pass and those he passed to didn't have to break stride to get on the end of those inch perfect, laser guided beauties!
Scored some amazing goals too - was privileged to have seen him play quite a few times and used to love watching him warm up on the pitch pre-match, never mind actually playing

 

[Gassin's finest]

Arrogant sod though...

 

[Nebby]

And he would play in goal. Legend.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

He really had everything, imagine someone of his calibre coming along now? All of todays current top players, especially in midfield, lack something, but i'd be hard pressed to find an aspect of Hod's game that was even slightly off.

Another parallel i'd draw with Kane though - he always leaves everything he's got on the pitch. He used to look like he'd been dragged a mile through fields and then rescued from a ditch at the end of some games, then the ball would come to him and boom, off he went again, full pelt, like he hit the refresh button.

 

[Shepspurs]

Saw my first Spurs match towards the end of the 1959/60 season, so have seen a few good players.

However, Hoddle is still my favourite ever player.

As some have said, it was scandalous how few England caps he won.

You probably cant teach today's players most of his skills. However the one exception is his two-footed ability. Our youth team coaches should be drumming this into the kids at a young age. It will give them so many more options on the pitch.

Thanks for the video

 

[saintlyspur]

I remember going to ossies testimonial and maradona clapped him of the pitch say no more

 

[Sir Henry]

Didnt Maradona wear a Spurs kit that day ?

 

[TheBlueRooster]

Didnt Maradona wear a Spurs kit that day ?

Picture on page 3.

 

[kungfugrip]

Great footage. Those first time through balls at ridiculous angles in the first few minutes are amazing.

 

[nasescoba1985]

I'm only 30 so unfortunately Hoddle was before my time but I do hear a lot of positive feedback when i hear people talking about him including my own family. I have always been interested because if he was so good ( which I'm not doubting anyone for a second) why did he get overlooked by England? Surely there must be a reason for this? I know a lot of people over rate players due to nostalgia and it happens all the time. Look I don't want people to think I'm saying Hoddle is over rated but as I wasn't around to see him play, I'm very interested to know was he that good? Or is the nostalgia a reason why people rate him so highly?

 

[longtimespur]

I'm only 30 so unfortunately Hoddle was before my time but I do hear a lot of positive feedback when i hear people talking about him including my own family. I have always been interested because if he was so good ( which I'm not doubting anyone for a second) why did he get overlooked by England? Surely there must be a reason for this? I know a lot of people over rate players due to nostalgia and it happens all the time. Look I don't want people to think I'm saying Hoddle is over rated but as I wasn't around to see him play, I'm very interested to know was he that good? Or is the nostalgia a reason why people rate him so highly?

NAH he was definitely that good. Just some crap England managers around in his day.

 

[Arnoldtoo]

Can some one explain o this poor old Aussie ex-pat why Hoddle wasn't first picked in the England squad.? Was he considered flair and not hard working? Surely there must be some reason even if a shit one.

They reckoned he didn't fit him into the way they wanted the team to play. They never worked out that they should have fitted the team around him.


They preferred the likes of Ray Wilkins, who used to get confused with rugby and only passed forwards by mistake.

 

[Shepspurs]

When the grounds were not all-seater you had to get there fairly early. You had the compensation of watch Hoddle in the warm up. He could control the ball from wherever it came from and at any speed. (The warm-ups weren't as regimented as they are now)

 

[Ionman34]

I'm only 30 so unfortunately Hoddle was before my time but I do hear a lot of positive feedback when i hear people talking about him including my own family. I have always been interested because if he was so good ( which I'm not doubting anyone for a second) why did he get overlooked by England? Surely there must be a reason for this? I know a lot of people over rate players due to nostalgia and it happens all the time. Look I don't want people to think I'm saying Hoddle is over rated but as I wasn't around to see him play, I'm very interested to know was he that good? Or is the nostalgia a reason why people rate him so highly?

Basically he was born in the wrong country. Were he French, Italian, Brazilian or Dutch he would have a generation named after him.

Nostalgia has nothing to do with it, he was one of the most gifted Footballers the World has seen, let alone England. The likes of Cruyff and Maradona recognised it, Wenger recognised it, Hell every fan in the country knew it.

The only halfwits who never saw it were the England managers. All they wanted was a team of Brian Robson's

 

[StartingPrice]

Basically he was born in the wrong country. Were he French, Italian, Brazilian or Dutch he would have a generation named after him.

Nostalgia has nothing to do with it, he was one of the most gifted Footballers the World has seen, let alone England. The likes of Cruyff and Maradona recognised it, Wenger recognised it, Hell every fan in the country knew it.

The only halfwits who never saw it were the England managers. All they wanted was a team of Brian Robson's

@nasescoba1985 - Alas, M8, it really is all true.

Like @Arnoldtoo says, they should have been building the team around him, but they were too busy fixating on the idea that they couldn't fit him in the team.

"His critics beyond White Hart Lane called him a Fancy Dan. Brian Clough once said that it took 'moral courage to play the way Hoddle does'. But Tommy Smith, the notorious Liverpool hardman, accused Hoddle of going missing when someone - Smith, for example - got stuck into him."

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/oct/05/newsstory.tottenhamhotspur

Kind of ironic, really, that the best manager England produced in decades but who the FA lacked the courage to appoint, talking about the best player England produced in decades but who the managers the FA did appoint lacked the courage to play.

AS this fella says, part of the problem was that at the Lane we knew what we had and converted Steve Perryman to be his protector/water carrier. England just wouldn't do that in the way that we would.

http://archive.mehstg.com/fact_hoddle.htm

Bobby Moore said:
"Because those directors can't stand losing matches, managers are wary of the ball players who don't work as hard as the team men. They know that if they pick a new Peter Osgood, Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, Charlie Goerge or Glenn Hoddle, they are taking a gamble on the result. So they play the percentages and shy away from the players who can entertain the crowd. They feel that the best way to get success is by stopping other people playing and nicking the odd goal.
One or two managers have been trying to change the system more recently. Good. Because it's ludicrous to try to change great individual players into robots. You wouldn't have caught me complaining if Jimmy Greaves did nothing else in my team except score two or three goals a week."

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...hey tell me hoddle is a luxury player&f=false

Another example, and one that you may just remember, was Matt Le Tissier. I can remember a commentator saying, at the end of a match: "There's Matt Le Tissier. He hasn't done anything all game...except score three goals." How ludicrous is that! And good as Le Tiss was, he wasn't as good as Ghodd...IMHO.

Don't know what MoPo would make of him, though

 

[Flashspur]

I'm only 30 so unfortunately Hoddle was before my time but I do hear a lot of positive feedback when i hear people talking about him including my own family. I have always been interested because if he was so good ( which I'm not doubting anyone for a second) why did he get overlooked by England? Surely there must be a reason for this? I know a lot of people over rate players due to nostalgia and it happens all the time. Look I don't want people to think I'm saying Hoddle is over rated but as I wasn't around to see him play, I'm very interested to know was he that good? Or is the nostalgia a reason why people rate him so highly?

He was bloody good. The best Spurs player I have seen and I have seen Blanchflower, White, Mackay, Venables, Gascoigne, Lienkar, Waddle, Klinsmann etc Too long a story to go into here but he was a player of immense skill and intellect in an era when English football coaching thought tactics were hoofing it up to a big center forward supported by a number of midfield players who could chop people down and run around and around a lot. It was an awful era for English football at an international level and yet here was a player in the UK that any other international coach would have given his right arm to build a team around. Hoddle was just too good for the times he played in from an English perspective.

 

[ParklaneDazza]

A proper, proper player. nuff said

 

[cabinfever]

Couldn't tackle, didn't cover enough ground, didn't close down enough!!