I Agree with Butch
Butch Wilkins, eh? Of
all the pundits, in all the world.
Ray Wilkins: the man
who when he was Sky’s analyst during the 2005 Champions League Final almost
started speaking in an Italian accent at half-time (he played for Milan you
know, you may have heard him mention it occasionally); with the slowing of his
speech and delicate hand gestures, he was only missing a cappuccino and a pair
of sun glasses from an on-air transformation, before suddenly morphing into a Ray
Winstone type after the game, adopting a broad cockney accent, extolling the virtues of the British Bulldog spirit, and practically clenching his
fists.
Yes, Butch has called
it wrong before. But this time he may just be the man who has hit the nail on
the head.
There may have been
no “my word”, “I am tad surprised” or “that young man”, but Wilkins uttered the great unspoken truth this week: Glenn Hoddle should be a serious candidate to
be the next England manager.
To be fair to
Wilkins, even in the mid-eighties he was speaking up for Hoddle at his own
expense; when Bobby Robson was picking Wilkins ahead of Hoddle in central
midfield, Wilkins was honest enough to say what most of the country thought at
the time, that Hoddle should be in the England first XI ahead of him.
These Wooden Ideas
Those were the dire
days of the flat 4-4-2 which still continued after Wilkins’ time as an
international player, and into Euro ’88, when Neil Webb was then picked ahead
of Hoddle to suit the system. These wooden ideas even carried on when Hoddle
was unavailable, and into the first match of the World Cup of Italia ’90, when
Chris Waddle and John Barnes spent the game chasing Irish full-backs.
As a player Hoddle
suffered at the hands of backward thinking and negative team selection, but so
did English Football, and England fans. It is not hindsight that leads me to
say 4-4-2 didn’t suit our best talents; at school during a Geography a lesson,
circa early 1989, I penned an England team that had three at the back and had Waddle
and Barnes in free roles, well over a year before Bobby Robson (with the
encouragement of Don Howe and several senior players), played that system in
the second match of Italia ‘90. Admittedly my team was only seen by friends
sitting next to me, and is a reason that if I ever go on the quiz show ‘Pointless’
I will take someone who actually paid attention in Geography lessons; but it
was clear to me even then, playing in straight lines didn’t work.
Hoddle, as England
Manager the first time round, recognised that. He had already showed first at
Swindon, and then at Chelsea, a progressive approach, playing a passing and
moving game playing with a sweeper (often himself) that could dictate the pace
of the game and also step up into midfield.
There was heavy irony
that part of the reason that he didn’t win as many caps as he should have was
for having a reputation of not being able to tackle, when at both Swindon and
Chelsea he showed many times he was a fine tackler; of course though, at his
peak, there is no way he should have been tracking back. He knew where he was
most potent. But whereas our contemporaries gave Maradona, Zico and Platini license
to roam and do damage, our own tactics board were being drawn up in a darkened
room, where negativity was king.
Bobby Robson’s change
in approach came too late for Hoddle as a player, and was his final flourish as
an England Manager, having already agreed to manage PSV Eindhoven at the end of
Italia ’90. Robson went on to improve as a coach after his eight years with
England, with European experience, first in the Netherlands, and then Portugal
and Spain. England, meanwhile, went backwards again, appointing Graham Taylor,
who ostracised Chris Waddle for being a flair player, and was of the
understanding Paul Gascoigne was only in the team for his set-pieces.
After Taylor’s last
match, the dead-rubber against San Marino, when we freakishly, but
symbolically, went 1-0 down after seven seconds, The Independent newspaper
asked readers to suggest who the next man for the job should be. In those days
there before Social Networking or emails and mobile phones were commonplace, as
a student, I got the word processor out, and wrote a letter which appeared in
print the next day. My choice then was, as it is now, Glenn Hoddle.
While England didn’t
appoint Hoddle in 1994, they did make perhaps a better choice in hindsight, selecting
Terry Venables, while Hoddle got another couple of years experience in club
Management. But international football is surely where Hoddle is best suited.
Both Venables, and then Hoddle after him, improved the England first-team both
technically and tactically. And both left the job for non-footballing reasons.
The Man who should
be King
In contrast to what
followed after him, Hoddle got the tactics right in big games. I was at Wembley
for every one of Hoddle’s competitive home games, although it was overseas
where he really excelled. Without the injured Alan Shearer, England still became
the first ever away team to get a point against Italy in Rome, successfully
finishing top of the qualifying group for the 1998 World Cup Finals. In the Finals
themselves, Hoddle planned for a seven match campaign, with first-class
preparation beforehand and behind the scenes, while during the tournament
taking the whole squad to see who he thought would be their opponents would be
in the final, Brazil.
He was brave enough
to pick Paul Scholes as his main playmaker, and introduced David Beckham and
Michael Owen as the tournament progressed, with Beckham influencing the game
from a more central position. Even in the final game against Argentina, once down
to ten men, Hoddle rotated Shearer and Owen, so they could both take turns as
the front man, while England kept their shape.
A year earlier in
France, England won Le Tournoi, coming in for me at odds of 5-1, ahead of the
hosts themselves, as well as Italy and Brazil. The 2-0 win against a full strength
Italian side was one of the best footballing displays by any England side in a
friendly in the last thirty years, with beautiful, fluent, attacking passing
and movement.
Hoddle was intent on
preparing a side with a winning mentality at International football that would
succeed at competition level, and would play with the sophistication and
intelligence needed on the pitch.
Coupled with his
strategic qualities, Hoddle also improves players with his coaching. In ‘Out of
Time’, Alex Fynn and Lynton Guest’s mid-nineties book on football, Hoddle explains
how he improved the habits of established players at Swindon late in their
career with simple 15 minute training sessions, a method endorsed by glowing testimony
from his players, who talk about their improved technique and confidence.
For the national side,
that improved confidence and technique seemed to be evident not just in Le
Tournoi, but also on a cool Wednesday night at Wembley in April 1998, in a
cracking England performance against Portugal ahead of the World Cup, when
David Batty suddenly turned into a cute playmaker. (At International Level it
is arguable that players shouldn’t need much training on technique and
confidence – the performances of the England team at the 2010 World Cup, when we
struggled to pass the ball, amongst other things, suggests otherwise).
England won 3-0 against
Portugal that night with Hoddle giving the 18-year old Michael Owen another
run-out as a substitute, with an eye on how he would use him in the World Cup.
Hoddle knew though that Sheringham and Shearer was his first choice partnership,
a combination that not only took England to the brink of their first major
final for thirty years in Euro ’96, but had served him so well in qualification.
It was hard to leave
Owen out after the World Cup though, and against his instincts, he picked Owen
ahead of Sheringham at home to Bulgaria in qualification for Euro 2000, and
predictably England struggled to break the opposition down, without a striker
who would play between the lines. That Saturday afternoon at Wembley was
frustrating, as much for a rare tactical flaw in a Hoddle team, as for the goalless
draw. We missed the suspended Paul Ince that day, and though Sheringham came
on, he couldn’t affect the game. The initial team selection was unusual for Hoddle,
to almost be swayed by press and public opinion; the fact that he wasn’t a
populist was another reason why he was the right man for the job.
Journalists didn’t
like the way he organised press conferences, the fact that he had his own self-belief
rather than pandering to their own sense of self-importance, or that he didn’t
give quotes or interviews at the drop of a hat. And it was for those reasons
they went after him.
After the Bulgaria game,
England won away at Luxembourg four days later, in what turned out to be Hoddle’s
last competitive game as England Manager. There was a further friendly win
against the Czech Republic, but Hoddle was to be undone the following year. On
Saturday 30th January, as I was travelling up to see Spurs play away
at Blackburn, the headline news was a brief comment Hoddle gave contained
within in a telephone interview that lasted over an hour to Matt Dickenson
which The Times led with that morning. There was nothing new or original, but within
days, Tony Blair was on This Morning, giving a soundbite on something he had no
knowledge, and the press had got their man. (Again, it wasn’t the time for
soundbites).
The Age of the
Understatement
Amazingly as Hoddle
departed Kevin Keegan was seen as the ideal replacement. Anyone who watched
Keegan co-commentating on England during the previous two major tournaments
would have realised there was no end in his capacity to call things totally
wrong. However, Harry Redknapp, never shy of giving an interview, also joined
the press and public chorus, saying on TV at the time that Keegan was the right
man to lead England. I always doubted this, and the disappointment of a 0-0 at
home to Bulgaria paled into insignificance compared to the night I had at
Wembley when we were humiliatingly outplayed by Scotland in the second leg of
the play-off for Euro 2000. Keegan admitted afterwards he was no master tactician.
Master tactician no, master of the under statement, yes.
The tactics continued
to be poor in the finals themselves, and beyond, ending on a very wet and
miserable Saturday afternoon, with a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of the
Germans in the last game to be played at the Empire Stadium. It was a rotten
day all round, until news came through in the pub afterwards the game that
Keegan had resigned.
Qualification for
three tournaments looked much easier under Sven Goran Ericsson, but we were left
wanting in the biggest games in the Finals; we were tactically poor against
Brazil in the World Cup Final quarter-final in 2002, despite having an extra
man, and against Portugal in 2004, the decision to replace the injured Wayne
Rooney, who had been so effective from deep, with Darius Vassell rather than a
player who could link play-up, such as Joe Cole, was simply incredible.
There is no doubt the
so-called golden-generation were over hyped, with their habits of giving the
ball cheaply away, (as they do in the Premier League with no consequence), being
punished harshly at the highest level, but Ericsson, McClaren and Capello have
all had a much more talented players at their disposal than Hoddle ever did.
The one missing ingredient
on the pitch both Venables and Hoddle benefited from, and England have sorely
lacked, Paul Ince, may now has a worthy successor, as Capello is finally
utilising Scott Parker. He has yet to be as effective in the final third as
Ince, but he still could be. It remains a mystery as to why Parker was left of
the 2010 World Cup squad, just as to how an experienced manager like Capello could
go into the Germany game with a midfield that so readily empties.
But then this
tactical naivety seems prevalent in the game covered in England; despite Spain,
Germany and Holland all playing great football in 2010 with a 4-2-3-1, most
pundits named only one sitting midfielder when naming their team of the
tournament. Even on Saturday, the BBC’s expert, Martin Keown, the man the press
are touting as the man to solve Arsenal’s defensive problems, named a midfield
four with two wingers and Steven Gerrard in central midfield, for his England
starting line-up on Football Focus. (Sign him up Arsene).
Nice Dream
There is one rare pundit that does talk sense
though. When Sky Sports showed extended highlights of England’s defeat to Croatia at Wembley in 2007 straight
after the match, Hoddle was on top form. He spoke with genuine passion and disappointment,
but brought real insight
into the most minute technical aspects of the game (from goalkeeping positioning
to close control), as well as tactics. Richard Keys, who used to refer to
Hoddle with disdain when Hoddle was Spurs Manager, almost had his tongue hanging
out, before asking, with a purr at the end, the obvious question we were all wondering: why wasn’t he still England
Manager?
Hoddle’s critics question his man-management,
but even past players he has had fallings out with, such as Tim Sherwood at
Tottenham, has admitted culpability in hindsight, saying he should have
respected Hoddle’s opinion. And compared to the press and bookies favourite,
Harry Redknapp, Hoddle’s man-management doesn’t seem so bad. (And Hoddle is
unlikely to ask his most talented player to spend most of his energy going
backwards).
The Carlos Tevez affair has shown a new
understanding in the press and the public that the tail can’t wag the dog, but
that can’t only be applicable because the player is foreign and earns a lot of
money. A football manager should be entitled to a fair opportunity as well as respect
because they carry the can for their footballing decisions.
Hoddle has the best
technical and tactical understanding of all the English candidates, he is a
passionate England fan, has managerial experience at the highest level, and he is
available. Whether the FA are brave enough to pick someone the gentleman of the
press don’t want, and allow him to fully control the football reigns, is
another matter. But the fact that there could be an England team that will show
passing and movement at the highest level is a nice dream, nonetheless.
MG
MG
 |
| My e-book about my journey in the Champions League from a qualifier in Wankdorf to the front row at Wembley in the Final, via an epic series of El Clasicos, is now available to buy as an e-book on Amazon or Smashwords. It recalls past footballing memories, from Diego Maradona's one appearance at White Hart Lane to Spurs qualifying for the UEFA Cup Final in 1984, as Tottenham returned to the European Cup after an abscence of 49 Seasons. |
