Glenn Hoddle

[EalingGreen]

Whereas El Tel is whiter than white, obviously.

I have no idea, if appointed, whether Hoddle would make a good ROI manager or not - his record is very patchy.

But for those who object to Terry Venables on the grounds that he's a bit of a dodgy Essex Geezer, then one or two of Hoddle's transfers might not bear too close scrutiny, either. I am thinking in particular of the transfer of Goran Bunjevcevic from Red Star Belgrade to Spurs.

A Spurs fanzine commented at the time:
"Goran signed for Tottenham (subject to a work permit and the club doctor) today (18-May-2001) for a fee anywhere between £4-5m from the famous Yugoslavian team Red Star Belgrade, where he was club captain. Hailed in the press as the "Serbian Beckenbauer" Goran has won just 3 caps in his 28 years , the first of which was in 1998 - which suggests that he is not quite out of the top drawer"

Curiously, it is alleged that Bunjevcevic had been punted around Italy just a few months earlier on a Free Transfer, before Spurs shelled out for him. The Agent who negotiated the transfer on Spurs' behalf was Denis Roach. Glenn Hoddle's Agent is also, ahem, Denis Roach. The Guardian subseqently reported, with names etc, that the FA was so concerned by this transfer that they instructed their Compliance Officer, Graham Bean, to fly out to Serbia to investigate. He refused point-blank, citing fears for his personal safety (which may have led to his parting company with the FA?).

I saw most of Bunjy's early games for Spurs, where he looked more like the "Serbian Mrs. Beckenbauer". After Hoddle left, Bunjevcevic went on to see out his full five year contract playing almost exclusively for Spurs Reserves, after which he managed one season at the mediocre Dutch team who had signed him on a Free Transfer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goran_B...C4%8Devi%C4%87

Previously, upon taking over at Spurs (after his acrimonious departure from Southampton), Hoddle also persuaded the Board to buy Dean Richards from his former club. Although a decent enough player, who was desperately unlucky with injuries, the uncapped Richards had previously been sold first by Bradford to Wolves for £1.8 million, then by Wolves to Southampton on a Free. Spurs paid over £8 million for him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Richards_(footballer)

[barney]

I have no idea, if appointed, whether Hoddle would make a good ROI manager or not - his record is very patchy.

But for those who object to Terry Venables on the grounds that he's a bit of a dodgy Essex Geezer, then one or two of Hoddle's transfers might not bear too close scrutiny, either. I am thinking in particular of the transfer of Goran Bunjevcevic from Red Star Belgrade to Spurs.

A Spurs fanzine commented at the time:
"Goran signed for Tottenham (subject to a work permit and the club doctor) today (18-May-2001) for a fee anywhere between £4-5m from the famous Yugoslavian team Red Star Belgrade, where he was club captain. Hailed in the press as the "Serbian Beckenbauer" Goran has won just 3 caps in his 28 years , the first of which was in 1998 - which suggests that he is not quite out of the top drawer"

Curiously, it is alleged that Bunjevcevic had been punted around Italy just a few months earlier on a Free Transfer, before Spurs shelled out for him. The Agent who negotiated the transfer on Spurs' behalf was Denis Roach. Glenn Hoddle's Agent is also, ahem, Denis Roach. The Guardian subseqently reported, with names etc, that the FA was so concerned by this transfer that they instructed their Compliance Officer, Graham Bean, to fly out to Serbia to investigate. He refused point-blank, citing fears for his personal safety (which may have led to his parting company with the FA?).

I saw most of Bunjy's early games for Spurs, where he looked more like the "Serbian Mrs. Beckenbauer". After Hoddle left, Bunjevcevic went on to see out his full five year contract playing almost exclusively for Spurs Reserves, after which he managed one season at the mediocre Dutch team who had signed him on a Free Transfer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goran_B...C4%8Devi%C4%87

Previously, upon taking over at Spurs (after his acrimonious departure from Southampton), Hoddle also persuaded the Board to buy Dean Richards from his former club. Although a decent enough player, who was desperately unlucky with injuries, the uncapped Richards had previously been sold first by Bradford to Wolves for £1.8 million, then by Wolves to Southampton on a Free. Spurs paid over £8 million for him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Richards_(footballer)

Some decent points but nothings been proven against Hoddle and the majority of the notoriously scathing Spurs fans have good things to say about Bunjevcevic (who they regard as loyal if crap) and Richards (although Richards 'popularity' has a lot to do with how his career ended).

On the face of it Bunjevcevic's deal does look dodgy but I'd be surprised if someone as shrewd as Dan Levy allowed anything underhand to go on. He is famed for being a particularly tight fisted chairman. Richards was very highly rated at Wolves for a long time and was outstanding at Southampton when Hoddle was there. Considering Spurs shelled out 5mill for Ben Thatcher, 4mill for Leonhardsen, 4mill for Sherwood and 11mill for Rebrov under the previous regime (admitedly the undoubtedly dodgy George Graham), 8 mill for Richards was nothing out of the ordinary.

I don't like Hoddle but reckon he'd do well for us. He is widely acknowledged as an excellent coach with a vast knowledge of the game (even his critics concede this), he has a decent record at international level and did reasonable to good jobs at Spurs, Chelsea, Southampton, Swindon and Wolves. His man management skills are what's in question but hopefully in international football, he'd have minimum time to pi$$ people off. He also has to have learned from past mistakes. Unlike Venables, he's still young and has a lot to prove. I think he's our best (realistic) choice.

However, he brings with him a lot of bad PR and I'm not sure if an FAI in dire need of good PR would be willing to take a punt on him. As an earlier poster correctly said, the first thing people associate with him is the reincarnation stuff and Eileen Drury.

As for the fact that Tony Cascarino doesn't rate him...hardly a surprise. Not in a million years does Cascarino strike me as Hoddle's type of player. I can't think of anyone he'd have been less likely to sign...even for all the brown envelopes in Terry Venables' closet.

[EalingGreen]

Some decent points but nothings been proven against Hoddle and the majority of the notoriously scathing Spurs fans have good things to say about Bunjevcevic (who they regard as loyal if crap) and Richards (although Richards 'popularity' has a lot to do with how his career ended).

I've been supporting Spurs for decades and I've never heard any support for Bunjy. As for his "loyalty" - don't make me laugh! He was on a super contract at Spurs, the last three years of which was spent entirely in the "stiffs", where he was raking in a salary which no other club would come even close to paying him. The fact that all he could get upon his release on a free transfer was one season with ADO proves how incredibly overpriced and overpaid a signing he was for Spurs.

As for Richards, sure he had an excellent spell at Southampton, and looked good, when fit, for Spurs. But £8 million for an uncapped defender in 2000?? Sanchez signed Chris Baird for less than half of that in July last year, i.e. despite 7 years of transfer inflation in the Prem, when Baird was Southampton's POTY the previous season.

On the face of it Bunjevcevic's deal does look dodgy but I'd be surprised if someone as shrewd as Dan Levy allowed anything underhand to go on. He is famed for being a particularly tight fisted chairman. Richards was very highly rated at Wolves for a long time and was outstanding at Southampton when Hoddle was there. Considering Spurs shelled out 5mill for Ben Thatcher, 4mill for Leonhardsen, 4mill for Sherwood and 11mill for Rebrov under the previous regime (admitedly the undoubtedly dodgy George Graham), 8 mill for Richards was nothing out of the ordinary.

Levy wasn't nearly so experienced in 2000 as he is now, nor did he have a controlling shareholding, so he wasn't able to exercise the total control which he now has. Moreover, he didn't have a Director of Football like Arnessen or Comoli to advise him, especially over foreign players. Instead, he had David Pleat, who was fighting with Hoddle from the day he took over. It is precisely that shambolic lack of control and direction which explains how the Board made so many crap managerial appointments and signed so many crap, overpriced foreign players (plus why the team underperformed so chronically)

I don't like Hoddle but reckon he'd do well for us. He is widely acknowledged as an excellent coach with a vast knowledge of the game (even his critics concede this), he has a decent record at international level and did reasonable to good jobs at Spurs, Chelsea, Southampton, Swindon and Wolves. His man management skills are what's in question but hopefully in international football, he'd have minimum time to pi$$ people off. He also has to have learned from past mistakes. Unlike Venables, he's still young and has a lot to prove. I think he's our best (realistic) choice.

Agree he's an excellent coach and tactician, but his man management skills are decidedly suspect, which explains for me why his overall managerial record is so patchy.

For England, he did rather well (imo) and would have benefited from more time in the job.

At Spurs he was crap (though sadly, better managers than him have failed to do anything at that club). As I recall, apart from a couple of big money signings (Richards, Bunjy etc), his strategy was to buy himself time (and transfer money?) by going for the quick fix of padding out the squad with experienced players in their 30's (e.g. Poyet), who were available on frees, or cheap transfers and who wouldn't command long contracts. Unfortunately, when that dash for trophies failed, he was left with an aging or inadequate squad to rebuild and no money to do so. This problem was compounded by his ability to fall out with some of the few quality younger players he did have, like Sherwood.

At Chelsea he did OK in the Cups, but his League record was mediocre. It seems clear that Bates (whatever you think of him, no fool) was happy enough when England took Hodd off his hands, on the basis that he'd taken Chelsea as far as he could.

He did a reasonable job in his brief spell at Southampton, though Dave Jones was unimpressed (to say the least) by the manner in which he was swept aside to make way for Hoddle. Which explains why the Saints Board resented him for suddenly dumping them for Spurs so soon after his arrival and why the fans were dead set against his returning to St.Mary's after he was sacked by Spurs.

At Wolves he achieved sod all, leaving them after he'd spent a relatively large transfer kitty, without gaining them promotion (iirc)

He has been out of a job for over 18 months since.

However, he brings with him a lot of bad PR and I'm not sure if an FAI in dire need of good PR would be willing to take a punt on him. As an earlier poster correctly said, the first thing people associate with him is the reincarnation stuff and Eileen Drury.

As for the fact that Tony Cascarino doesn't rate him...hardly a surprise. Not in a million years does Cascarino strike me as Hoddle's type of player. I can't think of anyone he'd have been less likely to sign...even for all the brown envelopes in Terry Venables' closet.

True enough, even if the reincarnation business is essentially only what 1 million British Hindus (and hundreds of millions more worldwide) believe. In the end, if he gets the results to qualify for WC2010, thereby bringing in millions to the FAI's coffers, he can declare himself the next Messiah for all it will matter to Delaney and Co!

As for the fact that Tony Cascarino doesn't rate him...hardly a surprise. Not in a million years does Cascarino strike me as Hoddle's type of player. I can't think of anyone he'd have been less likely to sign...even for all the brown envelopes in Terry Venables' closet.

Indeed. Apparently Cascarino once said:
"When Glenn tried to be funny, it was time to pass 'round the laughing gas because he was probably the unfunniest man I have ever known. He was also completly besotted with himself. If he had been an ice cream, he would have licked himself"

Mind you, Cascarino knows sod all about football, other than how to make a living from the most meagre of ability as a player and hardly much more abilty as a pundit.

Anyhow, in the absence of other compelling candidates, Hoddle might be worth taking a chance on, but he'd either be a big success, in which case he'd be off the moment he'd weaselled himself a better offer, or he'd fall on his arse (imo).

[NeilMcD]

Quick question just out of curiosity, where do you get the time to comment on other peoples teams. Presumably you post probably ten tims more about your own teams, Spurs and Northern Ireland, so where do you get the time for such long posts.

[onceahoop]

Why are you wasting time on here when there's still 6-1 available on Paddy Power You should be down the bank getting a remortgage to stick as much as you can gets your hands on on Hoddle.

You could have got 30/1 last saturday on Betfair. I think I saw someone laying him at 150/1 today. €256 plus matched on the result on Betfair so far. Fools and their money.

Actually you can get very big prices on Hoddle now

[barney]

I've been supporting Spurs for decades and I've never heard any support for Bunjy. As for his "loyalty" - don't make me laugh! He was on a super contract at Spurs, the last three years of which was spent entirely in the "stiffs", where he was raking in a salary which no other club would come even close to paying him. The fact that all he could get upon his release on a free transfer was one season with ADO proves how incredibly overpriced and overpaid a signing he was for Spurs.

As for Richards, sure he had an excellent spell at Southampton, and looked good, when fit, for Spurs. But £8 million for an uncapped defender in 2000?? Sanchez signed Chris Baird for less than half of that in July last year, i.e. despite 7 years of transfer inflation in the Prem, when Baird was Southampton's POTY the previous season.



Levy wasn't nearly so experienced in 2000 as he is now, nor did he have a controlling shareholding, so he wasn't able to exercise the total control which he now has. Moreover, he didn't have a Director of Football like Arnessen or Comoli to advise him, especially over foreign players. Instead, he had David Pleat, who was fighting with Hoddle from the day he took over. It is precisely that shambolic lack of control and direction which explains how the Board made so many crap managerial appointments and signed so many crap, overpriced foreign players (plus why the team underperformed so chronically)



Agree he's an excellent coach and tactician, but his man management skills are decidedly suspect, which explains for me why his overall managerial record is so patchy.

For England, he did rather well (imo) and would have benefited from more time in the job.

At Spurs he was crap (though sadly, better managers than him have failed to do anything at that club). As I recall, apart from a couple of big money signings (Richards, Bunjy etc), his strategy was to buy himself time (and transfer money?) by going for the quick fix of padding out the squad with experienced players in their 30's (e.g. Poyet), who were available on frees, or cheap transfers and who wouldn't command long contracts. Unfortunately, when that dash for trophies failed, he was left with an aging or inadequate squad to rebuild and no money to do so. This problem was compounded by his ability to fall out with some of the few quality younger players he did have, like Sherwood.

At Chelsea he did OK in the Cups, but his League record was mediocre. It seems clear that Bates (whatever you think of him, no fool) was happy enough when England took Hodd off his hands, on the basis that he'd taken Chelsea as far as he could.

He did a reasonable job in his brief spell at Southampton, though Dave Jones was unimpressed (to say the least) by the manner in which he was swept aside to make way for Hoddle. Which explains why the Saints Board resented him for suddenly dumping them for Spurs so soon after his arrival and why the fans were dead set against his returning to St.Mary's after he was sacked by Spurs.

At Wolves he achieved sod all, leaving them after he'd spent a relatively large transfer kitty, without gaining them promotion (iirc)

He has been out of a job for over 18 months since.



True enough, even if the reincarnation business is essentially only what 1 million British Hindus (and hundreds of millions more worldwide) believe. In the end, if he gets the results to qualify for WC2010, thereby bringing in millions to the FAI's coffers, he can declare himself the next Messiah for all it will matter to Delaney and Co!



Indeed. Apparently Cascarino once said:
"When Glenn tried to be funny, it was time to pass 'round the laughing gas because he was probably the unfunniest man I have ever known. He was also completly besotted with himself. If he had been an ice cream, he would have licked himself"

Mind you, Cascarino knows sod all about football, other than how to make a living from the most meagre of ability as a player and hardly much more abilty as a pundit.

Anyhow, in the absence of other compelling candidates, Hoddle might be worth taking a chance on, but he'd either be a big success, in which case he'd be off the moment he'd weaselled himself a better offer, or he'd fall on his arse (imo).

I recall when Bunjy left a lot of people on sites like spurscommunity etc. saying stuff along the lines of 'thanks for your help with the youngsters and for not moaning about not playing'. I heard nothing negative about the guy and certainly no suggestion of anything underhand going on.

Richards had been excellent at Wolves as well. He had been excellent for Southampton and in a position where England had a wealth of talent. Was he overvalued at 8mill? Absolutely but the market was horribly inflated at the time and Southampton weren't going to allow him join Spurs without ripping them off. To me, 5mill for Thatcher, for example, was a much worse deal.

I agree he was far from outstanding in any role he's had but even at Spurs and Wolves he did reasonable jobs given those clubs' respective recent histories. He didn't exactly tear up trees but nor was he a complete disaster at either.

As for Levy, he is a businessman and although you're right that he wasn't nearly as experienced as now, I find it difficult to believe that he, or ENIC, were conned by Hoddle especially with someone like Pleat involved who, as you pointed out, clearly had issues with Hoddle from the beginning. If there was any suggestion of dodgy dealings, I reckon Pleat would have been all over it.

[Billsthoughts]

Quick question just out of curiosity, where do you get the time to comment on other peoples teams. Presumably you post probably ten tims more about your own teams, Spurs and Northern Ireland, so where do you get the time for such long posts.

God forbid anyone make an interesting contribution to these forums...

[Deckydee]

Here is what some of my friends had to say about Goddle on anonther website:

Felt in time if he had not gone and opened his mouth he would have done will for England

Hes a **** of the highest order, didnt do too bad for England though

**** club manager. was good with england but that nutty tart irene drewey ?? the faith healer what a messs lol

[NeilMcD]

God forbid anyone make an interesting contribution to these forums...

I have no problem with him contributing as long as it is interesting and helpful and not **** stirring, and no where in my post do I say he should not post. I asked a simple question to Ealing Green.

[EalingGreen]

I have no problem with him contributing as long as it is interesting and helpful and not **** stirring, and no where in my post do I say he should not post. I asked a simple question to Ealing Green.

I'll let other posters decide whether my posts are interesting or helpful and the Mods whether they're ****-stirring.

As for your "simple question", aside from it appearing somewhat loaded, it is also irrelevant, since the subject of this thread is Glenn Hoddle, not me.

[irishfan86]

Surely reading EG's posts are better than being exposed to Deckydee's downser friends' opinion of Hoddle.

[Billsthoughts]

I have no problem with him contributing as long as it is interesting and helpful and not **** stirring, and no where in my post do I say he should not post. I asked a simple question to Ealing Green.

?
Have YOU anything interesting or helpful to add to this thread?
I actually found EGs posts and whoever was responding to him about the only helpful or interesting posts in this Ireland forum in months...

[geysir]

Irrelevant waffle, of which 95% could be trimmed.

And nowhere near as entertaining as yet another Bill and Neil shootout warms up

[dr_peepee]

?
Have YOU anything interesting or helpful to add to this thread?
I actually found EGs posts and whoever was responding to him about the only helpful or interesting posts in this Ireland forum in months...

Stand by your man
And show the world you.....

[Den Perry]

?
Have YOU anything interesting or helpful to add to this thread?
I actually found EGs posts and whoever was responding to him about the only helpful or interesting posts in this Ireland forum in months...

I actually find his posts quite interesting and insightful also, and fail to see where he was "s hitstirring"

[NeilMcD]

I actually find his posts quite interesting and insightful also, and fail to see where he was "s hitstirring"

Who said he was sh t stirring.

[Billsthoughts]

I guess thats a no then...

[Den Perry]

Who said he was sh t stirring.

the voices....

[Noelys Guitar]

Hoddle is now second favourite at 11/4 (has definetely been interviewed and wants the job). Does anyone know conclusively that Venables has been interviewed for the job? He told Newstalk two weeks ago that nobody from the FAI had contacted him. I have yet to hear Venables himself say he is interested in the job.

[shakermaker1982]

Hoddle is now second favourite at 11/4 (has definetely been interviewed and wants the job). Does anyone know conclusively that Venables has been interviewed for the job? He told Newstalk two weeks ago that nobody from the FAI had contacted him. I have yet to hear Venables himself say he is interested in the job.

he said he was keen before xmas if I remember correctly.