You always knew the "London stadium" speed record for removing the "retractable seating" was going to be achieved for a Spanners vs Chelsky/Millwall game.
My Uncle was a Watford supporter and was at that game. He was very unimpressed with the pitch. He reckoned he couldn't see much of it either since he got stuck in the corner of the standing at the Park Lane End where there was a pylon for the floodlights. Judging by the hair I'm guessing the nearly fully obscured Chelsea player is Alan Hudson
He's been training this week, but we'll probably know more after Pochettino's press conference. Even then, I doubt he'll clarify it too much. Doesn't help us to tell anyone, really.
Hoddle really was a very special talent And as I recall the goal against Oxford was in his last game at WHL - or maybe age is affecting my memory. What a way to finish his Spurs career!!
Sad that a large number of his goals were never recorded as (and youngsters will be shocked) most matches didn't have cameras then. But I was privileged to have seen many of them and remember the anticipation as he stepped up to take a free kick that it was more than likely going to end up in the net.
Would've loved to see him play. My childhood heroes were the likes of Anderton, Ginola and Sheringham but no matter how much I said otherwise, my dad couldn't bring himself to elevate them to the same level as Hoddle. "Like watching an artist somehow painting a masterpiece on a canvas that resembled a ploughed field" is what he always used to say - and judging by the clips above, he was right!
So just from those clips i can see that Van Basten and Cantona both copied 2 of their most famous goals from Hoddle
Thanks for posting that. Amazing memories and really sums up whats wrong with English football. Of course, it's interesting that the one player of the generation when he was England manager that seems to have most fallen out with him, was arguably the nearest thing to Hoddle himself: Le Tissier.
The telling remark on English football then was the comment by Cloughie that it takes "moral courage" to play as Hoddle does.
Hoddle's career coincided with me going to home and away games regularly. He was and remains, by far, the most technically adept English player that I've ever seen. He made Beckham, Scholes, Gerrard et al look limited by comparison. Terry Venables said that he had feet like hands in the way he could pluck the ball from the air perfectly on his toes and then launch it 50 yards perfectly into someone's path with the right amount of backspin to enable them to not break stride. I remember Garth Crooks saying that he used to take up odd positions on the pitch just to see if Hoddle could find him with a precision long pass. He always did. When Ossie and Ricky attended their first training session with Spurs, Ricky saw Hoddle for the first time, he turned to Ossie and asked "What on earth have they signed us for? Cloughie said he was the bravest player in English football because of the way he played and the stick that it got him. He also said that he was the player he most regretted not having managed. Unfortunately, the less gifted managers that England appointed awarded him just 53 caps. Michel Platini said he would have won 150 if he was French. We might have won the world cup in '82 if Greenwood had more bravery and imagination and had played Perryman and Hoddle instead of the far more limited Mick Mills and Ray Wilkins. Happy birthday Maestro. Thanks for the memories.
I remember seeing Glenn Hoddle for the first time as he ran on to the pitch.Tall,gangly thing with long hair and riunning as though he was about to trip over his own feet,....then the whistle blew and.....OH BROTHER! A genius had arrived at The Lane.........
Really nice reading all the reminiscing and fond memories. I'm a child of the PL era so for the first decade and a half of following Spurs, those memories and the prestige that came with them were the only things that kept me going. No matter how much stick I got in the playground after Bolton thrashed us 7-1, nothing they said could take away from the fact that my team was a glorious one with a glorious history.
