Reading an article in the Telegraph today about England's last competitive game against Italy reminded me of probably the last time I was proud to support the country in a major tournament. (and I am nowhere near that point yet this time around!). The tactical awareness shown in orchestrating that qualifying round 0-0 draw in Rome and the subsequent management of the squad through France 1998 and unfortunate loss to Argentina was probably the highlight of his management career to date. He lost that position for non-football reasons we well know, thanks to Blair, his cronies and the weak-willed FA, but in truth did nothing significant subsequently to match his England tenureship and earlier cup-winning years with the Chavs. But is that it for Hoddle the Manager or would/could/should he ever return to club or even national level? Personally I would say it is unlikely - certainly at club level as he always seemed better suited to management of the 'best' players and unforgiving of those less gifted than himself.
I always thought that Hoddle began the revolution at Chelsea. People forget how much they improved under him. He got the England job because of he proved himself at club level. I think he never recovered from the controversy aroused by his "cripples are suffering for being bad people in former lives" comments. Banks MP was the twat who, at the time, got overly hot under his collar with righteous indignation, and it was he who encouraged the FA to sack Hoddle. As much as I thought, at the time, that Hoddle was an idiot for voicing his religious opinions, I never believe that it warranted his being sacked.
Indeed, the much-beloved Tony Banks. How he is missed - NOT! Although it was Blair who 'broke the rules' by courting popular favour by vocally jumping on the bandwagon. (similar to Cameron going public against Jimmy Carr) Hod was undoubtedly ill-advised to make the comments at the time to a journo and paid a heavy price - and his retention of Eileen Drury gave his enemies at the FA all the ammunition they needed to depose him. Ironically, despite the furore there was little public clamour for him to go - even amongst the disabled community.
Funny how the world works. Hoddle makes a mistake by naively airing his religious views and gets fired. Blair admits in his biography that he would have invaded Iraq regardless of proof of WMD's, effectively declaring himself a war criminal. Today, Hoddle does the occasional TV punditry and probably gets paid a few bob for it. Blair does regular speeches all around the globe and is the highest paid public speaker in the world! Makes you sick. (Oops sorry, wrong meeting!)
I can't see how he will return as hes been out too long and peaked as a manger already as he was doing an excellent job with swindon, chelsea, england and southampton but since then its all been downhill.
If we're going to get onto that particular subject, I should probably mention the fact Cameron was happy to stick the boot in to Jimmy Carr, yet when gary Barlow does the exact same thing he wantes to change the subject and say he did nothing wrong. Which has nothing to do with Gary Barlow being a Tory donor. Which, in turn, has nothing to do with his recent OBE...
