Glenn Hoddle - will his career ever recover?

Steve Cotterill
Roy Evans
Trevor Francis
John Gregory
Brian Little
Lou Macari
Bryan Robson
Nigel Spackman
Colin Todd
Vialli

and the favourite Joe "I played for Tottenham" Kinnear

What are the odds of David Pleat staying on to do the job full-time? Not great, I'd suspect.

he won't need his continental experience at spurs... but a good shout tho. also Peter Taylor.

Sadly, though, Kevin Keegan has lucked his way into the top half of the premiership. Here's to Man City going into freefall and Keegan being ignominiously thrown out with the trash.

Claudio Ranieri for Spurs?

(should he fancy playing again, I'm sure AFC Wimbledon would give him a trial...)

Teddy will be Spurs manager within the next five years, I reckon. Hoddle will be Villa manager within the next three.

Klinsmann?

Christian Gross to return! By tube, natch.

I wouldn't rule out Vialli or Gullit - Spurs tried to sign Ruud G 20 years ago and his gritty coaching gifts and sensitive man-management style are ideally suited to Tottenham ...

Oh I'd love this! I see PF as the *strategist* and me the 'keep 'em behind for shooting practice and extra running' type.

I reckon bwing in Peter Shweeves.

not the end of the world: Kinnear, Pleat, Redknapp

prepare for doom: Robbo, Gregory, um... anyone else English

WINSTON BOGARDE (CHELSEA)
FRANCIS BENALI (SOUTHAMPTON)
OYVIND LEONHARDSEN (ASTON VILLA)
STIG TOFTING (BOLTON)

The fact that Glenn Hoddle would one day leave White Hart Lane, probably in unhappy circumstances, is in a sense the main reason why I never wanted him to become Tottenham manager.

I don't think that he can do another job in England. I think he might be able to do one abroad, and that he should start thinking along those lines if he still wants to manage at all.

I like the idea of me and the doc clashing on the training field every day, with bemused blue-bibbed players standing around.

If it is possible for Tottenham to look forward at such a time - if it is possible or advisable for Tottenham to continue existing at all - then Martin O'Neill is the best candidate by a long way. It seems to me very unlikely indeed that he will leave Celtic; but *if* he were prepared to do so, than THFC should make a major effort to secure him.

If his happened (though surely it won't), I would have sympathy for the disappointed Celtic fans he would leave behind.

Of the other candidates: Antic seems insignificant to me. Souness is a nasty man. Curbishley is not. Redknapp (H) is officially not a good idea.

Perhaps some time soon I will take my copy of Diamond Lights down from its decorative position and give it another spin.

Agreed, but I'm not convinced that O'Neill is any more attractive as a personality. His success is hugely dependent on fostering team-spirit by encouraging a paranoid world view. Any piece of luck or injustice that helps his sides is a small and relatively insignificant corrective in a world in which major forces are conspiring to deny him an his plucky club their just deserts. All his good fortune is deserved, and every setback the legitimate occasion of bitter self-pity. He's a "winner" in the Ferguson/Wenger mould but too loopily self-obsessed to admire as a human being, unlike the much more level-headed and essentially decent (albeit comparatively unproven) McLeish.

This will be the McLeish who left Motherwell in the lurch to go to Hibs, then Hibs in the lurch to go to Rangers. He's none too popular with anyone except Rangers fans up here. Whilst I agree, up to a point, with the "paranoid world view" theory in respect of O'Neill, it seems to have had results for him everywhere he's gone (and not just encouraging Sutton to follow his viewpoint and cop a five-match ban for the trouble).

Anyway, any Spurs fan wanting O'Neill will have to realise that his first signing will probably be Neil Lennon :)

Liam Neeson?

McLeish twice got offered jobs he considered better than the one he had. Like the vast majority of us would, he took them. I like him OK and I'm not a Rangers fan.

I don't see the evidence for O'Neill's non-niceness. He always seems very nice to me. Perhaps I have missed something. Either way, I think that he is the only man with a chance of being any good at managing this unmanageable club.

1) surely cash is not the point - they have just signed a lot of players: and GOOD players at that! (Granted, they need a central midfielder, etc.)

2) you are right about Glenn's England record: it is better than many realize.

3) He didn't sign Rebrov, G Graham did. I am afraid that the player was badly treated - by both managers.

4) No (ie: yes), O'Neill has a green fiefdom, doesn't he: I think that maybe only United or Liverpool would attract him now.

didn't realise Rebrov was a Graham signing, that far back eh?!

According to a newspaper article I read at the weekend, only 2 clubs in the Premiership spent more than Spurs in the close season.

"I don't see the evidence for O'Neill's non-niceness".

I'd love to come back to this topic if O'Neill does end up at Anfield or Old Trafford. My guess is that you'll start seeing evidence VERY quickly.

Can't blame O'Neill for all of them, unless you want to blame him for not takin the job earlier. Also last season was mostly taken up, lest we forget, of getting a pile of players who apparently aren't good enough to play anywhere but Scotland to a European Final, disposing of two Premiership, a Bundesliga and a La Liga club on the way (and Boavista).

Getting to a European final with a Scottish club is an impressive achievement, but the way it was blown up out of all proportion by Scottish fans and the media tells its own story about how Scottish fans see their game. Everything was so much more low key a couple of years ago when Liverpool didn't just make the final but won the trophy. Of course Liverpool were delighted to win it but it was all tempered by a slight sense of embarrassment: it was a reminder that they'd done nothing in the competition that actually mattered.

I don't think you can criticise the English media for treating Scottish football as a joke when Scots fans and commentators become so hysterical about the "historic" achievement of a club with 60,000+ season ticket holders being the beaten finalists in a competition seen as being of little and diminishing importance by genuinely big clubs.

And the fact that he actually WEAKENED the squad last season.

Was O'Neill in charge when Celtic won the treble in 2001?

Of course, too much can be read into that. Celtic fans (and most neutrals) feel that Celtic would probably have won the league last year if they hadn't been so focussed on Europe. I think that's probably right.

I am English and I have much respect for the aforementioned.

It is true, though, that some players seem to flourish in Scotland who don't elsewhere.

I feel that O'Neill has done a fine job at Celtic. I do not think that the UEFA Cup does not matter. It is a very big prize indeed. I think that Celtic's fans were right to make a big deal out of it. It was a big deal. I am very sorry that they could not take home the trophy.

I do not think that O'Neill will join Tottenham.

I am not sure that I can imagine what nasty things he will do at Anfield or Old Trafford.

Cozen is right to be quizzical.

O'Neill isn't going to murder anyone, but he operates by creating a seige mentality and is a graceless winner and appallingly bad loser.

I support neither Rangers nor Celtic, but all my life I've pretty strongly favoured Celtic against Rangers when push comes to shove. Rangers are the establishment club, they can always rely on media and football establishment support and more regular kindnesses from referees. I don't like the religious bigotry of either set of fans but the bitterness of the historically disadvantaged Catholic community has always seemed to be at least more understandable and forgivable than the hatred of the prods for their perceived inferiors.

O'Neill has single-handedly changed that perception. If Celtic played Rangers in an important match tomorrow, I'd be caught between my dislike for what Rangers stand for and my dislike of what O'Neill stands for. I'd probably still just about want Celtic to win, old habits die hard, but it's no longer clear cut. Many fans of Scottish provincial clubs feel the same.

I am trying to remember the name of the Scottish manager who was at Leicester (long) before O'Neill and used to make the players run up and down specially constructed sandhills. I used to quake in my boots at the very thought of that.

>>> Hughton is well aware that he could be swept aside as the new manager surrounds himself with his own tried and trusted backroom staff. After helping Pleat to plot Everton's downfall, Hughton said: "I am more involved than ever now because while David is caretaker manager he is still director of football as well.

"I've been here for a long time and worked with five different managers. It certainly doesn't get any easier and it is not something that you are particularly proud of.

"I was very close to Glenn so it is a difficult one for me. I've known him since I was about 16. It was a pleasure working with him but I have got to be able to adapt and work under different circumstances.

---

Safe hands, but Pleat is anxious
By Michael Hart, Evening Standard
3 October 2003
Blow me down if David Pleat didn't actually look like a coach. I know he's an executive, but the boots, sweat shirt and shorts gave the game away. "I thought I should wear shorts," he grinned. "I think a tracksuit suggests something permanent."

That, of course, is the last thing Tottenham's director of football wants to suggest. He may, indeed, want to succeed Glenn Hoddle but if he does he's not saying. He's just doing the job temporarily, a safe pair of hands, thus giving the Spurs board time to consider all their options.

Pleat has plenty on his mind at the moment, apart from the appointment of a successor to Hoddle. His permanent role at the club includes issues like a new training ground and academy base, setting up coaching schools abroad and examining the club's scouting network.

But the shorts and the sweat shirt suggested new priorities when we met after training at the club's Chigwell headquarters. Spurs are managerless and in trouble. Fourth from bottom with just one win from seven games, the early spectre of relegation hangs over White Hart Lane.

An accomplished coach once talked of as a future England manager, Pleat's immediate task is to steady the ship and at least demonstrate to prospective managers that the Tottenham job will entail the challenge of Premiership football again next season.

"This club has got a great history and great potential," he insisted. "That's why I have to say that it's a very attractive job."

He should know. The high point of a management career that also embraced Luton, Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday was probably his year in charge in 1986-87 when Tottenham finished third in the old First Division, were beaten by Coventry in the FA Cup Final and knocked out of the Littlewoods Cup in the semi-finals by Arsenal. "Some people called me the nearly man," he said ruefully.

What few realise is that in the summer of 1986, having accepted Tottenham's offer to succeed Peter Shreeves, Pleat went to the World Cup in Mexico for ITV and persuaded Hoddle to abandon plans to move abroad and play with Spurs for one final season.

What a season it turned out to be! "I put Hoddle in that Platini position," recalled Pleat. "You know, the second striker like Bergkamp or Zola."

He didn't really want to talk about Hoddle's recent problems at White Hart Lane though he acknowledged that, because of his cult status as a player at the club, expectations of managerial success were higher than might have been the case with another coach. "He did the job as he saw fit and he worked really hard at it," he said.

From the walls in Pleat's office at Chigwell hang three large photographs: Clive Allen, 49-goal striker in 1986-87, Richard Gough, defensive colossus that season, and the club's double-winning legend from 1961, Danny Blanchflower.

"Gough epitomises leadership and Allen a singleminded determination to score goals," smiled Pleat. "Blanchflower? Well, he's simply what this club is all about."

And what exactly is that? "Playing with creativity and style," he replied. "I was from Nottingham but I remember watching the double side beat Forest 4-0 in 1961. I remember watching him (pointing to Blanchflower) and Baker passing to each other and playing their way out of trouble in the 18-yard box right in front of me.

"It's an indelible memory. Bill Nicholson had a wonderful footballing team and this club has been striving to emulate that for more than 40 years." Pleat, now 58, began his management career at Luton in 1978. He's currently in his third spell as caretaker at Tottenham and is once again enjoying the adrenaline rush that's not so obvious when you spend each day sat behind a desk.

His team knocked Coventry out of the Carling Cup last week and drew 0-0 with Manchester City on Sunday. Tomorrow they face Everton at White Hart Lane. "Yes, I'm a little anxious," he said. "It's important that we don't sit too deep because the crowd will get at us if they think Everton are having all the possession."

He's studied the reports on Everton but he's noticing that times have changed. "Reports are helpful but they're not as important as they once were because teams are rarely the same in successive weeks," he explained. "When I started in management you could have a good guess at the opposition's team. Today their line-ups change so often that you rarely have a clue until 30 minutes before kick-off."

Pleat believes most clubs will eventually adopt the Continental style of management, where a long-term technical director works with a firstteam coach who might change clubs every two years. "The days of longterm team building are over," he said.

More immediately, Pleat is concerned with the short term at Tottenham. He's made the Republic of Ireland full-back, Stephen Carr, his captain, hoping he might be able to persuade the player to commit himself-beyond the remaining two years of his contract. "If the team does better and he sees some light he might want to stay," he said. "He's been with us since he was 14 and we need his leadership."

Pleat knows he's short of the Gough-Mabbutt-Roberts type of player. "Many years ago Malcom Allison said my Luton team were very good with the ball," he recalled. "What he really meant was that we weren't very good without the ball.

"I've been thinking a lot about that recently because this team ain't too bad with the ball. But we need a shape and a system that can cope when we lose the ball. I'm also concerned with width on the left, good legs in midfield, compensating for the absence of a natural tackler in midfield. We're not bad up front or at the back but I've got to sort out my best midfield combination."

Is he looking as far ahead as the January transfer window? "No," he replied. "I don't need to. That'll be for someone else. I have a view about the new manager and I'll give my view to the board. I'm here to give them advice when they ask for it and to help the manager, whoever that might be, in any way I can."

As Tottenham's long term strategist, Pleat will have a say in determining who succeeds Hoddle. It could be him, though he said that, rather like Trevor Brooking at West Ham, he'd like to have a good run at it and bow out in a blaze of glory. "I am the caretaker and I want to enjoy it for as long as I can," he said.

(http://www.thisislondon.com/sport/football/articles/7005917?source=Evening%20Standard)

Name Bosko Balaban
Team Aston Villa
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http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/glenn-hoddle-im-ready-to-be-englands-caretaker-at-the-euros-7584860.html

Think that's a "We'll ring you" one there.

picture my surprise as the interview contains no quote that even amounts to "I'm ready to be England's caretaker at the Euros"

http://i.imgur.com/qHXfZLE.jpg?1