- Mar 21, 2007
- 6,690
- 8,040
God I feel old!
Hoddle was the biggest influence on the way I played as a youngster. I absolutely idolised him and tried to play as he did.
Needless to say, I didn't make the grade.
It's interesting that Le Tissier is mentions here too. I trialled at Soton when I was 15, at my second trial, we got to train with and play against the Soton youth. I played CM, but in that trial they put me in at CH because of my height (I'm 6'4" now and over 6' then). I was up against this big nosed CF who ran rings around me all game. Turns out it was Le Tiss.
He was special, but they broke the mould after they made Hoddle. Even with sporadic England appearances, he was still rated in the top 5 midfielders in the World. Both Platini and Maradonna played at that time, I personally believe that only Maradonna topped him, and not by much either, as his skill set was more akin to Gazza's.
Totally unique, completely unappreciated by his country. The fact that the team wasn't built around him is probably the biggest travesty in English national Football.
Agree. The sad thing is, if he was playing today he'd still be unappreciated by England because of the FA's utter incompetent inability to hire a modern, forward thinking England manager, their prehistoric attitude to hiring football managers is a travesty!!