Glenn Hoddle: Why I'm Not 'Touting' for the Tottenham Hotspur Job
By Glenn Hoddle, Guest Columnist Apr 28, 2014
I read yesterday that Tim Sherwood is having a go at managers "touting" themselves for his Tottenham job and has decided to include me as one, along with Louis van Gaal. How wrong can you be?
"Every time I speak to (the media) it's the same: 'This manager’s coming in... Van Gaal, then Hoddle, this one and that one,'" Sherwood told reporters. "Some of these managers are actually touting themselves for my job. I don’t think that’s right."
The truth of the matter is vastly different, and I can imagine by naming me he is deflecting attention from himself, which is fair enough—managers do it all the time.
However, I have stated many times in numerous interviews that I have been a Spurs supporter from the age of eight, played for the club from the age of 11, have played for Tottenham, managed Tottenham and would never turn my back on Tottenham. If they asked me, I would help them.
And they did ask me: The club asked my opinions. And I spoke with them when Andre Villas-Boas was sacked, and again they asked my opinion.
Of course, it is now a well-known fact that the club asked about the possibility of me taking over until the end of the season. As Spurs are in my blood, they are my DNA, I would never have not helped them out if they wanted me to.
It never happened, but they were the only club at which I would have taken such a short-term position, just to help them. They opted not to take that option, and that is their prerogative, of course.
I have now been asked the same question about what happened prior to Tim Sherwood’s appointment as manager, and time and again I have give the same answer. That is that.
Tim Sherwood must obviously feel under pressure to take what has happened and what has been in the public domain for some time now and choose to interpret that as me touting for his job.
The chance might have been there, and it wasn’t there as it turned out, so there would be no point touting for his job!
Look, I have read in the papers and seen it on the Internet that I am the favourite for this job, that job, virtually every job. That I am ready, that I am desperate to get back into management, that I am touting for this or that job. But I am not. I am not applying.
I am not shutting the door on management, but if the right one came up, I might be tempted to take it. I need to be passionate about it, I would need to be totally immersed in it and it would need to be right for me to want to do that, as I currently have quite a few football things on the go that interest me.
So anyone can draw the correct conclusion. Touting for another manager's job is not what I am doing!
What is at the crux of Tim Sherwood’s annoyance with me is crystal clear: I made an observation, which I am perfectly entitled to do, about the body language of the Spurs players, one in particular, in the tunnel prior to the Liverpool match.
I would say I was proven 100 percent right by what happened on the pitch after I made that observation.
The team didn’t look focused, but Tim should know that I also made it clear that the management shouldn’t be blamed for that. It was the wrong attitude of the players, but that sort of attitude prevails at times in the modern game.
But just look what happened. Spurs conceded an own goal after a couple of minutes. That emphasised the attitude I was pointing out before the match.
I believe that Tim Sherwood took my observation the wrong way and believed it was a dig at him, that I said he should have had the players in the right frame of mind and focused on the game. But again, I made the point that I blamed the players, not the management.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-im-not-touting-for-the-tottenham-hotspur-job
By Glenn Hoddle, Guest Columnist Apr 28, 2014
I read yesterday that Tim Sherwood is having a go at managers "touting" themselves for his Tottenham job and has decided to include me as one, along with Louis van Gaal. How wrong can you be?
"Every time I speak to (the media) it's the same: 'This manager’s coming in... Van Gaal, then Hoddle, this one and that one,'" Sherwood told reporters. "Some of these managers are actually touting themselves for my job. I don’t think that’s right."
The truth of the matter is vastly different, and I can imagine by naming me he is deflecting attention from himself, which is fair enough—managers do it all the time.
However, I have stated many times in numerous interviews that I have been a Spurs supporter from the age of eight, played for the club from the age of 11, have played for Tottenham, managed Tottenham and would never turn my back on Tottenham. If they asked me, I would help them.
And they did ask me: The club asked my opinions. And I spoke with them when Andre Villas-Boas was sacked, and again they asked my opinion.
Of course, it is now a well-known fact that the club asked about the possibility of me taking over until the end of the season. As Spurs are in my blood, they are my DNA, I would never have not helped them out if they wanted me to.
It never happened, but they were the only club at which I would have taken such a short-term position, just to help them. They opted not to take that option, and that is their prerogative, of course.
I have now been asked the same question about what happened prior to Tim Sherwood’s appointment as manager, and time and again I have give the same answer. That is that.
Tim Sherwood must obviously feel under pressure to take what has happened and what has been in the public domain for some time now and choose to interpret that as me touting for his job.
The chance might have been there, and it wasn’t there as it turned out, so there would be no point touting for his job!
Look, I have read in the papers and seen it on the Internet that I am the favourite for this job, that job, virtually every job. That I am ready, that I am desperate to get back into management, that I am touting for this or that job. But I am not. I am not applying.
I am not shutting the door on management, but if the right one came up, I might be tempted to take it. I need to be passionate about it, I would need to be totally immersed in it and it would need to be right for me to want to do that, as I currently have quite a few football things on the go that interest me.
So anyone can draw the correct conclusion. Touting for another manager's job is not what I am doing!
What is at the crux of Tim Sherwood’s annoyance with me is crystal clear: I made an observation, which I am perfectly entitled to do, about the body language of the Spurs players, one in particular, in the tunnel prior to the Liverpool match.
I would say I was proven 100 percent right by what happened on the pitch after I made that observation.
The team didn’t look focused, but Tim should know that I also made it clear that the management shouldn’t be blamed for that. It was the wrong attitude of the players, but that sort of attitude prevails at times in the modern game.
But just look what happened. Spurs conceded an own goal after a couple of minutes. That emphasised the attitude I was pointing out before the match.
I believe that Tim Sherwood took my observation the wrong way and believed it was a dig at him, that I said he should have had the players in the right frame of mind and focused on the game. But again, I made the point that I blamed the players, not the management.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-im-not-touting-for-the-tottenham-hotspur-job
