“I ALMOST TEAMED
UP WITH MARADOnA
AT nAPOLI, BUT THE
CLUB PRESIDEnT GOT
THROWn In JAIL...”
ball and they’ll give it to you. We want you to
do all your work up there.” It was nice to get
an appreciation of creative football, and that
allowed you to play to your strengths. It was
different from what I was used to in England,
and it was the same with things like nutrition
and the way to look after yourself physically –
warm-downs, stretching and massages. I felt
as fit as I’ve ever been, with everything that
Arsene was implementing.Could you really have gone to Napoli a few
years before joining Monaco?
Yeah, that was in 1982, just after the World
Cup. They paid for a holiday and I went there
for 10 days. I looked around the city and the
stadium; it was a manic place – football mad.
I could have ended up signing for Napoli, but
I think around that time the president got put
in jail. That was the reason why it kind of fell
through. It got kiboshed. [Laughs] Still, I had
a very nice holiday out of it. If I’d gone there,
perhaps I would have played alongside Diego
Maradona. I managed to play one game with
him later on, though, when he came to White
Hart Lane for Ossie Ardiles’ testimonial in ’86.
I let him have the No.10 shirt. It was brilliant
to play with him.After Monaco you returned to England and
became player-manager at Swindon, who
you guided to the Premier League in 1993.
How do you look back on those years?
Fondly. We played in a formation with three
at the back, where I was the sweeper in the
middle of two central defenders. No one in
England had really played that system like we
did, by playing out from the back, building up
through the pitch and using the wing-backs.
The opposition didn’t have a clue how to deal
with us. In only my second full season there
we sealed promotion to the Premier League.You were then offered the opportunity to
work in a similar role at Chelsea, where
you managed to lure a certain Ruud Gullit
to Stamford Bridge...
I wanted to play the same system at Chelsea,
with me in the sweeper role. I played the first
couple of seasons, but during the second one
I was injured all the time. That’s why I really
wanted Ruud to join us – I thought he could
play the sweeper role as well. But then it was
a question of whether we’d be able to entice
him from Milan. I figured he’d need a bit
of persuading, but when we went over
to meet him it was one of the easiest
deals ever. He liked the idea of being
a sweeper, but ultimately I didn’t get
a chance to play three at the back,
as a couple of the defenders who
were comfortable in that system
got injured. We moved Ruud up
the pitch and gave him a sort of
free role. He enjoyed it anyway –
he loved his time with Chelsea.‘Glenn Hoddle: Extra Time’,
the latest documentary in
the award-winning BT Sport
Films series, will premiere on
December 8 at 10pm, BT Sport 1After spending your formative years in the
Spurs academy, you made your first-team
debut as a teenager at home to Norwich in
August 1975. How much do you remember
of that day?
I came on as a substitute, and I remember
my first action was an aerial challenge where
I accidentally clobbered a centre-back and
broke his nose. That wasn’t quite the player
I was, but my adrenaline was flying. The ball
went above him, so I jumped, headed it and
then caught him with my arm, which I didn’t
mean to. That was the first thing Spurs fans
saw of me. [Laughs] They must have been
saying, ‘Who’s this animal?’ One other thing
I remember is finding the pitch really small
and tight. I was used to playing in front of
two men and their dogs, but with 40,000 in
there the pitch seemed tiny. That was weird.
You spent 12 years at White Hart Lane –
what was the highlight?
There were so many highlights, but I reckon
the one that stands out is the 1981 FA Cup
Final against Manchester City. Winning that
first trophy was special, especially as I was
a Tottenham fan as a kid. It was a fabulous
game too, including a replay where we went
1-0 up, then 2-1 down, before winning 3-2
with Ricky Villa’s wonder goal. To a neutral
it was a wonderful match. It’s covered a lot
in the documentary I’ve just made with BT
Sport about my life and career.
In 1987 you left for Monaco, but is it true
you were originally close to joining Paris
Saint-Germain instead?
Yeah that’s true. I’d done a deal with PSG, but
in the end the two clubs couldn’t agree a fee.
Eventually Arsene Wenger and Monaco came
in and I went across the sea. I’d already been
looking at houses and schools for my children
in Paris, so I was convinced I was joining PSG
where Gerard Houllier was the manager. But
then all of a sudden the move turned around.
Within a couple of days Monaco had agreed
a deal with Spurs and that was it. I was off to
the south of France.What was your very first conversation with
Wenger like at Monaco?
I flew over to Monaco and met him in Beach
Plaza. When we sat down, he started talking
about how he wanted to play. Abroad, there
was the number 10 role, whereas in England
we didn’t really have that position yet. Arsene
sold it to me well and I just had a gut feeling
where I thought, ‘This feels right, I want to
play for this manager’. But then, still, I had
a difficult phone call with Houllier to make.
My agent said that he’d do it, but I said,
“No, I can’t let you make that call –
I’ve got to speak to him myself.”
It was tough, but I was able to
explain that I’d have gone to
PSG if the two clubs had
agreed a deal.How did you find playing
for Wenger, who hadn’t
been managing that
long, and what did
you learn from him?
In my first game for
him, he said, “You’re
dropping too deep –
we have two players
that can win you theInterview Arthur RenardThe Tottenham and England legend on
breaking noses, playing with Diego and
learning his craft under Arsene WengerFourFourTwo December 2021 91GLEnn HODDLE