Exciting mate when he hit the scene and Ron Atkinson built an attacking WBA team that played on the front foot.
He was a good player but he’s not the first person this happens too, but his reputation has inflated having died young.
Not as good as John Barnes for instance.
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He was talented without a doubt, NOT Real Madrid quality, in my humble opinion, but he was a VERY good player…
Funny enough, I actually rated Vince Hilaire at Palace, as a better player at that time, but he never achieved the heights I thought he would…
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I thought of Vince myself on posting. He was and could of been a top player with handling. Shame really.
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Also, again in my humble opinion, the best left winger in England at that time was Peter Barnes who played for City, I loved him…great player!
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I was a big fan of Dave Thomas at QPR. Only got one England cap.
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Appreciated the responses guys. You know my pops yes to swear blind that Hoddle was the best English midfielder in the 80s. You guys agree?
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No hesitation in saying yes to that one. Biggest crime in English football that England never built the team around him.
See Platini for France for confirmation on this policy.
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He was a decent attacking player and scored a lot of goals for a winger.
He was also the first English player to play for Real Madrid.
All my spurs mates would agree with this.
He was a very good playmaker and that’s why Wenger bought him when he was at Monaco.
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100%…Hoddle has to be one of the top five English midfielders ever. Agree with Strolls, absolutely criminal he did not win over 100 caps…
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Many years ago, I had a mate who was a massive Fulham fan, and one day he dragged me along to watch Fulham reserves play Swindon reserves…
Hoddle was Swindon player manager at the time and he was just coming back from an injury.
He played as sweeper, and even though he was coming to the end of his career, and even though Fulham reserves were not the best, Hoddle himself was absolutely outstanding.
Totally meaningless game, but one of the BEST individual performance I have ever seen. Bloke was a bona fide genius with a football, and, two footed, still a rarity even today!
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I work with a lad who played for Tranmere. He played against Hoddle for Swindon in a play off game for promotion.
He said he couldn’t get near him with the ball because of the way he shielded it.
He likened it to a dad playing with his 3 year old kid.
Heard it said about Hoddle that one of his failings as England manager (maybe just as a manager) is that he sometime struggled with players not being able to meet the high standards he would have set for himself as a player, that he kind of expected players to be capable of the things he was as a player. I’ve occasionally thought back to this and imagined its the kind of failing a player like Henry could easily have as a manager.
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He got that job a little too early for me. He was a promising coach though and was always disappointed he found himself out the game early.
Obviously be hard for him the way things are with his personal opinions ever having a future now.
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Am I seeing a pattern where there isn’t any or why is there so much crap around French football players 
? is there an unhealthy youth culture in football in France leading to this crap, accusations of doping, rape, blackmail, breaking restraining orders etc. just to name a few. It’s left and right it seems, or is it just that these guys make the headlines and it’s the same in all the big footballing countries under the surface you think?
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Still more interesting than Friends
Wenger managing a team to a loss. Lehmann, Pires and Nasri provide an Arsenal presence on the pitch. Both our past #7s are playing on the Marseille side. Drogba gets a hat-trick vs Lehamnn. Highlights are a bit meh, but worth it just for goal number 8 which is a beaut.
Bruno Cheyrou has still got it 
Benzema is probably the best, most interesting player around right now, and should win the ballon d’Or.
The way he has aged. 
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He’d be my runner-up behind Lewandowski. Not sure how they factor in winning things though.
I just keep thinking imagine how good he would’ve been if he had this attitude, kept himself in this shape, both physically and mentally, in his default “prime” years, 2010 -2018 roughly…
He was a superb player already at Lyon, never really kicked on after moving to Madrid… Until the last couple of years really. In my eyes, twice the talent Lewandowski is, and just look at what Lewandowski has done in the last decade.
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I thought he did brilliantly to adapt his game to knowing he was playing second fiddle to Ronaldo through those years.
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