Hoddle promises no sudden changes
Glenn Moore hears England's new coach outline his plans to build on the foundations provided by Terry Venables
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Your support makes all the difference.No new brooms, but probably a sweeper, that was the gist of Glenn Hoddle's first message to the nation as coach of England.
As the village of Bisham returned to normal yesterday Hoddle eased himself into the seat so recently occupied by Terry Venables. With John Gorman, his assistant, sitting alongside Hoddle stressed that he was seeking to build on Venables' adoption of continental ideas.
"My philosophy is not too different to Terry's. The system will be tinkered with but there won't be drastic changes. It won't differ that much from what I did at Swindon and Chelsea. There will just be slight changes to take into account the opposition and international football. I play with three at the back and players pushed into midfield. It is similar to the way the Germans have played for a long time."
Hoddle intends to play with a sweeper - if he can find one. "It would be silly to back myself into a corner now and say we will play with a sweeper. If you don't feel you have the right person it would be silly to do it."
Gorman hinted that he and Hoddle did have someone in mind. "The best player I have seen doing it was Glenn," Gorman said. "He could play at the back and realise, within 10 minutes, that the other team didn't demand we play with a sweeper, and he would go into midfield and give them a problem. There is a player in this country who is possibly ready to do that."
Venables had suggested Gareth Southgate could; was that who they had in mind?
"Gareth has done magnificently, he has been a real bonus but there might be another guy in the squad, lurking," Gorman replied. "Almost every player who goes into that position has been a midfielder. It might be a younger player.
"It does not have to be in place for the Moldova game, we are looking to the future."
Intriguing. As well as Southgate Paul Ince, Sol Campbell and Gary Neville come to mind, or even Jamie Redknapp.
The Moldova match is on 1 September in Chisinau where both Wales and Georgia have lost. It is both Hoddle's debut and the first match of the World Cup qualifying campaign. With Italy, Poland and Georgia also in the group England need to win it.
Hoddle has nine weeks and three Premiership programmes in which to select his team. Time constraints mean he is unable to arrange a preliminary get-together so he will travel to key players to discuss his aims.
"We have seen Moldova and Poland once and are due to see Moldova again," Hoddle said.
Hoddle stressed his main aim was qualifying for France in 1998, not building a team to do well once there. To that end he stressed "the door was open" to all, but he is likely to use the bulk of Venables' squad in the early games.
Hoddle has a special incentive to qualify (not that he needs one). France is where he developed his coaching ambitions and ideas under the influence of the Monaco coach Arsene Wenger. "It would be fair to say if I had not gone to Monaco I would not be sitting here today," he said.
"When I went there I didn't really have any desire to stay in management. It was working with him and the French system that made me think 'yes, I fancy putting a few of those ideas down on paper and maybe, one day, trying them out on a pitch'."
Both men said they had learned from Euro 96 with Gorman hinting that Hoddle's preference for attacking full-backs may be adapted after seeing Venables playing the same system with attacking players, like Steve McManaman and Darren Anderton, in those positions.
In the long term, hinted Hoddle, he may bring dieticians, masseurs and other such specialists into the England set-up. First he has to meet Venables' support staff to decide if any are to stay on. The only certainty is Don Howe who is directly employed by the FA and, in his role of technical co-ordinator, has tasks outside the coaching of the England team.
Hoddle will also be tapping Venables' thoughts, the outgoing coach will doubtless pass on the German files on Moldova and Georgia which Berti Vogts promised Venables this week.
"[England] were very pleasing," Hoddle said. "From a selfish point of view it may have been easier for me if we had come out of the tournament in the first stages but I wouldn't have wanted that. The increased expectation does not make it harder, success breeds success. The positive vibe around the country has got to be good."
The coach is gone. Long live the new coach.
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