Glenn Hoddle: 'England Only Played Me in My Best Position Once'

Hal picked up his MA in Sports Journalism and NCTJ qualification from St Mary's University Twickenham, Hal has since been part of Valnet since late 2021.

He started as a freelance football writer for This Is Futbol and carried that on over to FootballFanCast before becoming their social media editor. He now works as an editor for GiveMeSport, predominantly focusing on Premier League, Champions League, and English football.

He also helps GiveMeSport cover other major sports such as MMA, boxing, darts, tennis, and golf. Key events like the summer and winter Olympics are also highlights when they appear on the sporting calendar.

Hal is an Arsenal and Three Lions fan, but keeps an eye on the All Blacks, his favourite rugby team, having grown up in New Zealand. Sign in to your GiveMeSport account It's only natural that a nation with such a strong link to football would have produced so many great players. For all that quality, however, England have only ever had one World Cup-winning side.

Perhaps a key issue is that, for all the talent the country has seen, not enough of those special players have been able to translate club form into performances with the Three Lions. The Golden Generation, for example, had Premier League legends such as Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, but the trio failed to gel on a regular basis when lining up together for England.

In the modern era, star names like Phil Foden and Cole Palmer are examples of massively talented players who haven't even made it into Thomas Tuchel's 2026 World Cup squad.

Before all those names, though, there was Glenn Hoddle. One of the finest midfielders the country has ever produced, and yet he believes he barely ever got the chance to play in his best position.

Hoddle managed 53 caps for England, scoring eight times. In a 2021 interview with The Guardian, he revealed how he was held back due to his reputation as a 'luxury player' in an era defined by intense physicality and long-ball football.

Hoddle recalled: “I had a strong belief in my ability. I had a lot of stubbornness. I was very shy but, when it came to football, I had to do what was natural. If people didn’t understand me, so be it.

“Perhaps if I’d been Dutch or French or Spanish it would have been very different. When I finally went abroad to play [for Arsene Wenger’s championship-winning Monaco team from 1987 to 1991] I realised that No 10 was my prime position.

Perhaps if Hoddle has been played in the number 10 position more often, England could have achieved more. After all, in his one and only match in that role, he scored and created two other goals against Hungary in 1983.

Michel Platini named the a certain overlooked England talent as someone who would've thrived in the French national side.

Hoddle would play at two World Cups, with a quarter-final defeat to Argentina in 1986 the furthest he made it with the Three Lions. In his autobiography, 'Playmaker', the former England player and manager explained his frustration as he was forced to play a midfield role in a 4-4-2 set-up, which had no space for him to operate as a number 10.

He claimed he felt “suffocated” playing for England, noting “we were painfully small-minded and it took us an eternity to change”. Speaking to the Guardian, he added:

“It was always a very rigid 4-4-2 and for England I got chucked out on the right-hand side. Even for Spurs I didn’t play where I should have done until the last season when Clive Allen scored 49 goals and I played as the 10.”

He felt that he played in the wrong era, or at least for the wrong country, adding: "People used to say: ‘You should have got more than 53 caps,’ and my answer was always pretty bland and steadfast: ‘I’m proud of the 53 I got.’

"But, deep down, I knew I was a continental player. You either give in, and go against your instincts, or you fight it.”