Michael Owen: Hoddle Could Have Succeeded With England Golden Generation

He joined in April 2024, having previously worked at VAVEL as Deputy Editor-in-Chief, where he produced a variety of content, including pieces from press conferences and games. He also won an award for his role as lead editor for the Women's Football section of the online newspaper.

Covering football all across Europe, he has worked at stadiums such as Anfield, Old Trafford, and Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park, as well as having reported at both the 2023 men's and women's Champions League finals in Eindhoven and Istanbul.

He is infatuated with every aspect of football, but likes other sports as well, being an avid coffee-desperate Buffalo Bills supporter from across the pond and a darts' newbie. Sign in to your GiveMeSport account Former Liverpool and England striker Michael Owen has named an underrated former Chelsea manager as the one Englishman who could have got the best out of the 'Golden Generation' of the mid-2000s. The Ballon d'Or winner was a key figure in that side, which boasted a wealth of talent including Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, David Beckham and Rio Ferdinand.

Yet their shortcomings have been well documented. Despite being packed to the rafters with quality across the pitch, England never progressed beyond the quarter-finals of a major tournament. They were knocked out at that stage in three consecutive competitions - by eventual champions Brazil in 2002, by hosts Portugal on penalties at Euro 2004, and then in identical fashion at the 2006 World Cup.

The disappointment did not end there. With Steve McClaren at the helm, the Three Lions - still currently enduring one of the longest trophy droughts in international football - failed to qualify for Euro 2008 altogether.

'Chase the Sun' by Planet Funk was heard four times in Dallas on Wednesday night as England beat Croatia 4-2.

Whether it was a case of too many egos in one dressing room, clashing personalities, an overestimation of the squad's ability, shortcomings in the dugout, or a combination of factors, England never truly fulfilled their potential.

But Owen believes Glenn Hoddle was the one manager who had the tools to change their fortunes and steer that generation much further. He claimed, as per the Daily Mail:

"Glenn Hoddle has the most underused, under-appreciated football brain this country has possibly ever had. I am convinced that if he was the manager of that team - the 'Golden Generation' - it would have been a marriage made in heaven. He was just incredible."

He added: "It seems so simple looking back - but play the 3-5-2 that Hoddle did in 1998. We had unbelievable centre-halves all through that era - John Terry, Sol Campbell, Rio, Gareth Southgate, Jonathan Woodgate, Jamie Carragher, Ledley King. Put Gary Neville on the right, Ashley Cole the left and bring Becks in the middle. Keep the ball, control games. It sounds easy now, yet we made bloody hard work of it.'

For all his admiration of Hoddle, Owen did also take a step back and admit that he got life in camp badly wrong during his Wembley reign between 1996 and 1998. He critcised the plain meals, the lack of family visits, and pointed towards the modern ways of Gareth Southgate and Thomas Tuchel to take note of what the Three Lions lacked back then that was outside the footballing side of things.

Although he never explicitly said that he thought the onus of England's downfalls during the Golden Generation should have been put on the manager, Owen's latest quotes seem to stick a lot of the blame on Sven-Goran Eriksson. On the country's first-ever non-native head coach, he said:

"Against the very, very best, we hardly got a kick [under Eriksson)]. In the Brazil game [2-1 defeat in 2002], we played against 10 men for the last half hour and still didn't get a kick. Not even a chance. It was the most flat effort I've ever seen, considering it was a World Cup quarter-final. We just weren't smart enough.

"And again, some people will say it's nothing to do with formations, it's just about players. I really don't get that. I've been on the pitch so many times where you just think, 'Oh my word, how do we beat them? They're set up so well you can't even see a pass'. Let's get it right - we played long ball! Not because we wanted to, but because we were so outnumbered in midfield with a rigid 4-4-2. Everyone said Gerrard and Lampard couldn't play together. It didn't matter. All we did, every time we played good teams, honestly, was launch it to [Emile] Heskey."

He continued: "We were very strong, but we also got knocked out by the winners. Brazil's wing-backs were Cafu and Roberto Carlos - ours were Danny Mills and Ashley Cole. Their front three was Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, and Ronaldo - we had Owen and Heskey! Do you know what I mean?

"I'm laughing at myself saying this. We were so blasé to think we deserved to win, but I do believe we would have had a better chance with Hoddle."