Glenn Hoddle: Axing Ashley Cole must have been tough for Roy Hodgson, but it's harder telling kids they're finished

 
Agony: Cole is in tears after what appears his final game for Chelsea and there was more pain to follow
Glenn Hoddle16 May 2014

Roy Hodgson broke Ashley Cole’s heart earlier this week when he told him that he wasn’t going to Brazil.

You might think that is the hardest thing a manager could ever do but I found telling a group of Swindon kids that their time was up at the club even more disturbing.

Yes, it was tough for Roy. Tough for Ashley, too. Irrespective of how many World Cups he has played in, how many times he has appeared for his country with such distinction, to be finally told he had failed to make the cut in the England squad was a devastating blow as the player himself publicly made clear on Twitter.

I went through it, too. I had to tell seven outstanding international footballers they were not in my squad for the World Cup in France in 1998 but when that moment came, my mind flashed back to my days as Swindon manager and calling into my office kids whose careers I might well have been finishing before they started.

There were five or six youngsters back at Swindon at the age of just 18 who had to be told they were not being kept on. They broke down in my office. That was a real killer — hard, a really hard thing to do.

You have to go through this kind of experience as a manager, part of learning your trade, to appreciate the really difficult aspects of the job.

Yes, it was tough telling Paul Gascoigne he wouldn’t be going. Tough to tell someone like Phil Neville, too. They were players at different ends of the temperament scale but both were hit the same. I’d named a provisional squad of 30 for a Wembley friendly with Saudi Arabia and this squad was then due to fly out to La Manga, in Spain, when decisions had to be made to cut eight players from the final squad.

Roy's boys for Brazil - England World Cup Squad 2014

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Ian Wright and Jamie Redknapp were part of the 30 but they had declared themselves unfit, so only six names had to be found. They were to be Gazza, who was at Middlesbrough at the time, goalkeeper Ian Walker, Neville, Andy Hinchcliffe, Nicky Butt and Dion Dublin.

I broke the news to them a day earlier than the planned announcement. Gascoigne took the decision extremely badly but what is seldom mentioned is the fact that I took him to one side much earlier in the season and told him to keep himself sharp and fit and he turned up injured.

Then, in a warm-up game, I told him one or two touch, get yourself back to match fitness, don’t dwell on the ball. It began well but then he started to get excited, went on one of his runs and I could see a big defender come hurtling into the tackle. I just knew what would happen and it did, and I just couldn’t take a half-fit Gazza.

We lost players early to injury, like Wright, and had others who were touch and go, like Darren Anderton, and with time running out you have to decide whether to take a risk.

Even so it was hard to tell Gazza — I knew how much it would hurt — but it hurt the others just as much. Yet, as I reflect back, it was not as difficult as telling those kids.

Certainly, I always felt as a player I wanted to be told face to face — that was my criteria to treat players — but Roy didn’t have his squad around him like I did.

I was able to leave naming my squad until a fortnight before England’s opening match, which meant I took 30 players to La Manga, while Roy had to name his a month before the World Cup opens which, in a way, makes life slightly easier for those players going home.

We can’t win in Brazil, can we?

Yes, England can win the World Cup, of course they can. They have as good a chance as half-a-dozen outsiders in Brazil but I don’t think they will lift the trophy so reaching the semi-finals would be reason to rejoice.

But anything is possible — remember how Denmark won the Euros in 1992 when they came off the beach and beat Germany in the final.

Perhaps it’s time that England have a bit of luck as they haven’t enjoyed much in major tournaments since they won the World Cup in 1966. We had a bit of luck then — did the ball cross the line? — but it has since gone awol.

So much as conspired against them: Peter Bonetti having to take over from Gordon Banks in 1970, Diego Maradona’s Hand of God goal in 1986 in Mexico, penalty shoot-out defeats — especially the one close to my heart against Argentina in 1998 when I was sure we should have beaten them and because a Sol Campbell Golden goal should have stood — to Italia 90 and some big decisions that went against England in the semi-final against Germany.

So, yes, we are definitely due a bit of luck and we will need refereeing decisions to go our way and the spine of the team to avoid suspensions and injuries. If we make it to the quarter-finals, who knows how far the team could go?

Come and see my legends

Competitive Legends football is back at Brisbane Road on Sunday and I am proud to be involved in a concept designed to prolong careers by replicating golf and tennis masters.

Paul Gascoigne could have extended his career and focused on his fitness and health if this concept had had existed back then.

Playing 90 minutes is a problem to any player who has given up the game professionally so the key to F30 — 15 minutes each way — is rolling subs. The players are able to go out there and compete and perform for a short period of time.

When your fitness levels have gone, you get frustrated that you can’t do the things you once could. We have rolling subs and a sin bin so they can perform for five or 10 minutes, have a rest and then go back on fresh.

* Glenn Hoddle is technical director of the Elite Legends Cup tournament at Brisbane Road on Sunday with the greatest legends from Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal and West Ham. Tickets still available from leytonorient.com and F30legends.co.uk

* Williamhill.com make holders Chelsea favourites.

* Glenn Hoddle is part of ITV’s World Cup team and a pundit for Sky Sports

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