Hoddle Turns Down Saints To Maintain Academy

[Jockstar]

Former England boss Glenn Hoddle has revealed he turned down the chance of a second spell in charge at Southampton and may now never return to football management.

Hoddle claims the approach from the Saints was one of 'six or seven' offers of employment but insists he is now focussed on his `second chance' scheme for young players who have been dumped by their clubs.

The ex-Tottenham and Monaco midfielder - who took on the England job 12 years ago and then returned to club football with Southampton, Tottenham and Wolves - has opened a soccer academy in Spain.

He has also launched an ambitious project in England aimed at resurrecting the fledgling careers of teenage discards from Premier League and Football League clubs.

Eighteen months after the scheme's inception, Hoddle has 60 hand-picked youngsters who have completed trials at Chelsea's state-of-the-art training centre in Surrey and won a year's scholarship at his academy in the southern Spanish resort of Monticastillo.

At least 30 of them will be awarded an intensive course in athletic and academic re-education, in conjunction with Leeds Metropolitan University, to prepare them for another shot at returning to top-flight football.

Hoddle, 50, said: 'I'm confident that over the next five years we are going to discover some real diamonds.

'I think a good percentage of the lads we are trialling will get back into the game at a good level and some of them will become top, top players.'

He added: 'I was offered the manager's job at Southampton again a little while ago and I've probably turned down six or seven jobs, some of which were internationals and ones I really had to think about.

'But I had already got into this project and it is what I want to do now. I feel it is going to be a really refreshing way of working.

'I'll still be making big decisions with players but I have good people around me that I really trust and the energy is really good.

'I think giving people a second chance, talented young men, is a really worthwhile thing and now that I've started this journey I want to see if we can finish it.

'So many young players fail to make it at the highest level due to their late physical development and the academy will give them more time to grow, working with top-quality coaches in superb facilities to help them return to the game.

'When I was a manager my worst job was telling young players they were being released by the club because there were only so many you could keep on. I remember the heartache and I still wonder now just how many potentially good ones I had to let go.'

Hoddle has former Chelsea coach and Portsmouth manager Graham Rix, ex-England Under-21 coach Nigel Spackman and former Wimbledon goalkeeper and Spurs coach Hans Segers on his academy staff.

'It is definitely the case that the influx of foreign players has restricted the opportunities of English youngsters coming through,' Hoddle continued.

'The top stars from abroad have, of course, improved the Premier League but it is the average foreign player, coming in on a Bosman transfer, that you worry about in terms of blocking the way.

'Yes, we've just had an all-English Champions League final, but with not many English-bred players in the two teams.

'And England have not reached the finals of the European Championships. We need to start redressing the balance there somehow.

'We are not only interested in English youngsters though. We have a Greek lad trialling here, a couple of Irish boys. Our next trials could take place in France or even Italy - wherever we can help talented players back into the game.'