Hoddle for England because of ‘perfect’ commentary

Sarah Winterburn

Ray Wilkins has unsurprisingly joined the calls for his former England teammate Glenn Hoddle to be given the England job – citing his ITV commentary as evidence of his suitability.

Hoddle has been nothing short of a joke as part of ITV’s commentary team but Wilkins – himself a co-commentator with Sky Sports – has been impressed.

He told Sky Sports News HQ: “Yes, I would still go with Hoddle. He’s still young enough, and I think he’s enthusiastic enough and I heard him call the game the other night [against Iceland] and I think he called the game perfectly.

“He’s had the experience of being in World Cups. I think he could have been an amazing manager but he has not been in the game for such a long time. I would love to see Glenn come back and try and control this group of guys we have at the moment.

“We have some potentially very good footballers in that group and I just feel potentially that Glenn might be the one to take them forward. We have some very good footballers at the moment but we are very short of people that you could actually call world class.”

Hoddle last managed in 2006, when he finished seventh in the Championship with Wolves.

His former singing partner Chris Waddle has also backed his claims, saying: “He’s a coach, he reads situations, he’s played abroad, he understands the game unbelievably well, he can play different systems, he’s got plans B, C and D. He ticks all the boxes for me.”