What can Glenn Hoddle offer QPR?

12 August 2014 13:23

The news that QPR has appointed Glenn Hoddle as first team coach has certainly caught a lot of the football pundits off-guard. There is no doubt about his calibre during his playing days but apart from some success at Swindon he never really achieved any success at the bigger clubs he went on to manage. At Chelsea he was unable to take them beyond 11th in the Premiership; His time at Southampton was acrimonious to say the least; At Spurs he led them to a 9th and 10th finish in two seasons and at Wolves, where he was widely expected to do well he again failed to even get the Midlands club into the play-offs and developed them into one of the lowest scoring teams in the Championship, scoring just 50 goals all season. Whilst at Wolves Hoddle's team was regarded as a draw specialist, drawing 34 of his 76 games in charge over a two-year span.

Despite a 60% win ratio in his matches, his 3-year spell as England manager was not really regarded as being successful and he was more remembered during this time for his appointment of faith healer Eileen Drewery. Hoddle was controversially sacked after comments were attributed to him which referred to disabled people in a negative manner. He has been out of the game since 2006 and apart from appearing on TV as a guest to comment on football matches, he has largely been dormant since this period.

I guess that given the fact that Harry Redknapp had previously described Glenn Hoddle as "the perfect man for the job" we should not be at all surprised at this appointment.

Hoddle does have extensive experience in the game, there is no doubt about that. He is also a huge role model and ambassador in the game and his arrival at Loftus Road will offer a huge lift to all the players at QPR. The fact remains though that he does not have any experience as a first team coach and this has to be regarded as a gamble for whoever it was that authorised his appointment at the West London club. Time will tell how QPR fair and I expect that if Hoddle outlasts Harry Redknapp he will be installed as their next manager after his stint as first team coach.

Source: DSG