Source: Daily_Mail
Here's Hoddle FC... Glenn's team of Englishmen in Spain's fourth tier
On August 25, at their 8,000-seat stadium in the town of Jerez in south-west Spain, Jerez Industrial played their final pre-season friendly.[LNB] Xerez B were the visitors as Industrial continued preparations for their Tercera Division Group 10 opener in the fourth tier of Spanish league football four days later. The home team won 2-0.[LNB] Industrial revolution: Sam Clucas (in cross shirt)[LNB] So what, you may ask. But take a look at Industrial's teamsheet: Lumley, Spence, McCashin, Demetriou, Cobb, Juanse, Clucas, Moke, Lynch, Bell, Valtierra.[LNB] Eight of the starting XI are English or Northern Irish. Nine have been released by English or Scottish clubs. They even played in white shirts with a red cross on the front. And they had a former England manager watching them.[LNB] All 22 players in Industrial's squad are from the Glenn Hoddle Academy (GHA). Eight players joined on loan for the second half of last season and, this summer, the academy saved the club from financial extinction by signing a fiveyear deal to manage the football side of the operation. At some point this season, all the starting XI will be British. It is unprecedented.[LNB]Hoddle said: 'I think it's quite an ironic story, such a reversal from what happens at home. I think it was at Arsenal when everyone was up in arms because there wasn't one English player in the team. Well, we've only got two Spanish players at the moment and, one day, there will be a team full of Brits.[LNB] 'I think that's quite a unique thing, that we're giving opportunities to English players abroad in professional leagues.'[LNB] Watching brief: Mickey Demetriou with Hoddle[LNB] Hoddle spent three-and-a-half yearswith AS Monaco, winning the French title in 1988 under Arsene Wenger,and he is convinced of the benefits of playing abroad.[LNB]'As a footballer I would always encourage a player to go abroad,especially if you're an offensive player,' he said. 'As a person and asa footballer you gain. Even if it goes badly wrong, you still see adifferent side of the coin, which completely opens your mind.[LNB] [LNB]'It definitely brought my game on. I was playing at Tottenham, one of the best clubs, but I went to Monaco and had my eyes opened. The training was so totally in advance of what we were doing. I'd never even heard of a warm down. And a massage? In England? No chance.[LNB]'The first 45 minutes of my firstsession with Arsene was stretching on something that looked like aballet bar. "When are we going to get the balls out?" I thought. But Iwas more flexible and fitter when I was 29 than when I was 21. It wassuch an eye-opener for experience - not for what people say or tell you- but for actual experience.'[LNB]The idea is to use Industrial's fixtures to add a competitive focus to Hoddle's work with his 31 Academy players, who have all been released from clubs or scouted in non-League football.[LNB] Hoddle freely admits it's not necessarily about winning football matches - although promotion to Segunda B would obviously provide a lucrative window - but more about trying to get his players back into the professional game, hopefully at a much higher level than Jerez Industrial.[LNB] 'I've explained to the boys itisn't the start of their careers,' said Hoddle. 'It's the icing on thecake for their development because there's a competitive game at theend of the week. If these boys do go back out into the big, bad worldof football they've got to have that competitive edge.[LNB]'But I've got to make sure there's not a club and an academy, it's allone academy. The boys, the coaching staff, everyone will rotate. Thecoaches (Graham Rix, Nigel Spackman and Dave Beasant) will have twomatches down on the bench with the Spanish manager (Enrique Caballero)and then the next two games they'll work with the first team.'[LNB]Hoddle will have an 'overseeing role'. The former Tottenham and Chelseaboss, 52, laughs off the suggestion this is a somewhat unusual returnto the dug-out.[LNB] 'No, notat all,' he says. 'With no disrespect to Jerez. I'm not registered withthe club at all. But we'll pick the team and we're in control.'[LNB]It is four years since Hoddle left Wolves. When we spoke a year ago hehad received 16 'serious' job offers. It's up to 26 now. But he stillinsists he isn't tempted, not until the GHA can run itself and he couldtake an international job.[LNB]The academy was established two years ago and Hoddle is honest in hisassessment of its success. He still doesn't know whether it will workin the long term or if it will make money. He has seen players such asChris Fagan get back into the game at Lincoln City, only to be releasedagain. It is also incredibly hard work and he admits it 'would be mucheasier to take a job in the Middle East for a lot of money'.[LNB] But Hoddle is confident he is attracting a higher standard of talent than ever before, with more than 2,000 applications via their website and invites from 63 countries to set up more academies.[LNB] A joint venture in Rustenburg, South Africa, is looking very likely. Hoddle is driven by two major factors: the deep-rooted belief he is changing these boys' lives and the knowledge it will take just one exceptionally talented footballer to justify all his work. For those reasons, he will continue to work hard in that all-too rare role: the Englishman abroad. [LNB] Glenn Hoddle: The future for the England team is frighteningGlenn Hoddle: What it's like to be the England boss at the World Cup[LNB] [LNB]
