FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template
Coach Glenn Hoddle jets into France with his England squad on Tuesday knowing the hopes of a nation are on his shoulders-and admitting he can hardly wait. As he put his players through their paces at England’s training headquarters near London for the last time before setting foot on French soil, Hoddle could not have been more self-confident. “I know there’s big expectations on us,” said Hoddle. “That started after we qualified in Rome, and it’s one I like, and one the players are going to enjoy as well. This week when we’ve been going to training the people have been outside their houses to see us go by. That shows how much it means to everybody. We’re going there with so many positives, on the back of Euro 96 and Rome and what we’ve done in the last two years. If it goes wrong, it goes wrong, but the approach has been right-as it’s got to be.” It’s all been done, planned right the way through to the final. That’s not arrogance, just professionalism. It’s got to be done and you’ve got to make the players think that way. “I know what I want, I know what I want the players to achieve and the most important thing is to make them know that. I’ve seen us build as a side, although we can still improve.”
After the controversial omission of Paul Gascoigne, Hoddle is taking a squad to France which has no experience of playing in a World Cup. Hoddle admitted that was not ideal, and it does put extra responsibility on the coach. He was in the squads in 1982 and 1986 and he is determined the lessons learned in Spain and Mexico are put into practice.
“We didn’t go into those tournaments with fear, but perhaps with an attitude that we weren’t sure how it would go. It was like having a car in neutral, rather than turning up in first gear ready to go through second and third and driving on. If things do go wrong in the first game there will not be any panic buttons hit by us. Just look at the past. Germany in Euro 96 were poor at the start and nobody would ever have said Italy were going to win in 1982 after the group situation. If you’ve experienced that and taken it on board you can keep an even keel. I probably won’t realise the tension beck home, because I’m going to be out there in France, every day will be just another one at the office,” he added.
“Of course it’s the World Cup, and I won’t be able to switch off, but I won’t feel the pressure I might’ve done if it had been at home. The fact that we’re away means we might be cocooned a little. If we’d been going into it without the likes of David Seaman, Tony Adams and Alan Shearer, if they’d all been injured, I’d have said our chances were slim,” Hoddle conceded.
“A coach is only as good as his players, and if you’ve got good players and a good coach you’ve got the right formula. After the way we qualified after last summer, there’s no reason not to be positive. We’re prepared better than any other England team has been.”