Why Glenn was a loser by a distance

It was supposed to have been a marriage made in heaven.

But the return of playing legend Glenn Hoddle as successor to the unpopular George Graham struggled for true stability from the start.

After taking charge amid euphoric scenes at White Hart Lane in April 2001, Hoddle's tenure as manager of Tottenham Hotspur has been blighted by poor communication with his staff, his players, the board and the media. When I first began a working relationship with him, it was clear the path to mutual understanding would be a difficult one.

The conversations we had were often brief and wary. Hoddle was a closed book and I doubt not one person at the club could claim to know him well. His reticence could have been as a result of his time with England but I too received the cold shoulder that so many of his players complained about. Silence was his favourite weapon.

Numerous players moaned regularly about the involvement of a sports psychologist, John Syer, and the lengthy training sessions they endured. During team meetings before games, Syer asked players to speak into a pen, pushed into their faces to simulate a microphone. He challenged them to say what they wanted from the game. Hoddle thought the idea would help team building, but all it did was invite ridicule.

It is no coincidence he fell out with those players with stronger characters that questioned some of his decisions - Tim Sherwood, Steffen Freund, Neil Sullivan and Teddy Sheringham.

Hoddle was even dismissive of the board's views, despite having received £12million to spend this summer, when asked why had he not strengthened the team with a defensive midfielder. He brushed aside their comments.

Those that know Hoddle the best say that he has, understandably, been dramatically changed by the death of his father last year. In two years working with Hoddle, one of the few moments that I thought he was being sincere was during an impromptu discussion on the subject of my mother who, he had learned, was dying of lung cancer. It was something that took me completely by surprise and was at odds with the character I knew.