Former England manager Glenn Hoddle tells Stuart James about the path that has led him to the chase for a play-off place with Wolves

Home Park, April, 1991. Glenn Hoddle is taking charge of his second match as a manager. Swindon are 2-1 down against Plymouth and Hoddle wants to withdraw Duncan Shearer, the leading scorer. "I'm going to give him two or three minutes," says Hoddle to his assistant John Gorman. He has barely finished the sentence and Shearer equalises. Seven minutes later Shearer gives Swindon the lead. "I learned something profound that day," says Hoddle. It was a first lesson in the precariousness of football management.

Hoddle is back at Plymouth with Wolves today but his footballing journey ought to have taken a very different path after graduating from Chelsea to become the England manager - but nothing is straightforward in Glenn Hoddle's life. That much was clear in February, 1999, when he surrendered his position as England manager in the most controversial circumstances.

At the time the public outcry was deafening and even Tony Blair became embroiled in the debate about Hoddle's future. Seven years have passed since then but time has not healed the wounds. Hoddle rarely discusses the subject which remains raw and still prompts a belligerent denial. Hoddle is adamant that he did not suggest disabled people are paying for their sins in a previous life.

"My main priority will always be and has always been, and my only concerns are, the disabled people, to get through to them that that's not my belief and I never said it," says Hoddle. "It's something that happened to me which is a total injustice and that's what made it even harder that (the English Football Association) didn't stand by me. I just need to put the record straight on actually how it all came around. It's not a very nice thing, but that will come out at some stage, but not at the moment."

Hoddle's frustration is compounded by the FA stance. Asked if he feels they could have been more supportive, he replies: "Yes. But there was a weakness, an unbelievable weakness they showed that, in the end, I wasn't sure I wanted to work for people like that. I won't go into the other thing because I need to put that right on my own, with myself, what happened and the reasons why they weren't strong enough because that was totally unjust. I was turned over. But at the end of the day I need to put that right."

Hardly closure but then Hoddle does not want to put his time in charge of England to bed. Despite the ill-feeling surrounding his departure he speaks with immense pride about being one of only 10 people to have held the position of England manager.

Memories are vivid and he talks ruefully about the defeat in the last 16 to Argentina on penalties in the 1998 World Cup - "the biggest disappointment I have ever had in football as a manager".

"Football wise, England was as good as it gets," he says. "Working with the players and qualifying for the World Cup was the cream. Working with your Shearers, Sheringhams, Beckham as a kid coming through, Michael Owen, I had a fantastic time. That was what you were there for and I loved that part of the job. But then you look at the other side of it. Oh dear, all that, some of the things that were said and written, and that's what Sven will be saying now and the next one, and the next one, and the next one. That's the sad thing about the job. It's worse than the prime minister's job."

Hoddle concedes that club football is no preparation for the tumult awaiting the next England manager.

"England is totally different," he says. "There is a multitude of things that a club manager will be doing. But with England it's not like that and then suddenly you are like that, and when it is it's like a volcano and the top of the volcano goes boom for 10 days. It is like bang, full-on, more intense than you would ever imagine and then it simmers and you get steady again."

Hoddle felt exhausted after leaving the England job. He had been involved in football ever since joining Spurs at 16 and knew he had to escape. Twelve months passed before he returned and took over at Southampton. "That break did me the world of good," he says. "After six months I felt, 'Well, I'm not itching to get back in yet', but after about nine months I was more interested in football."

His feelings were very different when he was dismissed as Tottenham's manager in September, 2003. He wanted to return to football the next day. "I didn't feel I needed the rest," says Hoddle. "There was a lot of untapped energy in there." His fate was sealed after a 3-1 defeat by Southampton. It was Spurs' fourth loss in the opening six matches, prompting the chairman Daniel Levy to make a decision that still rankles with Hoddle today. "I thought it was too quick and I told (Daniel) that," says Hoddle.

"I said to him, you've hit the panic button and there's no need for it to be hit at this stage of the season, but I wasn't going to change his mind. I looked at it and thought, 'Let's see what happens'. If I had seen them go to the top four I would have thought: 'Hang on a minute, I have got to look at myself here.'"

But if Hoddle was not looking at himself, others were, particularly Spurs fans who had expected so much on his homecoming in 2001. After two mid-table finishes and a defeat in the League Cup final they were disappointed.

Hoddle delays before answering why he did not succeed at Spurs. "I have got to be careful here," he adds. "There are a lot of reasons I can't go into. I don't really want to put them up as excuses but there was a lot of hurdles to overcome, internally, that weren't right for the club."

That is as close as Hoddle comes to saying he failed at Spurs, and he quickly counters the admission by pointing out: "After I left they ended up going downhill." If that betrays a sense of bitterness it should not be interpreted as a sign that the love affair with Spurs is over. He still has a "fantastic feeling" for the club, he says "they've had a smashing season" under Martin Jol and was touched by the fans' support when he left. "I'm thankful for that because sometimes that can turn. It would have been particularly hard for that to happen at Tottenham."

Not all former fans have been as sympathetic. At Southampton the resentment still festers after Hoddle walked out when the club were seventh in the Premiership to join Spurs. "I didn't realise it would have the impact on the supporters because I perhaps naively thought they would understand Tottenham was the only club I would leave for at that stage," he says. "Tottenham was in my blood. From eight years of age I was a Spurs fan, and I played for them for 13 years."

Even so, he agonised for days. Hoddle was happy at Southampton but the lure of Spurs proved too great, particularly given that he had already rejected them before, an 11th-hour attempt to entice him from Swindon in 1993 after he had given his word to Chelsea. "To have it come up again," says Hoddle, "it was like, 'Do I turn it down again, never to perhaps have the chance again?' I don't think people at Southampton, even Rupert (Lowe), who I had a good relationship with, ever really understood."

Leaving Chelsea in 1996 for England required less thought, even if Hoddle was happy at Stamford Bridge. He says he would have stayed until the start of the 21st century if the England opportunity had not arisen and points to the arrival of Ruud Gullit and Mark Hughes as evidence that the philosophy was changing. There was no silverware but "getting Chelsea to the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup was, for me, as good as Chelsea winning the Premiership now," he says. "I really mean that because the rules were different with the foreigners' limit."

Hoddle's rules have changed too. That is apparent when he discusses the current Chelsea team and says: "There are no rights and wrongs in football. There are only results."

It is pragmatic language for a man synonymous with artistry and helps to explain his admiration forJose Mourinho's side. He offers no criticism of their style but believes "they can be a little bit more understanding of what being champions of England is all about. I think once you are champions anything you do is going to be highlighted a million times over. Maybe they have just not realised that was going to happen."

Perhaps Hoddle, 50 next year, was guilty of the same lack of foresight when he underestimated the level of media intrusion after he succeeded Terry Venables with England. In the Championship, Hoddle can now smile when he talks about waiting for "this volcano to erupt" during international weeks. His impact at Wolves has not been nearly as explosive and with six matches left there is much to do to secure a play-off place.

Hoddle bridles at the suggestion he was putting his reputation on the line by coming to Molineux and is equally dismissive of the notion that this is the last-chance saloon for his managerial career. Yet he is back at the starting point of his learning curve today and that must be galling for someone who once held England's most prestigious football position. "Anyone who thinks that, doesn't know me as a person," he says. "That thought, 'What am I doing here at Plymouth?' has never ever entered my mind." Unlike England, which has left an indelible mark.

Guardian Service