Credit: Imago

Richie Mills

Thu 30 April 2026 12:45, UK

Glenn Hoddle says he and fellow Tottenham Hotspur legend Osvaldo Ardiles offered to lead Spurs towards the end of Igor Tudor’s ill-fated reign.

Tottenham began the season with Thomas Frank, and after a bright start to the Dane’s tenure, it seemed like it might have been the right call to move on from Ange Postecoglou.

However, Spurs’ fortunes took a turn for the worse as 2025 progressed, and in February 2026, Frank was sacked. The less said about Tudor’s tenure, the better.

The north London team fell to a 3-0 loss to relegation rivals Nottingham Forest in late March, prompting the Tottenham hierarchy to eventually part ways with the Croatian, before turning to Roberto De Zerbi.

Before the Italian was hired, Hoddle says he approached Tottenham about being interim boss. But without wanting to disrespect a club icon, it is not hard to see why they turned him down.

Glenn Hoddle felt he could unite Tottenham again

Tudor failed to win any of his Premier League matches in charge of Tottenham as they slumped towards the relegation zone.

A number of ex-Spurs players and managers put their hat in the ring to guide them to safety but De Zerbi was favoured.

Even though Hoddle hasn’t been in management for 20 years, he still felt capable of doing a job at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

But, despite reaching out, the Spurs’ hierarchy wanted to go in a different direction.

He said on talkSPORT: “They never came to us. We did [offer to manage Spurs], Ossie [Ardiles] and myself, after the Forest game, we felt there was a real problem there. Ossie and I made it clear that we would go in there if they wanted us to go in there with probably a younger legend as well.

“It felt at that time, at the end of the game, Tudor was in as the manager, but to lose 3-0 against a team down at the bottom – with you at home – was a bad sign.

“It looked to me as if it needed some love, like it needed some people to go in there and unite the fans, with the owners, with the team, and that is why we said we would do it. They said they were looking elsewhere, so that was fine by me.

“I don’t care who, I’m a Spurs man through and through since eight years of age, so as long as they’ve got the right man in. De Zerbi has gone in, and everyone’s got to unite and get together, but they’ve got a real task on their hands, haven’t they? I just want them to stay up, whether I was involved or I wasn’t.”

Glenn Hoddle is not Martin O’Neill

Hoddle was Tottenham’s manager between April 2001 and September 2003. In that stretch, he won 41 of his 104 matches in charge.

His next and final job was at Wolves between December 2004 and July 2006, where he had a win percentage of 35.53.

Why would Tottenham go for someone who has been out of the game for two decades over one of the most highly-regarded managers in Europe?

Martin O’Neill has done well in his latest interim stint at Celtic, but he was out of work for six years, not 20. And, he is arguably in the best team in the division.

It is much easier to take over at a side with the best players in the league compared to one fighting for survival.

Ergo, De Zerbi was a safer bet than Hoddle, but Tottenham may still get relegated, regardless.