Top 50 Quotes & Sayings by Glenn Hoddle

We have to change the way we coach kids in the long-term so that by the time they hit 16, they are better than the Spanish, French, and German players. That is the big challenge, but the No. 1 criteria for me has always been how you are technically judged, from the age of eight, not size or power.

I don't know about Mario Balotelli saying, 'Why always me?' - England should be saying as a nation, 'Why always us?' You can go back to 1970, when Gordon Banks got food poisoning and we lost to West Germany. Then there was 1986 and Maradona's hand. And last time, Frank Lampard not getting his goal against the Germans.

Look at how a caretaker has worked for the England rugby team in the Six Nations - they've done fantastically. Everyone's got an edge. No one's sure of a place, and everyone has an incentive. So I'd back the FA if they decided not to go for a full-time manager yet.

I had some very good players and some wonderful young players hitting the scene. Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Michael Owen - we had something tangible to work with and move forward.

I have a number of alternatives, and each one gives me something different.

I remember thinking this was a proper football interview, just as David Davies had promised. But then the line of questioning changed, and it became about my beliefs on reincarnation.

It's the biggest thing in the world in many ways, football. People don't want to talk about politics. They don't want to talk about religion. They want to talk about football - wherever you go.

At this moment in time I did not say them things.

Nobody criticised me when we qualified for the World Cup when I decided that the best shape for us going forward was three men at the back and stretching the pitch width-wise, which gives you options.

It was my proudest moment as a manager when England drew 0-0 with Italy in Rome to qualify for the World Cup finals. Fifteen years later, the stakes are equally high for both countries as they go head-to-head for a semi-final place at the European Championship.

My saddest decision in football was leaving Paul Gascoigne out of the 1998 World Cup finals. But he wasn't fit enough and once that decision is made, as a manager and a group of players, you forget about who isn't there and focus on the job.

The old adage that you shouldn't change a winning team doesn't apply in modern international football because managers have to study the opposition and pick players who exploit their weaknesses.

I have been here before as a spirit - this is just my physical body, it is just an overcoat. And at death, you will take the overcoat off.

No manager in the world gets good results all the time and you know there's people always ready to have a snipe. In fact I'm my own biggest critic, I really am. Because my own standards are so high, I criticise myself behind the scenes more than perhaps I should, according to people who know me well.

The only thing I can think of was an incident one day when I did get angry with the substitutes for talking behind the goal while we were practising free-kicks - I told them to pay attention because we might need them during the match. That was something I always insisted on.

I've always had my own opinions and have always been somebody who thinks outside the box.

I started the 1998 World Cup with Teddy Sheringham up front but always planned for Michael Owen to face Colombia in our final group game because they defended square and a quick striker would be able to exploit the space behind them.

If you've had the No. 1 job, why would you go back and be reserve manager? Is Alex Ferguson going to be reserve manager for Manchester United? It's like a boxer going into the ring with one arm behind his back. Why would you do it? You're going to get knocked out.

I spent hours from 11 until 16 with Tottenham in the gym playing the ball against the wall. We played against the wall for an hour before we would have a match. Left foot. Right foot. In the square. In the circle. Above the line, below it. Chest control. Thigh control. Volley sideways.

You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime.

I run an academy in Spain for young footballers who are released by their clubs and who, in my opinion, deserve a second chance. It is a rewarding job for me, but one that also reveals many of the faults in the English game.

Only 38 per cent of players in the Premier League are English; that is a damning statistic. Soon, the England manager will have to go scouting for players in the Championship - and when I say 'soon' I mean the next four or five years, perhaps even for the next World Cup.

If people feel 4-4-2 is the way forward in international football, they'll have to wait until I'm out of a job.

As England manager I always felt we needed an extra man in midfield to retain the ball, but that was more as an attacking ploy to help create opportunities. It came from my experience playing international football in a 4-4-2 and spending half my time chasing the ball.

I often felt as a player in a 4-4-2, you end up being outnumbered in midfield and chasing the ball, so as a manager I liked wingbacks to push forward; it gives the midfield player on the ball three or four options.

Football's all about 90 minutes

You have to look at things that happened in your life and ask why. It comes around.

There's not much who would have hit him [Fabio Capello] in the eye and made him put his hat on.

International football is one clog further up the football ladder

I didn't say them things that I said.

When a player gets to 30, so does his body

If anyone is found guilty, I will step on them.

Arsenal haven't won anything for three years, so they're used to success

There was nothing wrong with the performance, apart from throwing away the game.

Everton are now hitting the ropes running.

75% of what happens to Paul Gascoigne in his life is fiction.

United will break caution to the wind

You can never compare two players that are different, they're never going to be the same.

I think in international football you have to be able to handle the ball.

Tim Sherwood has come in, done very well and given us another string to the bow in a different type of way.

Paul Scholes was the jewel in the crown, the first name on the teamsheet and unquestionably one of the finest England players of the age. He flourished at once in the international arena, which didn't surprise me given his fabulous all-round attributes. He had almost everything - talent, intelligence, courage. His only blemish, which he never really shook off, was his tackling. There was always the chance of that red mist coming down. Overall, though, Paul was a wonderful player and he's a lovely lad, a credit to his club and to himself.

Your chest is different to your head.

It was a titanic effort.

You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime. I have nothing to hide about that. It is not only people with disabilities. What you sow, you have to reap.

He is a goal scorer, not a natural born one - not yet. That takes time.

The FA Cup is still domestically the best cup in the world.

He was a player that hasn't had to use his legs even when he was nineteen years of age because his first two yards were in his head.

Chelsea are playing with much more refreshing ness

Michael Owen could be Sir Alex's best ever buy, even though he didn't buy him

If there is any bad feeling I hope it's against me and not my players - I may put my tin helmet on without them seeing!