So sad about Hoddle, such a lovely guy

WHAT happened to Glenn Hoddle over the weekend is just very sad.

I wish him well, all the very best and hope he gets back on his feet very soon and is on our screens not long after that.

Terry Venables gave me my England debut and Glenn called me up several times as well.

When I was a kid growing up he had a huge influence on me as a player.

At a time when there was lots of long-ball football he was very much a man you were drawn to just by what he could do with a football.

My mum has always been into football and she used to work at Cannock swimming baths.

Years before Fantasy Football I remember being in the staff room, I was about 10 or 11, and everybody had to write down their favourite 11 players. She just wrote down Glenn Hoddle 11 times which I thought was hilarious.

That has always stuck with me growing up. And I told him.

I saw him recently at one of the England games at the World Cup and he was sitting with Sam Matterface, a former colleague of mine at TalkSPORT.

We were chatting about various things and I told him the story and he had a little giggle.

He was a pioneer in many ways in English football who wasn’t recognised as being such until fairly recently but he was a great player and is a lovely guy.