Glenn Hoddle: Named in Gary's all-time World XI
Gary Rowett names Glenn Hoddle as the sole Englishman in his all-time World XI and explains why Jose Mourinho is the best manager around.
In the calm of an international week, our Football League Focus columnist discusses starting out as a coach, which managers he admires and has been influenced by, and which team talks from his career have stuck in the memory.
The Burton Albion boss then attempts the near-impossible task - to compile an all-time World XI of players he has watched play over the years.
Starting out as a coach
I took a few coaching sessions for the Cambridge School of Excellence when I was around the first team there at 17. So I knew even at that early age that it was something I quite enjoyed.
The turning point for me was when I got injured at Charlton in my late 20s when I was sitting around and thinking about what was going to come next if this was to be it for me as a player.
I remember writing down a lot of things I liked about coaching sessions and coaches, and also some of the things I didn't like so much like standing around between training or a lack of preparation for sessions. Just little things I'd seen along the way, basic things I thought I'd make sure I wouldn't let happen if I ever got into the position.
Just getting it down on paper was important for me. Then after my retirement I made a decision to go and coach the Under-14s at Derby. I wanted to learn how to coach, and I spent a lot of time in the season I spent there thinking of sessions, looking at books, looking at ideas, and formulating lots of different plans for what was going to be my next step.
Biggest influences
As a manager today, looking back, for various reasons it was my time as a player at Derby under Jim Smith and Steve McClaren that influenced me most.
I learned a lot from Jim's man-management and experience, and I learned a lot from Steve's coaching methods and the way that he tried to be different from things I'd seen before.
They were very forward-thinking at the time as a club. For example, they invested a lot of money into a ProZone room, which had big massage chairs that we used to sit in to go through training and aspects of games. They'd show clips, highlights and different bits of motivational footage while you were warming up in these chairs or cooling down after training. At the time the coaching team were a very forward-thinking bunch.
I also played alongside some fantastic foreign talent, which just opens your eyes as a young player. You see how different players prepare and play the game, and you take little bits from all of them.
Looking back on those years, I would have learned an awful lot.
In terms of learning from other managers that I haven't played under, I think most coaches to a certain degree are plagiarists. Obviously you have your own ideas of how you want to play the game, but you certainly look at things that are going on elsewhere.
Some of the more pragmatic managers are the ones that I am drawn to. Arrigo Sacchi and Marcelo Lippi in Italy back in the 80s, and nowadays there is Jurgen Klopp, who I have mentioned before. He's a big character; I've looked at a lot of his methods.
Jose Mourinho, of course, is the obvious one. I try to read as much as I can on those types of managers and the things they do. I just like the way they almost play destructive football at times. A lot of what they do is about making it very difficult for the opposition. I've always been drawn more to those type of managers than the likes of Pep Guardiola.
I'd say Mourinho is the best in the world at the moment. It'd be very close at the moment between him and Guardiola but I just think Mourinho edges it because he's done it at so many different clubs.
I just love the way he turns teams into winning teams. He seems to win the big games; he seems to always get the tactics spot on. He's just one of the managers that I would look at and take as many bits as I can from.
Team talks
I was asked to recall the most memorable team talks from my career, but it's very difficult. Most of the ones I remember centre around bust-ups and things like that!
I remember one where Steve Claridge had John Beck's head in his arms. They were having a bit of a fight in the training room - but that was probably a normal half-time recurrence at Cambridge at the time!
In terms of motivational speeches, I remember a Jim Smith one when we played Crystal Palace in the penultimate game of the season and needed to win to get promotion. He told us to think about our families in the stand watching us and to make them proud.
But you only remember little bits. I've been involved in probably thousands of team talks over the years, and it's very difficult to pick one out that I've heard.
In my younger coaching days when I was at Derby I used to think a lot more about the pre-match talk than I do now.
I can remember giving what I thought was an excellent team talk, and even a few of the lads said to me afterwards how good it was, but we ended up losing 5-0. I realised at that point that what you say at that late stage isn't going to massively affect the outcome of games.
I tend to be a lot calmer nowadays. I will usually just try to find a little angle psychologically that I can hit the players with. A lot of it is based around different challenges - when we're going well the challenge is to keep the run going, keep doing the right things - and I try to focus on the performance rather than the result.
All-time World XI
I was also asked to pick an all-time World XI of players I've seen over the years.
I've gone for Buffon in goal and have maintained a strong Italian theme at the back because I think they are the best defenders.
Playing slightly out of position at right-back I've got Alessandro Nesta, then I've got Fabio Cannavaro at right centre-back, Franco Baresi because he can play anywhere across the back four at left centre-back, and then Paolo Maldini at left-back.
I've gone for a slightly different player sitting in front of the back four in Didier Deschamps, then ahead of him I've picked two of my idols as players, Glenn Hoddle and Michel Platini.
Up front I've chosen Marco Van Basten down the middle, Cristiano Ronaldo and then Ruud Gullit, which was the one I had to think about most.
I want to bring that team back to life because I'd like to manage that team. It would be the easiest team in the world to manager. I'm just going to let them play, I'm not going to do any coaching, I'm not going to do any tactics, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy watching them.
My all-time World XI: Buffon, Nesta, Cannavaro, Baresi, Maldini; Deschamps, Hoddle, Platini; Ronaldo, Van Basten, Gullit.
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