Former Spurs star / disgraced England manager Glenn Hoddle lost the latter positon in 1999 when his public statements about reincarnation led to calls for his head. Interviewed in the Sunday Times, Hoddle was quoted as saying “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.”

Perhps with that whole karma thing in mind, Hoddle continues to insist he was stitched up. The Guardian’s Stuart James interviews Wolves’ current manager.

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 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. For me to tell you the story, for me to tell someone, I need to be in total control.”

Hoddle’s frustration is compounded by the FA stance. Asked if he feels they could have been stronger and 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.”