GLENN HODDLE

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.