James Lawton: Hoddle's succession of failures is result of arrogance

Two and a half years on from the disgraceful manner in which they fired George Graham, Tottenham's bosses are still lost little sheep in the tough world of big-time football.

They were probably right to conclude at the weekend that Glenn Hoddle was never going to make real the sentimental fantasies of those White Hart Lane fans who jumped up and down so enthusiastically when Graham was axed because he couldn't deliver the football of their old dreams.

But it was a decision that should have been reached in the summer before the doling out of £13m worth of seed money. Having backed Hoddle in the summer, the Spurs board were, by all the conventions of serious football people, surely obliged to give him more than six matches in the new campaign. By not doing so, they reveal their lack of experience - and propensity to panic. No crocodile tears here for Hoddle, however.

Hoddle has had more opportunities than most football men of his age, but all of them have been squandered by, more than anything else you have to believe, sheer arrogance. When he was the England coach he was always saying how his players had to take new things on board. Things that flowed from his own tactical brilliance. Now, as he takes stock of his latest situation, perhaps he should haul something on to the deck for his own benefit. It is that quite possibly he is not quite so good as he thinks he is.