Glenn Hoddle believes that Tottenham Hotspur are a bigger club than Chelsea, per The Sun, at least in terms of their fanbase.
What’s he said?
Jose Mourinho, of course, has taken over at Spurs following Mauricio Pochettino’s sacking.
Hoddle has played for and managed both clubs, who will play each other this weekend.
Writing the foreword to the book, The Boss – Memories of Bill Nicholson to Jose, which is being serialised in The Sun this week, he made the assertion that Spurs have now overtaken the Blues.
He said: “If Mourinho does win silverware at Tottenham it will prove to have been the right move at the right time for him to go to Spurs.
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“It will also turn out to be a shrewd move for Mourinho, who will quickly discover that Spurs are a massive club — much bigger than he might have thought.
“He has probably underestimated just how big a club Spurs are.
“There is a bigger fanbase than at Chelsea and no one now has better facilities in terms of training ground and stadium. He has walked into a fantastic job at the right time with Spurs becoming a modern-day club. This is a good marriage.”
Based on nothing
This is a weird assertion from Hoddle.
He does have the expertise from playing for both clubs but Chelsea have grown exponentially since the turn of the Millennium and have also won far more trophies than Spurs in their recent history.
Chelsea, for example, have won the league five times since 2000; Spurs last won it in 1961.
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Purely based on facts, the Blues are the bigger club, so one has to assume that Hoddle is merely attempting to win some brownie points by making such a claim in a book that is, naturally, about Spurs.
Nevertheless, it looks a little silly and leads to a number of clickbait headlines.
He would have been better off simply not saying it.
Meanwhile, Football FanCast has learned of Spurs' ideal scenario for Christian Eriksen's potential exit.