Glenn Hoddle and Claude Puel first met in the summer of 1987. Hoddle was the 29-year-old star foreign signing for Arsene Wenger’s Monaco and Puel was the 25-year-old academy graduate, a one-club man who would become a Monaco institution, going on to manage them to the French title.
But in the late Eighties he was the workman-like squad player for Wenger — a young, aspiring coach who had just joined the club from Nancy. Hoddle and Puel couldn’t have been more different in profile.
As they embrace as friends 31 years on, ROB DRAPER listens in as they recall those first encounters in pre-season training…
GLENN HODDLE: It’s good to see you!