Glenn Hoddle rises from the sofa. On the carpet of the Polo Bar in the Royal Berkshire Hotel in Ascot, those long legs take aim for one more pass. “I didn’t realise until later in life that I visualised when I hit passes,” English football’s greatest passer explains.

Within seconds Hoddle has journeyed back to 1981, to Tottenham’s White Hart Lane ground. “If I saw Tony Galvin, on the left wing, and I saw the full-back” – Hoddle places them both somewhere in mid-air in the Polo Bar – “I could see the picture. As I put my head down to hit the ball, even now, to this day, I can see where I’ve got to hit the ball, and I’m visualising Tony. I know where he is, the tunnel’s on that side,” Hoddle laughs excitedly. “I know exactly where I am. I can see it! That was my real gift, my vision to see a picture.”