I actually listened to the radio 5 interview with Hoddle when he made his comments. They were blown out of proportion and/or taken out of context. He was actually talking about his faith and trying to fit in how bad things happen in the world despite his God. He said how he really struggled with how people were born with physical/mental disabilities - how can his loving God have let this happen? They hadn't been alive to have done anything wrong and deserve any 'punishment'. So he managed to fit this into his belief system by guessing that they must have lived previous lives and made mistakes during those.
It's all a bit of a jump, but from the tone of his voice and the context, he certainly wasnt meaning to put anyone down. He was just trying to understand without having his own belief system being shattered.
So I felt a bit sorry for him regarding how it all played out.
But it doesn't stop him from being a **** still. And he is one.
Near the end it was all praise City, as we were clearly going through, but until then it was all about what Bayern needed to do.