By Phil McNulty BBC Sport Online chief football writer

Glenn Hoddle's very public FA Cup humiliation at Southampton had an almost symbolic significance for the Spurs legend.

Hoddle controversially walked out on Southampton to take charge at White Hart Lane in time to lead them into an FA Cup semi-final battle with arch-rivals Arsenal.

So it was it was with heavy irony that Hoddle's reign as Spurs boss hit its first crisis point in the competition the club loves most at the club that likes him least.

It was a painful 90 minutes for Hoddle at an old club - his popularity hardly heightened after he returned to Saints to sign �8m defender Dean Richards.

Hoddle was in the firing line as Gordon Strachan's resurgent Southampton ran riot against a Spurs side that looked lacklustre and lacking inspiration.

The manner of the defeat has raised questions about Hoddle's policy of basing his Spurs revival on the older generation, in the shape of his early signings Teddy Sheringham and Gus Poyet.

Has Teddy Sheringham had his day?

Sheringham and Poyet were over-run at St Mary's and looked pale shadows of the influential figures they have been in the past.

And with another big-money player at the older end of the generation gap, Christian Ziege, facing a lengthy injury lay-off, Hoddle is suddenly facing troubled times.

He based his early recruitment on getting swift results, but the last chance of silverware for this season ended at Southampton, following on from last season's Worthington Cup Final disappointment against Blackburn.

Hoddle now faces the dilemma of moving forward into the future with a game plan designed to revolve around players who may be part of the past.

Spurs faded badly in the second half of last season to raise fears Hoddle had applied a short-term fix to a long-term problem.

Graham Taylor faces huge task at Villa

Hoddle retains the faith of all inside White Hart Lane - but now faces a major test of his much-vaunted managerial talents.

But he is not alone after an FA Cup third round that left some high-profile wreckage around football's wasteland.

Everton's David Moyes will have felt the pain and shame of defeat at Shrewsbury Town, but such is the scale of his achievement in getting the club to fifth in the Premiership, he has credit in the bank when it comes to FA Cup accidents.

Aston Villa's Graham Taylor, however, will fear the itching trigger finger of chairman Doug Ellis after their 4-1 home defeat against Blackburn.

Taylor faces a huge task to fire the imagination of Villa's long-suffering fans, with the FA Cup exit following hard on the heels of a home Worthington Cup defeat against Liverpool and an unsatisfactory Premiership campaign.

Ellis is notoriously short on patience, but there is unlikely to be a queue of potential successors snaking around Villa Park should he claim another managerial victim.

John Gregory is in trouble at Derby

Taylor, however, is almost in paradise compared to the man he succeeded at Villa, John Gregory.

Derby's exit at Brentford was the latest blow to a proud manager who left Villa Park and moved to Derby in search of success.

Success is not an FA Cup third round exit at Brentford, 15th place in the First Division and a club ravaged by debt.

The FA Cup may be regarded as the most romantic trophy in English football - but for Hoddle, Taylor and Gregory the age of romance is dead.