Simon Parker column
I’ve had a glimpse into the future. I’ve seen Roy Hodgson sacked.
It was in November 1998, another reporting era when I covered Southampton. They had just beaten Blackburn 2-0.
After a dire game between two dire sides at Ewood Park, Rovers were bottom and looking doomed in mid-season.
As we shuffled away from the press conference, several blazered officials suddenly ran in all of a fluster.
The press doubled back sensing the real story about to unfold and a statement was read out to confirm that Hodgson had left the building.
In fact, that was slightly premature. He was just getting into his car – parked a couple along from ours – as we prepared to head back south.
We even exchanged a few pleasantries over the boot. But then Hodgson’s always been a decent chap, even in times of adversity.
That level-headed sense of decency and respect will be put to the ultimate test now.
If someone had told me 12 years ago that the bloke packing away his belongings and leaving Blackburn for the last time would be reincarnated as England manager, I would have laughed in their face. Not in Roy’s obviously, he’s far too nice for that.
But here he is, that failed Blackburn boss getting the biggest – and most scrutinised – job in our national game.
We shouldn’t hold Blackburn against him but many will question the appointment after he crashed and burned in six months at Liverpool.
Seen as a “safe” leader of middle-range clubs like Fulham and West Brom, the Anfield post is possibly the closest on his varied CV to the kind of pressure he can expect taking the high office at Wembley.
Liverpool, like England, are prone to delusions of grandeur; a once-mighty football force still basking on past glories. And he left them in half a season hovering around the relegation zone.
And yet I think the Football Association have made the right decision.
It’s certainly not the popular one – and Harry Redknapp’s publicity machine has been whirring into overdrive this week to convince the world that England have lost their heads.
Ask the man in the street and they will inevitably say the job should have gone to the Spurs boss. But this is not the X Factor; for once, we’re not waiting on the public vote and Simon Cowell to deliver his scripted put-downs.
Of course, finance may have featured in the FA’s thinking despite the denials. But why not?
They were hammered for frittering away the family silver on foreign mercenaries. By opting for Hodgson now, rather than trying to extricate Redknapp from a lucrative contract, they are getting stick again for penny-pinching.
The predictable “show me your medals” dig has also been levelled at the new boss. But for all his public blustering and media chats out of the car window, Redknapp’s prize cupboard is hardly bulging.
Talk comparing his snub to that of Brian Clough in the 1970s is ridiculous.
Clough had won the title with unfashionable Derby at the time. He went on to win another for Nottingham Forest, two European Cups and four League Cups.
Redknapp, in contrast, lifted the FA Cup four years ago with Portsmouth.
But like Terry Venables, that other Cockney cheepy-chappy so beloved by the London hacks, he has assumed this “Emperor’s clothes” reputation.
Hodgson has the one crucial element on his record that should hold sway – past experience of the international game. As FA chairman David Bernstein proudly trumpeted, that puts him above every previous England manager.
So what if Switzerland and Finland sound the Fulham equivalent of world football?
Management of club and country is chalk and cheese, particularly during the intensity of tournaments.
The Swiss had not qualified for anything in three decades before Hodgson took them to back-to-back World Cups and Euros. At one stage they were even third in FIFA’s rankings.
And while critics point to their measly one-point return from Euro 96, that draw did come against Venables’ hosts.
Modest achievements maybe but giving Hodgson this opportunity does not have to mean modest ambitions on the FA’s part.
Hodgson looks the identikit of a proper international manager. There won’t be the off-the-cuff soundbites or impromptu car park TV interviews – but does that happen in any other country?
He will need a thick skin if England fail this summer. The backlash will be inevitable, driven by the rabble-rousing corners of the media.
But cheap front-page jokes at his speech impediment on Hodgson’s first day in office reflect more on those papers. Let’s all grow up.
In time this “safe” pair of hands can plot a sensible course ahead. Surely we’ve learned by now that hype and hysteria with our national team achieves nothing.
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