Hodgson Man & Boy

[White Noise]

From Park Hill Under 11s to England boss... the Roy Hodgson story

By Ed Aarons


PUBLISHED: 23:30, 5 May 2012 | UPDATED: 23:30, 5 May 2012


From a patch of grass in the back garden of a house in Croydon to the pinnacle of English football. It has been quite a journey for bus driver's son Roy Hodgson.

Steve Kember first met the man who was unveiled last week as England manager nearly 60 years ago, when Bill Hodgson's family moved into a London Transport flat on Sydenham Road.

The future Crystal Palace and Chelsea midfielder's father was a conductor on the bus driven by Hodgson and their football-mad sons - aged a year apart - became firm friends.


In the front line: Hodgson (front left) playing for Ashford in Kent in 1972

'We were always in the back garden,' said Kember. 'We had a square bit with grass at the bottom and we would use the trees to make it our football pitch. All the other kids used to come to have matches. In the end it was like a bare patch of mud. We all aspired to become professional footballers.'


Palace days: Kember at Selhurst

Kember and Hodgson played at John Ruskin Grammar with Palace assistant boss Lennie Lawrence, while Bobby Houghton, who took Malmo to the 1979 European Cup Final and got Hodgson his first management job at Halmstads in Sweden, joined in the sixth form.

Described by Kember as 'a talented player who was all about touch', Hodgson failed to make the grade at Selhurst Park at 17.

'At an early age, Roy decided to get his coaching badges and he hasn't really looked back since,' said Kember.

Hodgson became a teacher at Alleyn's School in Dulwich and used to help coach the Park Hill United Under-11s - a youth team founded by Kember, who was by then a Palace hero, having scored the goal that saw them promoted to the First Division for the first time, in 1969.

'I was only 19 when I started it off with one side but it gradually grew to six or seven,' said Kember, who joined Chelsea for a club record £170,000 in 1971 and is now Palace's chief scout.

'I asked Roy to come down to look after one of the teams. He was 21 or 22 and he was already a good coach. But in those days, it was hard to see that he would go on to the heights that he's managed.'

Kember has wished Hodgson luck in his new role but has yet to hear back.

'He's still a good friend, although our paths have gone different ways,' he said. 'We keep in touch and see each other and I enjoyed working with him at Fulham. I've sent him a message but I should think he might be busy over the next few weeks.'

[White Noise]

Do I have a thick skin? No, says Hodgson, but I will have to get one

By Rob Draper


PUBLISHED: 23:50, 5 May 2012 | UPDATED: 23:50, 5 May 2012


Comments (3)

It is not as if Roy Hodgson did not know abuse and ridicule would be coming his way. It is just that traditionally an England manager has to lose some football matches before the campaign to undermine him begins.

Hodgson awoke on Wednesday to headlines mocking his inability to pronounce his Rs, which was apparently intended as an affectionate but light-hearted welcome to the job.

Much worse has been inflicted on previous England managers and Hodgson would hardly have been mortified by a long-standing joke. But if this was a jovial welcome, it does not bode well for the first defeat.


Time to adapt: Hodgson says he needs to develop a thick skin

Nevertheless, he had better get used to it. Many would argue that the ability to ignore abuse is a prerequisite for an England manager, but Hodgson is disarmingly frank when asked whether he feels he has the thick skin necessary to ignore inevitable barbs.

'I don't think so, no,' he says. 'I think I have to answer that question honestly. Maybe I should develop one.'

He ought to but, at 64, it will not be easy to change his sensitivities.

'It probably is required,' he adds. 'But I'm a football coach, a manager. That's been my life. Dealing with the mass media has also been a part of my life, not one I've shied away from, and it hasn't bothered me. I've accepted it as part of my duties. I like to think for the best part I get on with it and do a reasonable job. But I can't deny that my forte, and what I want to do, is to coach footballers, prepare teams, build teams, try to improve teams. That's basically what the England manager's job is.

'I know it [media duties] is also a very important part of it, don't get me wrong. If I'm to be vulnerable in any area, or lacking, it might be that I don't have the thick enough skin to deal with you guys. But I'd rather that than not have the wherewithal to deal with players.'
Hodgson does have a coaching record that commands respect and attention. Even though Bayern Munich players Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger said they knew little about him, Hodgson is the only foreigner to have been considered for coaching the German national team, back in 1998.


Sign of the times at Anfield: Hodgson lasted only 31 games as Liverpool boss

His long record is impressive and he clearly has the ability to coach, but the key question is whether he can pick a squad inside 10 days and organise a team inside five weeks to perform adequately at Euro 2012.

Then, in the long term, qualify for Brazil 2014. And, all the while, cope with being compared to Harry Redknapp and the galvanising effect the Spurs boss might have had.

'Roy's very astute and knows that it's not going to be easy taking on England,' said one friend of Hodgson's of more than 40 years' standing.

'But he has confidence in his convictions, knowing that some senior players, press or general public might not be sure about him.'
What Hodgson lacks in charisma, he will have to make up for in organisation. 'He's very persistent, and he doesn't have great variation in coaching,' added his friend. 'The practical work is to make sure the players know exactly what their job is, especially defensively. He makes sure everybody knows exactly what position they should be in when they lose possession, and also when they have possession.'

At Liverpool, such methods were portrayed as a weakness, with players  complaining about the lack of variety and the fact that they were always required to sit deep. At Fulham and West Bromwich, it has been fundamental to their relative successes.


High hopes: Hodgson was loved at Swedish side Halmstads (above)

Hodgson himself takes umbrage at the characterisation of his methods. 'It would be wrong to start suggesting that my methodology would differ from my predecessors,' he says. 'I don't think it does. Things also get exaggerated. What one player sees as a drill, others see as a coaching game.'

With Ray Lewington, his No 2 at Fulham, now appointed as an assistant, this week we will know who else is to be added to the coaching team.

Yet, caution is likely to be a watchword. Another manager acquainted with Hodgson said: 'My guess is that he'll play two holding midfielders, sit them in front of the back four and say to them, "Don't you dare move!" '

That may be to England's advantage. Glenn Hoddle says England's great failing was being outnumbered in midfield, which is why he favoured a five-man middle when he was manager. At the least, they should be solid at the Euros.

Don Howe, England No 2 to Ron Greenwood, Bobby Robson and Terry Venables, is said to have been a major influence on Hodgson. He was similarly obsessed by defensive positioning. Ironically, though, it was a man who is the antithesis of that who perhaps sparked Hodgson's coaching imagination.

'I think Roy's coaching education started with Malcolm Allison years ago,' said a friend. 'When Malcolm was at Crystal Palace in the early Seventies, Roy was a very junior coach. Malcolm was a great thinker who would talk all night about the game and come up with a real gem. Roy would take it all in.'


Mentor: Former Crystal Palace manager Malcolm Allison


Hodgson's packed diary

Saturday West Brom go to Bolton

May 13 Final WBA game, against Arsenal at the Hawthorns

May 14 Provisional date for first naming first England squad

May 21 Meet with squad at training camp in Spain

May 26 First match in charge, friendly v Norway in Copenhagen

May 29 Deadline for submitting final 23-man Euro 2012 squad

June 2 Last warm-up game, against Belgium at Wembley

June 11 England v France, Euro 2012. His first competitive game


Allison, assistant to Joe Mercer when Manchester City last won the League in 1968, was the flamboyant fedora-wearing press darling of his day.

Hodgson, son of a London bus driver who grew up in Croydon, is anything but.

However, he gives the impression of being someone who regards his ordinary background as fundamental to his outlook on life. In 2001, while coaching at Udinese, he reflected on the coarsening of public debate in football and division between managers and public.

'We're well paid, even put on pedestals - which we probably don't deserve - for doing something we love,' he said.


Right hand man: Hodgson with Ray Lewington (left) at Fulham

'But more and more we're divorced from the working world in which I started. I often get the impression that we're elevated in order to be shot at, that by earning so much we have conceded the right to normal human dignity. I'm not sure that being ludicrously criticised, often by people with very limited competence to do so, is good for you.'

That was 11 years ago. Things are likely to get an awful lot worse.

Hodgson concedes that having been asked to consider the England job last Sunday, the honour was such that he did not weigh up the pressures of the job.

'When this opportunity came, maybe I should have thought about these things,' he said. 'I'm just really delighted and pleased to have the opportunity to lead my country and do the best job I can.'

It is the honest response of a man from a generation who still regard the England job as the ultimate honour. It must be hoped that, assuming there will be some failures along the way, the thick skin will have developed sufficiently to repel the barbs and complete the task.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2140169/Roy-Hodgson-says-does-skin.html#ixzz1u44c2j98

[White Noise]

Hodgson's first job? To get the right backroom team


By Gary Neville


PUBLISHED: 23:00, 5 May 2012 | UPDATED: 23:00, 5 May 2012


No one can deny that it was a shock on Sunday night when it became clear that Roy Hodgson had been approached to be England manager. Everyone had been lured into thinking that Harry Redknapp would get the job, and that is who I would have picked as my candidate.

But once the initial surprise had gone and you examined their records, and their strengths and weaknesses side by side, it was impossible to say that Harry Redknapp's credentials were a million times better than Roy Hodgson's. They were both good candidates offering very different qualities for the job, and you can make a good case for either.

And though there has been a lot of negative reaction to the appointment of Hodgson in certain newspapers, I actually think that is going to work in his favour in rallying people behind him. When it comes to dealing with pressure, you don't get much more in club football than managing Inter Milan and Liverpool.


England expects: It's important that Roy Hodgson gets the right men behind him in his new job

People might point to his failure at Liverpool, but in terms of the intensity of the job, the importance of each result to the city and to millions of fans worldwide, it's probably the closest you could get to the England job and might have helped prepare him. Not forgetting, of course, that he already has international experience taking Switzerland to the 1994 World Cup finals and also managing Finland and the United Arab Emirates.

Despite all that, what will make the difference between the  success and failure of his time as England's manager will be the decisions he makes in the next few days. By that I mean the appointment of his team behind the team: his assistants, his captain and his media adviser.

If Hodgson fails, it won't be because of his coaching ability or tactical knowledge — those are second to none. But the England job is about much more. There are so many pressures and I've seen good men diminished by the job, becoming a shadow of their true selves, because of the demands.

Hodgson has admitted in an interview in this newspaper today that if he has a weakness, it's more likely to be in dealing with the media. That's why he needs a very strong media team behind him.

The FA already have very good Press office, who keep you abreast of everything. But if it was me, I'd want to appoint my own media  adviser to make sure there was someone watching my back all the time: someone in the Press box, someone monitoring social media and Twitter, someone watching the 24-hour news channels.

The dissection of the manager has bordered on brutality at times and outside issues often dominate. Glenn Hoddle, Sven Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello were brought down by a misjudged interview, a newspaper sting and the John Terry captaincy issue respectively. All were non-football issues. And nowadays, stories break so quickly it's vital you stay on top of them with good advice.

Maybe John Terry needed that when he issued his first apology for being sent off in the Nou Camp against Barcelona and then had to change it because it didn't convince. Or Kenny Dalglish, after he went on the attack when he was asked about the Luis Suarez snubbing Patrice Evra's handshake and claimed he hadn't seen it.


Confirmed: Hodgson has already secured his old friend from Fulham, Ray Lewington

Or Fabio Capello, when he walked into a Press conference after a 2-1 defeat by France at Wembley and was immediately bombarded with questions about breaking an agreement with Liverpool to play Steven Gerrard only for 45 minutes — a story broken by a junior member of Liverpool's fitness staff on Twitter during the game. You need to know everything. You can't allow yourself to go into any Press conference  claiming you didn't see a major incident these days.

Next he has to bring in his assistants. Terry Venables said last week that the most important decision would be the appointment of his assistant manager and coach and that those two would have to be 'not just his equal but better than him'.

He has already confirmed that Ray Lewington, his assistant at Fulham, will be one of his coaches this summer and it is fine to bring in at least one trusted lieutenant, just as Terry brought in Ted Buxton.

But I've seen England managers who have been surrounded only by mates, people who weren't experienced at international level, and it didn't work because they weren't challenged.

As well as Ted Buxton, Terry appointed Don Howe and Bryan Robson as his assistants, both very different personalities from Terry. It was the best England set-up I worked under.

Terry was flamboyant, great for the media and a good attacking coach. But Don Howe was almost a sour, technical coach with an amazing attention to defensive detail and one of the best I've dealt with.


Good team: Terry Venables recruited the right sort of individuals for his England reign


Lined up: Tony Adams has been touted

Bryan Robson was closer to the players in age and played with many of them. He was able to keep the dressing room in check and get alongside them, especially those who had been left out. In a tournament, the mood of the 12 players not playing can be as important as the 11 on the pitch.

It was a brilliant mix and it came because Terry was brave enough to appoint people he hadn't worked with before but who complemented his qualities.

Alan Shearer and Tony Adams have been mentioned as current possibilities and would have the stature of Bryan and be able to take the pressure off Hodgson at times, by speaking to the Press and communicating with the public.

Lastly, there is the captain. It has become a huge issue in recent years. While I've never thought having the armband makes a difference to your performance and I feel that the symbolic value of the role has become overblown, in this instance in the first six weeks of Hodgson's reign it could be an important decision.

He's going straight into a firefight and senior players can be a big influence. It's important he has them onside and has a representative among them he trusts who can make sure they stay supportive of the manager.

The outstanding candidate seems to be Steven Gerrard. Whoever Hodgson goes for, that player needs to be able to keep the dressing room loyal while communicating any concerns there may be from the team.

It has been a good week for English football. We have an experienced Englishman as manager with an impressive record. Now I'm hoping it will get even better, with the appointment of a team that can bring the best out of Roy Hodgson.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2140088/Gary-Neville-Roy-Hodgsons-job-To-right-backroom-team.html#ixzz1u46vRKNL

[White Noise]

http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/all/7821448/roy-of-the-readers.thtml

Roy of the readers


Michael Henderson

5 May 2012




Swapping novels with my friend the England football manager




The last time I met Roy Hodgson, at Le Café Anglais, Rowley Leigh's restaurant in Bayswater, I drew a king from the pack. I presented Roy — the West Bromwich Albion and now England manager — with Colm Tóibín's wonderful novel The Master. Roy smiled as he laid down an ace: 'Is this the one about Henry James? I'm afraid I've read it.'

Make that one-all. At a previous lunch I had given him Stefan Zweig's masterpiece, Beware of Pity, a novel so close to my Habsburg heart that I wanted him to love it, too. It is the sort of book that defines character, never mind literary taste. 'Magnificent,' he told me a few weeks later.

These are not the kind of remarks one would expect from a traditional football man, at least not in this country, where players and managers have so little interest in the wider world. There is in football an oikishness, either natural or cultivated, which suits the participants. Ignorance is so highly prized that Graeme Le Saux, a sensitive chap who played for Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea and England, was considered homosexual because he read the Guardian.

In the old days a player who stayed on at school to do A-levels was usually called 'Bamber' after Gascoigne, the presenter of University Challenge. Yet things haven't changed much. Harry Redknapp, the so-called 'people's choice' for the job Hodgson accepted this week, told Southwark Crown Court earlier this year that he couldn't spell his own name. It doesn't make him a bad man. But it does reveal quite a lot about the people who work within football. Such a character, Harry.

On the field, in the stands, even in the press box, English football rejoices in its stupidity. It is noticeable, for instance, that foreigners who play in the Premier League often speak better English than the natives. With the exception of Arsène Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson and a few others, most managers communicate by cliché. As for the pundits, an evening in front of the box or with an ear cocked to the imbecilities of Radio 5 Live can be most instructive.

Alan Hansen, employed as a summariser by the BBC on a cool £40,000 a show, appears to know only four adjectives: great, unbelievable, incredible and sensational. It is inconceivable (there's one for you, Mr Hansen) that such thin verbal gruel would be tolerated in any other sport. Mark ­Lawrenson, a colleague during Liverpool's glory days who now sits alongside Hansen on the Match of the Day sofa, bridled recently at Gary ­Lineker's use of 'sagacious'. ­Lawrenson is not, incidentally, a thicko. But he clearly feels he has to appear stupid, to avoid 'a ribbing from the lads'.

So it isn't difficult for a man like ­Hodgson, who reads books and generally takes an interest in things beyond his parish, to stand out among so many intellectual pygmies. Now that he is the manager of England, he will stand out a lot more. At 64, the oldest man to take on the job, his life will never be the same. Compared with the England manager, who wears a dartboard strapped to his chest, Saint Sebastian had it easy.

What kind of man is he? The best kind. We became pally some years ago, as ­mutual friends of that supreme football journalist Brian Glanville and his heir Patrick ­Barclay, and it was apparent straight away that he knows why God granted us two ears but only one tongue. He takes an interest in other people, expresses himself clearly and has a curiosity that has nothing to do with intellectual window-dressing. Rather, he has the human instinct to want to know a bit more about the world, which used to be highly prized.

He is a small-p patriot, born in ­Croydon among the old-fashioned working class, whose values, broadly speaking, he shares. No flag-waver he, nor royalist. England means more to him than kings and queens. Having spent much of the past four decades working in Europe, where he learned to speak four languages, one might expect no less. But, despite his travels, and a broadening of horizons, there is something of ­Housman's Wenlock Edge about him — 'the blood that warms an English yeoman'.

He was once described, memorably, as looking like a 1950s bus driver. Certainly he is the kind of chap who popped up in Ealing comedies, sitting in the pub next to Stanley Holloway, nursing half a mild, joining in the laughter. When he was appointed manager of Fulham four years ago, it seemed appropriate. After all, Craven Cottage is only a hop, skip and jump from Pimlico; no passport required.

He achieved wonders at Fulham, keeping them in the Premier League when they seemed doomed, eventually taking them to within a kick of winning the Europa League before losing a final to Atlético Madrid. He has done very well with the Albion, another middle-ranking Premier League club, but in between jobs he endured a wounding six months at Liverpool, where restless fans and a hostile local media gave him a drubbing. As he might admit, he was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Scousers are lovable, aren't they? Always ready to give a chap a hand.

Now he is where he could so easily have been many years ago, had the Football Association taken a long-term view of what the game needed instead of shelling out the better part of £40 ­million to foreign coaches, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, who were fine club managers who understood too little about English football. It won't help Hodgson in his quest to improve the national team's fortunes that he reads Ivan Klima and Philip Roth, but it will make the journey so much more interesting.

Last month I told him that, at long last, I had embarked on one of his favourite books, The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Skvorecky. But, I had to confess, there was a lot going on! Too much, perhaps. 'Persevere, Michael,' came the response. It is advice he has taken himself throughout a long career in football, and now, as the figurehead of the game in England, he stands at the summit. This modest, thoughtful man deserves our support, whether we watch football or not. His is a triumph for the quiet virtues of patience, resilience and dignity.

[White Noise]

Great new blog -

http://thedaysofroy.wordpress.com/

[VicHalomsLovechild]

I'd add Beckham to the team. Media love him.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/wswf

[White Noise]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/allanmassie/100062941/why-does-it-surprise-us-that-roy-hodgson-is-a-cultured-man/

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/profile