Roy Hodgson’s return to Crystal Palace rivals Wayne Rooney’s to Everton and provides chance to end career on a high note
Former England boss will be defined by many for the shambles against Iceland but he is desperate for one more go at success
SO after the most brutal downfall in the history of the England job — and that is saying something — Roy Hodgson becomes the oldest ever Premier League managerial appointee.
During his 15 months in the wilderness since England’s humiliating Euro 2016 exit, those close to Hodgson say he has been haunted by five words spoken during the post-mortem press conference.
“Iceland is not your epitaph,” said FA chief executive Martin Glenn in a ham-fisted attempt at kindness which caused Hodgson to shudder.
The magnitude of the England job means Iceland will define Hodgson in the minds of many.
But Crystal Palace represents the chance to add a positive footnote and, despite his caricature as a bumbling, old-school gent, Hodgson does not lack ego.
The 70-year-old has been desperate to restore lustre to his reputation and has always had an eye on Palace — for a return which rivals his former captain Wayne Rooney’s move back to Everton.
Hodgson was six when his father, a Croydon bus driver, first took him to Selhurst Park, in the year of the Queen’s coronation, with Palace consistently one of the worst teams in the Third Division South.
Now, more than half a century after he left Selhurst as a failed apprentice and embarked on a globetrotting odyssey, Hodgson will manage his boyhood club in the world’s richest league.
It is a strangely insular club, Palace. They still speak of ‘going foreign’ when appointing an overseas manager — as if it is still an outlandish gamble to do what the vast majority of the Premier League have done for years.
And they are clearly uncomfortable when dipping their toes in the ocean.
Frank de Boer, an Ajax-bred coach, was given four league games to transform a Sam Allardyce team.
Palace’s only previous foreign boss, Attilio Lombardo, lasted seven games.
Comfortingly, Hodgson — for all his linguistic skills and a taste in literature which extends far beyond the old Rothmans Yearbook — is Croydon through and through.
Should Palace be recruiting anything like the Hodgson who was an outstanding manager of similar-sized clubs at Fulham and West Brom, they will soar into mid-table and beyond.
But that was a Hodgson with an uncommon clarity of thought and an absolute belief in his own system of play. The Hodgson of last summer was very different.
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Some will tell you the enormity of the job sent him half-mad, some say he appeared starstruck by Rooney, that he was too in hock to his captain’s agent Paul Stretford or that he listened far too much to coach Gary Neville.
He was certainly no longer the purposeful manager who sold Fulham fans’ favourite and creative talent Jimmy Bullard, then led an eccentric little club to a European final.
Nor the same man who transformed West Brom from a yo-yo outfit into the kings of the Midlands.
Having overseen England’s 3-2 friendly win over Germany in Berlin, with Rooney out injured, he privately resolved not to start his skipper at the Euros — but ended up crowbarring him into midfield.
Then came the uncharacteristic decision to rest half his team for the final group game against Slovakia — and more muddled thinking while the Iceland nightmare played out in horror-movie slo-mo.
Some who know Hodgson speak of a deep, year-long ‘trauma’ since then. Others say he’s been merely determined to get back.
Either way, this is a historic challenge for a grand old man of English football, seeking out a more fitting epitaph.
A Sad-io state of affairs
THERE is no doubt that, by the letter of the current law, Jon Moss was correct to send off Sadio Mane for his challenge on Ederson — because he clearly ‘endangered the safety of an opponent’.
You can see that by the scars on the face of Manchester City’s brilliant new keeper.
The FA yesterday announced it had rejected his appeal of excessive punishment over a three-match ban.
But you don’t have to be a caveman who glorifies the old days of legalised on-field violence to think the law is wrong.
Unlike in criminal law, the notion of ‘intent’ has been removed — and while intent can be difficult to prove, it can sometimes be easy.
In this case, nobody has claimed Liverpool’s Mane was intending anything other than trying to win the ball.
Ederson was badly injured but serious injuries can happen by accident in a contact sport.
The vast majority of ex-players do not think it was a red card. Likewise many paying punters who’ve seen too many games tarnished by early dismissals.
So we don’t have to romanticise a time when you had to attack a rival with a machete to earn a booking.
We can just prefer the era when a sending-off was genuinely seen as a last resort.
Hard to x-plain
HAVE you spotted this season’s new Opta stat called ‘expected goals’?
It tells us that while the result was Burnley 1 Crystal Palace 0, the score *ought* to have been Burnley 0 Palace 2.
Opta say: “Expected Goals (xG) is a metric that quantitatively measures chance quality.
“Watching a game we can intuitively tell good chances from bad chances based on a variety of factors: how close was the shooter to goal? Was it from a good angle? Was it a one-on-one? Was it a header?
“xG takes these factors — and others — into account and calculates how likely it is that a particular shot will be scored.
Alternatively, ‘expected goals’ is proof that there are people on the internet with far too much time on their hands.
Jimmy is the best bar none
BACK in May, I interviewed an injured Jimmy Anderson in a Cheshire hotel bar and asked whether this winter’s Ashes might represent his last hurrah.
Approaching his 35th birthday, this felt like a reasonable question.
But Anderson reacted as if I had just smeared the hotel walls with excrement.
Since then, the great England swing-bowling craftsman has passed 500 Test wickets, won the Man of the Series award against West Indies, claimed his best-ever Test figures of 7-42 and regained the mantle of No 1 Test bowler on the planet.
Turns out it was a silly question after all.
Mark of a man
AS Mark Hughes noted in post-match television interviews on Saturday after the draw with Manchester United, he has been involved in far too many ‘handshake-gates’ with rival bosses.
Yet the Stoke City manager does seem able to calm down and swiftly recognise his own silliness.
Jose Mourinho, not so much.
Face the facts
ASTON VILLA owner Tony Xia reacted to a goalless draw against Brentford by tweeting emoticons of a frowning face, an embarrassed face and an angry face.
The Football League reckon they have improved their fit and proper person’s test. Maybe they should extend it to discover if potential owners are more grown up than the average CBeebies viewer?
LISTENING to Sam Allardyce blowing an entire concerto on his own trumpet during Sky’s West Ham v Huddersfield coverage, it was interesting to count up how many of the Hammers fans I know (and I work on Fleet Street so I know thousands) who have observed their club’s recent struggles under Slaven Bilic and said, ‘What we need is Big Sam back, so that we can boo some of our victories as well’.
That’s right, none of them.
THE FA fear that Russian hackers could target England’s World Cup plans next summer.
Shucks, do you think they will unearth all our historical databases which map out the secrets for tournament success?
