Don’t write off old Roy

By Alan Green - Monday, March 22, 2010

OPPORTUNITIES to focus attention on matters away from the most glamorous clubs and the biggest competitions come along all too rarely, so they must be grasped.

I want to talk about Fulham and Roy Hodgson.

Was there a more impressive result anywhere this week than the 4-1 thrashing of former European Champions Juventus at Craven Cottage? I am ashamed to admit I only watched the game afterwards since I hadn’t given Fulham the slightest hope of going through, particularly since they were missing key players like Danny Murphy and Jonathan Greening. Great to be wrong, isn’t it?

I saw them the other Sunday at Old Trafford and, though they were beaten, they looked a really good unit: players who knew where they should be and what they should be trying to do in any given situation. Yet, bluntly, they’re all of ‘middle-of-the-range’ calibre. It’s Hodgson that’s turned Fulham into a top-10 club.

And, for the first time in the club’s history, they have a serious chance of winning a major title. The draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Europa League gives them a great opportunity to reach the final. And, before that, they face an injury-hit Spurs on Wednesday night in a FA Cup replay. Win at White Hart Lane and only Portsmouth stand in the way of the final.

Hodgson’s aged 62 and has always been underrated in English football: not so elsewhere. He’s led clubs to league titles in Sweden and Denmark. He’s had spells in Italy, taking Inter Milan to third place in Serie A and to a UEFA Cup final lost only on penalties. And he led Switzerland to qualification for the 1994 World Cup. Hodgson’s no mug.

Indeed, while the FA continued to ignore his obvious qualifications and chose to appoint Kevin Keegan and later Sven Goran Eriksson to the England job, Hodgson was sounded out by Germany as a successor to Bertie Vogts before they chickened out and decided that the national job couldn’t/shouldn’t be done by a foreigner. England have had no such reservations and, obviously, they never really thought properly about Hodgson.

Too much, I think, was made of a short and unsuccessful spell he had at Blackburn in the late 1990s when Rovers, having been champions under Kenny Dalglish, were on the wane. There was less of Jack Walker’s money around, and what there was, delivered far less.

The irony is that Hodgson excels on scant resources. Only Burnley’s squad is less expensive than Fulham’s. Yet Hodgson is such a great coach, he squeezes every ounce of quality from the players. He’s turned And what if it all goes belly-up for Fabio Capello in South Africa? What if the media sides with a gullible public and talk up England’s chances and then they flop? Will Capello be ditched or might he decide he has at least another big job in his locker (Italy) before he spends some of his wealth on retirement?

Would Hodgson be too old? Of course not. Might he be seen as the only obvious ‘English’ choice after the experimentation with foreigners?

Another thought: clearly, Rafa Benitez’ future at Anfield is uncertain. Last week I wrote about the difficulties of attracting another quality manager if there wasn’t substantial money available. The more I think about Hodgson, the more he could come into that particular equation, albeit from ‘left field’.

* Alan Green is chief football commenator with BBC Radio 5 Live