Roy Hodgson’s England appointment came as a surprise to many earlier this year, but was largely greeted with positivity. Almost six months in to the position, the negatives have far outweighed the positives. On field issues, off field issues and on the Tube issues have marred Hodgson’s management of the national side, prompting many to question his judgement on far more than one occasion.
Hodgson assumed the role as England manager in early May of this year. He was immediately thrown in at the deep end, tasked with taking England to the European Championships on the back of two friendlies. But disappointing results and even worse performances delivered a premature ending to the campaign. His England side looked, jaded and sloppy as well as severely lacking finesse.
But as stated above this wasn’t completely his fault, a dangerous waiting game by the Football Association and injuries didn’t help his case, as well as off the field issues inherited from his predecessor Fabio Capello all contributed to poor performances. But since then Hodgson has had three more games and three more squad choices to restore public faith in him, but a fluke victory, a miserable home draw, a beating of a much lesser opposition and three stubborn squads haven’t gone any where near achieving that.
Let’s dive straight into one of his more notorious squad selection issues; the curious case of Rio Ferdinand. The media it clear that Ferdinand and John Terry could not be in the same squad following the start of the Terry racism saga. Who did Hodgson choose? John Terry of course, a queer decision in hindsight. His scapegoat on this matter was a meddling Scotsman, the master of mind games, who goes by the name of Sir Alex Ferguson. But now that Ferdinand looks like he’s hit full fitness and Terry has retired from International football, the way looked paved for his return, but for a seemingly unexplainable reason it isn’t.
Staying with the Rio Ferdinand issues, Roy Hodgson has become a victim of his own naivety with help from the London Underground. The 65 year-old, revealed to a fan whilst travelling to the Arsenal, Olympiacos match on the Tube his selection plans. Hodgson admits telling a fan that he ‘didn’t think that Ferdinand would be in the squad’, a statement on the border line of rude, naive and plain-right stupid. This is yet another example of Hodgson having ‘cocked it up’.
But the fact that Hodgson continually overlooks players of high quality is most concerning. It’s no better than any odd 9 year-old’s feeble attempt at football manager. He has displayed on three separate occasions a dangerous crave for big name players, and has neglected players of mid table or lower teams. Grant Holt was the second highest English goalscorer behind Wayne Rooney last season, in addition to being the club captain of Norwich, but was he given a fair chance? No. Peter Crouch has an amazing record for England averaging a goal every 1.9 games, he was also named player of the year at Stoke last season, so has he been given a fair chance? You guessed it, no.
Roy Hodgson faces two fresh challenges, beginning today. Nothing less than a demolition job can be classed as adequate against World number 207 side San Marino, a team currently experiencing their worst ever form. But Hodgson’s real test will come against Poland, who looked good at times during EURO 2012. A side that boast the likes of Tomas Rosicky and Robert Lewandowski, will be hard to beat. If Hodgson fails to take six points, one does wonder how many fans he’ll have left.
There’s no doubting that Roy’s a nice bloke. But is he England manager material? Take a guess…
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