Crystal Palace’s manager has enjoyed extraordinary longevity – but if these are the final months of an impressive coaching career, how should he be remembered?The whole dynamic of the game was Brighton attacking. Everything was about whether they could find the goal they so clearly deserved. When Christian Benteke then volleyed a winner for Crystal Palace, it felt so implausible it was impossible not to pause. It didn’t feel right: was that allowed? Had the whistle already gone? On the touchline, a huge grin broke across Roy Hodgson’s face, he gave a little skip, and he turned instinctively to hug Ray Lewington.These are the best wins, particularly in a derby: stolen against all odds, against all justice. Analysis and fretting...
It is a little amazing that weary scepticism was the general reaction to Hodgson’s appointment last September as Palace’s 11th manager in 10 years“When he came, we were in trouble and things appeared dark. He didn’t panic. He was calm and he made us calm. Disaster was averted at the most important time. He saved us.”The way things are going, that is what Steve Parish, the chairman of Crystal Palace, may be saying about Roy Hodgson at the end of the season. In fact they were the words Hodgson heard in the summer of 1997, when he ended a two-year stay at Internazionale. The Italian club’s owner, Massimo Moratti, was summarising the Englishman’s effect on a perennially dysfunctional club which...
The ‘freedom’ at the foot of the Premier League and also in the forward’s own role help to ensure Chelsea never came close to deciphering Roy Hodgson’s planTimid, listless and toothless in their first seven matches; vibrant, inspired and potent against the Premier League champions. The contrast was so ridiculous, the logic so dubious, that the only reasonable explanation for Crystal Palace’s stunning 2-1 victory over Chelsea at a delirious Selhurst Park was the one offered up by Wilfried Zaha. “After you’ve lost every game you have nothing to be scared of really,” he said. “You are not scared of anything. You just play with freedom.”Before anyone assumes otherwise, Zaha was not recommending a morale-sapping losing streak as the perfect...
The recent appointments of 70-somethings Jupp Heynckes and Roy Hodgson and the rising average age of Premier League managers signify a shift in attitudesJupp Heynckes was formally introduced as Bayern Munich’s interim manager on Monday, declaring that despite having retired four years ago he was “looking forward to the challenge” of leading the club through the remainder of the season, which will conclude a few days after his 73rd birthday. “Critics say I’ve been out of the game for four years but football’s not been reinvented,” said Heynckes, who will take charge of the team for the first time against Freiburg on Saturday. “Age is a number and nothing more. Some feel old at 45 but I’ve not changed. I...
The former England manager, now 70, will be desperate to erase memories of Euro 2016 and will look to imitate the simpler days of West Brom and FulhamWelcome back, then, Roy. And rejoice Croydon, for he has returned. The news that Crystal Palace will turn to Roy Hodgson to replace the departed Frank de Boer is perhaps unsurprising given the background noises of the past few months. For all that there will still be a tendency to roll the eyes, to mock the sudden shift in footballing direction – from the Ajax Way to Purley Way – and to point out that Hodgson is 70 and hasn’t had a club job in five years.This is undoubtedly a little unfair. In...