The ‘don’ type figure has managed all over Europe, Finland, Norway and Switzerland and, of course England. Achieving success in the land of Scandinavia and even going onto manage the Finnish national team, meant that Hodgson restored his reputation as a manager, after a pretty unsuccessful spell at Blackburn Rovers.
It was with this restored faith, that he landed the Fulham job in 2007, then going onto become a household name. keeping Fulham up in the first season was a massive achievement, and the following season, getting Fulham into seventh place and European qualification, it seemed his European adventures had done him, and Fulham, the world of good.
Many thought Fulham were there to just make up the numbers in Europe, but a shock run saw them reach to the final, knocking out holders Shakhtar, Italian champions Juventus and even German champions Wolfsburg. That’s quite a route to the final, even though they were eventually overcome in the final by Atletico Madrid, Hodgson was regarded as one of the best English managers around, backed up by the fact he was awarded the LMA manger of the year award by a landslide.
All seemed like it couldn’t be any better for the cockney manager, he had put himself and Fulham back on the proverbial map, but Fulham are a small team, and when the big teams came knocking on his door, the problems started.
That big club just happened to be Liverpool, looking to Hodgson to be their saviour, end their demise and somehow try and catch up to rivals Man United once again.
The jury was out on Hodgson straight away, plenty of people questioned whether his profile was high enough for Liverpool, was he a mid-table manager that had somehow been incredibly lucky to land a job that’s way out of his depth? This was Hodgson’s time to shine, to prove he can mix it with the best around and handle the pressures of being a manager of a huge team such as Liverpool.
After an initial good start to his reign, form was soon lost, games were lost and so was his job at Liverpool. His time in charge, just 31 games, is the shortest managerial spell in Liverpool’s history.
On paper, it seems the question has been answered, Hodgson simply is a mid-table manager who can come in and ‘steady the ship’ as it were and was way out of his league with Liverpool, but is this a fair reflection of his ability. It’s nearly impossible for even the most hardened Liverpool fan to argue that the squad he had inherited was anywhere near good enough to genuinely challenge for the title, or anything for that matter, the board were in turmoil and a certain Fernando Torres was not performing for reasons that are still quite unclear.
All things considered, would even managerial heavyweights, like Sir Alex or Mourinhio, been able to have taken Liverpool any further than Hodgson? That’s a question that is all down to personal opinion, but the facts remain, the then reigning manager of the year, did not get the results, no-one gets sacked for no reason whatsoever.
So now Roy finds himself in the west midlands, managing West Bromwich Albion, which his task, once again, to keep them up and ‘steady the ship’, and with all due respect, the Baggies are not exactly heavyweights in the game.
Will Hodgson ever get a chance at another high profile club, or will he forever managing clubs similar to Albion’s stature? Well that depends, it would be a huge gamble to appoint Hodgson if champions league qualification is the absolute minimum requirement, that’s for sure, if it does ever happen, Hodgson must make sure it pays off, that would certainly be his last chance to get rid of this ‘steady eddie’ tag, whether this happens for him or not, only the future will tell.
Chris Plant