31 years in management, comprising of 15 clubs in 8 different countries, gives Roy Hodgson credentials that even Sir Alex Ferguson admires. It’s this wealth of experience that Hodgson will draw upon as he fights to maintain Fulham’s Premier League status. Roy Hodgson has been speaking to Sue McCann.
Let’s face it, Premier League management positions only seem to become available these days when teams are struggling; how are you finding the task that you have taken on at Fulham?
“The task is going quite well. The players are responding very well and we are working very hard on the way we want to play. Everyone around the club certainly seems to think it is going better but of course the results have not been good. We’ve played a lot of the top teams and not been able to beat them and basically it’s about results. It’s very difficult to say things are going well when the team isn’t getting points and we are still very much in the relegation battle as we were when I came.”
You personally still exude a lot of belief that you can maintain Premier League status. That’s important isn’t it because players will look to you for signs of how you are reacting to the situation?
“Oh yes. I think the players feel a little bit hard done by in certain games. We’re not having the best of luck at the moment either which of course often happens when you are near the bottom of the table. However, the players still believe they have the ability to get out of it and I certainly believe that they have. We can only hope that when we play some of the teams in the bottom half of the table, with whom we are fighting to avoid relegation, we will get the rewards that maybe we could already have had against the better teams.”
You are Fulham’s 3rd manager in less than 12 months; how crucial is it for Fulham to have stability in that area and to get some continuity of management?
“Well of course I am speaking from a position where I have a vested interest I suppose. I must say that I do believe that a lot of clubs would benefit from deciding who they want to manage their club and then giving that person a bit of time to stamp his mark on the club. Often when you come into a club where the team are struggling, the owners really are looking for someone with a magic wand who is going to change something over night and make what has been a very bad situation into a good one. In reality of course that never works, in reality it takes time. In some cases the manager may have inherited players that don’t suit his style of play and you can’t change everything over night. So you need that time to get the players that you think are the right ones for you and to work with them. If I was an owner of a club or a president of a club I would like to think that I would have some sort of sympathy for a manager’s strife. “
Are there any discernable changes In the Premier League since your last stint in it as Blackburn manager?
“Well I think the changes are those subtle ones which take place all of the time. The Premier League gets richer and richer and more and more powerful and the commercial interests and the amount of money generated by the game is increasing all of the time as well. As a result, the pressure is on managers and players and increasing all of the time. The amount of money is very big and the rewards for success or the penalties for failure are also very important in financial terms. That is the subtle change that has been taking place all of the time and the more money there is the more that is going to be the case.”
You were at Manchester United v Lyon on Tuesday night in a UEFA Capacity. Tell us about this role that you have with UEFA, because it is reflective of the skills and knowledge that you have in world football and that can only be a plus for Fulham....
“Andy Roxburgh is the Technical Director of UEFA and his task at the end of each Champions League is to produce a report. It’s a report that is put together from a technical and tactical point of view that will hopefully give coaches an idea of any trends in the game and the way things are heading. Not least of all, it reflects the way the Champions League teams that reach the final stages try to play. Andy Roxburgh uses people like me and Gerard Houllier who have got some experience in the game. He gives us the task of going to the game and giving him a technical report on the styles of the two teams; what they are good at and basically why they have got to where they are. So it’s a watching brief; you watch the game and use your experience and power of observation to help him put the report together because he can’t see every team himself.”
Let’s stay on the subject of technical and tactical. England’s General manager Franco Baldini has suggested that England need to try and play more with the ball and that the English culture after two or three passes is to hit the ball long; you’ve managed at the top level in Italy and England so is that a fair assessment?
“No, I don’t think that is relevant at all as far as the Premier League is concerned. The Premier League is one of the top European leagues being played on English soil, that’s what it is. Manchester United for example are anything other than a ‘typical’ English long ball team. United are very skilful, full of movement, full of players who can either run with the ball or select passes and have fantastic ball control. Potentially there are four English teams in the last 8 of the Champions League which dispels the view of ‘typical’ English football. These sorts of myths are going to be hard to shake off just as it will be hard for Italy to ever shake off the myth of ten men behind the ball etc.”
|
