Roy Hodgson on being Crystal Palace manager: ‘It’s a sadistic pleasure being a football boss… the suffering never stops’
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson reveals the pressures behind the scenes and how it never gets easier regardless of experience.
ROY HODGSON never tires of the matchday routine.
The smell of liniment in the dressing rooms, the final words of advice to his players, the bell that rings just before kick-off.
Hodgson is the man who could not keep away.
The Crystal Palace manager admitted: “To some extent it is a sadistic pleasure. The suffering never stops, that’s the problem.
“If you are Pep Guardiola then you can turn down 90 per cent of jobs you are offered, but there aren’t many people in football who are like that.
“For most of us we do it because we think we can be good at it, we enjoy doing it and think we have something to offer.
“Young coaches ask me if it get easier. Can I relax more during games? Can I take it all a little bit more philosophically and put it in perspective?
“The tragedy is that I have to tell them: ‘No. If anything, it gets worse’.”
Hodgson speaks from experience.
He was shelled like a pea when he was the country’s head coach, quitting the most prestigious job in English football after that defeat against Iceland.
Hodgson, looking remarkably well and relaxed for a man of 70, has no wish to revisit England’s darkest hour.
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Enough has been said, enough has been written. Even Roy deserves a rest from it.
Hodgson is Palace manager now, steering them clear of the bottom three after replacing Frank de Boer just four games into the season.
He has done a remarkable job.
Hodgson added: “I don’t know if the squad really needed much. It certainly did not need energising or to be made more enthusiastic.
“We didn’t hear anyone saying: 'What the hell are we doing this for?'
“They were basically ready – ‘ok, you’re the new manager, what do you want us to do? What are your ideas? We’ll have a go at it. We are with you’.”
They certainly are.
Ahead of today’s clash at Arsenal they are 12th, squirrelling their way towards safety after a remarkable upturn in results.
Hodgson knows what he wants, comparing the game to the movement and poise of ballerinas - just don’t expect to see Damien Delaney or Wilfried Zaha dressed in red and blue tutus any time soon.
Hodgson added: “I like the artistry. I still get a lot of pleasure watching the good quality teams play, where the movement of the players is co-ordinated.
“It’s almost ballet-like, although ballet-like is a bit of an exaggeration, but I like seeing those movements and the fact that there is so much interaction in a football match.
“I also enjoy the other aspect – the pressing aspect and how people work so hard to recover the ball, support each other, work with each other. That’s something I have always enjoyed.”
He has been watching a master at work, looking on as Pep Guardiola assembles his dream team up at Manchester City.
Palace nearly beat them on New Year’s Eve, sparing the league leaders when Luka Milivojevic missed a last minute penalty at Selhurst Park.
A 0-0 draw is still regarded as a very important result.
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Hodgson has been impressed with Pep’s impact, but doubts whether his style would have worked in another era of English football.
He added: “There is no way Pep could have played the football he wanted to play in George Best’s time because of the pitches - it wasn’t possible.
“The training fields back then were a mud heap and if you were lucky your first team pitch was given the go ahead to start a game.
“Now you look for players with good control, good technique, he won’t lose the ball - but you could not have done in that in the old days whether you were Klopp, Pep, or whoever.”
Hodgson is very much his own man.
He is loving life at Palace, given freedom to work with his squad and to mould them into a seasoned Premier League outfit.
Hodgson enjoys the trust from the board to do the job in hand.
He added: “The owners have got the right ideas and desires.
“I think that is a relatively modest ambition. When you talk about enthusiasm and energy, I work with two people closely one is the sporting director Dougie Freedman and the other is Steve
Parish.
“I don’t think there can be too many clubs out there who have got more energy, enthusiasm, or desire than that group of people.
“The only thing we are lacking is making certain we have the 11 players who can deliver what they want, which is total stability in the Premier League where you are not looking over your shoulder every year wondering ‘are we in, or are we out?’.
With Hodgson around, they are most definitely in.