The public and press seemed to want Harry Redknapp. Others may have leaned toward retaining interim man Stuart Pearce.
But the England FA made it official today, announcing Roy Hodgson as the next man in line to guide England’s national team – a ridiculously tough job, surely among the globe’s thorniest due to tremendous expectations and to nearly unmanageable political and cultural undertow.
Reactions? You bet, careening around the country from Brighton to Blackpool and all points in between.
The Telegraph’s Henry Winter says Hodgson’s hiring embodies a “shift in English thinking, a desire on the FA’s part to push for an age of enlightenment.”
Say Winter: “English football needs to open its eyes and open its books. Debates in English football often centre around personality rather than policy, stars not strategy.”
The Guardian’s Dominic Fifield says Hodgson’s experience will serve him well in this position.
In the West Bromwich Albion head coach, they had a contender with 36 years spent directing from the dug-out, his vast experience gleaned with 15 clubs and three national associations over spells spent in eight different countries. His reputation at home may have been tarnished by a traumatic 191-day spell with Liverpool but those on the outside looking in have been baffled it has taken this long to acknowledge his qualities.
Meanwhile, The Mail’s Martin Samuel isn’t so enamored with the choice. He took England’s FA to task for Tuesday’s appointment.
My thoughts? It doesn’t matter whom the FA selected. The job, as I mentioned, is impossible. I’ll have more on that later.
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- footballer4ever - May 1, 2012 at 12:22 PM
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In general, the popular choice tends not to be the best decision. I’m not much savvy about the English football national team, but one thing i know is that they need to add new football philosophy and skills to their already existing arsenal in order to compete successfully in an international level (WC). Having said that, whomever gets hired in the end will sure need divine intervention.
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- hjworton46 - May 1, 2012 at 12:49 PM
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The only way he’ll see out his 4 year contract is if the FA can’t raise the cash to pay someone better than Hodgson. Personally I like him but it has the feeling of another Maclaren or Keegan appointment to me.
England are incapable of playing with any other philosophy or with more skill. It’s our way or the highway, it’ll always be thus.
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- footballer4ever - May 1, 2012 at 1:21 PM
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Sure England is capable of it, but what seems incapable is of letting the stubborn thinking of change. We all acknowledge England invented and exported football to the entire world, but other countries have perfected it, so the question is: why does England seem not to want evolve in football?
