From the Albion to England

Well, they didn’t say which manager they were going to pick.  If everyone thought it would be Harry Redknapp, more fool them.  Woy Hodgson was always part of the selection process as was Arséne Wenger, not just Redknapp and the latter not landing the job has led to red faces amongst sports journalists (and bookies), probably accounting for some of the vitriol towards Hodgson, much as royal correspondents were (temporarily) humiliated after saying Prince William and Kate Middleton were a certainty to get married, only for Wills to dump his ultimately future bride for a few weeks.  The FA were spot-on, not revealing their hand to avoid providing a distraction to the squad of the victorious manager and West Bromwich Albion have achieved Premier League safety.  If Spurs have collapsed, what is that to the FA?

Everyone has had so much to say about the appointment that I am only mentioning the salient points that I haven’t read or heard yet.  Hodgson teams tend to be organised and hard to break down and England will probably grind their way to a quarter-finals at both the Euros and the World Cup before going out on penalties.  It is said that the FA were taking the long view, that Hodgson will oversee a unifying process in English football trying to at least continental expertise at all levels of the game.  But that wasn’t a long view back.  England haven’t won a major tournament in 46 years and if they were to go down, at least England should be entertaining and Redknapp’s buccaneering style would have given us that.

With what I take issue is the saying that Hodgson can’t handle the pressure of a big club because of his tenure at Liverpool.  Inter Milan are hardly European minnows though and he did all right with them, taking Inter to a UEFA Cup final (which they should have won), as he did with Fulham. 

Crucially, over Redknapp he actually has tournament experience with Switzerland (who, incredibly, he guided at one point to third best national team in the world) and the United Arab Emirates.  That is invaluable.

Plus he was free in securing his services, something not to be overlooked in these thrifty times and it was from a club with (a form of) England in their title.  So that he was at a mid-table side and he tended to find relative success at such kinds of clubs; England are no more than the equivalent of that in international football.