The Times - UK (2022-01-26)

64 Wednesday January 26 2022 | the times

SportFootball

These were his words to

Lewington before meeting the England

squad for the first time on May 23, 2012.

Hodgson is a pragmatist. He is digni-

fied, but the emotion is there, a river

coursing through him. Shortly after the

Paris attacks of 2015, England hosted

France at Wembley and Hodgson won

many friends among Les Bleus with his

respectful welcome, including emo-

tionally embracing Didier Deschamps,

his French counterpart. He spoke in

French, offered his condolences and

stood shoulder to shoulder with

grieving neighbours. He has a strong

moral compass.

He is big on etiquette, too, shepherd-

ing a famous player around England’s

Chantilly hotel at Euro 2016, and

politely introducing him to each staff

member as “my captain, Wayne

Rooney”. Manners matter to Hodgson.

One memorable sweary rant as Palace

manager in 2018, dropping the F-bomb

on Match of the Day, was the exception

that proved the Debrett’s rule.

Hodgson is too civilised to bear

grudges, which is good news for Harry

the Hornet, who was branded a

“disgrace” by the visiting Palace

manager for diving in front of Wilfried

Zaha in 2018. Hodgson also greets with

a smile those England reporters who

berated his work up the Amazon and

down the Riviera. There remains a

feeling within him that he should be

more appreciated for his career.

So the instinctive reaction to the

sight of Hodgson driving into Colney

with Lewington is to wish him well,

especially as Watford players are so

used to managers appointed on short-

term contracts that the sands already

shift under the new arrival.

Watford, the club of Graham Taylor,

had a reputation for giving managers a

springboard, but now it’s as if they’re

walking the plank from day one. The

Pozzos have to end this cycle, this belief

that they can make Watford a budget

Chelsea. No chance. At some point they

have to give managers longer than the

Watford gap year.

Maybe Hodgson can advise his

employers on the way ahead, even

mentoring a young successor. First,

though, he has some firefighting to do.

Watford are 19th with 14 points from 20

games. Even the most cursory glance at

their fixture list reveals the daunting

challenge facing Hodgson and Lewing-

ton. Four of Watford’s next five games

are away to Burnley, West Ham United,

Aston Villa and Manchester United,

with only the relative respite of a visit

from Graham Potter’s in-form

Brighton & Hove Albion. Turf Moor is

key for acquiring vital points, setting a

new mood and damaging a relegation

rival. Five points must be the minimum

targeted return.

Watford then face four home games

in six against Arsenal, Everton, Leeds

United and Brentford, interspersed

with trips to Southampton and Liver-

pool. They absolutely have to take some

home comforts there, a minimum of

seven points. The five-game home

straight looks more of an assault

course. Away trips are Manchester City,

Hodgson’s old Palace lair and a final-

day challenge at Chelsea. Watford must

gain something from the home games

with Burnley and Leicester City. Four

points? It’s tight. That would leave Wat-

ford on 30 points. In the past five

seasons in the Premier League, survival

was guaranteed with point tallies of 35,

34, 35, 35 and 29 last term. Hodgson will

need all his experience and deep

passion for the game to win this dog-

fight but his football love is the drug.

He may be 74, but he is

perfect for rescue mission

22 jobs across eight countries over 47 years: Hodgson’s jobs as manager

1997-98, Blackburn

Age 49

2010-11, Liverpool

Age 62

2004-05, Viking

Age 56

2011-12, West Brom

Age 63

2017-21, Crystal Palace

Age 70

2007-10, Fulham

Age 60

2006-07, Finland

national team

Age 58

2002-04, UAE

national team

Age 54

1985-90, Malmo

Age 37

1982, Bristol City

Age 34

2012-16, England

national team

Age 64

1995-97, Inter Milan

Age 48

1999, Inter Milan

(caretaker)

Age 51

2022-, Watford

Age 74

2000-01, Copenhagen

Age 52

1999-2000,

Grasshoppers

Age 51

1992-95, Switzerland

national team

Age 44

1975-80, Halmstads

Age 28

1982, Oddevold

Age 34

1990-92, Neuchatel Xamax

Age 42

1983-84, Orebro

Age 35

2001, Udinese

Age 53

Job number 1

2

3

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

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Henry Winter

Chief Football

Writer

Hodgson takes 22nd job

Watford manager, Ray Lewington. This

will be Hodgson’s 22nd job in manage-

ment in a career that spans 45 years and

the second time he has worked for the

Pozzo family, having also been

employed by them during a brief spell

at Udinese.

When he replaced Frank de Boer at

Palace in 2017 the club were 19th in the

league, with four defeats and no goals.

That season Palace finished 11th.

sides to extend it into next season.

Staying up would earn him a seven-

figure bonus.

Hodgson, who proved a success at his

previous club, Crystal Palace, was intro-

duced to the Watford players yesterday

after arriving at the club’s London Col-

ney training ground. Joining him there

was his trusted deputy, and a former

continued from back

“Football’s a drug that gets in your veins
and stays there.” Anyone who has
encountered Roy Hodgson down the
decades, and listened to his eloquent
evocation of the power of football in his
life, will understand why he couldn’t
just atrophy and gather moss in
retirement but had to get back out on
the field.
Those who mockingly and unfairly
dismiss Watford as the antiques road-
show, the 74-year-old Hodgson
succeeding the 70-year-old Claudio
Ranieri, ignore the new man’s appetite
for working with players, particularly
when assisted by the evergreen Ray
Lewington. “You can’t tear up your
birth certificate but it’s how you feel,”
Hodgson always says. He feels well,
spending time in the gym below his flat
in Richmond, London, and most
significantly retaining that passion for
the game.
He could spend his time rereading his
favourite books, Sebastian Faulks’s
Birdsong, John Fowles’s The Magus and
John Updike’s Rabbit, Run. He could go
off travelling with his wife, Sheila,
visiting their son, Christopher, in
Miami, or enjoy a good meal and good
times with their close friends Delia
Smith and Michael Wynne Jones, the
guardians of Norwich City. But
Hodgson’s passport still has football
manager as his profession. Just because
he left Crystal Palace last year, after
another season keeping them up, it
doesn’t mean that football has left him.
It’s there. It always will be.
Invited to a recent Arsenal match by
one of the many friends he has made in
the game, Hodgson travelled by Tube
to the Emirates and chatted at
length with fans. He just loves
talking about football. Hodgson
and Lewington are addicted to
the adrenaline and camara-
derie of the game. One
can just imagine Hodg-
son receiving
Monday’s call from
Watford’s owner,
Gino Pozzo, and
immediately get-
ting on to Lewing-
ton. One more
time.
Working with
the affable, talented
Lewington, himself
the manager at Vicar-
age Road from 2002 to
2005, will have been part
of the appeal of a return to

the fray for Hodgson. They blend well.

Born in Lambeth, the 65-year-old Le-

wington is one of life’s enthusiasts, a

man totally in love with bringing the

best out of players,

including serving cornflakes to Andy

Cole on the Fulham coach heading to

Deepdale in 1991. He cleaned the kit

and his wife, Ann, stood guard in the

garden to make sure nobody nicked

shirts off the line. You don’t wash out an

obsession like that easily.

Lewington could see how Fulham’s

dispirited players were invigorated

when Hodgson arrived in 2007. They

were about to be relegated, were

rescued and then hurtled towards a

Europa League final. “Shape and orga-

nisation” has always been Lewington’s

take on Hodgson’s impact on teams.

Hodgson is appreciated from Halms-

tads to Malmo and Copenhagen to Ful-

ham, West Bromwich Albion

and Palace. The Swiss love him

after he guided them to the

1994 World Cup. Hodgson

should be well-suited to this

challenge at Vicarage Road

because his career indicates

that he works best with

teams below the elite. He

struggled with

Liverpool and En-

gland, especially

dealing with what

he deemed overly

intrusive scrutiny.

Football drives

him and he expects

others to share that.

“How desperate are

they to share my des-

peration to do well?”

Hodgson takes Watford

training for the first team

Remember me, Roy?

An awkward meeting awaits

Hodgson with Watford’s club mascot

Harry the Hornet, whom he labelled

“disgraceful” during his time as

Crystal Palace manager. The

mascot, with Watford fan Gareth

Evans inside the costume, mocked

Palace’s Wilfried Zaha by diving in

front of him at a game in 2016, and

Hodgson was still angry about it

when asked two years later.

They needed

the transfer

window to have

come sooner

and didn’t get

the “new

manager

bounce” from

Eddie Howe.

Signing Chris

Wood from

Burnley was a

good move but

firing long balls

towards him

shouldn’t be

the only tactic.

Howe needs to

be much more

astute.

Tony Cascarino

predicts how

relegation

fight will

play out

WATFORD (Prediction: 17th)

They have a stronger group of

players than most of the teams in

the bottom half, especially in

attacking positions, but have

lacked structure. Hodgson will

change that: he will work out his

best team, stick to it and stop them

conceding goals. I expect them to

get more than one point a game

from here on in.

BURNLEY

(Prediction: 18th)

NEWCASTLE

(Prediction: 19th)