Roy’s right man, but don’t judge on Euro 2012
THE Football Association may have raised a few eyebrows by moving to appoint Roy Hodgson as England manager ahead of Harry Redknapp, but I’m very comfortable with it.
As far as motivators go, Redknapp is top of the tree, but the job – especially this role, which incorporates overseeing aspects of England’s technical development from grass roots – is about more than that, and overall I believe better suited to Hodgson.
He is a student of the game and boasts a wealth of international experience that must have enhanced his tactical and technical knowledge. I’ll be interested to see what squad he picks for Euro 2012 and how he sets up the team. I think under Harry we could safely have expected 4-4-2.
Can Hodgson motivate the team? It remains to be seen but he has masterminded relatively great results at Fulham and now West Brom in recent seasons, not to mention past successes abroad, so there seems no reason to think not.
Doubts have been raised about whether the England squad will respect him, many of them having openly backed Redknapp. I’ve been in that dressing room and I know that anyone appointed England manager automatically gets a certain level of respect.
I witnessed Graham Taylor take over from Sir Bobby Robson, who was greatly admired by the players. It was a hard act to follow and Taylor had less experience, but that’s not the case with Roy; his CV is far fuller and players will respect him because of that.
Hodgson is very well thought of in Europe, where he has strong connections to Uefa and is a regular presence at major tournaments, and they will be far less surprised by the FA’s choice than perhaps some here are.
England ought to aspire to a quarter-final or semi-final place at Euro 2012, though probably no more. But whatever happens we should not judge Fabio Capello’s successor on the results in Poland and Ukraine next month.
Trevor Steven is a former England footballer who played in two World Cups and two European Championships. He now works as a talent scout and media commentator.