He's a canny lad! http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/we...eason-his-england-hopes-and-title-race-171905
In my opinion, Holt not going to the Euro's, would be great for us Canaries, as he would get a full time-off period to relax and recover after such a gruelling season. Better not to be associated with the imminent train-wreck that is England Euro's Team 2012. I firmly believe that Hodgson will be a complete failure as England manager, he even stated the other day that he would: 1) Select 5 or 6 good lads, rather than back-ups for each position (taking dinsosaurs like Ferdinand, or unmitigated-disapointments like Downing, or "squad morale" players may work fine for PL, but not in a knockout competition!!!) 2) His selection policy is quoted as on quality, not form: we can therefore expect to see Downing, Carroll, Defoe, Crouch, Zamora all involved then, while ignoring Holt, Ruddy, Graham...all of whom have proven themselves this season. 3) I expect us to get eliminated following defeats to France, and draws to Sweden and Ukraine. 4) I hope he gets sacked following the tournament, following much public outrage at such poor performances. 5) Just our luck that Wilshere, and now Parker (likely) are out injured. Both our best midfielders out, plus Rooney for 1st 2 games.
Nothing like giving the guy a chance then? Funny how Hodgson commands huge respect wherever he has worked -- overseas, that is, in Europe. Maybe this tells us more about English football, the English football fan and the English football media than it does about Roy Hodgson. And might this be part of the reason why England are a second rate footballing nation, and have been for over half a century?
Think you have hit the nail on the head there. So much wrong with the mentality of the English towards the game. Maybe a lack of understanding or ignorance who knows
totally agree robbie. hodgson is an outstanding manager and the fact he commands such little respect from english fans merely shows them up as being out of touch. he's absolutely perfect for international football and if we don't get out of the group (which is very tough - france are my dark horse for the championship) he can fall back on the same excuse redknapp would have used had he failed - not enough time to make a difference. poor comments from goldeneye but as i say, typical of many fans across the country.
I was merely voicing my opinion of Hodgson. I will revisit this thread when the squad is announced and a string of awful underacheiving players are listed (e.g Downing). Personally, and this is my reasoning, I want a manager for England who will actually give us a shot at winning, not like this clown who will (maybe if we are lucky) get us as far as the quarters.
You can't say that about Hodgson. If anything Redknapp would have done that and he is the media clown.
Who else has he got to chose from? This is a big gripe I have with all the criticism aimed at England managers. I look at the team or squad picked for tournaments and think we'll never win anything, but you have to remember due to the huge amounts of foreigners playing in England the national team has suffered. I totally agree that the likes of Downing, Zamora, Welbeck, Sturridge etc shouldn't be going to represent us at a tournament, but who else is there? Managers are never going to risk someone like Holt or Pilks who have played a handful of games in the top flight so they'll go with what they know is why the perennially under-achieving, over hyped players like Downing and Defoe keep getting selected. Hodgson may buck this trend and go for some 'unknowns' to try and catch other teams off guard, but chances are he'll want to try and keep people onside and go for the safe option. In a way he's in a win/win situation. If we do well he can say he took an under performing side and turned it around, if we do badly he can say he inherited a rubbish team and he didn't want to risk massive changes that close to a tournament.
