I’M HERE FOR THE JOURNEY – IT’S NO QUICK FIX
ROY HODGSON insisted he is no Christian Gross as he seeks another Fulham-style miracle to save Crystal Palace from the drop.
But the former England boss warned his first Great Escape took until the last day of a nerve-shredding season in 2009.
The new Selhurst Park boss saw close up there will be no quick fix after Palace became the first team to lose their first five top-flight games without scoring a goal.
The 1-0 defeat by Southampton – the goal from former Rangers midfielder Steven Davis – and the performance proved their problems run deeper than the identity of the manager.
They have lost nine of their last 10 Premier League matches under three different bosses, with Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea their next three league fixtures.
Although quoted as returning to “the club of my boyhood”, Hodgson claimed being a south Londoner was not the ticket to survival. And he said of the former Tottenham boss: “I didn’t walk in here as Christian Gross did once and say, ‘I’ve come on the train’. I didn’t say I’m a local boy.”
But the oldest man to take charge of a Premier League club has the experience of keeping Fulham up after needing seven games to get a first win.
Hodgson, 70, said: “Going forward, I’ll have a much better idea of the playing personnel and that’s very important.
“That was an important part at Fulham – looking at the playing personnel, working out who’s going to be good enough on the field and who’s going to be really ready to roll their sleeves up and die for us in this cause because we’re not doing too well.
“I still think we will be okay. But it won’t be by the end of October, possibly, it might be quite a long way forward.“
Palace’s Scotland midfielder James McArthur said: “He wants us to be much more solid as a team and we need to try to be more clinical in front of goal.”
NEIL McLEMAN