Scottish Daily Mail

Hodgson is fit and ready for Palace reign

- by MATT LAWTON

COPERS COPE ROAD in Beckenham might not boast the history and grandeur of Chantilly, but Roy Hodgson must have been struck yesterday by certain parallels with his previous press conference. There was the presence of reporters who had followed him during his often turbulent four-year tenure as England manager, two Rolls-Royces in the car park and a member of the same FA media team, now working at Crystal Palace, sat alongside him. Hodgson, it has to be said, looked a good deal better than he did 14 months ago. In France he seemed broken, slightly disorienta­ted as well as distressed by that astonishin­g defeat against Iceland in the last 16 of Euro 2016. He could not understand why he even had to give a press conference after he’d resigned within minutes of the final whistle the previous evening. ‘I don’t really know what I’m doing here,’ he complained at the time. Yesterday, however, the 70-year-old appeared much brighter, more bullish, fitter, too. ‘It would have been unusual if I had not felt shattered that day,’ he said. ‘My coaching staff and I cared very deeply. We had high hopes of going a good way into the competitio­n. To lose in the way we did against a team many thought we should have beaten, that was a bad day. ‘But it’s well over a year ago. I’ve had lots of time to get my mind back on track, and it didn’t take a year. It took less. I’ve been waiting for this chance to come along, but I’ve had time to work on my fitness as well. I’m pleased to hear you say I look younger. That’s down to a few sessions in the gym.’ There was a reluctance to reflect too much on England when Palace will be interested only in how he can revive a team that failed to score under Frank de Boer, never mind secure a point, from their first four Premier League games. More of a concern will be that today’s visit of Southampto­n will be followed by encounters with Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea. Having revealed that he had watched a recording of the Iceland game, Hodgson declined to say what he made of it. ‘First of all, I’m not interested in Iceland,’ he said. ‘It’s a past chapter. Who cares? You might. But not a lot of the Palace fans, the ones who interest me. There might be people in Carlisle who’d like to know, but I’m in south London, Beckenham.’ Curiously, he was also reluctant to discuss reports of the year he spent at Palace as a player. ‘I’ve just read a very amusing article where three people have spoken about my playing career and I’ve never met any of them in my life,’ he said. ‘I’ve had 40 years as a coach. But as far as Palace is concerned, I drew a net over that long ago.’ He said he never even got close to playing first-team football, instead recalling a game he attended as a spectator in 1961 as his fondest Palace memory as the son of a bus driver. ‘The one that sticks in my mind was the famous Real Madrid team of (Ferenc) Puskas and (Alfredo) Di Stefano playing at Selhurst Park,’ he said. Any talk of redemption, of simply wanting another job to avoid Iceland marking the sad conclusion to a largely successful career, was also dismissed. ‘Careers are defined by small moments and nothing I can say or do will change that,’ he said. ‘It was a four-year period, one I look back on with satisfacti­on on a lot of things, although I can’t look back with satisfacti­on on not progressin­g at tournament­s in the way we’d have liked. ‘But I didn’t wake up one day determined to get another job. I’d have been working a lot sooner if that had been the case. ‘I feel I can do a good job, can still contribute, so if a job came at the right level, I wanted to take it. And this is it. It couldn’t have been a better offer for me, going back to my roots, the club I’ve supported from afar. ‘I’m feeling as good as I’ve ever felt. You can’t tear up your birth certificat­e, but it’s how you feel. ‘There were times in my 40s when I felt a lot less physically and mentally adept than I do today. I can’t prove that. You’ll have to take my word for it.’

 ?? ACTION IMAGES/REUTERS ?? Young at heart: a rejuvenate­d Roy Hodgson yesterday
ACTION IMAGES/REUTERS Young at heart: a rejuvenate­d Roy Hodgson yesterday
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