The Daily Telegraph - Sport

Hodgson’s ‘conscience is clear’ despite relegation

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Crystal Palace

By Arindam Rej at Selhurst Park

1-0

Roy Hodgson will not tell Watford’s hierarchy to change their ways despite relegation – but perhaps he needs to, after another fall from the top flight under the Pozzo regime.

Watford have spun a revolving door of managers and players coming in and out – and this latest survival attempt has fallen flat, with a sequence of six losses in a row. Ben

Foster, the Watford goalkeeper, was the one player to come out of Saturday’s 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace with credit – and he produced a scathing television interview.

Foster described his team as a “bunch of misfits” with a confidence problem, and admitted: “We’ve got too many players who are happy to put it in for an hour, 70 minutes, but then probably fall off and happily let it go in the last 20 minutes.”

Hodgson blowing a kiss to fans of Palace, his former club, after the game while not acknowledg­ing

Watford’s support, added to the impression of a disconnect­ed club.

It was also not a good look for Hodgson to share an embrace with Palace’s Wilfried Zaha, who scored the winning penalty, which sealed their exit from the Premier League.

It will be no surprise to see several of these relegated players move on, but despite the troubling sense of deja vu at Watford, Hodgson will not advise the club to end their managerial churn.

He said: “They have been quite successful with their model and have taken the club from mid-table in the Championsh­ip into the Premier League on two occasions.”

Hodgson added that “my conscience and [assistant] Ray Lewington’s are 100 per cent clear” because they felt they had given everything.

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