by As Roy Hodgson walked off the pitch last Monday night after Crystal Palace’s late defeat to Chelsea, he must have realized he was on loan. Less than 11 months after his triumphant return to replace Patrick Vieira at his hometown club, the manager who first visited Selhurst Park as a six-year-old in the 1950s could never have imagined it would come to him this.
A campaign by the Premier League’s oldest ever manager – a record he held even before he answered Palace chairman Steve Parish’s SOS call last March – has become increasingly frustrating as his team struggle with injuries and form on the poor form that Hodgson was facing for. several weeks. But the news that he was to be taken to the hospital for tests after he fell ill during a training session last Thursday caused great concern. The former England manager has been troubled by this season and has now confirmed that he will step down three months earlier than planned. “Given the recent circumstances, it may be wise at this time for the club to plan ahead,” he said in a statement.
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Hodgson turned 76 three days before Palace’s first game of the season against Sheffield United but showed he still had his old fighting spirit during a confrontation with Max Lowe that ended with a player 50 years his junior punching him in the ribs. “His abs are stronger than I thought,” Lowe said. “Roy apparently said he was very pleased with his response because he didn’t know it was still there.”
Although Hodgson, a Croydon boy unafraid to show his bold side, got the ex-Wilfried Zaha Palace era off to a good start after agreeing to stay for another year, a bout of illness on the morning of the match against Aston Villa. in September it was a reminder of her vulnerability.
Hodgson said the whole experience was “frustrating and very disappointing”, mainly because they didn’t get to the bottom of the issues that affected him. “After the excellent treatment I received – the tests and the way people were racing around to really look after me and check on me – people can’t be 100% sure what caused the attack that suddenly put me in the hospital after expecting it. have lunch and go to the game,” he said.
A number of gaffes, including his claim that supporters were “spoiled here in recent years” as Palace’s problems got worse, have not helped calm the murky waters, and left Eberechi with constant injuries. Eze and Michael Olise Hodgson lack creativity. He twice stopped the immediate threat of Olise-inspired wins against Brentford and Sheffield United. But by the time Olise limped off after another serious hamstring injury 11 minutes after coming on as a substitute with Palace 3-0 down against their Brighton archers, it was clear that the manager’s days were numbered.
Supporters have made their feelings known at recent games with a series of banners criticizing the owners, leading Hodgson to describe the ordeal at Palace as “the hardest period of my career for one reason, and that the fans have turned so much against us. “. Having managed 22 teams in eight countries, that is some indictment. “It’s a bit hurtful but I’m definitely not going to have that kind of thing,” he said after the Brighton defeat.
Parish, who is believed to have spoken to him regularly during the recent run of poor form, has shown his eternal gratitude to Hodgson for the role he played in keeping Palace in the Premier League for so long. He preferred to wait until the end of the season to replace Hodgson but was convinced a change was needed after four wins in 18 league games dragged the club into a relegation battle. “After four years of leading the club to maintain Premier League status season after season, he rejoined us almost a year ago to right the ship, and he has done wonders,” Parish said. . “He says he agreed to continue in the summer on his commitment to our club.”
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Former Eintracht Frankfurt manager Oliver Glasner succeeds him after impressing Parish and sporting director Dougie Freedman in a series of meetings in recent weeks. Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna and Steve Cooper, who were sacked by Nottingham Forest in December, were also watched. The Austrian was confirmed in his new role ahead of Palace’s trip to Everton on Monday, having been seen meeting Parish at a hotel on Friday before heading to Tottenham’s game against Wolves the following day. Palace travel to North London on March 2 in Glasner’s second game in charge after they host Burnley next week.
Always a manager of the utmost dignity, Hodgson did not hide a question about his future and insisted after Chelsea’s victory that he could keep Palace out of trouble. The former manager of Blackburn, Liverpool, Fulham and West Brom (to name but a few) has never been one to avoid a challenge but he and Parish must be considering whether this was a way to end that. of a career.
