No happy ending but Roy Hodgson will always have a special place in Crystal Palace history

76-year-old departs after two spells with boyhood club
Dom Smith20 February 2024

If this is the end for Roy Hodgson in management, then he bows out from a remarkable 48-year career as one of the most respected figures in the game.

Since his shock return to Crystal Palace last year, Hodgson has refused to talk about the word “retirement”.

But the 76-year-old recently said he would not pursue a new coaching challenge after Palace and his exit from Selhurst Park seems to have finally brought the curtain down on an extraordinary career.

Hodgson is thankfully recovering well after he collapsed during training last week.

This is not the way he would have wanted to bow out but he knows as well as anyone that football does not always allow for happy endings.

In almost five decades, Hodgson took on 22 managerial roles in eight different countries and led England into a World Cup and two European Championships. In 2022, he received a CBE for services to football, while he was knighted in Finland in 2012 after managing their national team.

Hodgson has had a career few can match, but then few share his unwaning obsession for football. He talked this season about how defeats still kept him up at night as much as when he started coaching at Maidstone in the early 1970s.

For good or for bad, Hodgson cannot help himself. He and his wife, Sheila, were due to go and live abroad last year, but one phone call from Palace chairman Steve Parish put those plans on hold and Hodgson came out of retirement for a second time. His four previous seasons leading Palace to 11th, 12th and 14th (twice) between 2017 and 2021 meant Parish saw him as a risk-free appointment when Patrick Vieira departed in March.

Everton FC v Crystal Palace - Premier League
Hodgson has twice stepped in to save Palace from relegation
Getty Images

Hodgson steered the Eagles clear of the relegation zone after five wins from their final 10 games saw them climb above Chelsea to finish 11th.

But while Palace fans have a deep admiration for the man who came through their youth system, many felt the decision to keep him on this season stifled the club’s progress. Palace won just three of his last 19 matches in charge, and his decision to come back for one last hurrah must now be tinged with some regret.

His frankness and openness this season was often maligned by fans, and it felt as if apologising for his words was something he did a lot in his final months in charge.

Rotten luck, though, restricted what he could achieve. Injuries to Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise and a season-ending snapped Achilles for Cheick Doucoure have left a shallow squad devoid of its best players. Hodgson’s results suffered in their absence.

While some of the Palace hierarchy wanted Hodgson sacked months ago, Parish bided his time due to a feeling of loyalty to him, as well as uncertainty over who was the best replacement.

In the end, Parish decided on Oliver Glasner and brought to an end what Hodgson called “the toughest period of my career”. But Parish meant what he said when he stated: “Roy has a special place in Palace history, and this will never be forgotten.”

It is a shame Hodgson’s final season at Palace ended like this, not only because it is his boyhood club, but because mid-table sides are where he enjoyed most success.

A 10th-place finish with West Brom in 2011-12 earned him the England job, and that came two years after Hodgson had guided Fulham to the Europa League Final. In higher-profile roles, he struggled more. He was not always popular during two stints at Inter Milan in the 1990s and endured a torrid seven-month spell at Liverpool.

And while Gareth Southgate has said Hodgson started the process of England trusting young players, three major tournament wins from 11 matches was not good enough.

England were knocked out in the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 and the group stage of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, before an embarrassing last-16 exit to Iceland at Euro 2016.

While the England job proved too much for Hodgson, he will be fondly remembered at Fulham and Palace, and he never stopped learning. He sought deep meaning from the novels of John Updike and Philip Roth and is fluent in five languages. His voracious appetite for a new challenge ensured his next job was never far away. This time, though, he is no longer seeking work.

Jordan Ayew texted him before Monday’s draw at Everton, promising to produce a positive result in his honour. Hodgson was no doubt watching at home as Ayew scored and Palace earned a valuable point; no longer involved, but permanently attached to Palace and to football.

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