New Reds boss Roy Hodgson says he believes his love and passion for football could actually be the reason why it has taken him so long to arrive at a club as big as Liverpool Football Club.
Hodgson joins the Reds after 34 years in football management, having managed a total of 16 teams, including Serie A giants Inter Mialn, whom he managed between 1995-97 and briefly again in 1999.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve done things the hard way because there are all kinds of routes a person can take in football management that throw up contrasting challenges,” Hodgson told LFC Weekly magazine. “It would be disrespectful to other managers to say that I’ve had it tougher. What I would say is that my route to Liverpool has been slightly different.
“My problem has been that I love working and I hate being out of it. Whenever I have been, after a few weeks I have found myself yearning for a return. So maybe on occasion I’ve been prone to jumping at an offer at a smaller club when I should have waited a little longer before a better job has come around.”
It’s a common complaint that England’s top clubs don’t often appoint English managers, but Hodgson believes his perceived lack of ‘Englishness’ may have been a problem for him.
“There have been times when I’ve tried to blend in too well to the surroundings I’m in, rather than be myself and portray my Englishness. I sometimes think that people in England probably view me as the least English of the English managers. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why it has taken me longer than others to get one of the big jobs.”
In the rest of this exclusive interview Hodgson tells LFC Weekly about the changes he wants to make at Anfield, his belief in the pass and move philosophy and his plans for Gerrard, Torres and Dalglish. Only in this week’s LFC Weekly magazine, in stores or online.
Promo article by LFC Weekly magazine.
