The Winners:
Roy Hodgson (obviously…)
Though Hodgson was always viewed as a creditable dark horse in the race to land English football’s top job, it is more than safe to say that most people either thought Harry Redknapp was the right man for the job or that he was going to be the one chosen by the FA to take England forward.
Sadly for Hodgson, who as I mention was always a worthy candidate, there probably will always be a sense of lingering doubt amongst the England fan community given most people’s preference was Redknapp and that the FA seemingly didn’t see fit to formally approach the Spurs boss. As a result of the FA’s recruitment process and what we publicly know of it, it would be absolutely no surprise to hear fans moaning about Hodgson’s appointment and bemoaning Redknapp’s omission if things go a little pear-shaped at any point in Roy’s tenure.
My personal view is that Hodgson is a good manager with a solid track record. This isn’t exactly a gleaming review I know, but there are certainly a few question marks over his lack of success in a couple of his bigger roles which take away a little from the wealth of both club and international managerial experience he has accrued and the success he has enjoyed most notably in his time in Sweden and more recently with Fulham and West Brom.
There is certainly fuel in the argument against Hodgson’s record at the bigger clubs on his CV but it would be hard to argue against his knowledge and experience of the game. I would have preferred a more dynamic and exciting choice such as Mourinho or Pardew if the FA weren’t gunning for Harry but I can see why they have opted for Hodgson and I wish him all the best.
Everyone needs to cut him some slack and give him a decent crack at the job, it isn’t his fault the FA have chosen him so the players and fans alike just need to let him do the job he has always dreamed of doing and hopefully he will be a success.
Rio Ferdinand
Roy Hodgson is a very wise manager and has been around the block way too many times for him to not grasp the importance of experience and Rio is a player with a wealth of it.
He may not have featured in the side for quite some time due to form, fitness and perhaps more recently because of personal problems with a certain Chelsea and England centre-half but towards the back end of this season he has played a lot of football and appears to have come through it relatively unscathed whilst having produced some very decent performances.
For me, Ferdinand is a must for England’s Euros squad if his fitness stays in-tact up until the end of the domestic season and Hodgson’s first press conference a the national team manager suggested that he believes so too and that he must act in order to ascertain whether he and Terry can put aside any personal qualms they might have about playing with one another. Both men would make my England starting line-up still and I think Mr.Hodgson is on the same wavelength as me on this. If Rio is willing to be paired with JT then he will go, I’m not totally sure this would have been the case if other potential candidates for the job were appointed.
Bobby Zamora
He may be embroiled in a relegation dogfight with his new club QPR and he may be suffering a bit of a lean season in front of goal but Zamora, who Fabio Capello says only missed out on the World Cup squad in 2010 due to injury, may come into the selection reckoning now his former boss is in charge of assembling England’s squad.
England are looking bereft of out-and-out strikers in the absence of Rooney for their opening two games at the Euros and the potential absence of Darren Bent due to injury so there are definitely at least a couple of places up for grabs in that department.
Zamora is one of only a few options to fill such a void if Bent doesn’t make the plane and his record in Fulham’s outstanding Europa League campaign under Hodgson’s guidance a couple of years ago would certainly hold him in good stead. I don’t think many other managerial candidates for the England job would have given Zamora a second look but Roy certainly will and I would perhaps go as far as to say he has a good shout of bagging himself a place.
Ben Foster
Though there have been some reports to the contrary, Roy Hodgson’s appointment could well convince Ben Foster to change his mind and come out of international retirement at least for the forthcoming European Championships.
Foster is probably the second best English goalkeeper going at the moment and if Joe Hart were to suffer an injury then it is vital that England have the next best man available to step into the breach.
If anybody has a chance of getting him to come back then it is almost certainly Hodgson who has been his manager at West Brom this year and who has consistently picked Foster and praised his contributions between the sticks. I would be very surprised if Roy hasn’t already or isn’t planning on talking to Foster about a return to the international game.
The Losers:
Harry Redknapp (obviously…)
There is very little to say that hasn’t already been said about Harry missing out on the job so I’ll keep it brief.
I think Redknapp could have been a terrific manager for England but now he will never get the chance and he knows it. In typical Harry fashion he has taken the news in good grace and congratulated Hodgson on getting the job and wished him well in his future endeavours with the national side.
If you look at England’s two most successful managers of the modern-ish era (Bobby Robson and Terry Venables) and the way they handled the job and the players that came with it you would have to credit them for their fantastic people-skills and man-management. They were/are massive characters with a very honest and likeable persona and it would be more than fair to say that Harry Redknapp seems to be a man after their own hearts in this respect. His strengths might not lie in financial management or tactical plotting but it is arguable that the England job requires a more personal approach than such methodology. I am sure that Redknapp would have brought back some memories of the Venables era and that he could have had just as positive an effect on the squad as El Tel but now we’ll never know.
Paul Scholes and England
If Harry Redknapp had been given the job then I am near-certain that he would have approached Paul Scholes about returning for one last month of international football. I also, happen to think that Harry is one of a very small minority of people who could have worked their charm on Scholes and lured him back into the fold.
As it is though, Hodgson is a little more straight-laced than Harry (make that a lot…) and as such I can’t see him pleading with a 37 year old to come back and save his country and even if he does then I don’t think he will have the pulling power necessary to tempt United’s flame-haired playmaker into a return.
If Scholes doesn’t come back I can’t see England winning the Euros. With him in tow they are dark horses given their relative lack of international success which could see them go under the radar but without him I think they are big outsiders. If you are going to compete with the likes of Spain and Germany then possession and pass success percentages become utterly vital. I don’t think there is a single player in Britain who can still mix it with Scholes in this department when playing at the highest level and I don’t think there are many people out there who would disagree with me.
I’m not suggesting that he is a miracle cure. We could also bomb in the Euros even if he does get persuaded to join up with the squad but I think his inclusion would greatly enhance our prospects.
Andy Carroll, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Grant Holt and any other striker hoping to make the cut
As a direct result of Bobby Zamora’s likely rise up the pecking order in the wake of Roy’s appointment, I think that many other hopefuls in the striking department may have just dropped down the list of potential squad-members.
Each of the above have a decent argument in their favour and it will be interesting to see if Hodgson is tempted by the prospect of linking back up with his former Fulham star or whether he favours another option.
Spurs’ potential squad-members (Jermain Defoe, Aaron Lennon, Kyle Walker, Ledley King, Michael Dawson…)
With Harry Redknapp being the overwhelming favourite to land the job before the announcement that the FA had opened talks with Hodgson, all of Spurs’ England hopefuls will have been buoyed by the news that their club manager could take the England job as it would probably have raised their chances of making the Euros.
However, now Roy is in charge and not Harry it is far from clear as to whether any of these players will be a part of the new manager’s plans. The only player mentioned from Spurs’ long line of England hopefuls who is almost guaranteed of a place in the England squad is Kyle Walker and one would think even his hopes have been dealt a blow in that Redknapp would very possibly have given him a starting berth. Hodgson may also really rate Walker and his Spurs team-mates but this appointment makes things a little less clear for now at least.
The Musings Of An Aspiring Journalist 