Hodgson For England?

The FA it was presumed had Harry Redknapp as a shoe in for the England job. Spurs were flying high with even talk of the title a couple of months back. Capello had walked knowing the European Championships were far beyond this current England team's reach. Redknapp had even described the job as the 'pinnacle'.

What the FA had not reckoned on were two things. The first was Daniel Levy who has demonstrated time after time that he will not allow his employees to leave Tottenham on the cheap. Some chairman may 'stand aside' for England but Levy is not one of them.

The second issue is that Redknapp isn't actually that great a manager. Whilst he has admittedly improved Spurs, somewhere around fifth place is where Spurs historically should be and yet again he is destined to probably finish below Arsenal.

Come the big games such as Arsenal and ManYoo in the second half of this season, Spurs were thrashed soundly. Last season they were 4-0 down by half time against Inter with Redknapp in no way responsible for the brilliance of Bale's hat trick in the second half that nearly brought an unlikely draw. For whatever the reason, even if only to smoke him out, the FA outwardly have cold on Redknapp.

Now Roy Hodgson seems a thoroughly nice chap. He also has a very decent managerial CV which includes vast experience across the European sphere at both club and country level and can count both Liverpool and Internazionale of Milan as previous charges. All good so far then?

The problem with Hodgson is that there isn't really one, he's simply too middle of the road and entirely bland. Regardless of the results, the fans at both Inter and Liverpool never really accepted him nor wanted him in the first place and it will be much the same with England.

This current crop of England players is far from vintage with a lack of adequate replacements for players in the gloaming of their careers such as Lampard, Gerrard, Terry, Ferdinand and Ashley Cole. Gaps left by players such as Beckham, Scholes, Neville and Owen have not been sufficiently plugged either.

With the constant and unrealistic expectations on the England team (Eriksson took England to two World Cup Quarter Finals yet was hounded out), now is not a good time to be England manager.

Wor Roy one would expect would almost certainly accept the call should it come and most people in his position would do the same thing. Whilst wishing him all the best it would seem highly likely that he is destined to succeed given how the knives in the press will be out from the start and some daunting fixtures at the European Championships - No Nonsense.