former Liverpool Manager - Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson was born in Croydon, South London on 9th August 1947, as a young man Roy Hodgson was educated at the John Ruskin Grammar School and played youth football for Crystal Palace. As a footballer Roy Hodgson played at non-league level for Tonbridge, Gravesend & Northfleet, Maidstone United, Ashford Town, Berea Park and Carshalton Athletic, the first taste of management came for Roy Hodgson with the latter where he was made assistant manager.

Roy Hodgson began his ellustrious managerial career in 1976 in Scandinavia with Swedish first division side Halmstad where during his 4 year tenure he secured the league title twice in both 1976 and 1979. The league title win in his first year (1976) was an early sign of Roy Hodgson's ability as a football manager with Halmstad having been relegation battlers only the season before. Roy Hodgson's first managerial job in Britain followed in 1980 with Bristol City but unsurprisingly he was unable to replicate his Swedish success and in 1983 Roy Hodgson returned to Sweden to first lead Orebro and then in 1985 Malmo FF, with whom he won another 5 (consecutive) league titles plus 2 Swedish Cups. Despite the offer of a lifetime contract with Malmo FF Roy Hodgson moved onto Switzerland next to manage Neuchatel Xamax in 1990 where he was partly credited with introducing zonal marking into Swiss football.

Roy Hodgson moved on to manage the Swiss national team in early 1992 and led them through an impressive qualification campaign to reach the 1994 World Cup finals, their first for 28 years, where they reached the round of 16. Roy Hodgson then managed Switzerland through qualification to Euro 96, but left in 1995 before the finals took place in order to join Italian side Inter Milan. Whilst at Inter Roy Hodgson lifted the club to 3rd place in Serie A and an appearance in the UEFA Cup final, Roy Hodgson left Inter in 1997 but the side he had built went onto achieve 2nd place in the league and win the UEFA Cup the following season. Roy Hodgson left Italian football to take up the managerial post at Premier League side Blackburn Rovers where in his first season he lifted them to a 6th place finish and with it qualification for UEFA Cup football for the following season. However Roy Hodgson's reputation was to take a bashing in his second season in charge, having spent £20 million in the summer 98 transfer market Rovers got off to a very poor start to the 98/99 season and in December 1998 with the team at the foot of the table Roy Hodgson was sacked.

Roy Hodgson briefly returned to Inter in 1999 as a caretaker manager before returning to Swiss football at the helm of Grasshopper for a year, Roy Hodgson then moved to Denmark where he immediately won the league title with Copenhagen in 2001, that same year he moved on again, this time back to Italy to Udinese where allegations of him saying he regretted taking the job led to his sacking after just 6 months. 2002 saw Roy Hodgson return to internatonal management this time with the United Arab Emirates where he remained until his sacking in 2004.

Roy Hodgson's apparent love affair with Scandinavian football resumed again in 2004 with Norwegian club Viking and then in in 2006 with the Finnish national side. In 2007 despite being offered a renewed contract with Finland Roy Hodgson decided to move on and found himself back in the Premier League in December 2007 with London club Fulham. Roy Hodgson managed to keep Fulham up in his first 5 months in charge despite them being tipped for relegation to the English Championship league. In the following 08/09 season Roy Hodgson stepped up a gear with Fulham and took them into qualification for the 09/10 newly created Europa League by securing a 7th place finish in the Premier League. Roy Hodgson then took Fulham to their first ever European final in the 09/10 season and despite them losing 2-1 to Atletico Madrid Roy Hodgson's achievements over the season had earned him the coverted Premier League manager of the season award.

Roy Hodgson's phenomenal success with Fulham led him to one of football's top managerial jobs in 2010 when on 30th June he was named as the new manager of Liverpool FC.  Roy Hodgson's time at Liverpool FC was short and by all accounts unhappy, some feel he inherited one of the worst Liverpool squads for many years and after a poor start to his first season in charge, with Liverpool languishing in the lower half of the Premier League table, he left the club by mutual consent on 8th January 2011.  Shortly afterwards former Liverpool playing legend Kenny Dalglish was named as his successor, initially on a caretaker basis for the remainder of the 2010/11 season.

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