Roy Hodgson has made a surprise return to management as interim Bristol City manager after the Championship club sacked Gerhard Struber.
The 78-year-old former England international and Liverpool manager, who completed his last managerial role by leaving Crystal Palace in February 2024, will remain in charge until the end of the season.
Hodgson returned to Bristol City for a second spell after 44 years, following an ill-fated four-month spell as manager of the Old Fourth Division in 1982. The Robins were the first English club he managed.
Bristol City, who are without a win in their last six games, announced that Struber had been sacked along with his assistant Bernd Eibler because “recent performances have not met expectations”.
The club sit 16th in the Championship, nine points clear of the play-off places with seven games remaining.
Hodgson will join up with the squad on Monday and will watch their first game against Charlton on Easter Friday live on Sky Sports.
“I’ve had some great conversations with the board and I’m really excited about the opportunity to support them until the end of the season,” Hodgson said.
“We will get to work right away and try to put in a good performance on Good Friday.”
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Bristol City lost at home to West Brom last weekend
Bristol City chief executive Charlie Boss said Hodgson had been brought in to “set the standards and values for the club”. The boss himself was only appointed last month and is looking for a new sporting director and the next permanent head coach.
“I would like to thank Gerhard and Bernd for their hard work over the past nine months and wish them all the best,” Voss said. “Roy’s appointment means more than just the results of the next seven games.
“Roy is an experienced coach who has achieved and won at the highest level. He will help me, our players and our football staff grow towards realizing our potential.”
“We are in the process of appointing an athletic director who will be directly involved in hiring a new permanent head coach.”
Hodgson becomes oldest active coach in PL and EFL
Hodgson becomes the oldest head coach in the Championship, 20 years older than his closest neighbors Chris Wilder at Sheffield United and Phil Parkinson at Wrexham.
The former Palace manager is 15 years older than the previous oldest players in the entire EFL, Swindon Town’s Ian Holloway and Bristol Rovers’ Steve Evans.
Everton’s David Moyes, the Premier League’s oldest manager, is 16 years younger than Hodgson.
Analysis: The ultimate unfinished business? Not quite…
Ron Walker of Sky Sports:
“Roy Hodgson has returned to Ashton Gate, 16,038 days after leaving Bristol City in April 1982 to become his first manager in England.
“It would be an exaggeration to call this unfinished business, but there is a certain sentimentality that has lured the 78-year-old back as manager for a seven-game stint, more than two years after his brilliant role at Crystal Palace.
“Given that he was in charge of City all those years ago for just four months, losing 13 of 22, Hodgson’s feelings are likely to stem from a yearning for one final roll of the dice rather than rosy memories of his first days at the club.
“From a Bristol City point of view, there is no emotion at all.
“Former incumbent Gerhard Struber was sacked despite remaining highly popular in the club’s favor. They laid the blame for the club’s 9-1 record at the feet of the board, who opted to let go of leading scorer Anis Mehmeti and main centre-back Zach Viner in January with six months remaining on their contracts.
“This was a body blow for the Robins, both on the pitch and in the dressing room, for their season, which at that point was one point and outside the top six in the table. Struber has since made his feelings known publicly at that point, but the Austrian must also take some responsibility for their current poor position in the table.
“The 5-1 win over Stoke at the start of November gave a hint of what was to come, and by the time the two players left City had only picked up 21 points from their last 17 games.
“With the club feeling increasingly lethargic and with little hope of the necessary rebuilding going ahead in the summer, something needed to change.
“Fans had hoped that it would come from the top, either through Steve Lansdowne’s long-awaited sale of the club finally happening, or through the introduction of a more ambitious transfer policy to restore play-off momentum last season.
“The board felt that a change from a different angle was needed following CEO Charlie Voss’s initial ruthlessness just a month into his role.
“More broadly, Mr Struber becomes the latest high-profile figure to leave Ashton Gate after speaking out against the board, but the appointment of the Football League’s oldest manager, even temporarily, does little to give the impression that a coherent replacement plan exists.”
