When it was announced last Friday that Roy Hodgson would be coming out of retirement to manage second-tier Bristol City for just seven games, 44 years after leaving the club in 1982, it momentarily seemed like April Fool’s Day six days early.
Why would the 78-year-old, whose health played a role in his departure from Crystal Palace two years ago, want to return to the management ranks at a club where he never plays and has little time to make a lasting impression?
In the end, even he himself is not sure. “I don’t know what made me consider it,” he said at Monday’s presentation. “I’m completely happy in this period of retirement, although I do get a little bored at times.”
Hodgson’s arrival and unlikely decision to return to the West Country for the first time in almost half a century only adds to the intrigue of a man who has previously played for Inter Milan, Liverpool and England, but nothing short of England’s top-flight results dating back to his first stay at Bristol.
His appointment blows away the record for longest tenure as manager at the same club in England and gives Bristol the interesting statistic of having the two oldest managers in the EFL. Steve Evans, 63, will be in charge of Rovers.
For the wider football world, the whole story is a welcome source of levity rather than ridicule, and will no doubt become a fine answer to a pub quiz question in a few years’ time.
But underlying this lies a much more serious reality for Bristol City. Bristol City are one of the clubs approaching the latest in a never-ending series of crossroads, largely of their own making.
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Former England manager Roy Hodgson, 78, has spoken to Sky Sports about becoming the new interim head coach of Sky Bet Championship club Bristol City.
Recent head coaches have oscillated between both playing and management styles, but Hodgson’s appointment is somehow still breaking new ground. The club’s idea is to have the experienced manager “help set the club’s standards and values” before naming Gerhard Struber’s permanent successor in the summer.
The logic is correct that few can match Hodgson’s decades of knowledge at the top level of football, but the bigger question is what standards he, or anyone else, can instill in just five weeks before City’s players depart for holiday.
So too is Hodgson’s ability to instill those standards in his players, given that Hodgson, who should have started drawing his state pension 12 years ago, pointed out on his first day in office that just carrying out his various media duties had proven to be an arduous task.
More generally, the past two weeks have seen City move further away from the reputation of stability, perseverance and willingness to build that they have spent years building and maintained until relatively recently.
It’s a question that will never be answered as to why the existing members of the backroom team, who are familiar with the playing staff and perhaps even have head coaching ambitions in the future, didn’t deserve a chance to impress with nothing but pride on the line for the rest of the season.
City’s relative calm began to crumble with the sacking of Nigel Pearson in November 2023, but they have gone from strength to strength since then. Charlie Voss, City’s fourth CEO since October 2022, will be the one to sack Struber, but the search for a fourth permanent head coach in less than two-and-a-half years will be led by the sporting director, who is also yet to be appointed.
Whoever succeeds Hodgson will follow in the footsteps of the old pragmatist in Pearson, the City Football Group alumnus in Liam Manning and the Austrian rock’n’roll football purveyor in Struber. The old cliché of clubs always seeking the antithesis of their previous manager has proved surprisingly prescient at Ashton Gate.
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Gerhard Struber’s last game as manager at Ashton Gate was a 1-0 defeat to West Brom before the international break.
The sporting director hopes that if his long-term appointment proves to be desperately needed, he can restore harmony to the club. He could also take inspiration from the likes of Brentford and Brighton to ensure the club’s philosophy remains consistent no matter who is in charge.
But history is a great teacher, and there’s a reason the Robins’ top-six finish last season was their first championship finish since 2008.
Since then, city ideologies, of which there are many today, have generally been developed with the best of intentions, but their implementation often fails and enthusiasm quickly wanes.
Many things have been tried. Buy the best up-and-coming talent. Polishing a rough diamond. Take advantage of the academy. Just over a decade ago, the club announced a “five pillars” strategy for long-term development, but it was not mentioned again less than a year later. As a result, there is no great belief around the club that the next dawn will be any more real than the previous one.
City’s next permanent manager will certainly not be a former England manager who is almost in his 80s. He himself feels too old for the post. More than that, their identity is as difficult to pinpoint as it is the club’s.
