Pack your bags Roy

[CJ]

i think he has been as good as gone for a fair amount of time.

the question is how much damage will be done till he is officially gone.

some think lots or too much some think as long as the right long term decision is made thats the best thing.

[Armchairkopite]

he's gone..............

2 days in a row

Cant believe he's survived again. Astonishing.

Got to question the motives of this lot now bigtime.

True, I dont know why he hasn't been at least banned yet.

[Baracus]

[Shaggy]

Bwuh?

JenChang88 Jen Chang
Sources inform me that FSG have yet to fire Hodgson because they hope all the losses nets them the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
1 minute ago Favorite Retweet Reply

[red g]

on a positive note we have been linked with Pablo Mouche today..........


I don't care how good a player he is..........we should move heaven and earth to get his WAG here.

[spud_gun]

Bwuh?

JenChang88 Jen Chang
Sources inform me that FSG have yet to fire Hodgson because they hope all the losses nets them the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
1 minute ago Favorite Retweet Reply

[Tee]

Bwuh?

JenChang88 Jen Chang
Sources inform me that FSG have yet to fire Hodgson because they hope all the losses nets them the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
1 minute ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Ancellotti maybe????

[red g]

Bwuh?

JenChang88 Jen Chang
Sources inform me that FSG have yet to fire Hodgson because they hope all the losses nets them the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
1 minute ago Favorite Retweet Reply

[Shaggy]

Apparently it was 'a joke'.

[Needles]

Terry Venables talking bollox on SSN

[GTi]

If NESV take notice of ex-players and current managers Hodgson aint going anywhere fast.

More time my arse!

[Lecter]

Proud managers face the music while failing players again go silentThe decent reputations of Hodgson, Ancelotti, Houllier and Grant are being ridiculed for slumps that are only partly their fault
Posted by
Paul Hayward Thursday 6 January 2011 13.54 GMT
guardian.co.uk

Share5 Comments (59)
Roy Hodgson finds himself under mounting pressure less than a year after reaching the Europa League final with Fulham. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters


As a brutal set of results rolled in on Wednesday evening a night of the long knives beckoned. The ****rag was about to speculate in its later editions that as many as four Premier League managers could be fired on the day of Epiphany. We are close to the moment when sackings become an official sport with their own television deal.

At Arsenal, Manchester City's Roberto Mancini could reflect on a night of expert negation. But he too has seen his job "linked' with other elite coaches while never quite making it to "the brink" of dismissal. Lucky him.

For Roy Hodgson (Liverpool), Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), Gérard Houllier (Aston Villa) and Avram Grant (West Ham) there was no refuge in a cosy 0-0 draw. Each had seen their team beaten and went to bed knowing they would be abused in the great new media talkosphere while employers potentially weighed-up "other options."

What rendered Wednesday so distinctive was that four managers with European final pedigrees all came in for a whipping. In this more democratic campaign, 10 of the 20 Premier league bosses have been sacked, tipped for dismissal or subjected to ridicule and rage. Chris Hughton, who conceived wins over Arsenal and Sunderland in Newcastle's first season back at the top, was the first to go, followed by Sam Allardyce, canned at Blackburn by owners who thought Ronaldinho might quite like a new mid-table life at Ewood Park.

Also grumbled about this winter have been David Moyes (Everton), Mark Hughes (Fulham) and Roberto Martínez at Wigan. Every time Martínez opens his mouth sense flows out. He thinks Wigan need to evolve beyond relegation toil, attract more fans with an entertaining style and stop being a recruiting sergeant for bigger clubs. His problem is that he has won only four of his 21 games and may find his coolness and intelligence stranded in the Championship.

With the four big-name victims from Sunderland's 1-0 win at Villa, Chelsea's defeat at Wolves, Liverpool's tumble at Blackburn and Newcastle's 5-0 pummelling of West Ham we reach the magic ratio of 50% of managers with sleep disturbance, though Mancini is probably now conking out for the full eight hours. And now the real question: how many players are assailed by night-time fear? How many dread the game's capacity to trash a lifetime's work on the back of a few bad results?

The manager is out there on his own, and though six-figure compensation can soften a fall there is no recompense for being cast as an idiot after decades of careful toil. Sure, from the sacking culture will emerge a new breed of opportunist whose main concern before entering a dug-out will be his severance clause. But Hodgson, Houllier, Ancelotti and even Grant are slaves to a passion as well as politicians and realists. The first thing lost in the rush to humiliate and condemn is the human element: the man's life and work.

So much for their feelings. What about their records? First: Hodgson was a Europa League finalist in May with Fulham and was Manager of the Year for 2009-10. At Craven Cottage he conceived victories over the kind of clubs people are now saying he is unfit to manage. Whether he is equipped to reverse decline at Liverpool is a debate the club's fans are addressing with wince-inducing vigour. No-one, though, can caricature him as an overnight chump. Modern fan-pressure has established a point of no return beyond which managers are dumped because everyone assumes they will be.

Ancelotti, meanwhile, won the Double in his first year at Stamford Bridge. While Hodgson writhes and resists, Chelsea's commander sports a more fatalistic look. Life as an employee of Silvio Berlusconi in Milan is the ideal preparation for exposure to proprietorial whim. Equally Roman Abramovich's meddling is the perfect shield for Chelsea's players, who have escaped the scrutiny inflicted on their leader. Further north we could ask Fernando Torres about this too, assuming we could find him.

The same Chelsea players who took the credit for Grant reaching a Champions League final (2008) now escape censure for a shocking run that could soon put Ancelotti on a flight back to Italy. At Villa, Houllier picks up the tab for disinvestment. Never mind that he won two French league titles with Lyon after his Treble at Liverpool in 2001, or that Villa are in financial retreat post-Martin O'Neill. The right response is enslavement to the rolling ticker of results, then panic.

All of which infantilises the players. For "I blame the parents" read "I blame the manager". Houllier, Hodgson, Ancelotti and Grant, who guided imploding Portsmouth to an FA Cup final, have all reached/won European finals in the last 10 years, but their achievements are written in chalk on a board with a wet sponge nearby.

[Fierce]

Bwuh?

JenChang88 Jen Chang
Sources inform me that FSG have yet to fire Hodgson because they hope all the losses nets them the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
1 minute ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Apparently it was 'a joke'.

I don't get it

[Imy]

Bwuh?

JenChang88 Jen Chang
Sources inform me that FSG have yet to fire Hodgson because they hope all the losses nets them the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
1 minute ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Apparently it was 'a joke'.

American sports, the crap teams have the 1st pick in the player drafts.

[Tee]

I don't get it

I get it now - the bottom team has first pick in the MLB or NFL player drafts.