Roy Hodgson insisted he does not require “a crutch” after making a shock return to Bristol City at 78 years old and believes he is healthier than when last coaching two years ago, when he was taken ill at Crystal Palace. The former England manager, who took training at the Championship club for the first time on Monday, has taken interim charge for the final seven games of the season.
Hodgson left Palace in February 2024, four days after collapsing at training, but he was tempted out of retirement by Richard Scudamore, the former Premier League chief executive who joined City’s board last October. Hodgson was at home in Richmond, west London, when he received a message out of the blue from Scudamore, a lifelong City fan, asking if he could pick his brains.
Conversations led Hodgson to return to the club 44 years after being sacked in 1982, soon after the club avoided liquidation amid financial turmoil. “I left as a creditor,” Hodgson said. “We had to go to the bank and beg them to give us a moratorium on our mortgage because we couldn’t pay it. I do have fond memories of my time, despite the fact I should have nightmares.”
Hodgson, whose second spell begins with a Good Friday trip to Charlton, “blacked out” on one of his final days at Palace, whom he managed either side of a spell at Watford. “I’m probably fitter now than when I left Palace – I’m certainly 5-6kg lighter,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of work at home, we’ve got a gym in our apartment and we do a lot of walking. My back can cause me problems and I don’t strike balls around like I once did … My general health is pretty good.”
Hodgson accepts he must be wary of the strains of the job, referencing the 80-year-old Romania head coach Mircea Lucescu’s recent collapse. “It is important I do it right, not only for the club and the players but for myself as well,” he said.
“As I joked to the staff, I’ve got no intention of dying on the bench, as happened to one of the greatest of all time, Jock Stein – I don’t want that to happen. Lucescu, who I know quite well, had a collapse. I know that’s what the game can do to you and I’ve got to make certain it doesn’t happen to me.”
He discussed the merits of the opportunity with his former longstanding assistant Ray Lewington, now a mentor to Keith Andrews at Brentford, but was happy to take on the job himself. “I don’t need a crutch,” Hodgson said.
“If anything, I need to be a crutch for the people around the club, the players and the staff – not them to be a crutch for me. I might lean on one if my back continues the way it’s going but as long as I’m standing on two feet and walking about I don’t need a crutch … I’ve always been a coach, even when I’ve had the title of ‘manager’.”
Hodgson, who turns 79 in August, is the latest senior figure to return to the game this season. Neil Warnock recently took interim charge of Torquay at 77 years old and twice this season Martin O’Neill, who turned 74 this month, has answered Celtic’s SOS call. “They’re youngsters,” Hodgson said, with a smile.
“It boils down to two words: energy and enthusiasm. If you haven’t got those two, it’s not going to work. I think when that goes, it’s time to call it a day.”
Hodgson played down potential concerns of him going from, in effect, zero to 100mph, given the demands of the Championship, and said his wife, Sheila, joining him in the West Country will help him settle. “It will be easy, I just have to look after myself and not get carried away,” he said. “My wife is going to come down here, which is very important for me and the club has facilitated that and that will be a big help. It won’t be difficult, if anything it will be very pleasurable.
“I got to a stage in 2024 when I was beginning to doubt [whether I wanted] the pressures of the Premier League: ‘Have you really got the energy and enthusiasm? Would you rather move away from it?’ But this is different. It’s a very interesting opportunity. My aim is to enjoy this period. It excites me to do it. After my first day, there are no heartaches to worry about but there will be heartaches to come and that will be the time to decide: ‘Have I done the right thing?’”
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