Roy Hodgson has played down reports that he is one of the contenders to replace Lars Lagerback as manager of Sweden.

Lagerback resigned after failing to guide Sweden to the World Cup finals and Hodgson, who spent more than a decade as a coach in the country, insisted that he wanted to stay with Fulham.

I spent 12 years there, I suppose that I and Bob Houghton (who also managed Malmo) are given a lot of credit for being father figures of the way that Sweden has gone about its business for the last 20 odd years. So I suppose I shouldn’t say I would be surprised to hear that I was on a list of candidates.

They’ve always gone for Swedish coaches and I’d be very, very surprised if they don’t go for another Swedish coach. Secondly I’m quite happy here so hopefully my time here will continue a bit longer.