I think the Times may have lifted these Roy Hodgson quotes from the latest issue of Fultime, but the point he makes bears repeating. I’d actually contend that too few promising English coaches go abroad and take a chance to work in different environments, especially as they could invaluable experiences later in their career.
I think in the past there was a bigger market in lesser European countries for an English manager because England’s coaching badges were so highly regarded. However, we have devalued the English coaching system by saying that there are no Englishmen capable of coaching the national team, that our coaching set-up is so poor that we must find someone from abroad.
I am afraid we have devalued it for so many coaches who would have been happy to go and work in Sweden, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Africa, Saudi Arabia and so on.
The Germans and the Dutch have been much cleverer and have actually sold their coaching image in a way that we in England haven’t. We have debased ours.
When I was at Blackburn [1997-98] there was some talk that the German national team wanted me as coach, but that was crushed almost immediately at the top because they said it would totally devalue the German licensing system if they were to say that the German licensing system was incapable of producing a coach capable of coaching the national team. We haven’t done that in England.
I think that the English coaching system and the coaches produced are actually of a very good quality and I think there should be a bigger market for them abroad. The fact that you were FA-qualified and given a seal of approval by the top FA people, as I was, that was enough to put you at the forefront of the candidates for the job. Whether that’s still the case, I’m not so sure.
