Hodgson ticks all boxes for England post, says Curbishley
FORMER West Ham and Charlton manager Alan Curbishley has backed Roy Hodgson to succeed as England’s new boss, but says a major overhaul of the national coaching set-up is long overdue.
Curbishley, out of management since resigning from West Ham in 2008, also admits he misses day-to-day involvment in the game and revealed to City A.M. his interest in replacing Hodgson at Premier League West Brom.
The Football Association moved for Hodgson this week after cooling their interest in recruiting bookmakers’ favourite Harry Redknapp and, while Curbishley believes the Tottenham manager was a deserving candidate, he insists the new man, formerly of Switzerland and Inter Milan, merits his chance.
“When the FA have sat down and said ‘what sort of man do we want?’, they’ve put a description in and Roy obviously ticks more boxes than anyone else,” Curbishley told City A.M.. “Firstly, I’m glad the new manager’s English, because I think we’ve needed that. I’ve got admiration for what Roy’s done over the years so I hope they get behind him, because that’s what we need.”
Yet despite admiring Hodgson’s appointment, Curbishley, who was interviewed to replace Sven-Goran Eriksson in 2006 after impressively establishing Charlton as a top-flight club, remains adamant that a progressive development plan for English coaches, finally coming to fruition at the FA’s new St George’s Park base, should have been put in place far sooner. Curbishley was among those discussed for a coaching role during Eriksson’s time as the national team manager, though only Steve McClaren, Eriksson’s eventual succesor, was recruited.
“That was the plan,” said Curbishley. “Eriksson took the England job and the plan was that three or four young English coaches would join in and get the experience, because we’re talking about English managers getting European experience, but very rarely do English managers get the top jobs to be in the Champions League. I thought it was a very good plan, but it never materialised.”
Curbishley, 54, has emerged as an early favourite to succeed Hodgson at the Hawthorns and admits to sometimes contemplating tactics and decisions as though still in the dugout, such is his desire to resume a promising career.
“I think that everyone knows I want to get back into the Premier League, so West Brom is a Premier League club, and obviously I was linked with the Wolves job recently, so it’s something I’d be interested in, yeah,” he said. “Of course I do [miss football, particularly] when I go to live games – I was sitting there watching the Manchester United against Manchester City game thinking ‘what would I do? How would I do it?’”
Curbishley’s time at Charlton preceded a shorter spell at West Ham, who he has supported since childhood, where a dispute surrounding the club’s transfer policy resulted in him resigning from the club.
The Hammers are on their third manager since his departure, with under-pressure boss Sam Allardyce in the process of trying to negotiate the Championship’s play-offs, and though Curbishley is sympathetic about the East End club’s expectation levels, he expects them to secure their much sought-after Premier League return.
“If they get to Wembley, whoever they play, I think they will be classed as favourites,” he added. “I think that the expectation at West Ham was that they were going to go straight up, and because they haven’t, there’s going to be criticism. But at the end of the season, if they’ve won promotion, they’ll all accept that, because it’s a different ball game in the Premier League.”
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