Roy Hodgson has opened up on
his ill-fated stint at Liverpool,
revealing he feels "wounded" by
what was his worst six months as
a manager.
- West Brom appoint Hodgson
- Roy's early chance at
redemption
Hodgson is back in football just 37
days after being shown the exit
door at Anfield in charge of West
Brom. He prefers to look to the
future rather than reflect on his
spell with the Reds. But Hodgson
is honest enough to concede his
pride was hurt although his self
belief has not been affected.
Hodgson said: "I didn't feel drained
but you do feel wounded. I have
had a very good spell in my
career and it's a long time since I
have had a very serious knock-
back so, when it comes, it wounds
you.
"You wouldn't be human if it didn't
but it hasn't dented any
confidence or belief. But I can't lie
and say it didn't hurt me, or I
didn't care, because, of course, I
care. I care very passionately
about my job and I care about
football and I have had an awful
lot of praise. So, when you get
the opposite, it's not something
you particularly embrace, but, if
you've got half a brain, you
accept that as being part of the
job or par for the course.''
Hodgson admits he feared his
days at Liverpool would be
numbered after the departure of
owners Tom Hicks and George
Gillett and feels more wanted by
the Baggies.
He said: "The people who wanted
me at Liverpool didn't last too
long. The people who employed
me didn't stay for too long. The
new owners found themselves in
a difficult situation because we
weren't winning enough games
and the fans were making it
perfectly clear they wanted me
gone and somebody else in. To be
fair to them, they were in a very
difficult situation. I can't for one
minute suggest I was wanted at
Liverpool.
"But hopefully everyone will
accept this club made a
considerable effort to get me and
worked hard to persuade me to
come and try to help preserve
the status so, of course, I feel
much more wanted. But I have
been lucky. I felt wanted at
Fulham and there aren't that
many clubs where I haven't felt
wanted.''
Hodgson added: "We were doing
quite well at one stage but then
got two bad results but that is
the league this year. If we had
won those two, which under
normal circumstances we could
quite possibly have done, we
would have been in the top five
or six and been alright - but we
lost them.
"But that was on the back of a
lot of other things and you just
have to accept that these things
happen to you in football. It's not
what you want but I have
nothing negative at all to say
about my time at Liverpool. The
players were excellent and the
staff were excellent and it would
have been a magnificent time if
we'd won more matches but we
didn't win them.''
Hodgson is hoping to perform the
same sort of rescue act he
achieved at Fulham four years
ago in keeping Albion in the top
flight. He can also see similarities
between the way the two clubs
are run.
He said: "I think the way Jeremy
Peace (chairman) wants to run
this club and, with the way
Mohamed Al Fayed wanted to run
Fulham, there are direct
similarities. Both of them want
success, both of them want the
very best, and they want to do
it by not bankrupting the club or
walking away and leaving the club
in an awful mess. I think the
husbandry of this club up to now
has been very good.
"Even when they have not
retained Premier League status,
they have kept their heads and
got back up again which is very
laudable. Fulham have shown
similar consistency and restraint
but they've had the good
fortune, when it looked like they
were going down, to survive by
the skin of their teeth. As a
result the foundations got
stronger. I am sure here the
foundations will get stronger if
we can put a number of years
back to back in the Premier
League behind us.''