Roy Hodgson: I'd like England job but it's important everyone looks at the big picture

Evening Standard

Nothing much surprises Roy Hodgson. "I am fatalistic," he says. "So many things happen in football that, if you have a long career like I have, they are going to happen to you sometime."

The West Brom manager takes another sip of beer when we meet in the Park Lane hotel, where his team stayed for last weekend's game at Chelsea. But, for all his acceptance of football fate, he is surprised by how things have turned out since he was sacked by Liverpool. "I'm back at a club similar to the one I left for Liverpool: Fulham."

As with Fulham, he was called in to save the Baggies from relegation. Last season's rescue lacked the drama of keeping Fulham up in 2008 when the winner against Portsmouth came in the 76th minute of their last match but, says Hodgson: "It still was a close escape. We weren't fooled that we finished mid-table [11th]. I was no more confident than we were at Fulham."