“I thought the way we played and the way we won [the Premier League], staying top all year, showed how good we were”, he added of Chelsea’s success last season prompting others to respond in the transfer market.
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England have gone into tournaments in the past knowing that the manager was on his way out, most notably at the 1990 World Cup finals with Bobby Robson and then with Sven Goran Eriksson at the 2006 finals.
Hodgson said: “I don’t know quite how severe that injury is”.
Hodgson’s contract is up in July next year and the 67-year-old said he has yet to discuss his future with new FA chief executive Martin Glenn, who has said no decision will be made until after next year’s tournament in France. I don’t know. There are lot of considerations.
“Obviously, it is a wonderful job and if the FA want me to continue with it, I’d be happy to do so”. It means there will be lots of speculation the moment we qualify until the tournament itself.
Hodgson believes Sterling coped mentally with any fall-out, and said: “He was playing for a club with a very strong fan base, not only in England but in other parts of the world, and unfortunately for him, I suppose, the fans locally at Liverpool took unkindly to the fact that he made it clear he wanted to move“.
“At that moment I was really pleased with the signing, but I had to go”.
In the past Hodgson has been at peace with a degree of uncertainty over his future beyond Euro 2016, largely because there was a general agreement at the FA that, given the obvious sensitivities, the matter was not be discussed publicly by either side. “I love working with this team”. I am still young enough. I am honoured to have the job. For Hodgson, a veteran manager who is 68 next month, that kind of psychology is unlikely to go down well and does not represent the best of starts to his relationship with Glenn.
‘Roy knows the philosophy and has never raised it personally with me.
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“I’ve not had a discussion with him about his contract and he understands that where we’ve been in the past”, Glenn said. But I think if anything that will help him to mature and improve even more.
