“As you know, I respect Roy a lot but I don’t think I’m in the picture really so, I think, it was a long shot”.
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He insisted, however, that his players showed “good signs of good football” in three group stage games before they melted – Hodgson called it a “one-off” – against Iceland’s team drawn from a tiny pool of professional players among the island’s 330,000 people.
Loew said Iceland’s 2-1 win over England on Monday was “a big surprise for me”.
“I don’t think before last night’s game the performances had given me any real cause for concern, other than us not taking our chances”.
The new manager will be selected by a commtee of three in the FA.
“We didn’t see, and my players didn’t see, that performance coming”.
“As you can understand I’m very fragile today”.
“Obviously none of us wanted these to be the circumstances in which he left his job. We want to work that through, but it is an inspirational manager and management team to get the best out of a squad which has got high potential”.
Glenn said he would join FA’s technical director Dan Ashworth and David Gill, FA vice-chairman, in a search to find a new manager.
His opening message to supporters was: “It’s a sorry – we know at the business ends of tournaments we have come up short”. “I’m not here to talk about names but I’ve been consistent – we’re looking for the best person, not necessarily the best Englishman”. “But, of the English managers, I actually would go for Sam Allardyce.
I think I should be the last person to say it’s got to be a national”.
“I don’t have a problem with it”, he said when asked about a foreign successor.
“I’m sure those players will live up to expectations and one day I’m sure we’ll see England do well in a tournament, I’m hoping in 2018”. “We’ve never played with any fear in this tournament as we have in the past”.
England’s players had earlier made a solemn exit from their team hotel in front of a small crowd of onlookers.
Wayne Rooney gave a full-strength England the flawless start with a fourth minute penalty, but Hodgson’s men rapidly ran out of ideas and energy against a nation ranked 34th in the world.
That marks Rooney out from most of his younger team-mates, for whom he had advice on how to deal with the latest fall-out.
There were glum faces aplenty as the England squad departed the team hotel in Chantilly set for home.
“If it was true, they disguised it very well from myself and the coaching staff”, he added.
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They will return back in England later on Tuesday evening. They were due to return to England from Le Bourget.
