Roy Hodgson: why not?

It’s not an appointment that will excite the masses, but what this club needs now is a solid, knowledgeable coach who can improve the good players we have and work on other areas of need. Hodgson can do this.

Furthermore, his knowledge of European football should be extensive; where Sanchez surrounded himself with what he knew - Northern Ireland’s best - Hodgson should have more and better players on his radar. (This is a good thing because there aren’t many heavy duty defensive midfielders available in the UK; there might be in Europe.)

His CV is interesting. Here are the sides he has managed:

Halmstads BK
Bristol City
Örebro SK
Malmö FF
Neuchâtel Xamax
Switzerland
Internazionale
Blackburn Rovers
Internazionale
Grasshoppers
F.C. Copenhagen
Udinese
United Arab Emirates
Viking FK
Finland
Fulham

If nothing else he will have seen football from a number of perspectives and will have an open mind about how he wants to play. Too often under Sanchez we got the feeling that it was plan A or the highway. Here we have a manager who, by necessity, has had to learn different leagues, different styles, and that word again, perspectives. Fulham will benefit from this. I’m particularly interested in his spells at Inter Milan. If he can manage a top Italian club he can stop us conceding silly goals. I hope.

If we cut through the misery we can conclude that he has inherited a reasonable squad. I don’t think many of us would have too many objections about the likes of Niemi, Omozusi, Hughes, Konchesky, Bouazza, Davies and Dempsey being Fulham players in a year. There are others with ability, and now, with a fresh start, they have to show us that they have what it takes to produce consistently useful football. We’ve seen glimpses of talent in most of the squad, but the suspicion remains that we have too many Championship standard players. The time for these players to prove themselves is now. Hodgson can help. It’s a new start, a new manager, and a chance to forget 2007, a dire year for the club.

With a new manager and a new year we must be optimistic.   Let’s see what happens.