Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson mad it clear that leaving the club is the next option because of the pressure is much…

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson has indicated he will quit football the moment the pressure becomes all-consuming.

Roy Hodgson, Manager of Crystal Palace reacts during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on September 30, 2017 in Manchester, England.

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Palace sit rooted to the foot of the Premier League after just one win in nine games, and host West Ham on Saturday, itching to start climbing the table.

Hodgson is unsure whether he copes with the stresses and strains of management any better now than when he first took up coaching, some 41 years ago.
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But the 70-year-old former England manager still craves the tensions of top-level management, despite the Eagles’ tough start to the campaign.
Roy Hodgson parted company with the England football team after a disastrous Euro 2016 campaign

Image credit: Reuters

Asked if he copes better with pressure after so much experience, Hodgson said: “I don’t know. It is pretty much like the classic question, is there an easy way to break somebody’s heart? I do not think there is.

“I do not think there is an easy way to deal with the pressures that we subject ourselves to when we take the job.

“If I start complaining the pressure is too much for me then someone will ask me why I took the job and why I did not stay like I was between England and taking the Crystal Palace job.

“I took the job because I wanted the pressure. I wanted the experience. I wanted to work with the players again.”
Asked if he could still make a difference to Palace’s fortune’s, Hodgson replied that he could, but with that came pressure.

“Do I like it? Do I still get the sleepless nights that all football managers get after bad results? Yes, I am afraid I do.

“That has not changed with time. And maybe when the day comes when it does change, and you can just as happily go home when you have won or lost, that is probably the time when you should not be in it any more.”

Hodgson insisted he cannot compare the burdens of international and club management, having led England for four years until summer 2016.

“You cannot compare those two things,” he said. “The pressure of being a Premier League manager is always going to be with you.

“It is an enormous responsibility because a lot of money is involved.

“If a team does not stay in the league, it is harder and harder to get back into the league.

“Of course you are representing a club which interests a lot of people. We like to think that, apart from our 25,000 who come and back us at Selhurst Park, there will be a good few more than that who follow us.

“England, of course, that is a different kettle altogether.

“That is 60million people you are representing there. It would be very foolish to suggest that whenever you are working for a club side that the pressure is the same as when you are representing your country.”

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