Roy Hodgson
Is Ismaila Sarr back in training?
No, not today comes back to training tomorrow, I think. So I shall see him then.
Will he get a good welcome from everyone for winning the Africa Cup of Nations?
Oh, absolutely. Many congratulations to him. And it’s a fantastic achievement for Senegal to win the African Cup of Nations and I’m sure he’ll still be having a very warm glow in the aftermath of that victory.
Do you think he’ll be available for Saturday?
I can’t say. I haven’t met him even yet to be honest. So you know, the first thing will be to meet him and to speak to him and welcome him back to the fold and to congratulate him. And then the second thing will be you know, to have an assessment alongside him as to where he is and how he’s feeling.
Will you hope he’s raring to go and help Watford avoid the drop?
I’m not going to help her want to play they weren’t here want to help you in your battle, especially given the high that he must be on at the moment? Well, you always hope that the players were signed by the club and contracted to the club are anxious to do what the rest of us also anxious to do. So I don’t think I have any reason to doubt his commitment.
If Sarr can’t start will it be on your mind to play Samuel Kalu?
People like Samuel, who are new newly acquired players, they’re always in your thoughts. So the squad is a big one. There’s a lot of players I think who were signed with the idea that they can help us become a better team. And it’s up to Ray [Lewington] and I really to try and make those assessments of the players as quickly as we possibly can. All we’ve got to use at the moment are the training sessions and the two matches we played.
Are you looking forward to your first match at Vicarage Road?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, the fact is I think when you take on the role of a Premier League manager or coach you’re excited to sit in every dugout, but your home dugout always has that extra special allure and I suppose. So tomorrow will be the first time, it’ll be our third game, Ray and I in charge, we are really looking forward to welcoming Brighton and also seeing how our home fans can help us along the way.
Will you expect a warm greeting from the home fans?
I hope so, that would be nice.
How important are the home games in the rest of the season?
We need a string of good results, whether they’re at Vicarage Road or elsewhere, there’s no doubt about that. But we’re not alone in that instance. When you find yourself at the low end of the table where there’s no wiggle room, really, you know every game is a vital one for you. Because you don’t want to slip further behind and you really want to start bridging that gap between you and the teams above you. So nothing changes really in that respect. It will be too easy I think just to say it’s the home form and the home games that will decide it. That might not be the case. It certainly wasn’t the case at Fulham, it wasn’t the home form that decided it, it was actually our away from that decided it. So I’ve got an open mind and I don’t really mind either way. It’s always nicer to win your games at home, in front of your home crowd. But most supporters are sensible people, they also realise if you’re getting the points away from home, they can be happy with that too.
Does the team need to start scoring more?
If you want to win game, you got to. You can’t win games nil nil. And all the time the game is nil nil, you’re always concerned that something’s going to happen that maybe you don’t even deserve to happen. You know, like the deflected goal the other night and that will have an influence and maybe even decide the game. So goals are the key to everybody. There’s no secret about that. And I’m sure that the players here are fully aware of it and they will be working as hard as we, the staff, are to try and make certain we get those goals
Do you need to release the shackles a little bit in terms of the attack?
What shackles are they, [that] you’re referring to?
The defence has improved and that was the first job but has the attack suffered?
But that didn’t mean we were trying to shackle the players or intend to shackle the players. Yeah, surely we’ve done some work on out of defending. But at the same time we’ve done work on our attacking play as well. So I’m not aware that there’s any desire for either myself or any of the players to be shackled. So they can feel as free to be as unshackled as they like. I’m quite happy with that.
This will be your 150th Premier League game in charge since you were 65, only Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Robson have had more. Are you proud?
Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, since 65? Yeah, maybe there was a few before that. I think it’s well over 350 in total, so I’m trying to work out with the other 200 were. But I don’t know. I mean, age is a number as everybody knows, it’s really a question of how you feel. I definitely don’t involve myself in such statistical analysis. But if ever I get mentioned in the same breath as Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Robson, it’s a nice moment, a proud moment. I’m proud to be able to call both of them friends and people of course, whom I admire and respect enormously. So just to be mentioned in the same breath is a very nice thing.
Have you had a chance to speak to Sir Elton John?
Yes, yes. It was another privilege. He called me before the game against Burnley to wish us luck and to welcome me to the club. So that was another good moment, if you like, in my life. And another story I can tell over dinner tables in the future.
He knows his stuff, he knows all about Watford, right?
Oh yeah, he knows football as well. And Ray Lewington has enormous respect and time for him. And in fact, one of the first things he said during the conversation was to ask about Ray, ask how he was doing. So he takes a keen interest, his club, his players, his staff. And most importantly of all, he is a football man. He loves football, he particularly loves Watford playing football. We’re very lucky to have him.
Are there positives you can take from that West Ham performance going into Saturday’s game?
Well, I suppose the most games if you’re really desperate, you can find a positive or two. But the fact is, it is a question of points rather than – whats of the word – I don’t want to say performances, but the way the team is looking is to some extent nowhere near as important as the results you are getting in the games. And we really need results more than anything. So even if the team plays quite well, and you perhaps don’t have a reason to be particularly disappointed or upset with the way the team has played, if you haven’t got a result from the game, especially if you think maybe you deserve that result, it’s a tough moment.
How much have Brighton impressed you and how much credit has to go to their manager Graham Potter?
I think [an] enormous amount of credit goes to the manager Graham Potter, I think he’s outstandingly good. But I think a lot of credit also goes to Dan Ashworth and the owner of the club for identifying Graham Potter too and then identifying the type of football that they would like to play under Graham and obviously the football Graham wants to play, and having so much success with it. So it’s a marriage made in heaven obviously, might be being broken up now with Dan moving on, but the club has actually established itself in such a way, and I think Graham Potter handles every aspect of the job perfectly. He’s very, very good with the mass media, the way he speaks. He has great dignity on the touchline. He is one of the guys that you’re pleased to speak to before and after the game. And he knows how to accept a defeat which of course is one of the hardest things to do when you’re a manager because we all want to throw our toys out the pram to some extent when we lose.
Points will be key, but what else will ultimately make the difference when it comes to saying up?
No, that will make the difference. You know, it doesn’t matter whether you get them [points] against teams around you, or whether you get them from the top teams. You know, we [Crystal Palace] once in a season improved our position enormously by beating Manchester City. It’s not something you do every week, but it can be done. So we don’t regard it purely a case of taking points and winning against the team who are around us, in the same sort of boulders we are in. We just regard it in a more simpler form. How are we going to get the number of points necessary? Where are they going to come from? When they don’t come in a game, we analyse why, analyse what we could have done better, and then prepare for the next game. I’m afraid, I can’t make it more complicated than that.
Is there enough in that Watford squad to stay up?
I think the games will tell me that. If you ask me after the two games, have I been positively impressed by the type of performances and the way the players have gone about their work and trying to do their job? I suppose I would say, ‘Yeah. I’ve got no reason to be anything other than very satisfied’. But it’s, that’s where, where the proof of the pudding is going to be when we get onto that field on a Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, and play against a rival, that’s when we need to be at our best and the players need to be doing what is required really of them to produce a good team performance. And then one has to believe in the long run that the more good team performances you produce, the more points you will get at the end of the day.
How is it preparing for a first home game knowing the crowd should be behind you?
Well, I think it’s very reassuring to know that here that the fans really do back their team and are behind them. And of course, if you come as an opponent, you’re going to be on the wrong end if you like of their interest in the game. And that’s how it should be. You know, you want, you expect that. As an away team you expect the home team to get all the support and you know your team possibly to come out on the wrong end in terms of support. I think they’ve got a big role to play, I think the fans. I think when you find yourself near the bottom of the table, they like everyone here at the club will be anxious that we survive this year. That will be their major concern, their major goal. And I think they’re intelligent enough, I’ve got a lot of faith in the intelligence and common sense of football fans, to realise that that’s not going to be made easier, the task, if they don’t get behind us, if they don’t give us the right encouragement, if they don’t even show sometimes the right degree of patience and, and sympathy with the guys on the field of play. Because one thing I know that the fans will not have reason to criticise hear in the months to come, will be the level of commitment and the level of effort the players want to put in. Now whether they always play as well as the fans would like, whether their shots are as good as the fans would like to see, whether the offending and the tackles are as successful as the fans would like to say, I don’t know. Because football doesn’t tell you that, we don’t have a crystal ball. But I do know that they won’t have any reason to criticise us in terms of our desire and our wanting to do the job. And my plea to them, I guess then is, well, any help you can give us will be greatly appreciated.
Do you know Potter when he was over in Sweden?
I left Sweden at the back end of 1989. I don’t know quite how old Graham is. He’s a young man I think, so I’m pretty certain he wasn’t working in Sweden in 1989. I first came across him of course when Ostersunds did so well in the league. I knew about that because I found the Swedish League and the results. And then of course they played Arsenal and I got a chance to see that team, to see what work he’d done, and then the next time and the only time up to then when I chance to meet him was when Crystal Palace played at Swansea. I think it was a Carabao Cup game or League Cup game. So I met him them. And, you know, I was impressed by how he got Swansea playing. And when Brighton made a move to take him to Brighton, my first thought was, ‘I think you’ve made a very good signing there, you know, because this man looks like he’s a very good manager and will become even better with the experience the Premier League will give him’. And in that respect, I guess we’ve all been proven right.
Were you surprised that Kurt Zouma played against Watford in the week, and do you think players’ behaviour has got worse with the amount of money they now make?
I don’t intend to talk about the actual incident. I mean, obviously, that’s some between itself the club of the RSPCA and I believe even the police. So that is obviously important and – what’s the right word – really, a matter which is not to be treated in any way lightly or negligently. But I trust that the people who are dealing with it the right way. And I certainly didn’t have any opinions myself on a moral basis as to what the West Ham should have done when the news had only just broken before we played. They took the decision they took and they would justify that decision, I’m sure and then give their reasons for doing so. Are players getting worse than in the past? I’m not sure they are. But I would say two things. I mean, the first thing is they’ve got to realise that the scrutiny is so much greater these days with social media and camera phones, etc. So, you know, they’ve got to be aware that if they do want to misbehave, they’re going to have a much greater chance of being caught out. And the other thing I would say is that it’s very sad sometimes, as a football person, and who is conscious of the fact that not everyone does care that much about football – you know, there are lots of people out there in the world who, for them football doesn’t exist – but for me, it’s a profession. It’s a profession I’ve given my life to. So it hurts me a little bit when that profession is denigrated, in a way it’s been denigrated at least on quite a few occasions by people doing things which are not only totally unacceptable, they’re totally illegal into the bargain. So I don’t feel good about those matters. But I don’t either want to sit here and with a moral hat in my head and start making judgments because you know people like human beings and they do make mistakes.
On a more upbeat note, what’s your favourite Elton John song?
Of the ones going back in time, I think it was probably ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’. I quite like the ballad type ones. And then when I was in the UAE, the song ‘Sacrifice’ came out, I liked that one very much. ‘Nikita’ I like, I like them all. I mean basically the man’s career, you know, the word ‘legend’ I think is used a little bit too often these days. But if you really want to talk about someone who is a legend, then Elton John would be one of the few that I would definitely say, ‘This man is a legend’. And no one could even counter say me in that.
