Roy Hodgson
Watford manager Roy Hodgson has accepted that the Hornets are almost certainly going to be relegated despite still having an outside shot of survival. With that in mind, the 74-year-old was in no mood to give fans ‘false hope’ going into the game on Saturday. Indeed, while speaking in his press conference he admitted that the club would need a miracle to avoid the drop.
Roy Hodgson said: “The writing’s certainly on the wall. I mean, we would need more than a miracle. So I don’t think it’s correct even to start suggesting and giving people false hope. You know, unfortunately, our hope was that in the three games, starting with Leeds, and then through Brentford and Burnley, we would get enough points to keep in touch with the fellow strugglers. We came close, I think in those games, I think we could honestly say that wouldn’t have been wrong if we’d have taken more points than we did, ie more from those games. Because we had our moments and we looked as though we were going to get the result we wanted, but we didn’t. And that’s put us in the position where we are. So we have to face up to that. And it’s going to obviously be tough then for players now because we have four games to play. And they can’t really be continuing to look for that carrot: ‘If you win this one, you might be okay. And you might stay up.'”
Hodgson went on to speak about how the players have to approach the upcoming games despite knowing their fate is as good as sealed.
Roy Hodgson said: “They’ve got to play these games, knowing that even a good result might not help us to stay in the league. And that’s not easy. But on the other hand, so far in the games we’ve played, we’ve been competitive. I think we could have taken more points than we have done in plenty of games. And they’ve got to show pride, they’ve got to show that they are a good team and they are good players, and that the club can trust them next season to help them bounce back into the Premier League, which will be everybody’s goal.”
