Thursday, March 26, 2015

FA planning Hodgson talks

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke says he is planning contract talks to extend Roy Hodgson's current deal as England manager.
Roy Hodgson: Could have contract with England extended
Hodgson succeeded Fabio Capello at the England helm in May 2012 and oversaw a largely positive run of results before the humiliation of group-stage elimination at the 2014 World Cup.
With qualification for the 2016 European Championships all but assured for the Group E leaders ahead of Friday night's visit of Lithuania, Dyke expects to sort out Hodgson's contract extension months before the tournament in France.
"I get on quite well with Roy and I chat to him all the time," the FA chairman said. "We have not talked about contracts yet.
"We will have the discussion with Roy in the next nine months to a year.
"When we decided in Brazil that we wanted Roy to continue with his contract, we thought 'he's got a contract, he sees it through'. Sometime in the next year we will discuss what happens afterwards.
"We genuinely haven't discussed it (yet)."
Dyke confirmed Hodgson would attend the draw for the World Cup qualifying stages in Russia this summer.
The FA chairman will not attend the event, though, as he does not want a repeat performance of the World Cup draw in 2013, when he slid his index finger across his throat at drawing Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica - seemingly implying Hodgson's team were doomed.
"Roy will go to St Petersburg for the draw in July," Dyke said. "I am not allowed to go after what happened last time!"
England centre-half Phil Jagielka is the latest high-profile player to express his desire for a new deal to be given to Hodgson, who will be 70 when the 2018 World Cup comes around.
"We were all massively disappointed with the way the World Cup went," the 32-year-old defender said.
"Qualifying went pretty well and we were all confident to have a good World Cup, but unfortunately it never happened.
"It was nice to see Roy was given another chance. It was always going to be a nervy opening to the European qualifying and stuff but the boys are fantastic, it proved we backed him, it proved it was the right decision to do.
"But I am sure when we qualify, are expected to qualify, we need to have a good tournament in France to back him if Roy is going to stay on. But the boys are desperate to do that.
"Qualifying has proved we are one step on the ladder to qualification so we are not daft enough not to know we still need to do it at a tournament, but we feel we have the boys to do that."

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