It was a fond farewell, even as he returned to the scene of personal disappointment. Roy Hodgson said he was pleased his last game was at Anfield, “one of the temples of football”, and bowed out a local hero, the Croydon bus driver’s son who had travelled the globe, returned to his native south London and kept his boyhood club Crystal Palace up for four consecutive seasons. Arsenal gave him a guard of honour when they visited Palace. After 45 years in dugouts from Scandinavia and Switzerland to the San Siro and Selhurst Park, he had earned the right to retire.
Except the tributes last summer were premature. Hodgson returned, management’s addictive properties ensuring he needed one final fix. Going to Watford was a mistake, for him and them alike. He has extended his record as the Premier League’s oldest ever manager. His final game, at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, will come at 74 years, nine months and 13 days. It will also come with Watford long since relegated, with indications that the methods that served him well in the Allsvenskan in the 1970s have finally stopped working, and that Roy has gone rogue.
