It’s a rare thing to hear of anyone associated with Liverpool Football Club looking back on Roy Hodgson’s brief stint with a smidge of fondness.
That’s exactly the case for former Reds striker Nathan Eccleston who credited the now Crystal Palace boss with giving him a ‘fair crack at the whip’ at Anfield.
“I think something, that all players, not even just youngsters, imagine when they’re coming under new management is whatever happened in the past is gone and you’ve got a new opportunity. For me, I always looked at it as like, ‘okay, any bias towards any players had gone’,” the 30-year-old told the Echo.
“For me, it was, ‘okay if you remove the star name and just base us all on our work ethic and how we apply ourselves,’ it’s a great opportunity. Roy Hodgson certainly did that for me.
“I remember coming back from my loan, he brought a couple of youngsters up for pre-season, and I just grafted really hard. I think we were in Switzerland [pre-season] and I did really well and he just said, ‘you’ll be staying with us for the remainder of this season’, and I’d be training full-time at Melwood with the actual first-team. So for me, it was amazing.
“I remember specifically, that I played seven times under Roy and he was that type of manager if you were working hard in training and you applying yourself he would give you the opportunity. On a couple of occasions, he played me ahead of some senior players and some international players, and I was really grateful for that because he gave you a really fair crack at the whip.
“I was really grateful that he didn’t have a bias. That’s why I think, obviously, his time at Liverpool is probably viewed up and down but for me, as a player, I appreciated that he picked players on their attitude.”
The former Bury youth prodigy made a grand total of eight substitute appearances and one start in the famous red shirt.
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A dark time in Liverpool’s history
Whilst it’s heartwarming to hear such a tale from a particularly dark period in the club’s history, we couldn’t be more grateful for how things have progressed since.
The club is firmly back to its winning ways under managerial behemoth Jurgen Klopp, with a first league title since 1990 not to mention a first Champions League trophy since 2005 among a host of other silverware.
With the greatest of respect to Hodgson – the more distance we can put between our German tactician’s reign at the club and the aforementioned Englishman’s, the better!
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