Hodgson 'happy' retired but Robins 'hard to turn down'

Roy Hodgson said there was much he missed about football after coming out of retirement to return to the dugout as caretaker manager of Bristol City.

The 78-year-old accepted the role at the Championship club until the end of the season following the sacking of Gerhard Struber on Friday.

The former England manager has not worked since leaving Crystal Palace in 2024 and confirmed he will only be in the position for City's seven remaining games, insisting he was "too old" for a long-term position.

"You don't work at top-level football at my age really very often," Hodgson said.

"I'd come to terms with that quite well then something like this happens and you realise that there's a lot I do miss.

"Having this opportunity to get a feel for that again, and have a chance to work with a good group of players - it seems from what I saw this morning - and to relive being on the grass and doing the coaching, which I've always been really keen to do, and with a group of players without necessarily having all the drawbacks."

Hodgson returns to the club where he began his career in 1982, spending four months as Bristol City manager during a turbulent financial time when the club nearly went out of business.

"I've been perfectly happy in my retirement period - a little bit bored from time to time - but a challenge like this was hard to turn down," Hodgson said.

"Plus the fact it is Bristol which is a lovely city and I do have fond memories of my time here, despite the fact I shouldn't have fond memories - I should be having nightmares."

Hodgson said he was first contacted about the job via Richard Scudamore, the former Premier League chief executive who joined the Robins' board of directors in October.

Scudamore put the former England manager in touch with new Bristol City chief executive Charlie Boss and said the duo had been "very persuasive" in getting him to agree to the role.

He insisted he has no interest in the vacant sporting director position at the club once the season has finished and that the short-term nature of the caretaker role was another factor in why the job appealed.

"It was always on the basis that we think you do the work for this five-week period and at the end of it I hope they will have found their new sporting director, found their new manager and the club will go from strength to strength," Hodgson said.

"I hope to get some enjoyment from being here, to re-energise myself from being back on the grass and being back with players which has always been what I've wanted to do."

Hodgson spent four years as England manager between 2012 and 2016 and led the side to the quarter-finals of Euro 2012, but they exited the 2014 World Cup at the group stage and he resigned following a shock defeat by Iceland at Euro 2016.

He has managed a host of clubs including Inter Milan, Liverpool, Fulham, Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion, as well as having two spells at Palace.

He comes into a club that have slipped to 16th in the Championship, despite starting 2026 in the play-off hunt, having won only once in nine games in all competitions before Friday's trip to Charlton, Hodgson's first game in charge.

With seven games over the next five weeks, Hodgson said he will not have many training sessions to make changes but he was not at the club "for a ride", with the hope he can implement foundations that will last beyond his tenure.

"I'm hoping that with my experience and the way I work, some of that might be different to the club and to the players and staff around the club," he said.

"And if it's any good, hopefully some of that will be of value and advantage."