England boss doesnt feel bitter about having to bide his time In his autobiography I Think Therefore I Play, Andrea Pirlo affords Roy Hodgson a single paragraph. When they were together at Internazionale in 1999, Pirlo was a young player beginning his career and Hodgson was an interim appointment before the arrival of Marcello Lippi the following summer.Pirlo recalls one key detail from their time together. Hodgson mispronounced my name, he wrote. He called me pirla (d***head), perhaps understanding my true nature more than the other managers. Asked about it yesterday, as he prepared to face the 35-year-old Pirlo in his first World Cup game as manager of England, Hodgson said as gently as possible that he disputed the memory of his former player. I think he may have used a bit of poetic licence there, he said. I called him Andrea, for the most part. I never use surnames. I dont ever remember referring to him as Pirlo – Im a Christian name person. Maybe Andrea and Pirla sound similar. Certainly he was anything other than a d***head. I felt a bit sorry for him because he hadnt played much when I came because the squad was full of No 10s. Roberto Baggio, Youri Djorkaeff, Ze Elias all vying with Paulo Sousa for a place. Hodgson was no part of the decision to sell Pirlo to Milan, where Carlo Ancelotti then launched his career as one of the great playmakers of his generation. By then he had moved on again, this time to manage Grasshoppers Zurich on the great journey of his career that has come full circle, one might say. Although Hodgson, ever wary of the pitfalls of language, added: I dont want the circle to end. I want the circle to carry on. It was another day of preparation as the week moves towards Italy in Manaus on Saturday. Tomorrow England travel, and Hodgson is burdened with another concern, this time the injury to Danny Welbeck which forced him out of training yesterday in the session that the England manager did subsequent to his media commitments. It was his first exposure to the Brazilian press, who were curious to ask him about his only previous World Cup finals experience, with Switzerland in 1994 – a reminder of his extensive coaching past. Internationally, Hodgson is well-known and well-regarded, whether it be coaching a young Pirlo at Inter or coaching Finland or the United Arab Emirates or Neuchâtel Xamax in Switzerland. At home it can be a different story.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:17:50 +0000
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