Roy Hodgson will coach the England Under-21s team as well as the seniors for next month's friendlies against Scotland. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Getty ImagesRoy Hodgson will temporarily split his time as manager of the England senior and Under-21s teams to help out the Football Association as it searches for a full-time replacement for Stuart Pearce.
Hodgson has offered to combine his duties with the senior side, preparing for their friendly against Scotland on 14 August, with filling the void left by Pearce's departure and managing the Under-21s in another Anglo-Scottish encounter the previous night at Bramall Lane, home of Sheffield United.
The FA began advertising for Pearce's successor on Wednesday, six weeks after he was removed from its payroll, and hopes to have an appointment in place by the time the Under-21s play Moldova in a Euro 2015 qualifier at Reading on 5 September.
In the meantime Hodgson will be in charge of selecting a new-look squad after the disappointment of the European Championship in Israel in June, with the former captain Jordan Henderson, Danny Rose, Steven Caulker, Craig Dawson, Henri Lansbury and Jack Rodwell all now ineligible at that age level.
After overseeing training with both groups of players at St James's Park, Hodgson and his assistant, Ray Lewington, will leave Gary Neville in charge of the seniors and head to Sheffield before travelling to Wembley the following day for the first England-Scotland match in 14 years.
Hodgson, who will name both squads on 8 August, said: "There is an opportunity, while the recruitment process goes on, for me to work with this [Under-21] squad and it is something I very much wanted to do. Following the tournament in the summer, a number of players are now too old for the age group so we will look at a new batch and I'm keen to work closely on the training field with them for the few days before the game.
"I watch the Under-21 fixtures and I was in Israel for the tournament but, as a coach, nothing can beat the training field and the team hotel for getting to know players properly. In a World Cup year it makes absolute sense while there is the chance to do it."
The FA will emphasise to potential candidates for the Under-21 role, among them Gareth Southgate, that the job now has broader requirements to Pearce's time in the job. Uppermost in its thoughts is the success Spain have had with a system whereby development teams, from Under-16s onwards, play to a similar ethos.
"We have amended the structure so the Under-21 coach will have responsibility for the development coaches, working into our director of elite development, Dan Ashworth," Adrian Bevington, the managing director of Club England, said. "This should ensure a consistency of style across all our teams."
0 comments:
Post a Comment