The 76-year-old, born in Croydon, did so much for Palace but mounting pressure in difficult final season took its toll
As Roy Hodgson trudged off the pitch last Monday night after Crystal Palace’s morale-sapping late defeat by Chelsea, he must have realised he was on borrowed time. Less than 11 months after his triumphant return to replace Patrick Vieira at his home town club, the manager who first visited Selhurst Park as a six-year-old in the 1950s could never have imagined it would come to this.
A campaign that has made the Premier League’s oldest-ever manager – a record he possessed even before answering the Palace chairman Steve Parish’s SOS call last March – increasingly irritable as his team struggled with injuries and poor form seemed to be taking its toll on Hodgson for several weeks. But news that he had to be taken to hospital for tests after falling ill during a training session last Thursday was an extremely concerning development. This season has caused the former England manager considerable anxiety and he has now confirmed that he will step down three months earlier than planned. “Given recent circumstances, it may be prudent at this time for the club to plan ahead,” he said in a statement.