Hodgson tips Burnley manager Dyche for England future

Matt Stead

Roy Hodgson believes the work Sean Dyche has done at Burnley has taken him into contention to manage England.

The Crystal Palace boss, who worked with the national team from 2012 to 2016, has become one of Dyche’s many admirers since observing him establish Burnley in the Premier League with one of the division’s smallest budgets.

When Burnley visit Palace on Saturday they do so from the safety of seventh place and, despite waiting for the England job until he himself was 64 and Dyche being in only his second managerial position, Hodgson believes his Clarets counterpart is already proven.

“The job of England manager is who the FA think is the right person for the job, why should he not be considered?” said Hodgson of the 46-year-old, who managed Watford before Burnley.

“He is doing an excellent job. He deserves the credit. He has built up a very good team and over the last couple of years he has got them playing well and picking up points in the Premier League. (The credit) is totally justified.

“I don’t think there are secrets (behind his success). He has a team that is well organised and understand what is required of them, and are well suited to the roles they are asked to play. If that is the secret, it is one I discovered many years ago. I would describe it as a perpetual truth.”

Respective knee and ankle injuries suffered by Jeffrey Schlupp and Andros Townsend in Monday’s FA Cup third-round defeat by Brighton further reduce Hodgson’s options against Burnley.

Joel Ward, Scott Dann, Mamadou Sakho, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Connor Wickham and Jason Puncheon are also unavailable, giving the manager what he believes could be the biggest injury crisis of his lengthy and varied career.

“Jeffrey will be operated on on Monday and it is likely to be months for him. Andros doesn’t need an operation,” said the 70-year-old. “We hope he will be closer to one month rather than months.

“Mamadou Sakho is moving in the right direction. Joel Ward is getting closer, but is not ready yet.

“The last time I had something like this was at Inter (Milan). We had to fill our bench with youngsters: that is going back over 20 years.

“They are all trauma injuries. Mamadou Sakho is the only muscle injury. These are accidents that happen in the game.”