Hodgson: Ex-players like Rooney held to unrealistic standards as managers

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson feels former big-name footballers are at times held to "unrealistic" expectations when they enter management roles with top clubs.

Former England captain Wayne Rooney, who played under Hodgson for four years when the 76-year-old was managing the national team, on Tuesday found himself in search of a new employer as he was sacked by Birmingham after just 83 days.

The ex-Manchester United striker in a statement said he did not "believe 13 weeks was sufficient to oversee the changes that were needed".

Hodgson, who himself returned for a second spell at Palace following Patrick Vieira's sacking last March, had empathy for Rooney's self-assessment. 

He said: "It's perhaps more a question of the climate people work in these days. 

"I think sometimes the bigger-name players won’t be given a chance at a top club or a club in an elevated position.

"I'm thinking in particular Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard even more than Wayne. 

"But unfortunately the way the climate is these days is that the judgement on them will come very, very quickly and will be quite severe.

"They'll be welcomed into the club because of their name.

"And they'll be expected because they are Steven Gerrard and because they are Frank Lampard [that] suddenly you're going to come in and the team that you're going to be taking over — which hasn't been doing brilliantly — is suddenly going to fly because you're here.

"That's unrealistic. They've got a point when they say: 'I didn't really get a chance. No one gave me two years. I didn't get three or four transfer windows, I didn't get a chance to really decide when I took over the group of players'.

"Let's get Rooney, let's get Lampard, let's get Gerrard, and there's no change? Well, that's where the dream, the myth, is quite often proliferated. 

"That a manager has some sort of magic wand and he will wave that wand and the team that has been doing badly will now do well, because he is there.

"Sometimes it works but it is by no means a certainty."