Blackburn's boss gives his experienced view on the state of English football

ROY Hodgson shrugs off the notion that English football has been dominated by the long-ball game for years.

And, as a man with vast European experience, the Blackburn Rovers boss is worth listening to when he stresses that it's not just in this country that football is becoming more sophisticated, it's a global trend.

England were able to put their feet up this week, while eight rivals are battling it out for the remaining four European places at next year's World Cup finals.

Their achievement in qualifying outright should not be underestimated.

For, as Hodgson stresses, the gap between the top and bottom has narrowed dramatically.

"I haven't got a big sample to base my research on, I haven't worked in England for 20 years," he said.

"But I always thought the assumption that England played a long ball game was exaggerated.

"I don't remember Bobby Robson's team, with Gascoigne and Bryan Robson, playing a long ball game. I don't remember Liverpool when they were winning trophies in the 1970s playing a particularly long ball game. I don't remember Dalglish and Rush as long ball players.

"Certainly, I didn't see Souness and Sammy Lee as long ball players.

"I always used to wonder where the stories came from quite honestly. "There's no doubt that the sophistication of English football will increase because there are more and more European competitions which we were deprived of after Heysel.

"Now we are getting fully back into the swing of that and the game has opened up with foreigners coming in. These things make a slight difference."

But Hodgson, who looks at the whole picture rather than just a parochial one, recognises that the smaller footballing nations are also learning fast and catching up with the big guns.

"The game globally, I think, gets more and more sophisticated and there's less and less difference every year between the so-called great teams and the so-called poor teams," he explained.

"We have seen lots of examples. We all agree that Germany are an incredible football nation, because every time there's a big competition they are there.

"Yet, they beat Albania 4-3 at home with a last minute goal (in the final WC qualifiers).

"So what does that tell us about Albanian football? Or does it tell us that German football is bad?

"What it does say is that whether you are Germany, England or Italy these days, I don't care whether your opponents are France, Spain or Albania, you have a tough game on your hands.

"And if your players are not tuned in as they should be and they are not working as hard as they should be, there's always going to be a surprise. "The Faroe Islands were 1-2 against Spain and the Scots were sweating. The Faroe Islands! We don't even know where they are."

The Rovers boss, however, is upbeat about England's World Cup prospects.

"They won arguably the most difficult group which would suggest they are at the very top of European football," he said.

"And they have a good chance to do well in the World Cup because it's quite often that a European team either wins it or at least gets to the final."

Ironically, Hodgson does not feel the continuing sophistication of our game is particularly down to the arrival of coaches from abroad - himself included.

But he does believe that this country is now perceived as a place to come and work.

"I think the thing has been quite simply that the top foreign coaches have not seen England as a good market because of wages," he said.

"They preferred to stay in countries where the wages were higher. Now that English wages are catching up with the continent, they see England as a market and if people want them they are prepared to come.

"But there are people in England already with European experience. "Alex Ferguson has an enormous amouint of European experience. I think Howard Kendall has and even if you take people like Joe Kinnear and Steve Coppell, they have good European experience.

"You don't necessarily have to work abroad to know about European football. I think it would be very foolish and unfair to put Arsene Wenger and Ruud Gullit on a different planet.

"They are fine coaches at big clubs, are well supported, have good players and are doing a great job.

"But I am pretty sure they would be the first to tell you: 'I am not the only person who could do a good job at this club.'

"Just as I am not the only person who could do a job here (with Rovers). There are plenty of others.

"It's up to every club to decide its own policy and philosophy."

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