To the OP
I suspect that you will find that Hodgson's reference to being amazed that he's still got the majority of the squad he inherited is not that he's happy to have it but that he's amazed that this ageing squad has been able to avoid a relegation battle yet again. He's made it very clear on more than one occasion in the past that the squad needs rejuvenating and he has shown delight at the progress Eze and Mitchell have made and some of the U18s are making. The idea that Hodgson has it in for youth is IMHO a myth created by the 'Roy Out' brigade.

Edited by doombear (17 May 2021 4.23pm)

As is often the case, what was written about yesterday's bench was a carefully selected edit. I listened to what Hodgson ACTUALLY said and I explained that in the thread questioning Hodgson's sanity. Of course, you could go to the CPFC website and listen to Hodgson's answer to the journalist for yourself but if you are anti-Hodgson you may decide you don't want to. What he said made perfect sense to me by the way.

As to your question, yes I can. He did it with Dreher a couple of seasons back, so if the youngster is deemed ready, Hodgson will play him IMO.

Edited by doombear (17 May 2021 7.36pm)

Tragic post .. big Sam bought JS , Pva and Luka in 17 , 4 years later they are regular prem first team players with relatively little outlay .. Pva I would say is off, JS is actually missed when not playing and Luka may be past his best but he cost 6m, so we real value tbh.

Roy didn’t spend big on Tekkers or Sakho .. in fact the only real purchases have been Sorloth (some how we hoodwinked RBL into 20m) and Eze last season who will seem a bargain at 20 mill or so.

Roy’s remit is to keep us in the PL that’s it , it’s about hard cash .. ask any Sunderland, Portsmouth etc etc if they would like to be bored with PL football or stuck in Div 1 for years. Unless there is big investment in the team then Roy will stick with what he has as it works and that’s the job he’s given by our board.

So yes it’s hard to watch but until we get 37-40 points on the board we will predominately play the percentages and win ten against the bottom ten and pick up a few points against the top 6 .. winning at old Trafford etc. Every team in from 10th place down is in exactly the same position ..

Tragic post .. big Sam bought JS , Pva and Luka in 17 , 4 years later they are regular prem first team players with relatively little outlay .. Pva I would say is off, JS is actually missed when not playing and Luka may be past his best but he cost 6m, so we real value tbh.

Roy didn’t spend big on Tekkers or Sakho .. in fact the only real purchases have been Sorloth (some how we hoodwinked RBL into 20m) and Eze last season who will seem a bargain at 20 mill or so.

Roy’s remit is to keep us in the PL that’s it , it’s about hard cash .. ask any Sunderland, Portsmouth etc etc if they would like to be bored with PL football or stuck in Div 1 for years. Unless there is big investment in the team then Roy will stick with what he has as it works and that’s the job he’s given by our board.

So yes it’s hard to watch but until we get 37-40 points on the board we will predominately play the percentages and win ten against the bottom ten and pick up a few points against the top 6 .. winning at old Trafford etc. Every team in from 10th place down is in exactly the same position ..

This really does get tedious, if Roy thought we had youngsters good enough to play he would pick them. Why on earth would he do otherwise?

He has his favourites yadda yadda yadda, he sees the players in training unlike any of us, and surprisingly he picks the players he thinks are best suited to win the game.

Some on here really do need to give their head a wobble!