The mastermind at Craven Cottage
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Roy Hodgson has baffled most of the people in and around football on a number of ocassions, and his work at Fulham might be the best of his fantastic football management career
 

Roy Hodgson never played league football and played for a number of years in the non-league. He moved to Sweden and started to work at Halmstad.

He took the little Swedish club out of the shadows and managed to win the "Allsvenskan" in 1976. He also brought forward a number of good players that later established themselves in the Swedish national team.

He build the team the experienced Hasse Selander, the strong attacking forward Rutger Backend the great midfield talent Lennart "Lie" Larsson. Larsson left Halmstad a year later and played for Schalke 04 in Germany for a number of years.

This is described as the greatest sensations in Swedish football to date and it happened 33 years ago.

Hodgson was in charge of Halmstad until he got the chance to first assist Bob Houghton at Bristol City and later be their manager. Bristol City was a sinking ship and after just a few months he left.

Hogdson returned to Swedish football and experienced success at Oster and Malmo FF. He was tempted by Neuchetel Xamax in 1990. He was later appointed manager of Switzerland and they managed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.

Hodgson has after his days with Switzerland, been in charge of Inter Milan, Blackburn Rovers, Finland, Udinese and several other clubs in Europe before his return to English football in 2007.

Hodgson (62) is one of many experienced manager in the Premier Leauge today. The job he has done at Fulham is the work of a mastermind. Last season some said Hodgson was lucky to play almost the same team in every game, but that has not been the situation in this one.

The way he has structered his side and the way they play makes you wonder what this man is made of. He has turned Chris Baird into a descent midfielder and given Erik Nevland a new lease of life.

The fact that smaller clubs such as Fulham, Burnley, Birmingham and Stoke can compete in the Premier League is fantastic. It shows that football is still about practice, knowledge and talent all in combination to build a great team.

Roy Hodgson keeps the dream alive and shows us all that great results can be achieved with a good management brain, a loyal group of players and the desire to win no matter what.