Expectations on former England stars in management 'unrealistic' says ex-West Brom boss

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 former Manchester United and England striker in a statement said he did not “believe 13 weeks was sufficient to oversee the changes that were needed”.

Current Crystal Palace head coach Hodgson, who himself returned for a second spell at Selhurst Park following Patrick Vieira’s sacking last March, had empathy for Rooney’s self-assessment, saying: “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 cub 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.”

Rooney, then playing for United, was man of the match the last time Palace reached an FA Cup final, losing the 2016 showpiece in stoppage time. The Eagles next host Everton in the FA Cup tonight, one of four all-Premier League encounters in the third round.

Hodgson’s injury-plagued side are slowly returning to full strength, though the Palace boss will be missing the influential Michael Olise, who bagged his first Premier League brace in the Eagles’ 3-1 win over Brentford to snap their eight-match winless streak.

Olise, who was ruled out until late November with a hamstring issue sustained in the summer, pulled up with a separate hamstring issue in that victory and will miss the at least the FA Cup encounter, Hodgson unable to offer a timeline for his return.

The 22-year-old is holding up well despite the disappointing setback, Hodgson revealed, adding: “He’s good. We’re hoping this one is going to be nothing like the one that put him out of the game for nearly six months.

“He’s been upset that he can’t play as are we, but let’s not put too much of a dampener on what’s going to happen going forward.”