What Roy Hodgson said about Bristol City ‘disaster’ | OneFootball

Roy Hodgson has been named as Bristol City interim boss until the end of the 2025/26 Championship season

Bristol City have named Roy Hodgson as their interim boss until the end of the Championship campaign, after Gerhard Struber was relieved of his duties.

Struber endured a difficult winter transfer window, as the Robins let former key players Anis Mehmeti and Zak Vyner join Ipswich Town and Wrexham, respectively.

Partly thanks to those high-profile departures, the West Country outfit endured a six-game winless streak, including five losses, across all competitions before appointing Hodgson.

The ex-England boss previously managed Bristol City in 1982, and has remarkably returned to Ashton Gate almost 44 years on from his exit.

Roy Hodgson has previously opened up on historic Bristol City tenure - He didn't enjoy his time at Ashton Gate

Speaking to BBC Sport before he was named as England boss in 2012, the 78-year-old reflected on his time at Ashton Gate: "Bristol City was nothing short of a disaster in that we had only been there for a matter of weeks before the banks started to pull the rug from underneath the club.

"My job when I eventually took over, as caretaker manager, was quite simply to carry on in the aftermath of all the players leaving the club and just fulfilling the fixtures."

Some of the Robins faithful will remember that their club were relegated from Division Three to Division Four at the end of the 1981/82 season.

Before being appointed as the Ashton Gate club's manager in 1982, Hodgson had spent two years as Bob Houghton's assistant.

Houghton resigned following a defeat to Wimbledon, which handed the former Halmstad boss his first managerial opportunity in the English game.

Hodgson spent just four months in charge of the Robins, from January to April 1982, and lost 13 of his 22 games, while earning just three victories.

One example of a rare win Bristol City enjoyed in the former Crystal Palace academy player's time in charge came against fellow South West club Exeter City on 23 February 1982, when the Ashton Gate outfit ran out as 3-2 victors.

The disaster that Hodgson referred to in his comments was that of the Robins' severe financial struggles in the early 1980s.

As reported by The Guardian, the West Country outfit were £850,000 in debt, owed the Inland Revenue £100,000, and were losing £4,000 a week while they owed transfer money to Newcastle United for Mick Harford and Malmo for Jan Moller.

In February 1982, former captain Geoff Merrick, Gerry Sweeney, Dave Rodgers, Peter Aitken, Chris Garland, Trevor Tainton, Jimmy Mann, and Julian Marshall became known as the 'Ashton Gate eight' when they agreed to tear up their contracts to prevent the South West club from going out of business.

According to BBC Sport, when the aforementioned players cancelled their Bristol City deals on the morning of 3 February, the Ashton Gate side were just minutes away from folding, with trading set to end at midday.

Hodgson will hope that his second stint in charge of the Robins is far from a disaster, though.

Roy Hodgson has enjoyed a unique and stellar career in football management

Hodgson is unfortunately best remembered by some for the underwhelming stints he endured in charge of both England and Premier League giants Liverpool.

Few Three Lions supporters will be able to forget the embarrassing Euro 2016 defeat the national team suffered at the hands of Iceland in Hodgson's final game in charge.

The 78-year-old also failed to get a tune out of his Liverpool side, and left Anfield via mutual consent in January 2011.

However, Hodgson's managerial career as a whole commands plenty of respect, thanks to his accomplishments in various different leagues.

For instance, the ex-Crystal Palace boss won the Swedish league title with Halmstad in 1976, which is still considered as one of the Scandinavian nation's greatest football surprises.

Hodgson also steered Inter to a third-place finish in Serie A in 1997, while his international jobs away from England included stints with the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.

The veteran's positive spells in the English domestic game include his time in charge of both West Bromwich Albion and Palace.