England manager Roy Hodgson takes us back to the future If this fundamentally decent man had been in any doubt as to the magnitude of the task, he was swiftly brought up to speed by a May 2012 training camp. Hodgson tried to outline some tactical possibilities for Euro 2012 with videos of Helenio Herrera's 1960s Inter Milan side and their famous catenaccio system, but the exercise was not a success. A major player revolt broke out, with confused England stars tweeting that they needed "passion not Spanish lessons." One senior team member produced a note from his doctor explaining that he had "ADHD" and that he was "excused tactics to go on the golf cors." Hodgson suspected that the note was a forgery but was advised to indulge the player for the sake of squad unity. Nevertheless, the team had travelled to Poland and Ukraine on a wave of public optimism and the widely held belief that, man for man, England were a match for most sides in the competition, providing the foreigners did not cheat too much. An unlucky 1-0 defeat by France, the result of a goalkeeping blunder, was a setback. However, a listless, disjointed performance against a limited but organised Sweden side made qualification for the knockout stage almost impossible. Wayne Rooney, returning from suspension for the pivotal clash with Ukraine, looked rusty after three weeks in Corfu but completed a hat-trick of a booking for kicking the ball away, a tirade of abuse at a pitch-side camera and a second yellow for sarcastically applauding the referee. England were edged out 5-1, with players later tweeting "robbed - none of them Ukrainians would get near our team." Only the antiquated Ukrainian postal service saved England from being home before the postcards. However, progress to the 2014 World Cup went comparatively smoothly. Despite widespread media disdain for Hodgson's tactics, approach and banter, England topped their qualifying group. An online petition that the manager be imprisoned in the Tower of London for drawing 1-1 away in Croatia proved to be an overreaction. England's Golden Generation geared up for one final tilt at glory in Brazil, with Pele tipping them as possible winners. England's group looked modest on paper, and despite a deflating 0-0 draw with Guatemala, they made it through to the last 16, where they produced their statutory 45 minutes of decent football per tournament to dispatch Denmark 4-1. Hodgson was knighted. However, the defeat against Germany, despite a heroic 113-minute, 10-man rearguard, was the final straw. It then emerged that, during coaching stints in Italy and Switzerland earlier in his career, Hodgson had "gone native." A leaked FA dossier cited him for "speaking foreign languages" and "enjoying pasta dishes such as Puccini"; and an FA commission ruled that Hodgson was "a bit foreign after all." The hunt now begins for an Englishman who can deliver the success that these players and this country deserves.