I'd allowed myself to forget all about Roy, until last weekend. I was chatting away with a group of lads in the pub, not necessarily mates, but lads I know. There was a fair spread, in terms of teams supported: West Ham, Norwich, Spurs, Southampton, me obviously supporting Liverpool and a West Brom fan. Talk turned to Hodgson, and I said I'd rather not talk about him, as it just brought back bad memories.
Fuck me, you'd have thought I'd just announced that Hitler was a nice guy who was a bit misunderstood. All the classics came out "You just didn't give him time", "he's a good manager", "you never gave him a chance, because he wasn't a big enough name", "the players just didn't try for him". I tried to explain the many reasons why it didn't work, but no, apparently they all knew Liverpool better than I did.
Well, not all of them. The one bloke who spoke sense was the West Brom fan. He backed me up and said that Liverpool was just too big a job for Roy, even though he was very happy with him at the Hawthornes. So everyone started having a go at him as well. It's a strange power Hodgson has.
I don't like to have a go at the guy, after all, he's gone now. But Christ, it doesn't half wind me up that we're somehow still being blamed for him failing here.