Roy Hodgson makes shock return to management
Roy Hodgson has returned to management with Bristol City, being put in interim charge after head coach Gerhard Struber was sacked.
Hodgson, who has been out of work since leaving Crystal Palace in 2024, will return to the club he managed in 1982 with the Robins 16th in the EFL Championship.
The 78-year-old previously spent four months at Ashton Gate for his first job in English football.
When Hodgson takes charge of City on Good Friday against Charlton Athletic, it will be his first game as manager of the Robins since April 1982 – almost 44 years – the longest-ever gap between stints with the same club in Football League history.
He has since gone on to manage the likes of Inter Milan, Liverpool, Fulham and Blackburn Rovers as well as national teams including Finland, England, Switzerland and United Arab Emirates.
City announced on Friday that Struber had been sacked after a run of one win in nine games, and going winless in the past six.
Struber took over in June after Liam Manning, who had taken the club to the play-offs last season, left to take charge of Norwich City.
"I have had great conversations with the board, and I am really excited by the opportunity to help until the end of the season," Hodgson said.
"We will get straight to work and look for a positive performance on Good Friday."
City has slipped down the table during this run, in which it has been hit with defensive injuries, but it is nine points off the play-off places with seven games left to play.
Hodgson becomes the oldest manager in the EFL Championship and is 20 years older than the closest to him in age, Sheffield United’s Chris Wilder and Phil Parkinson of Wrexham.
