Roy Hodgson: I had no intention of standing down after World Cup
The England manager says he has had "plenty of dark moments" but never had any doubts about wanting to continue
Roy Hodgson has said he never had any doubts about wanting to continue as England manager after his side's group-stage exit at this year's World Cup.
In his first interview since returning from Brazil, Hodgson declared he never considered walking away from the national side, despite admitting that he has gone through some "dark moments" following this year's World Cup.
"There have been plenty of dark moments, plenty of times after looking back on things that you can’t believe fate has put you in that sort of situation," he told Sky Sports News HQ.
"The fact is I would quite happily relinquish this job when my employers think they don’t want me here any more and the players don’t have the respect necessary and that they don’t want to continue to play for me. In that moment, if it is time for me to walk away, I will do so.
"But this time, it was made clear to me that that wasn’t the situation; that the FA wanted me to continue in the job and the feedback within the team was the same. So therefore there was never any doubt in my mind that I shouldn’t continue."
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Hodgson also hinted that Wayne Rooney could be named the next England captain following Steven Gerrard's international retirement. “Frank is the vice-captain, and there is Wayne Rooney so there are two candidates,” he confirmed. "The person who is captain for the Norway game [on Wednesday 6 September] will be the person I will be designating to hopefully be the captain in 2016."
