This week, for the third time this season, Roy Hodgson is preparing his team for an EPL encounter with Wolverhampton Wanderers. He didn't win the other two games. And it doesn't matter much if his West Bromwich Albion win this Sunday, either. That is nothing short of amazing.
Back on Feb. 11, when Hodgson was appointed Albion manager, in typical fan fashion, I hoped for the best and very much feared the worst. Turns out, I had nothing to worry about.
The 63-year-old former Fulham manager had endured a dismal first half of the EPL season as Liverpool boss, before parting ways with the fallen English giants on Jan. 8. One of the final nails in his Anfield coffin was a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Wolves on Dec. 29.
Hodgson's first game in charge of my beloved Baggies was a 1-1 draw with Wolves at the Hawthorns on Feb. 20. And it came perilously close to being another 1-0 home loss for Hodgson against the Black and Gold, but as the referee was giving serious thought to blowing the final whistle, Carlos Vela came off the bench to save the day.
A lot of good folks have given serious thought to what went wrong for Hodgson at Anfield this season. He had worked wonders at Fulham, but it all went south very quickly for him after heading north to Anfield. In a season Charles Dickens would no doubt have adored, Liverpool was the worst of times for Hodgson.
The off-field turmoil generated by the sale of the team, the palpable presence of Kenny Dalglish hovering across the manager's office from the youth academy and the constant drumbeat of transfer rumors concerning star players combined to undermine Hodgson. Soon the Liverpool job had turned from Great Expectations to Bleak House.
And things were looking pretty bleak down Albion way when Hodgson took over the reins at my hometown club after the axing of Roberto Di Matteo. The team was on the cusp of free fall, and Hodgson seemed an unlikely emergency rip cord. Every Albion fan had seen this movie before, and the eerie creak of the relegation trapdoor was echoing in our ears.
At the beginning of the season, in this space, I made the bold prediction that the Albion would end the campaign with more points than Blackpool. I steered clear of saying they would stay up. I didn't think they would if truth were told, and when Hodgson came to town I didn't spot that he was riding a white horse and wearing a shiny suit of armor, either.
But Hodgson was able to see what, frankly, a lot my fellow Albion fans have always seen -- that the team couldn't defend set pieces and pretty much couldn't defend period. The goal drain hasn't been completely plugged (just one EPL clean sheet all season for the Baggies), but Hodgson has done some serious renovations in the Albion kitchen, most notably reinstalling Abdoulaye Meite into the back four. The move has paid off. The Albion have posted an EPL record of four wins, a loss and four draws under Hodgson and edged their way up the table and to safety.
Hodgson makes an unlikely Steve McQueen, but he clearly is a manager for the Great Escape, as he proved at Fulham and now, in even more remarkable circumstances, at West Brom. His avuncular, calming presence, gentlemanly demeanor and shrewd soccer acumen for some reason didn't work at Anfield, but it has in the West Midlands.
At the beginning of the season, and certainly at the beginning of February, I would never have believed that with three games left in the season in my small blue and white corner of the football world I wouldn't be worried about relegation. Amazing.