Euro 2016: Iceland manager Lagerback scripts his guru Roy Hodgson's downfall

Now-departed England boss Roy Hodgson could have scarcely have imagined that his time as England boss would be brought to an end by one of the disciples he created as he cut a swathe through Swedish soccer 30 years ago. When the final whistle went in England's shambolic 2-1 Euro 2016 defeat to Iceland, the man who rose to shake his hand in the other dugout was Iceland's Swedish coach Lars Lagerback, who was inspired by Hodgson to go into coaching.

"Part of why I'm sitting here is Roy Hodgson and (former Malmo manager) Bob Houghton when they came to Sweden," Lagerback said after the greatest victory in the tiny nation's history.
"I learned a lot from them. They changed the training methods and the coaching education and I was really benefitting a lot for that." 

Hodgson is still revered in Sweden as one of the men who revolutionised the game there, bringing in a pragmatic, physical style to the domestic league as manager of a dominant Malmo side in the mid-1980s.

Many managers adopted his methods, among them Lagerback, who went on to successfully manage Sweden at a succession of major tournaments, as well as taking the reins of Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup.
His style is very much based on the style favoured by Hodgson during his time as Malmo boss - meticulous preparation and defensive organisation, swift counter-attacks and long balls, and well-planned dead ball routines.
Lagerback and Hodgson were seen talking and smiling before the kickoff in Nice, but despite Wayne Rooney's fourth-minute penalty to open the scoring for England, the smile was soon wiped off Hodgson's face.
Iceland equalised shortly afterwards with a goal from a long throw-in as Lagerback displayed the full range of tricks he had learned from watching Hodgson all those years ago.

He didn't stop there, marshalling the Icelandic defence of relative unknowns into a cohesive unit that shut down established Premier League strikers such as Harry Kane, Daniel Sturridge and last season's top scorer, Jamie Vardy.

"Organisationally, everything was in place, but even offensively we got better after the second goal," Lagerback purred in praise of his side's performance. Try as he might, Hodgson could not outwit his one-time pupil, and all that was left after the final whistle was to read a prepared statement announcing his resignation. Hodgson now exits the tournament and the role of England manager, but as long as Iceland are still at Euro 2016, his spirit will live on in the coaching of his pragmatic disciple Lagerback.  

New search begins 

 As England begin the search for their fifth new manager in 10 years following their humiliating exit from Euro 2016, there appear more unemployed former holders of the job than serious contenders to replace Roy Hodgson.
Glenn Hoddle (1996-1999), Kevin Keegan (1999-2000), Steve McClaren (2006-2007) and Fabio Capello (2008-12) are all out of work while Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson (2001-2006) is experiencing a difficult time with Shanghai SIPG after a bad run of results in the Chinese Super League.
That list shows the many different approaches the Football Association has previously used in identifying the right candidate -- from experienced foreign coach (Capello) through respected English club manager (McClaren) to passionate former player (Keegan).
Each time the demands of a job, which currently pays 3.5 million pounds ($4.68 million) per year but which many view as impossibly difficult, have defeated football's finest minds.
It is half a century since the country which gave soccer to the world last won anything -- the 1966 World Cup.
While major nations such as Germany, France and Spain have been winning trophies in the last two decades, the best achievements England fans have celebrated were semi-final appearances at the 1990 World Cup and at Euro 96.
There appears no obvious successor to Hodgson, who has been pilloried in the British media after England's embarrassing second-round defeat by Iceland on Monday which came 50 years after their only international success at the 1966 World Cup.
The search will be conducted by Dan Ashworth, the FA's technical director, alongside chief executive Martin Glenn and Dave Reddin, the head of performance services.
England Under-21 coach Gareth Southgate, who recently oversaw an England victory in last month's Toulon tournament, is the early bookmakers' favourite.
But the 57-capped former England centre-half is far from a shoo-in and his candidacy was immediately knocked down by respected former Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp, who was pipped by Hodgson to the job in 2012.
"Why should he get it in front of [Hull manager] Steve Bruce and [Sunderland manager] Sam Allardyce, who are proven managers?" said Redknapp, who denied that Southgate's familiarity with the FA and the "English system" was an advantage.
"Knows what system? The losing system? He knows the losing formula? I like Gareth Southgate, he's a great lad, but what's he done?"
Another former international, the TV pundit Alan Shearer, was quick to put himself forward although, with little coaching experience -- apart from a short spell at Newcastle in 2009 -- he would be an outside choice.
Frenchman Arsene Wenger, who is widely respected in the English game after 20 years at Arsenal, would be a popular choice should the FA drop its current policy of appointing an English candidate,
Wenger's credentials were championed by former England international Teddy Sheringham on Tuesday.

''It's time England turned to Arsene Wenger," wrote Sheringham in a blog for a bookmaker. "England have strength, passion, desire, hunger, and bullishness. They are strong-minded and resilient. But England need structure. They need guile and finesse. If you look at the way that Arsenal play, they have a structure to the team.''

In the past Wenger has always distanced himself from the job, but is under pressure at Arsenal after again failing to win the Premier League for the Gunners.
If Wenger could be persuaded to take the job, he would join two other foreign coaches currently bringing success to the national teams in England's other two major sports: Australians Eddie Jones in rugby union and Trevor Bayliss in cricket. But the FA is aware that to put a foreign-born coach in charge of England's football team would undermine its argument with the all-powerful Premier League about the need for teams to field more English players.