It’s appropriate somehow that Saint Benedict of Nursia is honoured by the Catholic Church, and is the patron saint of Europe (and students). He was the first individual who, reportedly, made reference to the ‘poisoned chalice’ – something that is good, ostensibly (who wouldn’t want to slake a thirst during a hot Roman summer?) and yet has unforeseen, and invariably unpleasant consequences.

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If past experience is anything to go by, and it often is, I can’t think of a better analogy for the job of England national football team manager.

Despite Harry Redknapp being the ‘people’s choice’ for the job, it was eventually bestowed upon Roy Hodgson – his appointment coming, inconveniently enough, just before the end of the Barclays Premier League season. No matter how problematic the assignment may appear to be, it’s not the kind of opportunity that any Englishman in football management can turn down, and Roy accepted the chalice and prepared to drink with barely disguised gusto.

The fact that he had only a few weeks, and two prearranged matches to whip up his troops into a frenzy of patriotic fervour ahead of a major competition, didn’t seem to faze him.

I’d go further, and suggest that it may have been one of the reasons why he didn’t hesitate to take the job. In many respects, Hodgson may have thought that he had entered into a ‘no lose’ scenario. The England national team was in disarray after the departure of Fabio Capello in February, and uncharacteristically, expectations for the European Championships 2012 were at an all-time low.

I say “uncharacteristically” since England go into every major tournament as red hot favourites, but only, and I repeat only, in the minds of their fans. I think it’s fair to say that Spain have now shuffled off the tag of ‘perennial underachievers’ — a description that could now sit comfortably above the three lions on the badge of every England jersey.

Expectations then, are low; enter, stage left, with a purposeful gait, Commander Roy, to steady the ship and steer a course towards what must now be the ultimate goal for England at the Euros; avoid humiliation. It’s not difficult to see why he got the nod. The task requires a pragmatic approach, and there’s no one better suited to that than Hodgson, OBE (I’m honouring him already – it may stand for ‘Order of the British Empire’, or alternatively, ‘Ordinary Bland England’).

In England’s two warm-up games, against fairly decent opposition, no goals have been conceded, and single strikes have facilitated wins. The football hasn’t been great to watch, in fact it’s been turgid at times, and lacking the creative sparkle with which England teams feel they should be associated; only though, and I repeat only, in the minds of their fans.

Football though, is a results oriented game, and Hodgson can rightly point to a 100 per cent win record at the start of his tenure, and a defensive discipline that suggests the team are going to be hard to beat. So what if the performances don’t stir the soul or move the spirit; winning is what matters.

Should England go on to win every one of their matches at the Euros 1-0, would anyone complain? Probably. England fans demand style as well as substance, but the inconvenient truth at this juncture is that anything other than a sound beating will be acceptable, and this may well prove to be a trump card that no one saw coming – it may have been difficult even to see the sleeve from which it has miraculously appeared.

Greece won the Euros in 2004 with a brand of football that had the lustre and sense of engagement that was akin to watching matt paint drying. It wasn’t pretty, but it was clever and, ultimately, conspicuously, almost ridiculously, effective. They defended like dervishes, and managed to snaffle what few chances came their way in front of goal. Such are the expectations of England’s fan base right now, that a similar series of performances from Hodgson’s side — put out very much in the man’s image — will be seen as a triumph.

Managing expectations is one of the most important aspects of any football coach, and Hodgson appears to have the quiet dignity to achieve this with a degree of success. England under Roy are unlikely to get thumped — a real mauling for the three lions would be unexpected. Should England emerge from the group stage with their integrity intact, it would amount to a favourable outcome. I started this piece with Benedict of Nursia, I’m going to end it with a quote from Heraclitus who said, reportedly; “If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it.”

Heraclitus also, albeit indirectly, coined the aphorism “everything flows”. That may not be the abiding philosophy of the England team in Poland and Ukraine, but then Greek philosophers were never predisposed to 1-0 wins. —The writer is a football expert with ESPN