Neil Taylor: “From Albania to Hungary, they have been a breath of fresh air, and Iceland were written off as well. It’s fantastic for the tournament that Iceland are still in there.” No one has talked about Iceland, another team who were written off before a ball was kicked and now they’ve reached the quarter-finals. “We’ve come such a long way and football has a funny way of bringing out emotions, as you’ve seen when we played them a couple of weeks ago. If you asked the squad as a whole, from a selfish point of view, we are ever so proud to be the last home nation team in the tournament. But it certainly wasn’t meant to come across that way. In the meantime, Wales players have defended their somewhat exuberant celebrations of Iceland’s victory.Ĭhris Gunter: “I think it may be easy to see it as being slightly over the top. Not long to go now … Hodgson set to face the media one last time, along with Martin Glenn. And he called Iceland ‘doughty opponents’ which suggests that he hasn’t learned a thing.ĭaniel Taylor Glenn, one of the men charged with finding new #ENG manager, has now let us know twice he is "not a football expert." June 28, 2016.Attempting to demonstrate that progress has been made under Hodgson, he pointed to the different preparations England have had this time, the style of football, wins over Germany and France and the 10/10 qualification campaign.He thanked Hodgson for his tenure and was eager to lay the blame at England’s inability to perform at tournaments ‘for the last 50 years’ rather than focus on the Iceland match.He confirmed that Hodgson’s successor does not necessarily have to be English.Glenn meanwhile, was a bit more forthcoming.
And he said he only turned up at the press conference to avoid looking like he was hiding from the press.ĭominic Fifield Hodgson: "One particularly bad game has caused a lot of damage to me personally and the team going forward." June 28, 2016.He brushed off suggestions that senior players questioned his tactics – and Wayne Rooney issued a pretty timely statement – and the gist of what he had to say was that he didn’t see the Iceland result or performance coming, pointing to the group stage where their only problem was an inability to score.He seemed to think that having resigned, it wasn’t his duty. Remarkably he started the press conference with ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here’ and went on the repeat that.Describing himself as ‘very fragile’, he largely reiterated what was said in his statement last night while accepting the criticism coming England’s way after defeat to Iceland. Well, Roy Hodgson could not have been clearer that he had no interest in being at that press conference.