Roy Hodgson is backing a Premier League campaign on maintaining positive mental health through the pandemic.
Crystal Palace boss Hodgson, 73, has spoken with real authority about the difficulties on the issue for the Prem’s #StayWell hub as well as links to Public Health England’s “Every Mind Matters” campaign.
What is interesting is Hodgson’s own challenges to keep himself and his players positive but also his solutions with long walks, reading books, watching the latest “buzz series of the day” on Netflix and listening to Motown and soul music.
Hodgson said: “Being positive is a state of mind, of course. It’s very easy for people to say, ‘You’ve got to stay positive, you’ve got to be positive, and you’ve got to think positive’.
“Unfortunately, your mind doesn’t always do the things that you want it to do.
“We [footballers and managers] are fortunate in the fact that we have a job to go to that we love doing.
(Image: PA)
“After that, I guess is the same as everyone else – I try to enjoy the walks that you do for your exercise.
“Now I suppose I try to find something on the television, or a good book that will take my mind off football for a little while.
“As far as TV is concerned, I’m like everybody else I guess. It’s films or series that you get on the BBC when they do their drama series. Or more often these days, it’s Netflix or Amazon Prime where you’re trying to get hooked in some series that is the buzz series of the day.”
Hodgson has been something of a star through these difficult times.
While some younger managers have struggled with Zoom press conferences, the ex-England boss has come across brilliantly with some strong and timely views.
(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
BBC’s second take at Crawley
Crawley Town were the big story of the FA Cup third round after knocking out mighty Leeds United.
But the League Two club have taken criticism for their post-match dressing room celebrations amid a Covid outbreak which has led to their fourth round tie with Bournemouth being pushed back to Tuesday.
However, Crawley boss John Yems hit back: “That really annoys me. The TV people came back into the dressing room and asked us to do the celebrations again so they could film it for TV. Yet we get criticised!
“All our players had been tested and so, to the best of my knowledge, the only person in that dressing room who hadn’t been tested was the cameraman.”
The BBC said they had no knowledge of asking for a “second take.”
Premier League TV dilemma
THE next Premier League TV deal – for season 2022 onwards – would normally be out to tender by now and close to agreement.
However, Prem bosses are staying tight lipped on any timescale while TV insiders feel as if negotiations are on hold because no-one knows exactly what they will be bidding for.
After all, games with no fans are just not as good.
One theory could be to extend the current deal on the same terms for an extra 12 months and then TV companies and the Premier League will be in a better place to begin talks by next year.
Just an idea…
Ozil’s move
Mesut Ozil said his goodbyes to teammates and staff at Arsenal on Sunday.
And he wanted to leave with mementos from his seven largely happy years at the club, asking for some Arsenal shirts as precious keepsakes.
(Image: Fenerbahce.org/AFP via Getty Ima)
MOTD change
BBC bosses have scaled back on the “taking of the knee” coverage at the top of the show on Match of the Day highlights, doing it once ahead of their main game rather than before every single match.
No EFL team sheets
EFL bosses have told clubs they can no longer hand out team sheets for the press ahead of games as one of their new set of Covid protocols.
Hammers wanted Dembele
West Ham made a cheeky enquiry for Lyon striker Moussa Dembele before the France star joined Atletico Madrid on loan.
The Hammers are looking for a new striker and that underlines their ambition.
Nut ex-Celtic star Dembele was always keen to go to Madrid where he looks destined to enhance his growing reputation as a potential world class superstar.
Concussion substitutes latest
Premier League clubs had the first round of briefings on concussion substitutes on Thursday and, despite some publicity out there already, some were still surprised to learn some of the details.
One key issue is that if a team uses a concussion substitute, the other gets another substitute, potentially going up to five subs each.
It is done to stop any abuse of the concussion subs rule.
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