CRYSTAL PALACE MANAGER Roy Hodgson has hit out at a sack culture in the Premier League ahead of Saturday’s meeting with fellow strugglers West Ham.
The former England boss took over at Selhurst Park last month after Frank de Boer was dismissed just four games into the league season.
Palace lost each of those games, and failed to score.
They host West Ham this weekend looking for a win that will close the five-point gap between them and safety, but it is Hammers boss Slaven Bilic who is facing greater uncertainty.
Brighton scored their first away win of the season and the Seagulls’ first in the top flight since 1983, following a 3-0 win over West Ham last weekend.
That defeat added to the mounting pressure on Bilic and there has been speculation that he could be sacked if his side fail to beat their London rivals, although Wednesday’s 3-2 EFL Cup win over Tottenham has reduced some of the pressure on his position.
Hodgson believes it is unrealistic to base a manager’s suitability for his job on just a handful of results.
“Are you asking me if I understand having two matches to save your job? No, I don’t understand it,” he told a news conference.
“Managers are either good enough to be running their teams or they’re not.
“The slings and arrows of fortune that will either see you win the game or lose the game, if it’s as simple as the fact that one’s competence as a manager will be decided by that, I don’t understand that.
Clubs should be able to work out whether their current manager is the right man for the job, and then accept there will be periods in the season where the team will be winning or losing.”
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