Roy's sensible points will inevitably fall on deaf ears

Roy Hodgson is a smart, intelligent man with a degree in football from the school of hard knocks, a diploma from the college of travails and a couple of gold stars from the nursery of hard yakka.

Accordingly, Hodgson comes with out some very sensible suggestions as he has today about moving games involving top teams from Sunday afternoon slots for TV ahead of the international break.

The reasoning goes that players have more time to recover and thus Hodgson will have more time to work with his players during the break, particularly with an increasing amount of qualifiers being played on Friday nights.

Hodgson cited the recent example of Manchester United playing Southampton as an example of this.

The England manager stated he would prefer it if serious training work can be done on Tuesdays in the international break as opposed to the current plan of Wednesday.

A valid argument, full of sensible points I'm sure you'll agree.

Only problem being, such statements do not exist in a vacuum and other factors are at play here.

Essentially, Hodgson is hitting his against a brick wall as the chances of this happening are less likely than Hell freezing over as TV companies just will not go for it. The money is far more important than international success for England which is also fair enough as it's not Sky's job to help out the England team.

It is, of course, the FA's but they can hardly bite the hand that feeds it so generously.

It is a situation that is unlikely to change but at least Hodgson is speaking out about it and highlighting the problem which his predecessors have not done and, one suspects, media darling Harry Redknapp would not have done if he had been appointed so bravo on that Roy.

A far more realistic suggestion from Hodgson was the long-time mooted Winter break idea that our Continental cousins employ.

It is more realistic as it doesn't ruin TV schedules quite so much as the former idea outlined earlier and it's benefits are more understandable as it's use elsewhere provides an example.

Hodgson said it would give the English season a “logical” structure which is fair enough, but the whole Winter break debate is another issue for another time to talk about.

In the Winter perhaps or in the Summer of 2014 when Roy's boys have been firmly walloped by France in the second round of the World Cup, wilting under the Rio sunshine.

Living the dream.

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