Roy Hodgson makes shock return to dugout with Championship club he managed 44 years ago

Roy Hodgson has made an astonishing return to management at Bristol City.

The former England manager replaces Gerhard Struber at Ashton Gate for the remainder of the Championship season.

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The Robins have decided to sack Struber after a run of five league games without a win, which has left them 16th in the table, 12 points away from both the play-offs and the drop zone.

It has been confirmed that Hodgson will end his two-year retirement to take the job on an interim basis at the age of 78.

The Englishman had a brief spell as manager of Bristol City in 1982 – 44 years ago – as part of a remarkable 50-year career as a manager.

A never-ending career

Hodgson, who is already the oldest manager ever to have worked in the Premier League, now overtakes Neil Warnock as the oldest boss in Championship history.

Warnock was 74 when his stint at Huddersfield ended in September 2023.

His coaching career began in 1976 and the veteran tactician has gone on to manage 22 different teams across eight nations.

Hodgson announced that he would step back from full-time coaching in 2021 but returned months later to take charge of Watford.

Having failed to keep the Hornets in the Premier League, he then made a shock return to Crystal Palace in March 2023 to lead another survival bid, this time guiding the Eagles to safety.

The Eagles subsequently put Hodgson in charge for the 2023/24 campaign, although he left after a medical incident in training coincided with a run of poor results.

Most were certain this marked Hodgson’s unofficial retirement from management – until now.

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Struber’s time was up

Austrian manager Struber replaced Liam Manning in June 2025 after the Robins were denied promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs.

However, the club have since come crashing back down to earth, battling at the opposite end of the table with just one win in their last nine matches.

Laurence Mora, our football correspondent across Wales and Bristol, reacted to the news as it broke on talkSPORT.

He told Matterface & Crook: “You got the feeling that Struber’s time was coming to an end. It felt like there were loggerheads between his ambitions at the club and how the club was being run.

“He had a great start to the season, there was a lot of positivity, they were knocking around the play-offs, it was looking good. Then January came.

“By the end of the window, it was a complete mess at Bristol City. The CEO was leaving, there were last-minute transfers. And Struber was hugely frustrated.”