World Cup winners

Liverpool ended up with Roy Hodgson back in 2010 but it may have been very different, as Theo Squires explores.

Whether Hodgson was Liverpool’s first-choice option ahead of Deschamps or they turned to him after a rejection from the Frenchman, only club bosses at the time will know for sure. Regardless, the Reds were at one point interested in hiring their World Cup winner as their new manager 12 years ago. I am not there for just one year,” he said at the end of June. Throw in the club’s worsening plight under Hicks and Gillett, who were ultimately steering Liverpool towards financial ruin at the time, and Anfield was not a happy place to be. I also kindly indicated to him that there wasn't the slightest chance for him to pinch our coach. In Didier Deschamps, Les Bleus already possess one of only three men to win the World Cup as both a player and as a manager in their hotseat. A member of Brazil’s playing squads in 1958 and 1962 alongside Pele, he had taken over as manager when they won the World Cup again in 1970. And while they would start the season on minus nine points as a result, the Frenchman still oversaw Juve’s immediate return to Serie A as they won the title by six points, before leaving Turin after just one season in charge. Deschamps was back in management two years later as he returned to former club Marseille in July 2009. It has clearly been some managerial career to date for the former Chelsea midfielder, and not just because of that World Cup win. He’d have won the European Champions as both a player and manager too, if not for a final defeat to Portugal at Euro 2016. Seeing as he led Italy to global glory in 1934 and 1938, he’s just a little bit before our time for the majority.