England in disarray as quest for next manager begins after bizarre campaign

The departing England manager, Roy Hodgson, cuts a bewildered figure as he faces the press in Chantilly. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA

The latest ordeal might be the most grievous of the lot and, once again, it is difficult not to marvel at the pomposity of a nation that has a clock on the wall of its football operation, St George’s Park, noting the day England apparently win the 2022 World Cup. The most noteworthy part of Martin Glenn’s press conference was the Football Association’s chief executive introducing himself as the man who would help find England’s new manager,

then reminding us, twice, he was “no football expert”. Glenn’s performance did not bode well and it turns out Hodgson was so convinced his team would be in the quarter-final on Sunday that he had already arranged for his wife to fly to Paris.

Hodgson, to give him his due, is not an easy man to pin arrogance on and, however joyless the football at times, it was not easy sitting across the table from him at Les Fontaines, looking into the eyes of someone who had not slept and seeing, close-up, his suffering. “I’m very raw, I’m very fragile,” he said. His three top buttons were undone. He spent 10 minutes clawing the top of his hand as if troubled by a nervous tic. His first words were confused and defensive – “I don’t know why I am here” – and it turned out the FA asked him four times before he agreed he should front up. Hodgson looked as if he would rather be anywhere else. He was grey, perspiring, broken. His fingernails were bitten to the quick. “I don’t remember Roberto Martínez holding a major conference when he left Everton,” he complained.