Fulham set sights on fairytale finish

London: As football fairytales go, this one is right up there. Two years ago, Fulham were on the brink of relegation, their Premiership skin saved only by a great escape act in the last few nail-biting moments of the final day of the season.

If you'd suggested then to Roy Hodgson — who was awarded the League Managers Association Manager of the Year on Monday — and his players that a couple of campaigns later, the homely London club would be contesting a major European final on the biggest night in their history, you'd have been certified as living in the land of fantasy.

As he leans back in the cramped interview room at Fulham's training ground, Hodgson, the former UAE coach and very much the man of the moment, refuses to take any credit for having reached Wednesday's Europa League final in Hamburg.

Players not coaches, he says, are who fans come to see. The manager is simply the conductor. But if he and his team, with little European pedigree prior to this season, somehow manages to pull it off at the expense of Atletico Madrid, Hodgson could probably name his price at the top table of footballing orchestras.

"The concert director does not play the violin," he says warming to the musical theme. "What I will say is that one would hope a good director can bring the best out of people and bring their talent to the fore. We try to make the environment conducive to the players but coaches should never take the credit."

He knows that after the most unlikely of European campaigns, the final hurdle will be the toughest especially if his two most influential players, Bobby Zamora and Damian Duff, fail to recover from injury. But he still believes they can do it. "Some of the games we've played to get here have been awe-inspiring in themselves. You can't play badly and win over two legs. Sometimes you do need luck in a one-off game but we have got a lot of experienced players, international players with over 50 caps. I'd be disappointed if the occasion overcomes us."

Hodgson has certainly been around the managerial block. Fifteen different jobs — 16 if you include two spells at Inter Milan — in a 34-year career are testament to the vast experience he has gleaned. His 21-month spell as coach of the UAE that ended in January 2004 may not have been among his most successful placements but he nevertheless found it a rewarding experience.

"Maybe my fault in the past has been that I can't bear not working so that whenever I leave a job, I have always had a tendency to jump into the first one that sounds half-decent without thinking about it might affect my position on the ladder.

No regrets

"But I have never regretted that. That's the strange thing: maybe I should have. They've all been good experiences. I had no notion of the Arab world before I went to the UAE. I would like to think I'm better for it."

Fulham, who achieved a record seventh place in the Premiership last season, is where he has come home to roost and where he has put down arguably his biggest marker. "He never allows us to get too far ahead of ourselves," says Fulham midfielder Simon Davies. "He's a modest man and we are a modest team." Not that modest. The list of Fulham's conquests en route to the final in Hamburg would make even Manchester United proud. After dispatching the holders Shakhtar Donetsk following the group stage, Juventus, German champions Wolfsburg and Hamburg were all put to the sword.

His players say his training methods are at times repetitive to the point of being boring. But his analysis and attention to detail are second to none. Each player knows exactly what his role is. "When I wake up in the middle of the night, I know exactly where to run in games," says Zoltan Gera.

Can Fulham win the Europa League? Is Roy Hodgson a worthy manager? Tell us by clicking the "post a comment" link below.