The England manager visited the Union on WednesdayWikimedia Commons

The Union chamber may not have been full, but Roy Hodgson probably welcomed the sight of an enthusiastic audience after recently witnessing a lifeless Wembley play host to his side’s uninspiring victories over minnows Norway and San Marino. Rather than head to Anfield to watch Liverpool’s England contingent take on the champions of Europe, Hodgson chose to discuss with Cambridge students his managerial outlook, England’s chances at Euro 2016 and the prospects of Gary Neville becoming the national team’s manager. “I had no idea who would be playing on this night in what game. I’d rather be here - I’ve spent alot of my life in football stands, it’s not every day you get an invitation to speak at Cambridge.”

Perhaps Hodgson chose to stay away from Anfield because he wanted to avoid a certain club manager who may have recently wielded a degree of power over winger Raheem Sterling’s limited involvement in a Euro 2016 qualifier. Rubbish, said Hodgson. “I get on very, very well with Brendan Rodgers, there is no problem. Journalists would like more conflict, more of an agenda; they work in a Machiavellian way. When a player tells you he is too tired to train the day before a match and you then decide he won’t start, they say, ‘it must be Brendan Rodgers.’ It’s too simple for them. They might want to warm up the potato but there’s no potato to warm up.”

Hodgson was also critical of the media’s treatment of captain Wayne Rooney, who has been accused of lacking the sharpness and excitement that characterised his burst onto the footballing scene in the early 2000s. “If he has an ordinary game, they say he’s bad, and if he has a good game they say he’s ordinary.  I can only compare Rooney over two years. My first conversation with him was in 2012 and in those years he hasn’t changed at all. With football being such a religion, our mass media will always build players up to be the next George Best or Paul Gascoigne. Reliability is an immense quality in football and I can rely on Wayne - if I tell him ‘I’d like you to fulfil this role’ I know he’ll do it.”

The media aside, Hodgson was in positive spirits and in the mood for eulogising about his managerial career and England’s exciting young talent. Hodgson sees himself as an intelligent manager who “could’ve made it to a higher education institute if football hadn’t come my way.” But he maintains, as far as his coaching outlook goes, “philosophy is a big word that frightens me. Sometimes I wonder whether people know what it means. My friend who studied it at the Open University in his 50s impressed me, whereas I could’ve just about cut my teeth with the social sciences, history or geography.” Better to stick with ‘beliefs,’ then.

Hodgson’s style is based on the belief that “praise is better than blame, that love should come over fear.’’ Words like “belief, empathy, sympathy and trust” are the important ones. No wonder he is so scathing of the media’s negativity. “It is important to set high standards, as it allows people to dream.’’ ‘‘It’s not always the best thing to remind people of their frailties, of realistic expectations.”

England will have to “dare to dream” if they are to gain success at the European Championships in two years’ time after their appalling World Cup showing this summer, in which they scored a meagre two goals in three games. But Hodgson remains optimistic, or claims to, about England’s chances. “Our prospects are good. If you can be solid and hard to beat and add the pace and quickness of Sturridge, Wellbeck, Sterling and Oxlade-Chamberlain then you’ve got a chance. We have to work on our organisation, and then rely alot on raw talent and players winning games off their own back. It’s eleven men verses eleven men.” The ‘golden era’ is over. But Hodgson clearly believes that the perished experience of yesteryear can be made up for by the young speed-maestros of today, his list of which notably omitted Rooney.

And how to ensure that starlets like these continue to make their way into England’s set-up? “It all starts with education. We realise now that coaching at a young age needs to be the right type, based on certain principles. Defenders were often forced to kick long in the past because the pitches weren’t good enough; now, that’s not an excuse. The Premier League gives a good example of players able to pass it out and play, and young players are much more likely to use them as role models now rather than hoof it up.” Competing with the quick feet of Spain or Germany remains a fantasy.

Hodgson, the self-proclaimed “teacher”, is a manager always learning and willing to take on new managerial methods. An eminent rugby psychologist who told him that coaches are too dominant in football, and that players should take on more responsibility, has had a big influence. Hodgson carries this over to his disciplinary style - he doesn’t believe that he should have to constantly monitor and police his rules.

Talk will inevitably turn towards Hodgson’s successor in the run-up to his contract expiry date in the summer of 2016. Could current coach Gary Neville be in the running? “I’d like to think he could be England manager. We wanted someone with very good knowledge of what it takes to play for England, someone with energy and enthusiasm. The big question is whether he would want to do it; he is very good at his media work. His mind is always working, he’s very critical at times - I’ve got my wife on one side and him on the other! It can get annoying, but I need him.”

Yet it is not retired right-backs but pacy attackers who must perform if England’s stuttering squad is to get remotely close to success in France in two years. They “dare to dream.”