Hodgson on Comolli appointment

Roy Hodgson today welcomed the appointment of Damien Comolli as Liverpool's new Director of Football Strategy.

The Reds confirmed Comolli as the latest addition to the club's backroom staff on Thursday afternoon.

Comolli was born in Beziers, France and played as a youth team player at AS Monaco. He was previously European scout at Arsenal FC, Director of Football at Tottenham Hotspur FC and most recently Sporting Director at AS Saint-Etienne. Damien holds a French coaching license and is fluent in English, Spanish and French.

Hodgson told an Anfield press conference: "I feel very good about it.

"It is something we have talked about with the owners and something they were very keen to put in place. The owners come from an American sporting background where is the team manager is very much responsible for team affairs, but alongside him there is a person who can have all sorts of titles, a type of sporting director in European terms.

"It's someone who obviously has a large input into the running of the football club and has an input and a part to play in a management structure.

"If you're going to run a football club these days there are a lot of elements that need to be dealt with. Recruitment of players and scouting is a major, major aspect in this respect, as of course is the Academy and all the work you need to do to bring players through.

"All of this of this has a life of its own to some extent outside the life of a first-team squad.

"In Europe I am very used to having a situation where you have to work alongside people like that and I think it is becoming more and more common in England as well, so that's something the new owners wanted to introduce to the club and I welcome it very much.

"I think it is going to be a great advantage to us to have a man of Damien's qualities, knowledge and experience and I think we can only profit from it as a club. I am looking forward to working with him."

Journalists quizzed the boss on if he felt the appointment of Comolli was a sign of a cultural shift at Liverpool and also asked for his thoughts on the role Anfield's new man will play. 

Hodgson replied: "When I worked at Fulham I worked very closely with Alistair Mackintosh. He didn't have the title 'sporting director' but my dealings with him and the way we worked together, I would have called him sporting director.

"He had other responsibilities as well with regard to Mohammed Al-Fayed, but as far as I was concerned he was my sporting director and I am very used to working in that way.

"I think more and more clubs are. If you're managing a Barclays Premier League team, organising training, coaching, dealing with the press and organising and preparing for all the games, that is a large body of work. On top of that if you're also organising all the scouting, looking after the academy and reserve team and all the other numerous administrative things that are required to run a football club at this level, you are asking an awful lot of people.

"The days of the 'dictator type' English manager have long since passed anyway, where everything went through one man and no-one dared even buy a paper clip without that person's approval.

"It is just a question of strategy which I think makes a lot of sense for all football clubs and certainly makes a lot of sense for our football club at this moment in time because we're in a transition.

"We've got new owners who have a very clear vision and philosophy for the club and they want a management structure in place they can identify with. The means one they can identify with from American and European sporting models, not necessarily an archetypical, if somewhat outdated, English model."