Roy Hodgson named West Brom manager

LONDON // Roy Hodgson was handed a swift chance to re-establish his reputation when West Bromwich Albion hired him as coach in the hope that he can save them from relegation from the Premier League.

Hodgson, 63, was sacked by Liverpool last month after just six months with the five-time European champions, but West Brom apparently believe England's 2010 manager of the year is capable of repeating his 2008 feat of saving Fulham from relegation.

Hodgson signed a contract until the end of next season, filling the vacancy created last week when the club relieved Roberto Di Matteo of his duties after a run of 13 defeats in 18 games.

Di Matteo, 40, was hired by the freshly relegated West Brom in June 2009. The former Italy midfielder led the team back to the top flight immediately but, after just two defeats in their first nine Premier League games, West Brom have won only three times.

Chris Hughton, whose Newcastle United side beat West Brom to last season's League Championship title, was sacked in December and had been widely reported as the leading contender to replace Di Matteo. West Brom instead opted for the experience of Hodgson, the former Inter Milan manager who has coached in seven countries and led three national teams, including the UAE's for two years from 2002 until 2004.

He joined Fulham midway through the 2007/08 season and led the small west London club to safety with four wins from their last five games.

The following season he guided Fulham to their best Premier League finish, seventh, and was voted manager of the year for last season by the League Managers Association for taking the Cottagers to the Europa League final, where they lost to Atletico Madrid.

Hodgson will take over after today's Premier League home match against last-place West Ham, with Michael Appleton, the temporary coach, leading the team.

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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?

The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.

Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.

“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.

The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.

The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.

Bloomberg