The Frank de Boer experiment at Selhurst Park has ended disastrously, the Dutchman sacked by the Eagles on Monday after four consecutive Premier League defeats in his first four matches at the helm.
Talk of a change in culture and a new style of football in SE25 look to have gone out of the window at the earliest opportunity as the fear of being relegated from the top-flight has hit the Palace hierarchy despite the summer holidays having only just ended.
And that means a return to management, and to his hometown, for Croydon–born Hodgson as he follows in the footsteps of Sam Allardyce, his successor as England manager who answered a similar call last season after Alan Pardew's departure
Hodgson's wider work, in Sweden, Switzerland and Italy, and his solid stints in the Premier League with Fulham and West Bromwich Albion, will always now be secondary in the public perception to just one game of football, England’s Euro 2016 debacle against Iceland.
But a coaching career lasting more than 40 years deserves to be remembered for more than a single 90 minutes and Hodgson now has the chance to go out on a high by keeping Palace in the top-flight.