Travel agency plans gone but Roy has booked his summer trip

Instead, the 66-year-old will head to Brazil carrying the dreams of his home country. And he couldn’t be happier.

“It is true,” said Hodgson yesterday when still basking in the afterglow of World Cup qualification, assured by a 2-0 victory over Poland.

“When Bobby Houghton and I started off in management in our late 20s, we were going to retire at 40 and then start a travel agents.

“I don’t remember the details. But we thought we would set up a travel agency involved in football teams, football preparation.

“At the time, we’d had a bit of success in Sweden (Houghton at the helm of Malmo, Hodgson as manager of Halmstad). Bob had already won the league twice, then I won it, then he won it again and then I won it again.

“Things were going quite well for us.

“We were young and our vision I suppose was to get to 40. ‘Keep doing this until we were 40, hopefully we would have made a little bit of money and then maybe we would set up a business together’.

“It was one of those silly little ideas that sometimes you have when you are young but I sometimes think of it now, 26 years after my 40th birthday, and wonder what would have become of me if we had decided to fulfil what was then our, if not a dream, an idea.

“If we had actually retired at 40 and put a little bit of money together and started a business, I wonder where we would be today.”

It is, of course, a question Hodgson will never be able to answer. Instead, the imponderable facing the England manager right now is how his side will fare in Brazil next year.

Taking charge of an international team at a major tournament will be nothing new. Hodgson did it last year at Euro 2012, of course, after succeeding Fabio Capello a few months earlier. He also led Switzerland to the 1994 World Cup, when the unfancied Swiss reached the knockout stage before bowing out to Spain, and Euro ‘96.

Asked if Tuesday night’s qualification meant more because it was the country of his birth, Hodgson replied: “When you manage your own country, you have the weight of your memories, the weight of your upbringing, all the people that you would be very anxious not to disappoint. “There are thoughts about your immediate family. Of course, at my age, my parents are unfortunately dead. But you still give them a thought from time to time.

“There are a lot of areas there that weigh more heavily when you are working in your own country.

“Secondly, with respect to Switzerland, since we qualified for 1994 and 1996, they have gone on to do extremely well. When the name Switzerland comes up you regard them as a serious candidate of the big tournaments.

“When I took the job in 1992, they were anything other than a serious candidate for the big tournaments. No-one really expected everything.

“Finland (who he managed between 2006 and 2007) had never qualified for anything, normally finishing pretty much near the bottom of the group. There wasn’t enormous expectations so when we got to Porto for that last game knowing victory would qualify us for the Euros, it was almost unthinkable for a country like Finland.

“To compare those two with England would obviously be wrong because England do qualify for tournaments. England expect to qualify for tournaments.

“It is a big nation of football lovers who would be devastated to see England not get to a tournament so you can’t really compare the pressure.

“I don’t want to say either that this is the achievement that matters and those other achievements didn’t. They meant a lot to me, especially Switzerland.

“But I am enjoying the moment because we won and we got to the finals and that for me was the be all and end all of these 18 months, doing the best job I can and preparing the team.”

Rival sports aid preparations

AS part of his preparations for the World Cup, Roy Hodgson plans to tap into sports expertise away from football.

The England chief said: “You learn from other sports. I’ve had some dealings with Stuart Lancaster and Clive Woodward from rugby union.

“I met (England cricket coach) Andy Flower at a function and we agreed that, when his busy time with the Ashes in the summer was over and mine trying to qualify the team was over, we would get together over a coffee and swap some stories.

“I am very interested to hear how they approach things. It will be interesting to talk to the British Lions people as well.

“They have long periods away from home because they go so far. I am all ears.”