RARELY can this country have launched into such a severe scapegoat mode - and not just in sport, writes John Payne.

And in that environment, while he may not have been depicted as a turnip or declared a wally but no one is in any doubt: Roy Hodgson will carry the can for England’s Euro 2016 humbling by Iceland.

Yet surely amongst our usual biannual angst after the inevitable big tournament let-down there should be a few words of tribute to a man who took up coaching after picking up a serious injury playing for Carshalton Athletic in the mid-1970s.

Whereas English football (and maybe our country as a whole) may be seen as insular and inward-looking, that is not an accusation to be thrown at Hodgson.

He began his coaching career in Sweden where his influence, either side of an ill-fated few months at Bristol City, is credited with transforming the game in that country.

He is probably the most successful manager two countries - Switzerland and Finland - have ever had.

He has managed in eight countries - not usually at the very top clubs but many of those bubbling under, as both Inter Milan and Liverpool were at the time.

Maybe he didn’t quite cut it at the very top level - he’s no Ferguson, Clough or most appropriately Ramsey.

And, true, some of Roy’s decisions in France were baffling. Accommodating Rooney at all costs; picking out-of-form Sterling, Kane, Wilshere; playing a bizarrely un-English style where players seemed terrified to make a forward pass.

Perhaps, as his working life presumably comes to an end aged 68, we should reflect that maybe England didn’t quite get him in his prime. But for an extraordinary and unconventional career he deserves great respect.