The Eagles' 2023/24 competitive season gets underway on Saturday (12th August, 15:00 BST) at Bramall Lane, as Palace take on newly-promoted Sheffield United.
You can hear what Hodgson had to say to the media below...
Roy Hodgson hailed the opening day of the 2023/24 Premier League season as "what we’ve been working for and looking forward to" in his first pre-match press conference of the campaign.
The Eagles' 2023/24 competitive season gets underway on Saturday (12th August, 15:00 BST) at Bramall Lane, as Palace take on newly-promoted Sheffield United.
You can hear what Hodgson had to say to the media below...
“I wanted to carry on because the club asked me to carry on.
"Basically, because I so much enjoyed last season working with the team that I was able to work with for the last 10 games, the opportunity to carry on working with them was one that I certainly had no intention of resisting.”
“I think it was an easy decision really. Joel has been at the club such a long time. He’s been such an incredible stalwart of the club.
“He’s been an iconic figure for us. He has all the qualities you need in a captain, not least the incredible professionalism, diligence and the way he goes about his daily work, and his seriousness in dealing with the group.
“I think the group are very happy to see him replace a similar figure in Luka Milivojevic and we are very happy we can offer Joel the captaincy this year because it’s something which, if anyone at this football club deserves, it’s him.”
“The fans will like him. He’s a good signing, there’s no doubt about that.
“We were lucky to get him – his quality as a player, his experience, his character, the type of football he plays, his whole-hearted efforts which he has made for so many years now for Bournemouth which has resulted in him being chosen as their Player of the Year.
"I don’t have any fears whatsoever that our fans will take to Jefferson Lerma, and we hope they will take to Matheus [França] when we eventually get the chance to see him on the field."
“I’m expecting a very tough game. Sheffield United is a difficult place to go. Like ourselves, they have a really good support – a support that gets behind the team.
“[Manager] Paul Heckingbottom has done a remarkable job with the team in the circumstances that he’s often had to operate [in]. He’s produced a winning team on many occasions now in different periods of his time at the club, so we’re aware for us to go there tomorrow, it’s a tough one.
“But to be honest, I don’t know what games you could have mentioned, playing away from home on the first day of the Premier League, I’d sit here and say ‘that’s going to be easy’. Of course, it’s not going to be easy.
“We expect them to be really geared up for the game, fired up for the game. We expect to be put under pressure from both the players on the field and the fans behind them.
“These are things you have to learn to resist and find a way of resisting, and then hopefully we can play the football I’m hoping we’re going to be capable of playing this season.”
“I don’t think we’ll see a vastly different approach [from Sheffield United in the Premier League] because they have a very clear style and work ethic.
“They are a really hard-working team. They are a team that never gives up and they are a team that fights for every ball and fights to the last minute of every game. They expect their players to give every ounce of energy and blood that they possess. That’s what’s given them the success they’ve had so far. We’re certainly expecting to see that.
“We, and the teams that follow us, will have to make certain that we are prepared to match that commitment and dedicated to getting a result in the game, then you might hope the style of play you have yourself will be able to cause them some problems – that’s what football matches are.
“You know you’re going to get problems from opponents. You study them very carefully and you put in front of your players what scenarios are potentially going to happen, but on the other hand, you hope what you’re going to put in front of the opponents will cause them some problems too.”
Click here to find out more about this season's changes.
“I’m not averse to it so much as I’m averse to what might be regarded as time-wasting.
"A couple of the yellow cards I’ve seen where people have just moved the ball which has bounced in front of them a few yards, I don’t know if that’s particularly timewasting, particularly if it’s happened in the first half of the game…
“I don’t know necessarily that goalkeepers, who change their mind from throwing the ball out and then they want to kick the ball up the field and want their team to reshape, I don’t regard that as time-wasting.
“With the obvious time-wasting instances I don’t think there’s anyone in football who’ll be against that, and it’s okay too if you work out that goal celebrations are taking a lot more than the 30 seconds we’ve allotted so far. We now need to allot the actual amount of time it takes. I have nothing to say about those things at all.
“Surrounding referees, protesting in a way we sometimes see happen in games, none of us can justify that, and none of just can justify bad behaviour on the touchlines.
“The one thing I hope is going to be treated with some degree of common sense is time-wasting, and it will be really deliberate and obvious time-wasting that’s being punished and not minor incidents like I’ve seen once or twice in games so far.”
“It [the feeling] is the same. Very much so.
"The excitement, the build-up, after what seems like quite a long pre-season, especially these days with travelling, all of that really is for this moment, which is going to start for me at 3’o clock tomorrow afternoon.
“That’s we’ve been working for and looking forward to. That’s the lifeblood of our jobs, so I have just as much excitement and just as much hope that things are going to go our way just as I did before my very first game, which was a very long time ago!”