Roy Hodgson and the death of retirement

The news that former England manager Roy Hodgson is the new manager of Watford Football Club at the grand old age of 74 has generated quite a lot of excitement.

Much of it, of course, is focused on his age ­– 74 is undoubtedly old for a Premiership Football manager, particularly when you consider he’ll be three times the age of his players. Don’t forget that when Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager of Manchester United in 2013 he was 71, which is positively Jurassic in the land of football. Hodgson’s even older.

But we shouldn’t be surprised or indeed sceptical about this, because come 2050, chances are we’ll all be doing a Roy Hodgson. Not managing Watford, but working.

This is more out necessity than choice; we’ll probably need to work – just to keep the lights on. That’s because the state pension age is increasing: it’s already 66, but it’s on course to rise to 67 later this decade and it’ll be 68 as early as 2037.