ENGLAND boss Roy Hodgson believes Jonathan Greening is the right man to nurture York City’s potential stars of the future.

Greening came through the ranks himself at Bootham Crescent before moving on to Manchester United and being involved in million-pound transfers to Middlesbrough and West Brom.

Three Lions chief Hodgson also played Greening 36 times for then Premier League outfit Fulham in 2009/10, culminating in a substitute appearance against Atletico Madrid in a Europa League final that the Spanish giants won 2-1.

The 36-year-old former midfield playmaker returned to his first club as a development phase coach with the club’s youth team earlier this year and his old mentor expects him to be successful in the role.

Speaking on his visit to the University of York to open the Roses Festival, Hodgson said: “I can imagine Jonathan being a good coach because his qualities as a human being are incredible. He’s a really, really nice guy and a sensitive person, who will be very good with York’s young players.

“He will have a caring attitude towards them. He was also a very good footballer, of course, with a very good career behind him.

“He will have lots of experiences that he can share with the players and I’m delighted to hear he’s back at York.”

Hodgson also revealed that the England door has not yet closed on Greening’s former Fulham team-mate and fellow ex-Minsterman David Stockdale.

The current Brighton keeper, who was signed by then Cottagers manager Hodgson in 2008, became a regular in the national squad under previous coach Fabio Capello but has not received a call-up during his ex-club boss’ three-year reign.

On the chances of Stockdale’s exile ending, Hodgson added: “David is doing well and all English goalkeepers are under consideration at the moment because we have lost the two that were working with us alongside Joe Hart - Ben Foster and Fraser Forster - to long-term injuries.

“That means we are casting our net even wider and David’s now playing regularly at Brighton. That has obviously helped him because a lot of the time at Fulham he was a reserve keeper.

“He’s outgoing and very enthusiastic, as well as being an extremely good kicker of the ball. He’s also professional, dedicated to his task and has talent, otherwise we wouldn’t have picked him up from Darlington.

“He was still quite young back then, but has kicked on a lot since.”

One former Bootham Crescent player who has become an England mainstay under Hodgson, though, is national team masseur Mark ‘Carlo’ Sertori.

The 47-year-old, who made 74 appearances for City at the turn of the Millennium, is a valued member of Hodgson’s off-field team with the ex-Liverpool and Switzerland chief explaining: “We pay a lot of attention to massage now and have good backroom staff to look after the players on the medical side.

“Carlo does an important job for us and I’m pleased to have his services. He’s a very good person to work with and also brings a lot of knowledge from the Premier League, where he works with Manchester City.” Hodgson, meanwhile, declined to comment on whether his present job posed a more difficult challenge than that faced by the likes of Minstermen boss Russ Wilcox and others battling away in the club’s lower leagues.

As Bristol City manager in 1982, Hodgson only lasted four months before being sacked and he reasoned: “The job is similar for everybody to some extent.

“It’s always a case of trying to produce winning teams by getting the best out of the players at your disposal. You have to keep the group together.

“Nothing changes in that regard whether you’re working with York City or England. What changes is the scrutiny.

“In York, the scrutiny will be local while, with England, it’s nationwide. We have better quality players, of course, to get our results at a higher level, but everything filters downwards and all managers have my sympathy and empathy.

“As president of the League Managers’ Association, I am disappointed the latest statistics show the length of a manager’s tenure is getting shorter and shorter. That’s the world we live in and you can only ever hope that coaches and managers get the time they need and deserve to try and do the job.”

Hodgson also welcomed the news that City are planning to move to Monks Cross next year, arguing that modern facilities are vital for progress at every level in the game.

“It’s often necessary for health and safety or economic reasons,” he pointed out. “Investing money to revamp existing grounds can be a wasteful project when you can build a new stadium and I think we just have to accept these things.

“Not so long ago, people were bemoaning Wembley changing but now we seem quite happy with the new stadium. It’s the same with Highbury and the Emirates - people get used to things and it’s the way of the world.”

Following his visit to Heslington with University of York chancellor and FA chairman Greg Dyke, Hodgson went on to stress the value of further education for professional footballers during a time when the undertaking of distance learning degrees are encouraged and supported by the PFA.

“The way academies are set up these days means the education side of things is, hopefully, taken care of as well as the football side,” the England manager said.

“I don’t think you can differentiate between general intelligence and footballing intelligence, even though we sometimes try to do that.

“There’s more of a thread running between the two than many people think and I have certainly found the players I’ve worked with to be quite intelligent. I think anything we can do to improve the education of footballers, aside from what is already being provided, can only be good.”