Hodgson asks for Okaka patience

Posted Friday, February 05, 2010 by ESPN

Roy Hodgson has warned Fulham fans not to expect too much too soon from new loan signing Stefano Okaka.

Hodgson asks for Okaka patience Okaka has joined the London club on loan from Serie A giants Roma until the end of the season with a view to a permanent transfer.

The Italy Under-21 international made his debut for the Cottagers in their 1-0 win over Portsmouth in the Premier League on Wednesday night, a result which brought to an end a five-match losing streak for Hodgson's side.

Okaka missed a golden opportunity to mark his debut with a goal in the first half after he glanced a header wide from five yards out.

The 20-year-old's power and pace did cause the Pompey defence some problems though and he will get plenty of opportunities to make amends for his miss with Andy Johnson, Clint Dempsey and Zoltan Gera all out with injuries.

However, Hodgson has warned that it will take a long time for Okaka to adapt to the English game.

"I think Okaka's going to take a lot of time. He's a young raw player and had Erik Nevland not had that toe problem he would not have started," the former Inter Milan boss said.

"He doesn't speak a word of English at the moment and my Italian's nowhere near as good as it used to be.

"I'm sure he will get better and I'm sure he will turn out to be a useful signing for us.

"But he's not a saviour by any stretch of the imagination. He's a player we were able to get in on loan for this period of time and a player who has some interesting characteristics that we might be able to use, but he's not the man who will carry us.

"We're not saying don't worry if Andy Johnson's not around because we have Stefano Okaka, that would be placing far too much responsibility on his shoulders."

Okaka's last match for Roma before joining Fulham saw him score a clever backheeled winner for Claudio Ranieri's side against Siena.

Despite the glaring miss last night, the Fulham fans gave Okaka a standing ovation when he was replaced by Nevland with 20 minutes left.

Hodgson, who takes his side to Bolton on Saturday, believes the Italian will be able to get over the miss sooner rather than later.

"I told him not to worry about it," the 62-year-old said.

"He's devastated by it because in Italy mistakes are magnified 100 times and I think it would take him years to live it down over there, but it will probably only take a few weeks here.

"If I was him I would put it into perspective by looking at the wonderful backheeled goal for Roma the other day."

Hodgson was delighted with the performance of another debutant last night, namely left-back Nicky Shorey, whose six-month loan deal from Aston Villa was agreed on deadline day.

"He was outstanding, he's a very good player," Hodgson said.

"We know what an accomplished Premier League player he is. It was just a case of him solving the problem we've had at left-back since Paul Konchesky got injured at Blackburn."