Perhaps the biggest disappointment of Roy Hodgson's opening week at Albion is knowing that the sleek, black, flared-wheel-arched 2-door Jaguar XKR sports car parked in the manager's spot is, indeed, not his.

It's basically a Carlos Vela - on loan.

Shame. I had visions of Hodgson cruising down the high streets of Birmingham with his shades on.

Sadly not.

But Hodgson will deserve a better image than the one he arrived at Albion with if he gets this side out of their current predicament. Sure, they're not actually in the bottom three as yet. And there are no guarantees they will be come Monday night when they pitch up at Stoke.

Yet we've all winced at the fixtures. It's not ideal in a culture where managers need anything between six-to-12 months to manage a transition of change. Even less ideal when there are just 11 games left to claim survival.

Where Hodgson has experience of keeping clubs up, he will have an issue addressing the no-win culture.

The West Ham game - notwithstanding the poor substitutions - underlined this. We all knew what was coming once West Ham's goal came in.
And you could whiff the tension during the Wolves game. At least that's what I think it was.

Hodgson needs help. He's not going to be able to do this on his own. Nor will the players.

They need full support from the stands. Isolated booing during the substitution of a clearly hobbling Graham Dorrans - which, incidentally, handed a nice tabloid line for the red tops - won't help matters, nor will getting on the back of Marc-Antoine Fortuné.

If Albion do stop up then they will be doing so the hard way. The hard way because of the lack of players they brought in, the hard way because of the nonsensical timing of their decision to sack Roberto Di Matteo, no matter how correct that decision was.

Hodgson has a smile on his face again. He is no longer the grey, anguished character stood in front of a backdrop of Standard Chartered logos.

His decision to swerve the question about whether this Baggies squad was good enough to stay up, after just one 90 minute coaching session, wasn't designed to be negative. It was honesty - an honesty worth buying into. It's surely better than reckless bravado? And, let's be honest, if he is to take credit for keeping them up, then there will be those pointing the finger if he takes them down.

Hodgson has since relaxed (he calls it 'tired') following some fairly intensive training sessions.

He has embraced the club. Sir Bobby Robson and Don Howe left him in no doubt over the years how important a part West Brom played during their respective careers. Hodgson has twice referred to their influence in the three press conferences he's held since his appointment.

Albion fans, he claims, 'understand and know their football'. His words.

Mrs Hodgson is already helping him choose an appropriate base to call home in one of the better areas of Sutton Coldfield.

A long chat this week underlined his deep, comprehensive knowledge of football and players. He already knew - and wanted - some of the Albion players just from his coaching experiences at home and abroad, long before they turned up at The Hawthorns.

Throughout this discussion he was throwing in players that he expected us to have heard of, including an obscure young Swedish captain from the 1970s. He also added, later on, the names of some far-fetched Dutch League players from the early part of the 2000s. The nods of agreement from those of us sat around were more out of politeness - it was like he'd hacked into some retro version of Championship Manager.

I get the feeling he'll be teaching Albion's scouting network a thing or two. Perhaps that was a key part of their 16-month union.

It's a shame Liverpool didn't tap into that knowledge a little bit better. For all that Kenny Dalglish has transformed the Anfield club, Hodgson comes with an impressive contacts book and immense clarity on football. He was there at the wrong time, under the wrong owners.

This job works both ways. Albion need him. He needs Albion.

Hodgson will deserve great credit if he keeps Albion up. If he does, it'll have been achieved in spite of the predicament he found himself in.

The only downside of all of this is that he lives up to the stereotype of a wealthy 63-year-old - he can't wait to swap the sports car for a four-door, four-seater executive saloon.

More's the pity. Some people deserve a better, racier public image.

Hodgson, given what we saw at Anfield, is certainly one.