Roy Hodgson was named coach of the England national soccer team yesterday, and it was not a popular choice.

Most English fans seemed to prefer Harry Redknapp, a sort of lovable rogue of a coach, in English eyes, currently at Tottenham, who has occasional bouts with the tax man and other shady doings. But “Arry” is a character!

Anyway, Hodgson would not have been the people’s choice, but he was the Football Association’s choice. And we can understand that the reaction might have been negative. But The Sun, one of England’s trashiest — and most-read — tabloid newspapers, made it very personal from Day 1.

The Sun mocked Hodgson’s trouble pronouncing the letter “r” on the cover of the newspaper.

As you can see here, the main headline was: “Bwing on the Euwos!” with an overline that read: “Woy gets England job” and a drop head that read: “We’ll see you in Ukwaine against Fwance”

Hmm. And the reaction to The Sun around England?

Mostly negative.

In this story the Independent rounds up the reaction.

The crux of this seems, to me, to be that The Sun attacked Hodgson on personal grounds — when so many other venues for criticizing the choice exist.

No one would have thought twice if the newspaper had suggested Hodgson hasn’t really won big with a big club and thus was a poor choice … or that his troubles at Liverpool last season should disqualify him. They could even suggest that, at 64, he’s too old for such a stressful job.

And most people probably have no problem with a blogger’s roundup of photos, posted here, on the Daily Mail website, that suggest Hodgson looks like an owl. That’s just silly.

But instead The Sun wanted to remind everyone that he has trouble with the letter “r”. (A problem named rhotacism, The Independent helpfully tells us.)

Thinking about this more, a comedian doing a Hodgson impersonation and turning every “r” into a “w” probably would be funny — because the comic would not have to say “this is an issue”  to convey it.

There is something about it being in 72-point type that makes it personal.

The paper has defended its headlines, and suggested that those who thought them in poor taste were suffering from “a sense of humor failure.”

(By the way, Hodgson was the coach of the UAE national team a decade ago, and did not do particularly well, and here is our story on people here recalling him, and a commentary from Amith Passela, one of our veteran reporters, recalling his time taking with Hodgson.

(Also, I wonder how many of the UAE sources are aware of the rather sharp comments Hodgson made about coaching the players here, several years back. See those here.)

Anyway, the notion that the job coaching the England soccer team is one of the worst in the world … has been reinforced today.

Roy Hodgson has not run even one training session, and he already is being mocked.