Farewell Sven. You seemed to prefer women to trophies

[General Duke]

Farewell Sven. You seemed to prefer women to trophies

 

Full article...

 

After three failed bids to win a tournament for England, Sven Goran Eriksson's era ended with yesterday's defeat. Stan Hey reviews the Swede's reign as coach and celebrity

Published: 02 July 2006

 

At the end of the day, he left us as he had left his lovers, with a sense of anti-climax. Sven Goran Eriksson's five-and-a-half year managerial career with the England football team faded away with defeat in a penalty shoot-out yesterday to Portugal in Gelsenkirchen in the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup. The Swedish manager on whom the Football Association, if not the country, had staked so much, once again found winning an international tournament beyond his coaching and motivational skills. Three exits at the last-eight stage were all he could leave us with, none of them in any way heroic, except yesterday's.

 

Surely a case of Three Lions led by a Donkey? Yet when the svelte Svennis was introduced to the nation in the autumn of 2000 by Adam Crozier, then the FA's slick chief executive, who had headhunted him from the Italian club Lazio, there were many people ready to hail the appointment of England's first foreign coach as a progressive step.

 

Before Sven, Kevin Keegan had flapped his arms like a stranded penguin as he watched England flounder out of a charmless Euro 2000 tournament, before resigning in the aftermath of a 1-0 defeat to Germany in the last game at the old Wembley Stadium. "I'm not up to the job," Keegan confessed in the players' tunnel as the autumn darkness fell.

[SoMa_InC]

The English media are ungrateful to Sven. With every Manager, sometimes his tactics were questionable but it seems like they forgot the memories of beating Argentina twice and most of all trashing Germany 5-1.

 

He was not my cup of tea in the first place and so is Steve McLaren. He was his assistant, what do they expect him to do? I guess the writing is on the wall.

 

England has a good squad full of talented players who can be world beaters anytime but they need a good Manager. Big Phil would have been ideal for the job but he rejected it because of the English media. Just look at how the media portrayed Owen Hargraves when he was picked for the world cup and see how he answered his critics wrong against the Portugal game. He was far the best English player on the pitch.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

^^ Owen Hargreaves was brilliant. The man kept running, passing and fighting for the ball against Portugal.

 

 

He is Canadian.

[Tahliil]

The Swede whatever he had in the past, he apparantly lost it long time ago. I never understood why the English had to keep him for all these times with the same agonizin results... Given the chance and the lenght of time he had with these players, I think Wenger or Ferguson could have his job and could have done it much better. The sad thing is that the fans and the Englsihs FA realized this after losing 4 WC in the same horrifyin fashion...He managed poorly...and deserved to go yrs ago...

[Elysian]

The british people are passionate about football, but to be honest what is there to be proud about the english football team. I mean, to my knowledge, they’ve won the cup once... many many years ago. You could always blame the coach, it could be so that the great english players are doomed with one bad coach after another or simply face the fact that Britain is more productive in producing fanatic fans and hooligans than a football team fit to win the world cup.

:cool: :cool: