January 12 – England Go Foreign
“SVEN Sven Sven-Göran Eriksson
He’s a lovely geezer but don’t forget that he’s from Swe-den.”
So sang songwriting duo Bell and Spurling in their 2001 ditty which became something of an unexpected hit.
The reason they were crooning about a balding, bespectacled Swede was that the FA decided there were no decent bosses to be found at home and appointed Sven as England’s first foreign manager. It was on this day that Sven flew into England to begin his new job.
While the appointment of a foreigner to England’s top job caused a certain amount of debate, most fans were just keen to see someone in the job who could make a decent fist of it, after lionhearted Kevin Keegan’s brand of alcohol and card school based coaching had somehow inexplicably failed, leaving England bottom of their world cup qualifying group – below even Albania.
Aware of the possibly xenophobic views of some England fans, Eriksson had a plan to win them round. “I will prove my critics wrong with good football and good results,” he said, adding: “I have to defend myself with good football, good results. If results come, no-one cares about the nationality of the manager.”
And not a meaningless platitude about ‘pride,’ ‘passion’ or ‘the English way of playing’ in sight. Had he learnt nothing from his predecessors?
Things started pretty darn well for Sven as he got the world cup qualifying campaign well and truly back on track including the famous 5-1 demolition of Germany when even Emile Heskey managed to score a goal.
Over the next five years under Sven’s charge the England team did sort of ok, without setting the world alight by getting knocked out of two world cups and Euro 2004 at the quarter final stage, before the Swede stood down from his position.
For a man who seemed to do as little as possible in his job (picking the same players whether or not they were fit or in form, never using a different system, never moving from his position on the bench during a game etc) Sven was remarkably busy in his free time.
In between keeping his long term partner Nancy Dell’Olio sweet as, Sven found time to bed Ulrika Jonsson and FA sexcretary Faria Alam, and flirt with both Manchester United and Chelsea, as well as having a nice little chat with a man from a popular daily ‘newspaper’ (more on that in a few days folks).
With all that going on, and the way the England team capitulated at Germany in 2006 it is easy to forget that Sven was actually England’s most successful manager since Sir Alf. He only ever lost one qualifying match (a record his successor would have given his teeth-whitening gel for), but he still didn’t actually manage to win anything.
He is now proving that he wasn’t all bad by leading Manchester City into hitherto unchartered waters at the top of the Premier League.
If you really have time here is a strange tribute to Sven from someone with a little too much time on their hands. Otherwise come back tomorrow when a young winger was just beginning to make his way in the world.
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