Eriksson The Viking (Sven Goran Eriksson)

Member Name: W Shakespeare

Product:	Sven Goran Eriksson
Date:	06/10/01 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easily recognisable at long distances

Disadvantages: Predictable 'Swede FA' headlines if he loses

Forget ABBA, IKEA and saunas. Sweden has a new attraction.

Sven Goran Eriksson is just about the best thing to happen to English football since Chris Waddle finally got that awful mullet chopped off back in the 1990’s.

But remember the headlines when Mr Eriksson was appointed?

Forget the predictable xenophobic claptrap that English tabloids feed on whenever the words ‘foreigner’ and ‘football’ have to be included in the same sentence.

Let’s face it, if Terry Venables was unmasked as a member of Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, whole armies of Fleet Street football writers would be signing up for the Taliban army without question. So it was no surprise that when Terry was being overlooked – and let’s remember Venables’ teams never played a single qualification match due to England’s automatic qualification as the home nation at Euro 1996 – the knives were out for Sven.

On his appointment, many of the tabloids focused on his Lazio team’s recent loss of form. Not surprising given the drawn-out uncertainty concerning his imminent appointment as England boss. But there seemed to be very little mention that the great man had won the Swedish league and UEFA Cup with Gothenburg, three Portuguese titles, one European Cup Winners Cup, one UEFA Super Cup, one Italian Super Cup and the league and two Italian Cups with Lazio. They say you’re only judged on you last few results, but this was taking to concept to its unreasonable extreme.

Renowned for his tactical acumen, his calm and studied approach seems to have baffled most Fleet Street writers, who just can’t find a bad word to say about him? What are they supposed to fill their back pages with now?

The friendly defeat in Holland showed that he can make mistakes, but what better time to lose than in a friendly? The next month, Holland failed to qualify for the World Cup an
d we subsequently hammered the Germans 5-1. These are the kind of mistakes I can live with.

Having won every qualification game to date, he will not be counting his chickens against Greece this afternoon. The only barrier between England and the World Cup Finals is the pressure of expectation, both from fans and the media.

Assuming the whole team didn’t indulge in an all-night drinking session last night, we should negotiate that final hurdle.

Sven, as always, has his feet firmly on the ground, and I am confident he can achieve what seemed such an impossible dream only a year ago. Let's face it, the man's a genius.

If we lose, does anyone know Mike Bassett’s phone number?

UPDATE

Yes, it's time to get that '101 Ways to Cook a Dog' recipe book out - we're going to Korea! (Well, it beats a kebab any day.)

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