Surely Eriksson should go straight away?

[Ian]

Why wait until after the World Cup? Every example of a manager announcing that he's leaving at a point in the future has always resulted in terrible results. Ferguson (before he changed his mind) and Strachan are just two examples.

 

Sven has been stitched up by the press, been booted out by the F.A. (albeit with hefty compensation no doubt) and is Swedish. How much do you think he now cares about how well we do in Germany? People can hardly point to his professionalism as he's behaved in a far from professional manner since he's been in the job. And we've got to play bloody Sweden!

 

Get him out NOW and put somebody in temporary charge until after the World Cup when they can make a permanent appointment.

[BFR]

I couldn't agree more.

 

If I got the biggest joke in football thread running again I think the FA would storm ahead of Windsor and Portsmouth now

[Woody SUFC]

Hmm can anyone trust him to manage us against the sweeds now? In a way if he went it would hurt us but not much more than this latest twist so get shot of him and get a seige mentality and a no nonsense temporary manager and fight to the bitter end ( knocked out on pens!)

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

Totally agree, get him out now and bring back El Tel.

[BFR]

What? Another dodgy crooked manager? You are having a laugh Mr Kirby!

[Ed]

Interesting to see people calling for the return of Mr Venables who I believe was the last England manager to set a date to leave before doing so. We did not seem to do too badly disappointing as the penalties loss to Germany was. Likewise, in Italia '90 people knew that Robson would be going to PSV yet we still reached the semis - better than we have done since. I have to diagree with Ian's point about a set date for a manager's departure always bringing disaster. Much as I am not Sven's greatest admirer I think a change at this late stage could only be a bad thing.

[Ian]

Do you really trust Sven to be in charge against Sweden, his home nation, when he knows he's going? I don't.

 

Maybe the issue with departing managers is less valid for international managers and you make a good point about Robson. Wide-boy Venables however got us no further in the European Championship than any host nation had ever got in the history of the championships. We only actually won 2 games in the entire tournament (Holland & Scotland). If they put Venables back in charge I'm going to apply to become a German citizen!

 

If they can't make a permanent appointment now, why not Trevor Brooking in overall charge with Stuart Pearce working with him for training and matches? Brooking has demonstrated he can command the respect of players as he almost pulled West Ham out of trouble after Roeder left and it would give Pearce experience for the future without him having to commit to the job in any capacity after the World Cup if he didn't want to.

[Martin]

What could Sven do to make us play badly against the Swedes? Every halfwit could pick the England team. We all know what the XI will be if fit so it is going to look rather obvious if we go into the game with Konchesky, Luke Young and Phil Neville playing. He will just pick the "strongest" XI and leave them to it - much as he has done throughout qualifying.

 

In any event I think it might be better to lose to the Swedes. That means we will be playing the Germans in Round Two but IMO that is the easier half of the draw overall.

 

I also agree with Ed. Bobby Robson was hounded out by the press prior to Italia 90 and then produced our best ever World Cup performance outside these shores. The public have loved him ever since (and his little dance after the boy Lineker's equaliser is one of my favourite footballing moments of all time).

 

The FA stitched up El Tel prior to Euro 96 and we still performed pretty well.

 

This is really a great opportunity for Sven to show the press that they have been wrong to hound him since he arrived and to leave on an almighty high. A good performance in the World Cup is also likely to be a handy negotiating tool when it comes to a return to club management.

 

The list of would be candidates banded about so far has not exactly filled me with confidence either. It is way too early for Psycho although he will be a great England manager one day. Personally I think we should stick with an overseas coach and go for Guus Hiddink but we would not get him until after the World Cup.

[GarySTFC]

Well the NOTW got what they wanted. If it hadn't been for their recent scandals in stitching up the England manager (I think they would have done it regardless of who was in charge) we'd be going into this World Cup without this problem and he could, and probably would, have left after the campaign anyway.

 

His competetive results whilst England manager have been good (Northern Ireland match aside) even if the performances haven't, and I don't think he deserved all the stick he got. If anything, it's now going to cause a bigger problem as there's certainly not a ready made English replacement, and given the amount of stick you get off the red top British press, who really in their right mind would want such a job?

[Martin]

Time to polish up the CV I think - including details of various magnificent successes in Championship Manager/Football Manager.

 

I agree totally - you are not going to get many big name applicants because I don't think the prestige of the job is sufficient to warrant the prying and abuse you get/

[GarySTFC]

It's not even prying and abuse these days. As soon as one of the tabloids decides they want you out, that's it, you're going.

[Roger Rebel]

On the football side Ian what as he done wrong.

[A Rebel and a Saint]

have to agree with you there roger, i couldnt really care less what he does in his private life, its the results that matter to me.

at that level the management needs to do very little to get the team on the pitch, the players should be experienced enough to play their game properly without much intervention once the coach has picked the team.

i dont think hes deserved this harsh treatment from the news of the world, things would be a lot better if the newspapers hadnt dug up all this crap. i fail to see the logic in wanting england to win the world cup, then going in and disrupting the entire set up on purpose within months of the finals.

[BFR]

Northern Ireland comes to mind, Roger.

[A Rebel and a Saint]

every managers allowed his mistakes, look at all the clubs that doncaster played against and beat/nearly beat in the carling cup this year

[Guest]

That's the problem ARAAS, all our press & tabloids, in all our main sports they build us up then knock us down. It makes you wonder if a) they are English or not patriotic.

It happens in the cricket and the rugby too. Poor 1st ashes test and they knock the team down then up their arses when they win. A poor time in Packistan and talk as tho' we're as bad as Bangladesh. After England won the 2003 Rugby world cup, the team gets decimated with injuries and retirements and as a new team who are rebuilding are given no chance in the papers of retaining the world cup.

No matter what team or who the individual is in any walk of life, every one has a bad day. The Brazillians have a bad day, Ronaldo has a bad game, Shane Warne or the whole Ozzie team has a bad test, they all dust themselves down and go again.

Not our press. Yes Northern Ireland and Denmark games were awful, but it's those times when we neeed to give the team support to get back on their feet, but out press don't do that.

I'm not an Erriksson fan, he does make some strange decisions, but so what if he's shagging who-ever, fair play to him, it's nothing to do with thw football.

But yes he's shot himself olympic style over the NOTW incident and deserves the boot. The line was crossed there

But one thing that has happened in his reign that is a winner with me is that he orchistrated the 5-1 thrashing of the Germans on their own patch.

On a final note, I think it was right to keep him on until after the world cup. While there is still some sort of continuity around, changing manager now would disrupt things a bit more and putting pressure on a new manager before a big tournament, especially when, if the team have their heads screwed on, do have a good chance of winning it.

[Ian]

Quote:

Roger Rebel said:
On the football side Ian what as he done wrong.

The flip side to that question, Roger, is what has he done right? Given the resources at his disposal, has he achieved any more than any decent (Curbishley, McClaren, Allardyce etc.) English manager could have achieved?

Personally, I don't think he has and would argue that in some cases we could have got further in tournaments than he has taken us.

[DECORUM]

Quote:

Ian said:

Quote:

Roger Rebel said:
On the football side Ian what as he done wrong.

The flip side to that question, Roger, is what has he done right?

I think we have to accept that Ericsson manages England for one reason - Money. Ericsson went to Dubai for one reason - Money. That he was prepared to betray the confidence of his colleagues and employers in order to ingratiate himself to someone who he saw as a potential source of more money is contemptable.

All Ericsson's problems have been due to his greed, avarice and a tendency to act indiscreetly when pursuing self-gratification. I guess this makes him perfect for a senior job in football, but an easy target for newspapers who are writing about him for guess what? - Money. Ericsson of all people should understand their motives.

[DECORUM]

Should add that of course, Ericsson should go now. He has no incentive to succeed at the World Cup since he surely will have secured his new job before the competition has started, now he is free to negotiate with a new employer. Will he really want to make the people in England that he sees as hounding him out happy? I predict though, that he will not be manager in June. The FA will sack him just before the finals. It's the perfect opportunity for the FA to set up an excuse for England's inevitable failure in Germany, and to blame it on a foreigner.

[brighton_rebel]

Surely his incentive to do well at the world cup would be that it he won it, he could probably get any job in the world.

 

As for the News of the World - well the paper is a bit like benny hill, who had one gag, they have one story - celebraties in sex scandal bore. The only thing i believe in that rag is the date.

And what country is the man who owns the paper from?