Sven-Göran Eriksson | diagnosed with terminal cancer

[GuybrushThreepwood]

TBF both were very solid and I think the defence looked the best in that tournament. Campbell probably got it because he had a slightly higher profile than Rio back then. Both the Argies and Brazilians really struggled to break them down. Shame the attack was pretty crap. After 2004 Campbell was essentially washed up.

I agree that Campbell was excellent at the 2002 World Cup, but I do think that Ferdinand was clearly better. I think the time in numerous polls, most people voted for Ferdinand as our player of the tournament.

I also agree that Campbell's inclusion probaly was due to his higher profile, with Ferdinand 'only' playing for Leeds back then (I think Utd signed him after the tournament), although he had already played in a Champions League semi-final.

Obviously with Terry's rise (and being 6 years younger), it was inevitable that he would overtake Campbell in the England pecking order, although from memory, I think that was accelerated by the fact that Campbell regularly missed friendly matches.

 

[red4ever 79]

When I thin of Sven, I think of Nancy. That pretty much sums up is England career for me. He will always be remembered for being someone who selected player's based on reputation and favoritism. He was on Sky Sport about a month ago and he was still going on about playing Lampard and Gerrard together and sticking Scholes on the left. At least with Southgate England have someone who isnt afraid of upsetting people and giving others who are in form an opportunity.

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Didn't FIFA introduce a rule to limit the number of substitutions made in international friendlies, after Sven made 11 changes in a couple of them? That's another interesting legacy.

 

[Eurotrash]

A good manager but with some weaknesses. I saw him as a great strategist, but not very good at thinking on his feet. In other words, he was the best manager for qualifying and group stages, but he was never going all the way in the knock-out stages of a major tournament.

 

[royce987]

Would it have been different if he had listened to Scholes and played a diamond midfield?

To that end, playing for his club has always meant marginally more to him than representing his country, his loyalties further cemented by United's style being more suited to his game than that of England, particularly since Eriksson dropped the diamond. That system had been designed primarily to grant Scholes the freedom in which he could instigate play and, more importantly, get into the penalty area to score the goals which have been so singularly lacking in recent years.

With the formation having failed to convince either in training sessions or in competitive matches, Beckham led a delegation of England players to the first-team coach Steve McClaren prior to the Euro 2004 match against Switzerland in Coimbra, urging the management staff to return to a flat quartet.

Eriksson subsequently met Beckham, Scholes, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in his hotel room to discuss the line-up, with a straw poll among the players splitting three to one on the system, only Scholes favouring the diamond.

England reverted to a more conventional set-up to beat the Swiss 3-0 and, although Scholes scored his first international goal in 2,257 minutes and 30 matches, against Croatia in the final group, he was a peripheral figure throughout the tournament.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2004/aug/04/newsstory.sport2

 

[thepolice123]

When I thin of Sven, I think of Nancy. That pretty much sums up is England career for me. He will always be remembered for being someone who selected player's based on reputation and favoritism. He was on Sky Sport about a month ago and he was still going on about playing Lampard and Gerrard together and sticking Scholes on the left. At least with Southgate England have someone who isnt afraid of upsetting people and giving others who are in form an opportunity.

I honestly don't think he even took the job seriously. Most of the time he was dull as feck and pandered to the media and the FA. Bascially just being a yes man, while getting paid tons. He probably also enjoyed the popularity because it gave him countless opportunities to feck around with women.

Would it have been different if he had listened to Scholes and played a diamond midfield?


https://www.theguardian.com/football/2004/aug/04/newsstory.sport2

Would never have worked. That formation needed a designated DM and I don't think England even had one who was half-decent at that time. The closest was probably Butt and no way he is going to drop Lampard or Gerrard for him. Also Beckham was the face of the England squad. The whole world wanted to see him on the right and delivering crosses in.

 

[Gio]

Would it have been different if he had listened to Scholes and played a diamond midfield?


https://www.theguardian.com/football/2004/aug/04/newsstory.sport2

They did play it around 2003-04 or so for a while. Remember Turkey getting turned over comprehensively and England looking like a proper team with that shape in midfield - @thepolice123 that's a rare occasion when Butt was started ahead of Lampard. In fact I'm fairly sure they kept it at Euro 2004 too, with Gerrard as the defensive midfielder. Which is probably the only tournament since Euro '96 where England have looked like a cohesive team. It was the 2006 and 2010 World Cups where England reverted to the flat four-man midfield which was inevitably crap at keeping the ball and creating a platform for their best midfielders to shine.

 

[thepolice123]

They did play it around 2003-04 or so for a while. Remember Turkey getting turned over comprehensively and England looking like a proper team with that shape in midfield - @thepolice123 that's a rare occasion when Butt was started ahead of Lampard. In fact I'm fairly sure they kept it at Euro 2004 too, with Gerrard as the defensive midfielder. Which is probably the only tournament since Euro '96 where England have looked like a cohesive team. It was the 2006 and 2010 World Cups where England reverted to the flat four-man midfield which was inevitably crap at keeping the ball and creating a platform for their best midfielders to shine.

Did they really play the diamond midfield at the Euros? They already had Rooney who was playing as the #10. Lampard was clearly not playing in that role and was often alongside Gerrard who had license to go forward. Becks was wide and Scholes played the roaming playmaker similar to Zidane in a way.

 

[Lay]

How many games did Scholes play on the left? Sven seems to get a lot of criticism for it but Scholes went 30 games without a goal before scoring against Croatia

 

[Blueman]

2nd most succesful england manager, oversaw us beating Germany 5-1, beating our old enemies Argentina, getting to quarters of major cups, he was brilliant. Our media crucified him though, "Not exciting enough", Should be WINNING world cups" - He got sacked by our media starting up one of their campaigns that they like to do, and who'd we end up with - Steve mfkinclaren. Well done our press! I fkin hate their meddling in shit, they ruin everyhthing good about our national team, just to sell news!

 

[FootballHQ]

2nd most succesful england manager, oversaw us beating Germany 5-1, beating our old enemies Argentina, getting to quarters of major cups, he was brilliant. Our media crucified him though, "Not exciting enough", Should be WINNING world cups" - He got sacked by our media starting up one of their campaigns that they like to do, and who'd we end up with - Steve mfkinclaren. Well done our press! I fkin hate their meddling in shit, they ruin everyhthing good about our national team, just to sell news!

How did you rate his Man. City year out of interest? I remember there was mass influx of signings, really good start to the season (ridiculously good home form) but then tailing off after xmas and missing out on europe?

Do you think he should've been kept and at least got a chance of 18 months under Abu Dhabi like Mark Hughes did?

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

I know City spent a decent amount of money under Sven in 2007/2008, but it was interesting that after spending a lot more money under Hughes the next season, they still went backwards slightly and fell from 9th place and 55 points in 2008 to 10th and 50 points in 2009. Hughes didn't seem to like many of the players signed under Sven. Admittedly 2 of their signings during the summer of 2008, Kompany and Zabaleta, turned out be absolute bargains and club legends.

 

[thepolice123]

I know City spent a decent amount of money under Sven in 2007/2008, but it was interesting that after spending a lot more money under Hughes the next season, they still went backwards slightly and fell from 9th place and 55 points in 2008 to 10th and 50 points in 2009. Hughes didn't seem to like many of the players signed under Sven. Admittedly 2 of their signings during the summer of 2008, Kompany and Zabaleta, turned out be absolute bargains and club legends.

I remember that Mancity being abit of hipster project. Their signings were either unknown or underrated players. I remember Elano being pretty good and there's also Petrov who had a wicked cross. Corluka was an underrated defender back then. Stephan Ireland in CM was decent for them too.

 

[Gio]

Did they really play the diamond midfield at the Euros? They already had Rooney who was playing as the #10. Lampard was clearly not playing in that role and was often alongside Gerrard who had license to go forward. Becks was wide and Scholes played the roaming playmaker similar to Zidane in a way.

Well I had a quick look at the Croatia and Portugal games on Footballia and it looks like a clear diamond to me. Gerrard is certainly the base and Lampard had more freedom to go forward, although sometimes Gerrard would go and Lampard would cover. And yes Scholes was operating in that inside-left channel that Zidane often did, particularly at France '98.

I don't think the midfield was the problem at Euro 2004 - it fired well on the whole and was significantly better than all the post-2000 World Cups. But they lacked depth beyond a strong first XI. In the Portugal game, Vassell played 95 minutes while Phil Neville played 65. A wee bit more quality to cover for injuries and Scholes' inablity to cope with the summer heat and they might have got over the line in normal time.

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

I remember that Mancity being abit of hipster project. Their signings were either unknown or underrated players. I remember Elano being pretty good and there's also Petrov who had a wicked cross. Corluka was an underrated defender back then. Stephan Ireland in CM was decent for them too.

Agreed. Plus Valeri Bojinov looked to be an excellent signing for a decent price as well (he was pretty highly rated at the time), but injuries ruined his time there.

Ireland was one of the City's best players during Sven's season, and was widely regarded as their best player the next season under Hughes.

Under Sven, City won their first 9 home games of the season with Elano and Petro both playing excellently, before their form tailed off.

 

[Spaghetti]

Should have take that team way further than the quarters.

Probably an unpopular opinion but I actually prefer Gareth Southgate. He has a strange charm about him, seems to have built some harmony in the camp and the team scores loads of goals!

 

[El Zoido]

Should have take that team way further than the quarters.

Probably an unpopular opinion but I actually prefer Gareth Southgate. He has a strange charm about him, seems to have built some harmony in the camp and the team scores loads of goals!

There’s too much pressure on footballers. That England “golden generation” was expected to win the World Cup, based on what? Still riding high from Euro 96 semi final perhaps, but it’s not like we had previous in recent history.

You can see similarities with Southgate and Solskjaer, who have quite young squads and who allow their players to enjoy the game a bit more, to play with freedom, alongside the trust placed in them. There’s still pressure (and in both instances it’s partly subsided due to a continually extending period in the wilderness), but for me it’s starting to feel like a new era of the game in terms of how to properly man-manage the modern footballer.

On the other end of the spectrum, managers like Mourinho are on the way out. Taking tactics out of the picture for a moment (which are obviously still vitally important), you can see the fruits of maintaining a harmonised squad, both full of natural talent, that works for each other.

 

[Kasper]

People act as of the Golden Generation was the 1970 Brazil National Squad. I mean, yeah they were better than the squad England has now but by no means should've anyone expected a world/european championship right away.
I think he did a good job, ultimately he lost to the world champions in 2002 and twice on penalties. International Knock Outs are so unpredictable, hard to blame him for that.
And if it weren't for Ronaldinho's brilliance in 2002 England would've probably won the thing.

Still stand by that assessment. I think he failed to find a permanent solution for midfield but it's not like his successors did a better job in that regard.

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Does anyone think that the 90s was a worse decade for 'underachievement' than the 00s?

I was 5 at the time of Euro 1996, so I don't exactly remember that tournament clearly, but with the squad that we had, plus home advantage, and the fact that we up against a good but not exactly amazing German team in the semis (probably a notch below where they were in 1990 right?), we should have won that? Then again that was sandwiched in-between us failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, and going out in the last 16 in 1998.

I think our overall pool was deeper in the 90s, with the English contingent of players at Utd (with Steve Bruce uncapped), Arsenal and Liverpool in-particularly, plus Shearer, Gascoigne, Le Tissier (only capped 8 times though) etc. Again I'm talking about a time when I was a kid and so didn't follow properly, but on paper it appears that many subsequent England managers would loved to have the players available to them that Graham Taylor did for example.

 

[FootballHQ]

Graham Taylor had lots of the Italia 1990 group retiring at pretty much the same time (similar to Roy Hodgson losing the 00s players from 2012 onwards or way past their best).

Of course he still made lots of selection errors but it wasn't a great crop (Shearer also missed a fair bit of the World cup qualifiers injured and then you have the off pitch problems of likes of Merson and Tony Adams).

Things had improved by 1995 though. Look at the list of forwards back then. Likes of Les Ferdinand and Robbie Fowler hardly played at all in Euro 1996 and they were two of the top scorers in the league.

Germany had lots of injuries and suspensions for the semi final so it was nowhere near their full strength team for that tournament. Massive missed opportunity.

 

[Gio]

Graham Taylor had lots of the Italia 1990 group retiring at pretty much the same time (similar to Roy Hodgson losing the 00s players from 2012 onwards or way past their best).

Of course he still made lots of selection errors but it wasn't a great crop (Shearer also missed a fair bit of the World cup qualifiers injured and then you have the off pitch problems of likes of Merson and Tony Adams).

Things had improved by 1995 though. Look at the list of forwards back then. Likes of Les Ferdinand and Robbie Fowler hardly played at all in Euro 1996 and they were two of the top scorers in the league.

Germany had lots of injuries and suspensions for the semi final so it was nowhere near their full strength team for that tournament. Massive missed opportunity.

I think that's a fair take on both Taylor and Venables. Taylor was tactically really poor and made some really questionable choices, such as no Chris Waddle despite tearing it up for the best team in Europe, no Beardsley, no Mark Hateley despite running over the top of European defences for Rangers, and no right-backs in his Euro '92 squad. But he was hamstrung by retirements of the 86/90 generation and injuries to key players - Gascoigne and Jones - in particular. And also quite unlucky when you consider the face-off with Holland and how Koeman got away with murder.

@GuybrushThreepwood It's hard to criticise Venables because England came together well as a team, him and Revie were tactically impressive, and they were a ball hair away from winning the whole thing. I don't think it's fair to talk in absolutes about semi-final games like that one which could have easily gone either way, not just in the shootout, but Anderton hitting the post, Gazza almost reaching Shearer's cross, etc. I'm not sure England's squad was clearly the best in Europe to the point where you'd say that it should be winning tournaments, as there was some quality player pools beyond Germany when you look at Italy, France, Holland, Spain and Croatia. But yes in some ways it was a missed opportunity because it was a solid but unmemorable German side.

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Thanks guys for very informative posts. I'm also interested to learn about football and tournaments that I wasn't old enough to follow properly (or at all).

I have to admit from Graham Taylor's era, his reluctance to use Chris Waddle (tearing it up in France) or Peter Beardsley did immediately stand out, as did his use of Carlton Palmer. I heard about a dearth of talent available to that stage (and there were key injuries with Shearer missing half of the 1992/1993 season), although at face value it appeared that we had more overall depth than we have now for example, especially with a reduced number of English players playing regular football in the Premier League (or in any major European league) nowadays).

I did immediately look at the mid 90s, when we Seaman and all those English defenders at Arsenal, all those talented young players at Utd and Liverpool, striking options which included Shearer, Sheringham, Fowler, Cole etc, Gascoigne, Anderton, Barmby etc, and again had more players playing regular Premier League football (including for the top clubs), and wonder if that could be classed as a period of underachievement. On face value it did appear that Venables also had a bigger pool of players to choose from than Southgate does currently for example.

Looking at Euro 1996, while we should have beaten Germany in the semis, on the flipside you could argue that we were incredibly lucky to beat Spain in the quarters. I think that Salinas had a perfectly good goal disallowed for them, and they also had some strong penalty appeals not given. Spain lost to Belgium on penalties on the June 22nd 1986, to England on penalties on June 22nd 1996, to South Korea on penalties on June 22nd 2002, before beating Italy on penalties on June 22nd 2008.

 

[Dancfc]

I remember that Mancity being abit of hipster project. Their signings were either unknown or underrated players. I remember Elano being pretty good and there's also Petrov who had a wicked cross. Corluka was an underrated defender back then. Stephan Ireland in CM was decent for them too.

IIRC they're was the odd musing to whether they could do a Leicester at one point (obviously it wasn't called that at the time). We actually went into a clash with them in late October below them, but we battered them 6-0 then they disappeared from trace (relative to the title).

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Great manager who fell foul to the Ingerlund "best in the world" crowd who thought they were better than Brazil, Italy, Germany, France and even fecking Portugal.

 

[RalphMilneSuperstar]

IIRC they're was the odd musing to whether they could do a Leicester at one point (obviously it wasn't called that at the time). We actually went into a clash with them in late October below them, but we battered them 6-0 then they disappeared from trace (relative to the title).

I think they were 4th at Christmas and then fell apart. Ended the season losing 8-0(?) to Boro under a certain Mr Southgate...

 

[Samid]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

When Sven came into the boardroom, I was standing with my wife Barbara and one of her attractive friends, Sarah, who happened to be divorced.

Sven was quick out of the box and immediately asked Sarah what she did for a living. ‘I design lampshades,’ she said. Sven answered with a smile: ‘I need some lampshades!’

I said: ‘Sven, you’re living at the Royal Lancaster hotel!’ Athole was right in tipping me off!

[...]

The News of the World had chapter and verse on Sven’s relationship with Faria Alam, David Davies’s PA. It wasn’t a secret that Sven was attracted to her. Every time I went to Soho Square to see David, Sven was always hanging around in his office. I didn’t need to be Poirot to detect what was going on.

Faria told the FA that nothing was going on and an official statement on the Monday afternoon rubbished the story. David Davies contacted Sven, who also said: ‘It’s nonsense.’

Sven felt his private life was his business and I had some sympathy, but this was directly impacting on the FA.

Anyway, it seemed to go quiet but my peace was disturbed on July 25 by the News of the World headline: ‘I bedded Sven and his boss.’ I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Faria had also slept with Mark Palios. It was such a mess. Sven was typically unperturbed as we headed to the pre-season Amsterdam tournament to watch Arsenal.

I found Sven and got him up to my room. ‘Sven, this is serious, I’ve got to ask you straight, are you having an affair with the FA secretary?’

Sven’s eyes rolled. ‘No, but I’d like to.’

 

[Samid]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[Mike Smalling]

Fecking hell, that's sad. I've had this happen to people close to me, and it's the worst. Cancer is so ugly.

 

[Ayoba]

Terrible news

 

[Pexbo]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

(+1)

 

[ChrisNelson]

Awful news this, always liked him as England gaffer and seems a nice guy too.

When you compare him to some of the dross that's come and gone since, he actually did OK.

Wishing him all the strength to fight this for as long as he can.

 

[Solius]

Poor guy

 

[Herman Toothrot]

Sad news. A truly inspiring shagger.

 

[Withnail]

A year to live... Christ. Doesn't bear thinking about. Poor man.

 

[McGrathsipan]

Cancer is a rotten feck of a disease.

 

[Plant0x84]

Yep this is sad news, seems like a genuine likeable happy guy. The blunt way the news has broken is shocking too. Poor Sven.

 

[Jippy]

Sad news, he was a real character.

 

[Castia]

Damn that’s really sad news. My mate loved him at City and even named his dog Sven

 

[Semper Fudge]

Sad news, he was a real character.

He's not dead yet!

His attitude since being diagnosed is to be commended.

 

[Peter van der Gea]

feck cancer