The Revenge of the Dithering Simpleton

Around about the time West Ham had just parted ways with their manager Alan Pardew last season (and anyone who under-utilises Tevez and Mascherano as he did deserves the boot, I reckon!) there were rumours surfacing that their new Chairman was interested in hiring Sven-Göran Eriksson as the new Hammers boss. I did what I normally do when I read such rumours and went on to the BBC chat boards to see what hammers fans thought about it all. I must admit I was a bit taken aback by what I read.

Comment after comment went along the lines of “This guy was the worst ever England manager. If we hire him, I’ll stop supporting the club, all he’s interested in is money” etc., etc. I think you all get the drift. There was maybe one or two dissenting voices but they were quickly howled down. Being a bit of a fan of statistics, and thinking any club such as West Ham would be extremely lucky to get a manager of Sven’s pedigree I looked up some stats on Sven pre-England and posted them on the chat board. They made impressive reading as you’ll see below:

IFK Göteborg

Svenska Cupen Winners 1979, 1982
Allsvenskan Champions 1981, 1982
UEFA Cup Winners 1982

S.L. Benfica
Portuguese Liga Champions 1983, 1984, 1991
Cup of Portugal Winners 1983
SuperCup Cândido de Oliveira Champions 1989
European Cup Runners Up 1990
UEFA Cup Runners Up 1983

A.S. Roma
Coppa Italia Winners 1986

U.C. Sampdoria
Coppa Italia Winners 1994

S.S. Lazio
Coppa Italia Winners 1998, 2000
Italian Super Cup Winners 1998
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Winners 1999
UEFA Super Cup Winners 1999
Serie A Champions 2000 (for only the second time in their history)

After posting these stats, some people admitted they didn’t know he’d been that much of a success before managing England and stated maybe they’d think again before so vehemently ruling out the possibility of him managing their club. But it must be said that most maintained that he was still a terrible manager based on his time with England regardless of what he had done before that.

Which brings me to his time in charge of England. Before I went to the World Cup in Germany, I thought that Sven had done a pretty good job for England during his time in charge. He had guided them to qualification in all of the major tournaments they had contested under his tutelage, steering them out of the “group of death” at the World Cup in Japan only to be knocked out in the quarters by eventual champion Brazil. Then on to the European championships in Portugal where his team were knocked out by hosts Portugal on penalties in the quarter finals again.

But in Germany where I was forced to read the only English language newspaper available daily (The Sun, and no it wasn’t for the page three girls!) I saw that Sven was subject to ridicule pretty much every day. Now I know there were scandals that had preceded the World Cup, but it was the way they made him out to be a dithering simpleton that really surprised me. And not a day went past without him being criticised for not having enough “passion”, whatever that is (“passion” seemed to be the most important attribute a manager possessed, according to The Sun. Poor old cool, calm and collected Sven was never going to win on that front compared to a Scolari). And as that great old saying goes, mud sticks. No one can say that Sven left his job as England manager with his reputation enhanced. Quite the opposite. Was he worthy of copping what he did? Not to bore you with statistics, but have a look at the stats I have below from his time in charge of England and judge for yourself whether the torrents of abuse he copped were justified:

67 matches spanning over 5 years with only 4 competitive losses (3 inside 90 mins).

He never lost a competitive match by more than 1 goal.

He is the only England manager in the post for 3 or more major tournaments not to fail to qualify for any of them.

He took England to their first European Championship quarter-finals on foreign soil since 1972 - their third ever.

England earned the second seed of the 2006 World Cup, ahead of all other European teams and only behind top-ranked Brazil.

I’d say looking back now, it wasn’t fair what he copped. Even the Sven-haters must admit that the guy has bucket loads of courage to come back to England and try and prove the doubters wrong in the place where his reputation was the worst. I know if I was him I wouldn’t have had the guts. And his courage looks to be paying off. Articles like this one are beginning to appear from previously scornful journalists (I use the term loosely).

But it’s what he has managed to achieve with Man City so far with such limited time from when he was hired just before the season kicked off that is so impressive on so many different levels.

The players he has brought in; Elano at £8 million pounds is already the bargain of the season and is a joy to watch. The way he has blended the exciting young talent from City’s academy with his new buys. The way he has helped to develop what appears to be an excellent team spirit after only a couple of months. The rejuvenation of old-timers like Hamman. The position on the table (3rd). The list could go on.

In theory it should only get better as well after the players, old and new, have more time to settle in to his style of play and when he can splash more cash on transfers in January. Of course there is a long way to go and after a turbulent recent history, City fans would tell you that the thing first and foremost in their mind is to finish as far away from the relegation zone as possible. But the longer the season goes (and especially if Chelsea lose ground after Mourinho’s exit) they might start to dream of a top 6 or even top 4 finish. And why shouldn’t they?

If City do achieve great things under Sven, there will be a lot of people with egg on their face.

The consistently affable Sven would not be human if somewhere deep down he was not already feeling a little satisfaction at having proved some of the doubters wrong. And I for one wouldn’t begrudge him that for a second.