It seems it is not just England supporters who have yet to make up their minds about Sven-Goran Eriksson’s five and a half years in charge of the national team.
The owners of Europe’s top clubs appear to share an uncertainty about how to assess exactly how good a job the Swede has done in handling a talented generation of English footballers.
Within hours of the January announcement that Eriksson would be stepping down as England’s first foreign coach after the World Cup, the 58-year-old was declaring himself open to offers of future employment.
”In football, you don’t look for jobs, you just wait for the phone to ring,” he said at the time.
Four months later, all the evidence suggests Eriksson is still waiting for the right suitor to call and it seems likely that it is now his side’s performance in Germany that will define his own future as well as the legacy he leaves from his term as the most handsomely rewarded coach in world football.
On paper, there can be few grumbles about Eriksson’s record, at least in competitive matches.
Three defeats in 33 matches represents an impressive track record by anyone’s standards and particularly when it is recalled that Eriksson inherited a side that was in serious danger of failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup.
And from the 5-1 victory over Germany in Munich that turned around that qualifying campaign to November’s thrilling friendly win over Argentina, the high points have comfortably outnumbered lows like the sloppy display that resulted in an embarrassing defeat in Northern Ireland last September.
Eriksson’s critics however find it difficult to accept that he is entitled to sign off on this positive balance sheet.
With the players they have, England, they argue, have done no better, and possibly worse, than they would have with almost anyone in charge.
For the sceptics, a more charismatic figure than Eriksson would have been capable of squeezing a superior level of performance out of the players who wilted in the Japanese heat against ten-man Brazil in the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup. And a more astute tactician would, they insist, surely have found a way to navigate around Portugal at the same stage of Euro 2004.
That judgement appears harsh on an individual who got the job on the strength of his pedigree as a coach who won league titles in Sweden, Portugal and Italy and if Eriksson is a lucky coach, his luck has lasted a very long time.
It is also at odds with the mixture of loyalty and admiration that Eriksson engenders amongst the England players, which appears to have survived the events which led to the announcement of Eriksson’s post-World Cup departure.
The Football Association effectively sacked the Swede after he made a string of ill-judged comments, including some indiscreet remarks about England players, to a News of the World reporter posing as a wealthy Arab sheikh planning to invest in Aston Villa.
The episode was the latest in a string of incidents which had seen Eriksson try the patience of his employers.
In the run-up to Euro 2004, it was revealed that the Swede had been talking to Chelsea about taking up the vacancy eventually filled by Jose Mourinho.
That episode resulted in Eriksson’s contract being extended to 2008, on substantially enhanced terms — a misjudgement by the FA that has only given fuel to Eriksson’s fiercest critics.
The governing body also had to grapple with the fall-out from Eriksson’s eventful love life and subsequent kiss-and-tell revelations, including the affair with FA secretary Faria Alam that led to the resignation of then chief executive Mark Palios last year.
Such shenanigans have clouded the issue of how good job Eriksson has actually done, but, in purely sporting terms, it does seem plausible to see the Swede as a victim of some of his own successes.
Nobody, for instance, would have blamed him for not introducing Wayne Rooney to the squad as a 17-year-old.
But once the forward’s readiness for the international stage was demonstrated, it was Eriksson who was left to contend with the increased expectations his initial judgement had created.
The flip side of that equation is that Rooney’s probable absence in Germany has dampened optimism to the extent that Eriksson may be able to depart with his reputation intact if England can match their performances at the last two major tournaments.
If they do better, the Football Association may come to regret their decision to cut short Eriksson’s time in charge for reasons that had nothing to do with football. – Sapa-AFP