Sacking Sven would be absolute madness

Filed in archive Managers on April 18, 2008

It could be purely media speculation and there may be no real prospect of it happening at all, but the stories of the tenuous nature of Sven Goran Eriksson's reign at Manchester City are gathering speed.

The Thai owner of the club, Thaksin Shinawatra, has refused to confirm that the former England manager's job is safe. He has said that he will review the position at the end of the season. He has said that he has been 'very disappointed' by the second half of the season and needs to decide on the future.

I have to say that I am not a member of the 'money is ruining football' club, and I don't object to overseas money coming into the English game. I truly believe that all of the investment can only be good for English football, but the prospect of Sven losing his job is absolute madness.

If Shinawatra does decide to relieve Eriksson of his duties then the whole game of football needs to stop and take a good look at itself. Instant success is demanded by club owners but when will people learn that it is consistency and longevity that bring success, not knee-jerk sackings of managers who are doing OK or better.

Sven became England manager after a wonderfully successful club managerial career in Sweden, Portugal and Italy. As England manager opinions are divided as to whether he was a success or not. Regular visits to quarter-finals of tournaments was certainly as good as most managers had achieved before or since.

At Manchester City he has turned a pretty poor side into one that has done the double over Manchester United and sit eighth in the Premier League with a worst possible finish of ninth. This is a vast improvement on the last two seasons when City finished 14th and 15th and flirted with relegation.

Sven has improved the club significantly from one looking nervously over their shoulders at the drop zone to one looking up at the possibility of European football. He has unearthed great talents like Elano and Petrov and has a fine pool of excellent English youngsters like Hart, Richards, Onouha and Johnson.

For the sake of the sanity of English football I strongly advise Mr Shinawatra to end the speculation and confirm that Sven will see out his contract.

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Rating: 9.25 out of 4 vote(s) cast.

Response from: Svenalike (04/18/08 7:32am)

The media rumour mill strikes again?
In spite of the minority press hack's and arm chair "experts" Sven bashing and smear campaigns, most informed (and fair?) fan and public opinion appears to recognise Sven-Goran's history of amazing success pre-England.
(Has anyone re-visited the Sven + Lazio statistics lately?)
Regardless of the media hype, Sven dragged England out of the football "wilderness" and achieved FIFA No4 world ranking during W-Cup '06. England cruised easily to top place in every qualifying group and our national team lost only FIVE competitive matches during his tenure.
The fact that Svennis gave us the real prospect of winning an international trophy (or two?) made the disappointment of dropping out in each quarterfinal even more bitter perhaps but the players (and some match officials?) surely had a lot to do with our failure to jump the final hurdles and “bring football home”?
The subsequent performance of the same "golden generation" without Sven’s influence would appear only to highlight his merits? Maybe TheFA appointed Steve MacClaren to emphasise that point after the (xenophobes?) created the environment that caused Sven to quite with 2 years remaining on a recently extended England coach/manager contract?
(Does anyone doubt that England would be playing this summer if Sven had still been in charged?)
Even though blocked from acquiring some of the players he needs, Sven has turned Manchester City round after years of "mediocrity" and the results this season have been the best for many years.
Reports of Sven's constant globe trotting during his "gap year" (paid for by TheFA) will no doubt have provided a unique talent spotting opportunity as he turned down numerous offers to take charge of other nation's national squads and league clubs, and this will make for a potentially "interesting" recruitment drive in the next transfer window and should make Man City an even greater force next season.
England's loss (and the other clubs he turned down) is very much Man City's gain and anyone would be crazy to throw away what many in the international football world consider to be "one of history's greatest coach managers" and spoil Manchester City’s chance of following in Lazio’s footsteps? The Sven bashers (and FA?) may consider this while watching a Euro2008 tournament in which England is now "on the bench"?
Svenalike
Proud to "be" Sven.

Response from: Thomas Rooney (04/19/08 6:19am)

If there is one thing Manchester City need, it is consistency. Sven has done a fantastic job. I think I am right in thinking that it is Man City's highest points total in the Premier League for a while?

It' only because of the fantastic start they had why this is coming out - they started expecting Champions League football. Which was unrealistic.

Man City will finish in the top ten and as Harry Redknapp said recently, anyone who does that outside the 'big four' has had a very good season.

Response from: martin (04/20/08 10:56am)

Can't help referring back to your Kenny Jacket article...