Yippeeee - Eriksson is quitting. Bad news is

[SKIPPYSKIP]

Agree Triple X and I dont read the sun.

[owner]

1) Motivation.  You need someone to inspire the team to play as a team and to play for the manager.  This requires a manager that they respect (Not an easy task with today's multi millionaire players).  I find it hard to put any foreign manager into this category, and the England manager that springs to mind as having most successfully done this is Venables (with the squad of Euro '96)

Not sure how you can say that no foriegn manager can be be placed in this category regarding respect, Not many of the current squad would have a great deal of respect for the english names being brandished about except for stuart pearce(and that wont be for managerial reasons),  Jewell?? Dont be silly....Allerdyce?? Has done great with bolton but would we all be happy with England playing his style of football? I certainly wouldnt......Curbishley?? Not really sure he has the tactical ability for top class football (Charlton are renouned for chokeing when the going gets tough),.....Mclaren?? When he was Fergy's assistant the united players raved about his tactical ability and man management(im a united fan) so i beleve he should be involved in the backroom staff but not sure he can deal with being the main man....Pearce?? He would be my ideal dream of an England manager but......Too early, maybe in 5 years.

The only managers that would command and demand respect ARE foriegn and top of the tree is obviously Mourinho and i for one would be happy to see him take it on a "part time" basis just like Hiddink does with PSV and Australia

The others are the great Sir Alex ferguson and Hiddink himself, whos record domestically and internationaly is superb

In saying I didn't think a foreign manager would have respect I wasn't implying there aren't any out there or suggesting any English manager would automatically have it.  I just think it is harder for a cultural outsider to English football to 'bond' with the players.  IMO El Tel had the perfect blend of tracksuit manager when coaching, tactical awareness of the international game and rapport with the players - shall we get Tel back ?    I can't honestly believe, despite what they say publicly, that the players respect Sven.  I suppose once he has gone it will all come out.

I'm a big fan of Allardyce, and believe he could the job.  To say his style of football would not suit England is overlooking the fact that the tactics he employs at Bolton are formed by the resources available to him.  I can't think of many better English manager (OK, I'm being stubborn on demanding an English manager now) that has a better tactical brain to assess an opponent and put a plan in place to counteract them.  Admittedly with Bolton that often does mean a negative plan, but is that always a bad thing ?  Are we looking to outplay Brazil at attacking creative football, or just get a result.

[SKIPPYSKIP]

Interesting I see Kevin Keegan has been quoted at 100/1 to get the job, if he fot the job i'd shoot myself  to stop me going through the pain

[ifm]

Papers have their job and they would have nothing to report if we all behaved ourselves so in that respect it's tough.
BTW it was the NOTW that first started publishing piccys of child abusers (till they were stopped) something i am 150% behind.

[Nem]

Sven hasn't done a bad job. Yes we lost to France and Brazil. The Brazil game Seaman got lobbed from 40 yards to gift them a goal, but to be honest the whole team froze after Rivaldo scored his goal in the first half. Against France we were very unlucky, Heskey gives away a foul in the 90th minute just outside the area, Zidane steps up and plants it in the top corner 1-1. Then another goalkeeper mishap and James loses it and brings down Henry for a penalty, 1-2 game over. Hardly Eriksson fault.  Then we play Portugal, the hosts. We go out after penalties, again hardly Eriksson fault. It's the equivalent of having AK against a pocket pair 3 separate occasions and we have lost. After all these are cup competitions, where you need a bit of luck (look at Liverpool last season!) I'm sure that if Eriksson was English we wouldn't be talking about him being out of his depth.

[ifm]

Nem, i like you mate but FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nem]

Do you honestly think that an English manager would have achieved more than Eriksson? When Eriksson was appointed, we only had 5 English managers in the Premier league, 3 of them were previous England managers.

[ifm]

Do you really think the tactics were right against BRAZIL after the sending off
You are quite mad if you think that was not down to the manager

[The Baron]

This is the best squad of players ever including 1966

Indeed. It could even be argued that the 1970 squad was better than 1966.

Our 1970 team was the best ever. It is just overshadowed by Brazil's amazing '70 team.

[The Baron]

Sven hasn't done a bad job. Yes we lost to France and Brazil. The Brazil game Seaman got lobbed from 40 yards to gift them a goal, but to be honest the whole team froze after Rivaldo scored his goal in the first half. Against France we were very unlucky, Heskey gives away a foul in the 90th minute just outside the area, Zidane steps up and plants it in the top corner 1-1. Then another goalkeeper mishap and James loses it and brings down Henry for a penalty, 1-2 game over. Hardly Eriksson fault.  Then we play Portugal, the hosts. We go out after penalties, again hardly Eriksson fault. It's the equivalent of having AK against a pocket pair 3 separate occasions and we have lost. After all these are cup competitions, where you need a bit of luck (look at Liverpool last season!) I'm sure that if Eriksson was English we wouldn't be talking about him being out of his depth.

I used to like that Nemesis fella! European Champions sunny! One piece of luck - the final.

IMHO - King's delivery is too poor for the holding role. Carrick or Parker. In recent weeks I've started to go with Carrick. He's done well against top opposition this season. He's come on a lot.

As for Sven he wasn't bad at all.

Next manager?

Hiddink, Scolari and if he has to be English, Pearce/Bryan Robson.

[KeithyB]

I think a fair assessment of Sven would be that he's done a good job overall with more plusses than minuses. However that same assessment would also state that he's been disappointing in the most vital matches namely the quarter final losses in 2002 and 2004. 

Qualification has been achieved for three major tournaments including 2002 world cup where he initially took over a situation which looked like a lost cause. Whilst you'd expect a team & squad of the quality that England have had over this period to qualify it is never as easy as that and so still deserves some praise.

Worryingly in the very big games Sven has failed to demonstrate that there is any form of a Plan B if either Plan A isn't working or needs to be changed due to circumstances ( ie being 2-1 down against 10 men for instance).  These are the kind of games where a guy on his kind of salary should really earn it.   I don't believe a really top class coach would just have let the game just drift in the way it did against Brazil without trying something else tactically.  The change may not have worked but something should at least have been tried.

I also seem to remember cringeing when he brought on Phil Neville vs Portugal too   

All the above relates purely to Sven's footballing credentials and I've ignored the various scandals with women and fake sheiks as I don't believe they affect the footballing side.  ( Of course they say plenty about him as a person though )

As a replacement I would love to see Martin O'Neill have the job ( personal circumstances permitting of course ).  Here is a man who has great experience both on the playing side and in management. One who is an expert in motivation and getting the best out of players whether directly or via his own team of coaches. 

An exceedingly clever man, yet one who would never insult people's intelligence when being asked for comments after a game. In fact probably the thing I miss the most since he left Leicester is no longer hearing his post match interviews on our games.  Always polite and honest with no small degree of wit thrown in for good measure.  A very eloquent speaker who would give detailed and refreshingly honest insight into whatever he was commenting on.....it was almost like listening to one of your mates give a radio interview on the game.  None of this " I didn't see the incident " Martin told it like it was.

The FA didn't give Brian Clough the job in the 1970's when they should have done, lets hope they don't pass over the chance to employ probably the nearest thing to Cloughie there's been since then.

Of course he may not want the job........................

[Rod Paradise]

wohooooooooooooo lets all join the berti for england get a petition up etc etc

http://new.petitiononline.com/BVEng/petition.html

Ask and ye shall receive 

Well done Dewi & Ironsides 

[mex]

The only thing that Sven has done wrong that gets me is.......

1)ay a friendly bring a player in, he plays well, real game comes up goes with the old names. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Prime example
Rio skips his drug test so they don't find what ever it is he's so obviously taken. Then walks back into England set up next game.

Intresting Rio fact his fastest run last season was box to box to complain to the ref! and thats true (rooney was getting a telling off so Rio had to get involved)

It annoys me that people like this get an England shirt and seem to be an auto pick, don t get me wrong he can have a great game..... but how often does he these days?


2) Captain beckham? Can he lift and inspire a team? no Is he a good marketing tool for the FA? Yes.... He sells shirts

Captain Gerrard ? How many times we seen him turn a game around for pool, by getting out there and grabbing the game by the balls. Lead by example. Not get a new hair cut.

[SKIPPYSKIP]

Sven is not up to it, when the F.A took him on he had no winning credentials before that, I am all for an English manager but there is no one out there. I would like to see Venables back in but if we go foriegn I would go for Scholari, we need someone who is interested in the job not for the F.A to go out and choose someone!

[Triple X]

When we took Sven on - Sampdoria couldnt wait to get rid of him.

If we hadnt of come in, he would have got the sack within a few weeks