I've got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I've never really been a fan of Eriksson's, but England's results in qualifying have been good under him, with the highlights being the 5-1 in Munich and the draw in Istanbul. There were some shocking results such as Northern Ireland away and Macedonia at home, but overall you can't complain as we have qualified for every tournament under Eriksson. Our record in tournaments has been about what we expect really, not quite good enough to go all the way. His lack of tactical awareness and faith in non-entities like Owen Hargreaves has always grated with me, and he's lucky Rooney came along during his time in charge. I really hoped that with the squad we've got now we had a good chance of doing well this summer, however now I'm not so sure. A colleague of mine, a Tottenham fan, was at a restaurant on Saturday and Paul Robinson, David O'Leary and, bizarrely, Chris Moyles were at the next table. My mate had a chat with Robinson, who told him "we're in with a chance (of winning the World Cup) as long as Sven keeps his mouth shut".
I can't decide whether yesterday's announcement will demoralise the squad, or motivate them to give Eriksson a good send-off. Whatever happens, the News of the World have done a proper stitch up job, and if their antics have harmed our chances of doing the business in Germany then their sales figures will surely plummet. I think they may have grossly misread the mood of the nation with this one. Love him or loathe him, Eriksson's job was to build a team capable of winning the World Cup, and he has been seriously undermined by the NOTW's pathetic "sting". We all know Eriksson is a whore who would sell himself to the highest bidder, but does anyone believe that Venables' head wouldn't have been turned by a rich Sheik?
The NOTW will of course be giving it the big "Come On Boys, You Can Do It!" leading up to June. Yeah, no thanks to you, you money-grabbing stitch up merchants. I for one won't be buying that rag again, and I hope many others follow suit. Why does our tabloid press feel the need to derail the best chance we've had since 1966?
As for post-World Cup, who are we going to get. My heart says he has to be English, but what are the choices? Allardyce has been fantastic for Bolton, but is he international standard, and will his style of football suit the England team? Curbishley I think would be a better option but I'm still not sure he is capable of making the team any better than they are now. McLaren hasn't done too well at Boro this season, but by all accounts he is a very good coach. Derby went into freefall after he left them to join Man Utd, and it's been said that Fergie hasn't ever found a proper replacement. However, he's involved currently, so would he be able to take the team any further? Pardew maybe in the future, but I can't see West Ham letting him go, or him wanting to leave to be honest. Pearce will be England manager one day but not yet. I'm sure Venables will be mentioned but his time has gone. I think the FA will go for another foreign manager. I think Hiddink will be top of their list, but I've heard that Fabio Capello is looking to leave Juventus at the end of the season, looking for a new challenge. Watch this space.
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