Despite mounting criticism by fans and media, England is stuck with its singularly dull manager, says rob bagchi
|
 |
|
|
|
England's match tonight against Poland is more significant than the dead rubber affair it once threatened to be. If Wayne Rooney (and he is the only plausible candidate) can inspire England to a convincing victory, he will temper the criticism of his beleaguered manager and, by winning the group, save them from the prospect of playing the likes of Argentina or Brazil during the first phase of the World Cup finals in Germany next year.
That would give them a better chance of fulfilling the prophecy of football writers who have long earmarked Germany 2006 as the tournament England are most likely to win. As early as 2001 - long before Rooney - we were told that 2002 was too early for this golden generation of talented English players but that four more years' maturity, allied to
|
|
 |
 |
|
Unimaginative
in selection and strategy, Sven’s dispassionate demeanour is alarming
|
|
|
|
Sven-Goran Eriksson's perceptive pragmatism, would finally equip the team to add to their solitary triumph in 1966.
The correspondents are not so bullish now. Indeed, along with the supporters, they have identified Eriksson as the cause of England's current desultory form. Unimaginative in selection and strategy, his dispassionate demeanour is alarming. But, whatever tonight's result, he will not be replaced; nor is it likely that he will leave of his own accord even if England fail disastrously in Germany.
Intriguingly, his original five-year contract, worth £2.1m a year, was due to expire at the end of the 2006 World Cup. But in 2004, scared by reports of his shameless negotiations with Manchester United and Chelsea, the FA's then chief executive, Mark Palios, doubled his pay to £4.5m a year, with an extension to 2008.
Perhaps the FA should have allowed him to be poached, garnering it compensation of anything up to £6m - a stark contrast to the best part of £12m it would now cost them to assuage public opinion and dismiss him. 
|
