Sven-Goran Eriksson: The Charmer Who Under-Stayed His Welcome: Part 2

Sour Times

For the City team, that was the last true highlight of the season though. The victory could not be built on, as City won just one of their next seven games. Off the field, the relationship between owner and manager had pretty much broken down, Shinawatra acting like a petulant child that had not got his own way. He could not tolerate defeats, and had walked into the cub expecting instant glory. He stopped calling Sven, which perhaps was no bad thing. There were other things on his mind too. By now, Thaksin could and did return to Thailand in an attempt to clear his name. He was back in Thailand for the first time since being ousted as Prime Minister in a military coup in September 2006. On his arrival, he was taken straight to court to face charges of abuse of power during his time in office before being granted bail and told not to leave the country without permission ahead of his trial in March. The club’s name was being dragged through the mud. Astonishingly, he was joined in Thailand by two City players, Kasper Schmeichel and Kelvin Etuhu, who coached local children and trained with the Thai national side. Schmeichel told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘We are out here supporting our chairman. We will have to wait and see what happens but football-wise, and as far as City are concerned, he is a very good chairman, very generous and passionate. He wants the club to progress. Will he be distracted by all this? I don’t think so. He is a very genuine guy with very genuine feelings for the club. City lie very close to his heart and the way he has supported the club since he came in has proved that.’

By now, Eriksson had the suspicion that he would be fired at some point soon. After all, his owner wasn’t talking to him, and when things were going badly would often even blank him when walking past. City were still in the top half of the table, but thoughts of future European glory were a distant memory, unless they could qualify through the Fair Play league. City’s season was petering out, to a satisfactory end for all except the owner. A remarkable win by Fulham, who were two down at the break soured the relationship further. That win would help keep Fulham up under Roy Hodgson. The result didn’t matter to City, but to the owner it was probably one defeat too many. The BBC reported that week that Thaksin Shinawatra told Eriksson he was “not the right man for the job” at a meeting on the Sunday. Shinawatra’s ignorance at what constituted progress for the club was summed up with his reported comment that an “avalanche of very poor results which is unacceptable at this level”. City were on their way to a top half finish and their joint-highest Premier League points total, despite losing the final three games. At Anfield the following week, City would lose once more, and the fans knew that their manager’s job was on the line. They sang with gusto:
“We don’t need no Mour-rin-ho,
We don’t need no Sco-la-ri,
Hey, Thaksin, leave our Sven alone!”

The players of course knew too. Sven-Goran Eriksson was hugely popular with the players, and talk of him being dismissed was met with considerable anger. It was reported in the press that Sven had informed the players of the Sunday meeting the following day, but was not going to resign. Why would he? Micah Richards said in his BBC Sport website column that the players were “100% behind” Eriksson. “I think it is crazy that his job is even being talked about as being in danger – he has been good for everyone at City,” said Richards. In his autobiography, Sven recalls how Richard Dunne informed him that the team were so dissatisfied with talk of Sven being sacked that they were prepared to go on strike, refusing to play the final game of the season at Middlesbrough. Sven talked him out of it, feeling it would be unprofessional.  The talk of mutiny was clear proof of his popularity though, and of the dissatisfaction with an owner whose knowledge of football could be written on the back of a postage stamp. The question is why? Sven was quite clearly a pleasant individual, and easy to like. But was the love from his players because of the freedom he gave them to express themselves on a football pitch, or was it because that freedom allowed them an easy life? Either way, the player’s support would not be enough to change the mind of Thaksin Shinawatra.

And so to that final game of the season, and of the reign of Sven-Goran Eriksson and Thaksin Shinawatra. A game that could not have summed up the club more perfectly.  It was now clear that if City could just steer clear of any disciplinary problems, they would indeed qualify for European football via the Fair Play league. It was thus inevitable that Richard Dunne would get himself sent off after just 15 minutes. As for the rest of the team, they may not have officially gone on strike, but they effectively seemed to have downed tools in protest. It was only 2-0 at half-time, but should have been double that, and even a lovely Elano goal could not mask the embarrassment of City’s greatest ever Premier League defeat, 8-1. Still, later that week, City would discover that they would indeed be playing European football the following season. Only a fool would have suggested at that time that Robinho would be part of that squad. For Eriksson, the journey was not quite over. There followed a post-season tour to Thailand. Thankfully Joey Barton was not there to scrap with fellow players, but Thaksin and Sven were. Thaksin, a proficient singer, belted out ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go?’ at a club function before leaving the stage, and finishing the song as he hovered over Sven’s table.
Sven was gone the next day, Shinawatra’s reason being a “feeling” he had. The decision did not go down well with the City fan base, their patience with Shinawatra at breaking point. A protest march was organised for outside the ground, whilst a petition with 14,000 signatures was handed into the club. Within days, City had approached Blackburn Rovers requesting permission to speak to their manager Mark Hughes.

Sven would keep moving on to new challenges. It has been suggested he needed, to, his adviser Samir Khan wasting millions (ten, to be precise) of his money down the years. But Sven rarely wanted for anything.  His next role would be as manager of Mexico, then bizarrely director of football at Notts County, whose new owners had designs on global domination. Kasper Schmeichel and Sol Campbell would follow him there. Even Roberto Mancini was briefly linked with the manager’s job before plumping for City. It didn’t go well, the promised funds never appearing. He moved on, to manage the Ivory Coast, Leicester City and 3 clubs in China. The Chinese second-division club Shenzhen effectively sacked Eriksson via the medium of poetry, publishing a poem on their website to welcome the return of Wang Baoshan as head coach.

And then finally club number 17. Sven was appointed as Philippines manager last year, the successor to Terry Butcher. A tough ask in the former American colony where billiards, boxing and basketball rule the roost. It may not surprise you that his tenure did not last long. Who knows where he will end up next, though remaining in Asia seems logical in a continent that values “grey hair” in its managers over young blood. And for a man whose life read like a soap opera script at times, he had but one regret: “I should have taken a mental coach for the penalty shootout with England in 2006. I thought we were experienced enough and we had players who were specialists in penalties. It is history now.”
Perhaps talk of a single regret is not strictly true. His autobiography from six years ago, paints a rather different picture. He recalls cycling along a river in China, when thoughts popped into his head.  It is 2013 and he had just finished reading his autobiography manuscript. Emotion swept over him and he felt depressed. “Where had the years gone? My children? Friends? The women? Time? It hurt to think back.” Despite the melancholy, he was sure about one thing though – that he was one of the world’s greatest managers (“you have to believe that, otherwise you might as well give up”). I’m not sure whether that is true, not that it really matters to rank him after all this time. He won 17 titles after all, but Lazio was his last. Whatever challenges the 71 year-old faces next, his life has certainly been a roller-coaster ride that rarely lacked entertainment or interest. At City, a more competent and knowledgeable owner could have ensured his life went in a very different direction considering the takeover just months after his departure, but Eriksson holds no grudges and just took another crazy episode in his life in his stride. Like everywhere he went, old blue eyes certainly left his mark in Manchester, during a memorable and exciting season that would be merely a taster of things to come.