The Erikson Debate

By: David Peasgood
Date: 02/11/2000

The Erikson Debate

David Peasgood this week finds Fred and Bert differ in their opinions on a foreign manager for England.
Hear their views and YOU decide in our latest 'fishy' poll.

The Erikson Debate

FRED:
I think it's a great move this Sven Goran Erikson managing England. He has real quality.

BERT:
Yes but he isn't English.

FRED:
I did kind of spot that Bert. So what? This is the 21st century. We need a good manager to sort us out after a series of embarrassing failures.

BERT:
We have good English Managers. Venables for instance. The public want him but the FA never pick what we want.

FRED:
Venables fluked England to a penalty shoot out in the last 8 of a major tournament and apart from a good game against Holland did nothing else. If he was that good, would he be unemployed now?

BERT:
What about old Bobby Robson then, or why not give this Peter Taylor a fair crack of the whip?

FRED:
Robson has had his day. He was the best of a bad lot. We also ave Hoddle his day, and Keegan, and Taylor and they were all murdered by the press and criticised by their own players. At least someone from abroad, used to a hostile Italian press and with a tough disciplinary record, will get the team behaving like professionals and not like a load of spoilt overpaid brats who think they can decide their own tactics when they get on the pitch.

BERT:
OK then. How come all of the top 15 world ranked teams have managers from their own countries?

FRED:
That's true, but he fell over straight away in English league football with Blackburn. He is part of my argument. I think players will respect a good foreign coach more than one of their own countrymen. Hence Hodgson is successful abroad but not here.

BERT:
Roy Hodgson. He's won titles abroad and taken Switzerland to the worlds cup.

FRED:
That's true, but he fell over straight away in English league football with Blackburn. He is part of my argument. I think players will respect a good foreign coach more than one of their own countrymen. Hence Hodgson is successful abroad but not here.

BERT:
Anyway. What has this Erikson won then?

FRED:
Where do I start? He's been in the game 25 years and won championships in Italy, Portugal and Sweden. He's won 9 FA cup equivalents with 5 separate teams and 3 European trophies as well as getting to 2 European cup finals. He's done the 'double' with 3 teams in 3 countries, and he is his own man.

BERT:
So is he going to kick out Wilkinson and install foreigners as assistants?

FRED:
No. He'll be on his own but with one assistant and looks forward to working with the English management team already there.

BERT:
I still think it's daft. Does he speak English even?

FRED:
Better than Alex Ferguson or Kenny Dalglish matey.

BERT:
I say it'll come to no good. He's not based in this country so how can he appreciate the available talent from all of our teams without living amongst it?

FRED:
Come off it. I bet you could pick what you'd call a good England team today and yet you only ever watch town. Trust the guy or at least give him a chance.

BERT:
Pah. Give him a shilling and ask who's side he was on during the war more like.

FRED:
Stop being xenophobic. He wasn't even born until 1948.

BERT:
Well there you go then. Kids trying to do a man's job. Whats a zena-fona-watsit anyway?

Now for the vote...

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