Why did we sack Sven?

[1066gull]

And why do we care what a manager does in his personal life?

We never give a toss about Ashley Cole being bisexual in an England shirt.

The whole f***ing nation wanted him out and we got what we deserved.

At least Sven always got us through some how.

 

[Skaville]

Erm, I never wanted him out, not before his squad selection for the last world cup anyway.

All about the press innit. Build them up, whip up expectation, hang draw and quarter them. He had his faults, but that record of his looks amazing right now.

 

[Whitterz]

I never understood why we got rid of Sven, he was the best we'd had for some time. Still, he's having the last laugh

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Is Ashley only Bi-Sexual in an England shirt? Must be the detergent.

 

[1066gull]

I admit I was one of the first who wanted him out back then, but I never wanted McLaren. I also, unlike some people I know who predicted it at the time, never thought we would regret it.

Unless the league changes, I can see the nations football continue to struggle.

 

[The Spanish]

I admit I was one of the first who wanted him out back then, but I never wanted McLaren. I also, unlike some people I know who predicted it at the time, never thought we would regret it.

Unless the league changes, I can see the nations football continue to struggle.

we are talking about the fleas on the dog here.

 

[Cian]

And why do we care what a manager does in his personal life?

We never give a toss about Ashley Cole being bisexual in an England shirt.

The whole f***ing nation wanted him out and we got what we deserved.

At least Sven always got us through some how.

I don't believe he was got rid of for his personal life, rather footballing reasons (which may not have been founded in reality, but anyway).

But I also fail to see the similarities between being (possibly) bisexual, and shagging someone's secretary while in a 'committed' relationship - they're rather different things. Caring about Ashley Cole cheating on his wife would be a better comparison. Or Beckham doing the same...

 

[NMH]

I couldn't care less about their personal lives and such details. There are too many people concerned with the England set-up to worry about them all being squeeky clean.

Sven lacked some passion and drive to make England successful, and he also had a twat sitting next to him. Stupidly, after offering the job to other people, they then gave the job to the twat sitting next to him - and he proved to be a complete... twat.

I'm a bit sad that Hoddle - who had finally instilled some formation passing skills, team-work, and quality football into the team - had to go and express such outrageous and outlandish views. He had to go, after that. What was HE thinking??

 

[Scotty Mac]

wasnt sven got rid of for being caught on video agreeing to join a team that the news of the worlds sheik was interested in buying?

 

[Withdean Wanderer]

I liked Sven, but the media, and a certain section of the 'support' were utter KNOBS towards him.

Quarter finals weren't good enough for them, they wanted the trophy.

I think it's THEM, rather than Sven, that are looking the tits right now, with our sorry excuse for a national team.

 

[twickers]

He knew too much. He had to go.

 

[Lord Large]

I didn't want him out. His record was superb and at least we qualified for things under Sven.

Couldn't give a toss about his personal life.

I suspect the real reason is the FA Bigwigs are too timid to stand up to the irrational tabloid press and ignorant England fans who demanded an English manager and changes without really considering the alternatives.

It seemed something had to change in the England set up and it was never going to be Sven's bosses...

 

[Zesh Rehman]

Well i know everyones going to say they liked Sven even though NO ONE did if your honest. However i always liked him, as i liked McClaren most of the time. Our players are more to blame. Why does it matter that Ashley Cole is bisexual? At least he normally plays well, more than can be said for Fat Frank and that twat Gerrard.

 

[Lord Large]

I honestly did like Sven. Our problem has always been with how coachable our players are - not the quality of the manager.

 

[Zesh Rehman]

I honestly did like Sven. Our problem has always been with how coachable our players are - not the quality of the manager.

I dont know how old you are, but in my lifetime the players always seemed to be giving it their all from 96-05. 96 being when i started watching England and from 05 when they all decided they were too good for England. But did we ever have the same problem we have now back in the days before i was alive etc?

 

[Scoffers]

I liked Sven, he was able to get performances out of his players, and didnt press the self destruct button with shitty selections like his successor. He had the respect of the players, and I'm hoping that the same is true with Capello.

At the end of the day though, we still have a quality bunch of players, and we should have qualified for Euro 2008 even with a dick head in charge. The fact that we didn't says as much about the attitude of our millionaire players who are basically spoilt brats, then is does about MacLaren.

That is why I like Capello, he wont take any crap from anyone, and if they dont show committment, he wont pick them. If the Press give Capello time (ie, dont over-react to tonights match) I think he can be probably more successful than Sven, at least he shows the passion that Sven didnt, and he has far more respect than McClown.

 

[Easy 10]

Ahhh, ok. After failing to qualify for 2008, the old rose-tinted specs are out in force I see. Look, just because England were complete and utter GASH under McLaren (big surprise there folks), and not much better (yet) under Capello, lets not start painting Sven as some kind of genius manager who we should never have discarded. There are some fundamental FACTS about Svens reign that seem to have been conveniently forgotten under the "well at least we always qualified" banner. Lets not forget:

1. Players constantly, CONSTANTLY picked purely on name and reputation, regardless of form and sometimes even fitness
2. Ludicrous scattergun caps dished out to literally dozens of players with multiple substitutions (reaching a new nadir v Australia when 22 players were used)
3. Complete inability to make tactical changes or effective substitutions to affect a game when things were going wrong
4. Utter insistance on playing Lampard/Gerrard together for 5 years when it became blatantly obvious to everyone that it simply did. not. work.
5. Taking a kid along on "work experience" to the WC, when two of our other main strikers were crocked, and the other one was Peter Crouch.

Thats off the top of my head. Sure we muddled through a couple of qualifying groups under Sven, most of the time beating teams you'd really expect us to beat. But the minute we met anyone half decent, we'd fold faster than Superman on laundrey day. Has everyone forgotten the abject, RANCID performances from England at the last World Cup ? The pitiful surrender in the 2002 WC ? We were sporadically decent in 2004 till Rooney got crocked, but had hardly progressed or evolved as a team.

I know I'll get slaughtered by the "at least we were there" brigade, but its worth remembering that even under McLaren we were within about 30 seconds of qualifying before disaster struck again. Yes we got there under Sven, but failed time and again at the Finals for the same old reasons. England STAGNATED under Sven, went backwards under McLaren, and that damage will take time to repair.

I was not alone in regularly tearing my hair out with England under Sven, and the revisionist opinions that he was great are quite laughable. He wasted the best crop of players we'd had in years, and we grossly underachieved under him because in five years in charge, he never built or galvanised a TEAM from the resources he had available.

 

[Frutos]

If nothing else, he managed us to one of the most unforgettable nights that English football has had in many, many years:

 

[Easy 10]

Indeed.
That was his "John Barnes v Brazil" moment. All downhill from there.

 

[Spider]

I think the reason people can look back and think that Sven was a great manager is that successive managers have shown that our players really aren't as good as we all thought they were then. Sven was a master of getting results in competitive games. Unfortunately England never really looked like a particularly good team and people got on his back.