Crozier: We were crap last summer

Having gone further out on a limb than any other FA official in history Crozier must under-stand that the next few months will make-or-break his football career.

Anyone who has not suffered the shock of receiving violence-threatening hate mail from strangers, as Crozier has, cannot comprehend the FA Chief Executive's emotions in recent weeks. And all simply for appointing a Swede. 'It's not that I like living dangerously and I don't like risk,' he admitted ruefully.

So why has he done it? The compelling reasons can be traced back to the wreckage of England's challenge in Euro 2000, followed by the demoralising defeat at the hands of the Germans in Wembley's final international. Something radical had to be done.

'I said we were crap in the summer,' he said, 'but then I think the players thought we were crap. The thing I've learned is that the game is brutal and what players say in private is very brutal.

'They know how they've played and there was nobody more disappointed than the players, the staff and the FA, who all care a great deal.'

Any doubts about how Eriksson might handle the situation he has inherited were dispelled when he immediately identified David Beckham as the inspirational player of his generation.

By contemplating naming him as captain Eriksson will raise the stakes even further, given the Manchester United player's often volatile temperament.

The gamble this time is to hope that Beckham, a European Cup winner, has benefited from his 37 caps and five successive seasons of Champions League football.

Now Beckham and his United team mates, like Paul Scholes, will provide the spine of Eriksson's new-look England.

Crozier's answer to the dreaded question: 'What if it all goes wrong?' is a simple one. 'Don't let it go wrong,' he insisted. 'You've got to go into it positive and do everything to make it work.'

Eriksson's approach will bear the same bold resonance as that which marked his arrival in the England job. There will be no deference to tradition and no fear of the new.

As Aston Villa's David James will discover, his fiercest rival for the No.1 jersey will be 21-year-old Paul Robinson, not the 62 timescapped David Seaman.

The Leeds United youngster, who started the season very much the understudy to Nigel Martyn, will not have his lack of years and caps held against him; he has already done enough to be included in the England set-up.

While working with caretaker manager Peter Taylor's squad prior to the friendly with Italy last November, startled goalkeeping coach Ray Clemence declared that he had witnessed Robinson making 'three of the best saves I have ever seen'.

Eriksson, who was within earshot, soaked up the information. The following week, his impressions were reinforced when Robinson produced a magnificent performance as Leeds beat his Lazio side in Rome.

Lifting the wilting morale of players undermined by poor results in the opening two World Cup qualifying matches and the burden of trying to qualify for next year's finals in Japan and South Korea may prove too big a hurdle for Eriksson to clear right now.

The Swede has a five year contract - with an option for another two - as the FA hopes to end the quick-fix, fast-failure culture which has devoured England managers in the past decade.

Eriksson has assured them he is here for the long term. Even if he fails to rescue the current campaign and England miss out on 2002, Eriksson has insisted he will continue.

Crozier said: 'We talked a lot about what was required from someone doing this job.

'We talked about the young play-ers coming through and how that would take time. We agreed that if we were going to do this, then we needed to commit for a long period of time.

'Sven is a man of great honour. He always respects contracts - he wanted to do so at Lazio. The only reason that changed was because of the respect he and Sergio Crag-notti (the Lazio president) have for each other.'

That bond was stretched by Eriksson's departure, although he seems to have found a new soul-mate in Crozier.

The man who suffered almost as much scorn as Eriksson for being the Scot who appointed a Swede to the England job is happy to have his future 'inextricably linked' to that of his manager.

He will not shirk the blame if the grand plan goes awry. 'We should not duck the issue, we have to take responsibility,' he said. 'People will look at everything I do and decide if I'm any good at it and they will look at the results of the England football team.

'I've spoken to people who were around when France didn't qualify for USA '94 and they said it was horrendous.

'The French didn't panic when they knew they were on the right lines.

'They didn't throw everything out and they didn't change the system. So we must have the courage of our convictions.

'We're not going to go from bottom of our qualifying group to competing for honours right away.'

Eriksson shares Crozier's pragmatism and, judging by his record, the ambition to succeed in every task. Not that some of the things he has discovered have helped treat football's ailments in this country.

The revelation, for instance, that 20 per cent of 11-a-side teams in Greater Manchester have folded in the last year is a startling one.

'That tells you that football does not have a divine right to be the biggest sport in the country,' said Crozier. 'If the national team is successful, then there is a halo effect for the game - as there was in both 1990 and 1996.'

In dragging the FA from the 19th Century to the 21st, the former Saatchi & Saatchi executive has succeeded in transforming the face of football administration in his first year in the job.

For such a radical turnaround, Crozier utilises sports psychology books but has never forgotten the marketing mantra used by American sportswear giant Nike during his former life in advertising.

'Sometimes it's about keeping it very simple,' he said, 'and when anyone at Nike was asked: "What are you here for?" they would come back: "To kill adidas". That became the focus for everything they'd do.

'When I first arrived here, I asked 20 people what the FA was here to do.

'They told me 20 different things, so it was no surprise there was no focus and everything was going round in circles, going nowhere.

'The one thing that you could pin them down on was: "Don't cock up" - and the easiest way to achieve that is to not do anything.

'We've only just scratched the surface. You have to keep pushing people all the time.'

And taking risks.