Eriksson: My reputation is falling fast

Eriksson was speaking after the 1-0 derby defeat by Roma, a result that leaves Lazio 10 points adrift of their rivals and Italian league leaders.

It was a pity there were no representatives of the FA among an English delegation at Lazio's Formello training ground yesterday. Had there been, they would have witnessed for themselves the distress of the man who will lead the national team.

This latest setback - Lazio are already out of the the Italian Cup and are one defeat away from a Champions League exit - increased speculation that Eriksson could be joining England before his scheduled July 1 arrival.

He vowed to fight on and finish his job at Lazio, and was endorsed yet again by club owner Sergio Cragnotti, who said: 'Sven will stay with us until the end of the season. I will not get tired of saying that.' Yet defeat in Friday's match against Bari, the last before Italy's Christmas break, could soften his resolve.

Eriksson himself was still toeing the party line when asked yesterday if he would be relieved should the FA formally request his release from Lazio with immediate effect.

'No I would not be relieved,' he said, 'and it's not what I want. The opposite, in fact. I don't think anyone wants to finish a job badly. They will always remember you as a loser.'

With the success and dignity of two of Europe's most powerful football bodies at stake, it should never have been allowed to come to this and the time appears ripe for the FA to step in and bring an end to the farce.

So far everyone has behaved honourably - the FA, for letting Eriksson see out the season with Lazio; the Roman club, for the noble way they have negotiated with the FA and then shown loyalty to their besieged coach; and Eriksson himself, who has insisted that his sole focus must be with Lazio until the end of the season.

But it has become obvious, as the Italian champions' season disintegrates, that while good intentions are one thing, hard facts are another. That is why the FA should toughen up and tell Lazio that Eriksson must join them right away - a stance that could save face for all concerned by ending an increasingly embarrassing situation.

Eriksson's honour and professionalism demand he gives everything for Lazio, and he stressed yesterday that was exactly what he would do, even if it meant taking no part in the England's friendly against Spain in February and the World Cup qualifiers against Finland and Albania in March.

He said: 'The contract we signed does not start until July 1, and that's it. I don't think the day after we lost the derby to Roma is the time to talk about it.'

The feeling among Lazio fans, however, is that Eriksson's imminent departure has played a major part in the team's slump, a suggestion that clearly touches a nerve. For the first time he exuded an air of exasperation bordering on anger. When challenged about the effect on his Lazio players, the normally sharp veneer of cool shattered in a sentence. 'It has no effect,' snapped the Swede, 'we were bad before I took the England job'

Eriksson seems to be the only person who believes he can perform at the highest level in one of the most difficult and volatile posts in club football while preparing to take over the Lazio job's international equivalent.

He said: 'There can't be any conflict of interest because the FA, Lazio and myself did everything very clearly. I'm the coach of Lazio for the championship and thereafter I manage the England national team.'

Despite his fighting talk, the FA should realise a division of loyalties can have calamitous results. One needs only to look at the disastrous experiment at Liverpool, which saw Gerard Houllier and Roy Evans attempt to share the Anfield manager's job, to see that two into one does not go.

Eriksson is on a similar hiding to nothing and seems determined not to concede humiliating defeat in possibly his last club job while realising that the battle between his present and future careers is one he cannot win.

The cracks in the team are already on display and the manager is starting to show the strain. He admitted for the first time that the psychological approach has not been correct, though he steered well clear of attributing any blame to the England factor.

He said: 'Important players are injured. Another reason is that we won the league last season by fighting to the end but, especially early on this season, we thought things were too easy and mentally we were not prepared.'

Neither, it seems, was the coach. While the FA might feel honour-bound to stick with their earlier position by refusing to make a formal approach for his early release, clearly something has to give in this tug-of-war.

Lazio would undoubtedly complain at such an action publicly, but sources at the club agree privately that it now seems the only viable solution to what has become an experiment gone badly wrong for all parties.

Indeed, Eriksson finds himself in the invidious position where resignation runs the risk of being labelled a traitor while staying put could mean holing SS Lazio's season below the waterline.

The FA should need no invitation to throw a lifeline. Eriksson is not waving, he's drowning.