Stand up to Fergie, Sven

13 April 2012

It's time Sven-Goran Eriksson stamped his foot and thumped the table. It's hard to imagine the urbane Swede with the carefully manicured hair throwing a tantrum, but I'm sure he could if he tried.

The England coach has gone out of his way during his 18-month reign to co-operate with Sir Alex Ferguson and the other major Premiership managers. But this policy of appeasement is now backfiring - and I sense that Eriksson is disappointed, perplexed and unsure of his next move.

It occurs to me that he has very little knowledge of the politics of English football.

He has no background in the English game and cannot be aware of all the nuances, rivalries and petty jealousies that exist.

This lack of knowledge must make the decision-making process difficult for him.

Eriksson was naive, for instance, in insisting that David Beckham travelled with his squad to Dubai for World Cup training in May.

Ferguson clearly felt the player would be better off recuperating from his foot injury in Manchester and, of course, was right.

Eventually, Ferguson reluctantly agreed to Eriksson's request, but a national coach with a better grasp of the politics of the game would have recognised the long-term advantages of treading softly on this particular issue.

Ferguson, on the other hand, knows the English game intimately and over the years has enjoyed - if that's the right word - relationships of varying warmth with a succession of England managers.

They all have their Ferguson stories, from Sir Bobby Robson and Graham Taylor to Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan.

Now it's Sven's turn. Just as it's Ferguson's job to protect the interests of Manchester United, it's Eriksson's duty to safeguard the interests of the national team.

To date, he has made unprecedented sacrifices to avoid confrontation with the big clubs. To ease the players' workload he agreed to mass half-time substitutions in friendlies last season and has now given up at least two friendly dates this season.

Furthermore, this week he's released the two Arsenal doctors, John Crane and Tim Sonnex, who had treated the England players for years and replaced them with a Swede, Leif Svard.

There's no suggestion that this has been forced on him, but the introduction of an independent medical expert at the Football Association looks to me like a further sop to Ferguson, especially, and the other Premiership managers.

It cannot be without coincidence, although you won't get anyone to admit it, that the two doctors came from United's main rivals for domestic dominance. Victories like this are important to Fergie, and he has surely won this time.

What does Sven get in return? He turned up at Old Trafford on Tuesday to watch Paul Scholes play for United, 24 hours after he had been told that the player was unfit for international duty.

There's nothing new about this tug of war between club and country, but it's rarely been as important for the England coach to have a good working relationship with the club managers. He has few players to choose from and some of the best are at Old Trafford.

But the England coach cannot allow himself to be bullied by managers.

He must fight his corner and stand up to Ferguson. Surrender is not an option.

That would be the beginning of the end for the amiable Swede.

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David Jones (Footballer)

Stand up to Fergie, Sven

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