UK Football

photo: Gordon Flood

Sven Goran Eriksson has once again found himself out of a job, perhaps prematurely, as the Swede has just been sacked by the Mexican national team.  And I don’t particularly understand why Sven’s career has gone this way, considering he’s really not a bad manager.  England played much better under Eriksson than we’d seen the national team play in years, and he led us through 5 fantastic years of international football.  And then Manchester City, who through Sven achieve a ninth place finish, and earns them a place within the UEFA Cup through UEFA’s fair play rankings, and still is sacked at the end of the season.

Despite the fact that City looked better last season under Eriksson, who did not have the benefit of the stars Mark Hughes has been able to purchase with City’s unlimited transfer funds, the Swede still loses his job.  I don’t really understand that at all.  I think given the money Hughes has had available, Eriksson would have had City up at fifth place by this point in the season, at least.

But Eriksson may have screwed his career by going to Mexico, mostly because he was given a lackluster Mexican national team to work with, and was expected to create brilliant results.  Of course Mexico didn’t produce much on anything at all, with Eriksson’s final record with the team being 6-6-1, and now Sven gets blamed, and looks terrible as a manager.

Eriksson voiced his wish to return to English football, but with the bad reputation he’s been inadvertently garnering, I don’t know if that will ever be possible again.  Which is very unfortunate because Eriksson is a hell of a manager, and struggling clubs like West Brom, Newcastle, or Stoke would do well to get a manager of his quality.  

photo: Agnieszka Mieszczak

England are facing a bit of a crisis ahead of tomorrow’s World Cup Qualifier clash with Ukraine at Wembley, as both Carlton Cole and Emile Heskey have officially pulled out of the squad due injuries suffered during Saturday’s friendly.  Both Heskey and Cole pulled up with injuries early into the first half of England’s bout with Slovakia, forcing Capello to go all the way down the list to Peter Crouch, who then late in the match was also injured.

But Foster is a good solid keeper, full of enough ability to start for England, and he never does the David James characteristic stupid moves.   I know Foster doesn’t start for Manchester United, and that makes him look like a bad choice for the International stage, but Foster is the better keeper in the long run, and will give England their best chance at bringing home the ultimate trophy come 2010.

Considering the career resurgence David Beckham has experienced at AC Milan, it’s not hard to see why the former England captain would want to remain there.  Beckham has become a first team staple in Italy, and has put in some of the best performances I’ve seen since his early Real Madrid days, which is exactly why Fabio Capello is much more likely to give Beckham a real shot at an England place.  That’s also why I completely understand Beckham’s new strategy to try and stay in remain in Milan after his current loan deal expires in May.

That’s right, once again David Beckham is trying to extend his AC Milan stay, and given his clear intentions to leave MLS I don’t see why they don’t just let Becks go.  Beckham is a fantastic player, the world class sort, but his abilities are in passing and setting other players up for goals, and the problem in MLS is that Beckham doesn’t have anybody to pass to that’s talented enough to make use of those brilliant through balls and crosses.

Whereas AC Milan are spoiled for talent, giving Beckham more targets than he could ever wish for.  Becks has already fronted most of the price for him to remain in Milan, why don’t the Galaxy take the hint and just admit that they’ve lost their star player?  MLS isn’t quite at the level to host players like David Beckham successfully, and the game is never going to grow with the way the Galaxy are running things.  

Remember the controversy around Wayne Rooney’s sending off last weekend?  The little striker punched a corner flag on his way out of Craven Cottage, after receiving a second yellow for allegedly picking up the ball and throwing it towards match official Phil Dowd after Dowd awarded a free kick to Fulham.  Well, Fabio Capello has take a light-hearted? jab at Rooney, being quoted as saying to Rooney “What were you doing punching the corner flag? You’re a crazy man, a crazy man.”

But this also makes me wonder, as the way Rooney has played for England would make it seem true, is Capello trying to curb Rooney’s attitude completely.  Because, yes the boy has had his temper problems, but I think Rooney is improving on those with age.  But if Capello aims to change Rooney’s outlook on the game to calm the striker down a little, then I think you risk losing that passion and fire that makes Rooney the great player he’s become.  

photo: Gordon Flood

When you watch Wayne Rooney on the pitch, he’s full of energy, chasing down every ball, and running the full length of the pitch if he has to, to ensure he leads practically every counter-attack.  Rooney get’s that energy from the fire he emits on the pitch, from his emotion whether he be passionate and playing positively, or cursing at a ref and getting himself a red card.  If you remove the fire, you lose the player.  Wayne Rooney will become a hollow shell of the man England counts on in every international match in which he’s taken part.

Capello just needs to yell at him from the sidelines to watch out for those red cards.