World Cup 2010

Now that Sven has made himself a bit of a figure of riducule, it is pretty common for us to look back on his time in a poor light - That daft Swede got us to three major quarter finals on the trot, twice losing on pens and once to Brazil. Not too bad an effort, in my opinion. Our record in qualification was pretty impressive too. Especially compared to the daft Brit that was employed after him.

One could argue that Sven wasted the greatest generation of English players.......or that he failed to motivate the players to that all important higher level, but all in all I think the quarter finals is about as much as we can expect as fans. Beyond that any team needs that little bit of luck - as the 1990 team enjoyed against Belgium in only the second round (I think).

Give Sven the same amount as slack as you give Bucks!

This year will be the same as those years (IMO). We should be able to get to the quarters - with a bit of luck and maybe if Capello can have an effect where Sven couldn't we may go further.

That sums it up quite nicely.

I did try and post this last night but when I clicked on post my Internet Explorer threw a hissy fit and shut down deleting everything. The curse of working in IT!

In response to Enzo I would say that I've never thought that Sven Goran Eriksson was the correct appointment in the first place as I thought he was about as tactically astute as Kevin Keegan. His not inconsiderable success in Sweden, Italy, Portugal and Italy again was solely down to playing a positive attacking 4-4-2 in rather negative leagues and having a decent amount of resource in place to buy the best money had to offer. I think he's a club manager who needs time and money to gel a side together. As for an international manager I'm not so sure he had the right skillset to manage an international team correctly. I think that after Keegan we needed a Capello, a Lippi, a Hiddink or maybe even an Ottmar Hitzfeld. But when the FA and Adam Crozier first floated the idea of having a Johny Foreigner type running the National team, Sven became the most palatable option. The general public, the media and the powers that be at Lancaster Gate found that the idea of a Swede running the national team was much easier to stomach rather than an Italian, a Frenchman or a German. Post Keegan, we needed someone who would give us an extra tactical edge rather than a foreign version of a British Style Manager.

His success in Italy was first bankrolled by Sergio Cragnotti and his Cirio corporation at Lazio, where he was given £274 million over the course of 4 seasons. At Sampdoria, where he was manager between 1992 and 1997, he was funded by a very rich man called Enrico Mantovani who inherited his father's Oil Company ERG and he brought in players such as Enrico Chiesa, Vincenzo Montella, Clarence Seedorf, Ariel Ortega and Juan Sebastian Veron in additional to players brought into the club or developped by previous manager Vujadin Boskov such as defender Pietro Vierchowod and goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca who Sven sold to Internazionale, with Walter Zenga coming in the other direction. So 5 seasons at Sampdoria with just the one Coppa Italia in 1994. A competition taken less seriously by the big teams as the Carling Cup is over here.

You're absolutely right about the teams needing luck to do well in major tournaments and there's so many examples to choose form. In Italy 90 we had awful scrappy games against Ireland, Holland and Egypt in the group stages, we were outplayed in Bologna by an excellent Belgian side where Jan Ceulemans hit the post at least twice before David Platt's superb swivel and volley past Michel Preud'homme, then we need a couple of Gary Lineker won penalties to edge past that wonderful Cameroon side only then to lose in Turin to Germany on penalties, after most commentators agreed that we have been the better side. I think that the Italia 90 side were a better side than the current crop of players, although you could argue that Peter Shilton might have been a few years past his best, but would Chris Woods have been able to save the Andrea Brehme free kick that cannonned off Paul Parker's arse? We'll never know.

You could also look at the two finalists in 2006 and wonder how they both got there. The French were awful but somehow got there whilst the Italians were equally as bad but were tactically superior to Germany in the semi final. In France's case they saved their only good performance of the whole tournament in the semi final and Lippi's tatical nous got his stuttering Italian side past the Germans in Dortmund.

On paper Sven's recore of 3 tournaments and 3 quarter finals looks quite good but we were were outplayed by a 10 man Brazil in Japan and we were lucky to get as far as a penalty shoot out in both games against Portugal especially in the Euro 2004 game. In Japan we never got more than 50% possession and I think the most telling statistic was that even the very direct Swedish side got 54% possession during that game.

I think the main change that Capello has made to our playing style is to try and be calmer yet braver in possession. We're clearly keeping the ball much better under his tenure. He also seems to pick the players he wants to pick rather than trying to appease the media playing both Lampard and Gerrard in half arsed positions, with half arsed instructions to carry out half arsed roles. Ron Greenwood did this with Clemence and Shilton.

As Lippi, Enzo Bearzot and even Arrigo Sacchi suggest having a wily Italian in charge during the World Cup Finals doesn't really harm your case. Even Trappatoni got the Italians to the Final in Euro 2000 getting them past that wonderful dutch side by being tactcally superior to Frank Rijkaard's attacking endeavour. When the few Italians in the crowd unravalled a huge banner with an ironic "Catenaccio" written on it I had to laugh.

I have a feeling during this world cup we'll won't have the same excuses for defeat whether it's a poor refereeing decision to rule out a goal for a foul on a keeper, a young lad wrongly sent off or the weather being too hot. Sven flirted with lady luck as much as he did with the other ladies but she only had so much to give. Having Capello on board gives us an extra edge of having a top class manager who's not afraid to make big decisions when the time calls for them.

Although it's a shame that Beckham won't be in the squad you could say that it closes down another route where the media could disrupt preparations. I don't see Ashley Cole as any great loss and I'm glad that Leighton Baines and Stephen Warnock are now in contention. Milner is a quality player. The John Terry situation might resolve itself sooner rather than later if it's proven that he was pissed when he ran over the steward at 1-2 mph. I see that Gary Neville might be in line for a recall reading the BBC gossip column yesterday. As for goalkeepers. None convince me. Robert Green is a bit of a flapper, James is probably past it and Paul Robinson is limited. Chris Kirkland is injury prone and likes of Scott Carson and Ben Foster just aren't good enough. Joe Hart is probably the best option we have but he lacks experience.

It's funny that Merse mentions Lucio. I can still remember the look on his face when Bolton's Kevin Davies flattened him after 2 minutues in a UEFA Cup tie a couple of years back. He was flustered all game after that challenge. Maybe Fabio should pick Super Kevin Davies. The perfect foil for Wayne I reckon plus it'll scare the shit out of Lucio when we come up against Brazil. We can't compete with them playing football but we can make it more difficult for them this time.

Will draw with the yanks and beat the others in the group stage and then that might be it, depends on how many of these so called "stars" perform when it matters.

No chance of winning it whatsover.

I just hope Australia don`t get the cheating Italians again, I hope we get England in a game so we can beat you again and this time in a competitive game so you all can`t say that it didn`t count because the last one was a friendly!

McClaren might have got a hard time from the press as England manager and has done well in the Netherlands, but my abiding memory of the man is not the 'wally with the brolly' image, but that ludicrous interview he gave to Dutch TV where he adopted a Dutch-English accent. Probably the most embarassing piece of footage I have ever seen.