Sven Takes Côte d’Ivoire Job, Proving You Can’t Keep Swedes Away From World Cup 2010

Is he still riding the successes he had as a club manager? Because in the international game (a whole different animal, management-wise), he’s done nothing.

Exactly! I don’t know how this guy keeps getting hired. Probably because of the pity they have on how Mourinho treated him some years ago on that show. ;)

I think it’s totally unfair to say Sven didn’t achieve anything with England and Man City. He was the first England manager to qualify for three major quarter finals in a row (and lost out in two of them unluckily on penalties).

With Man City, please try and remember that HE (and not the financial backing that they possess now) bought the attacking flair of Giovanni, Elano, Martin Petrov in his first season in charge. This team’s football was a delight to watch. Sven sowed the seeds for what Man City are today.

If the team was a Brazil or Spain, then I would understand your concerns if they wanted Ericsson. But Ivory Coast are not brilliant, and maybe a neat tactician such as Sven is just what they need to try and advance to the next stage of the World Cup – they can’t exactly do worse than their last World Cup, or African Nations Cup.

Not a bad choice at all.

It’s the second consecutive WC in which Ivory Coast have two potential contenders for the title in their group, so why not go for a guy who has effectively earnt what would’ve been draws in the group stage vs. Portugal [Euro 2004, World Cup 2006] and came close to knocking out eventual winners Brazil [World Cup 2002]. Sven been around the block, will have the respect of the squad he’ll be taking and has his own motivations in knowing a good run here suddenly puts him back on the radar of the better Champions League clubs when vacancies come about.

I still think We would have won the World Cup in 2002 were it not for a freakish Ronaldinho strike.

Why did Cote d’Ivoire hire Sven-Göran Eriksson? Because he passed the interview.

Almost all coaches in almost all sports are recycled coaches. They get fired by one team and then get hired by another. This is so because the ones who hire the coaches realize that most of the times when a team is not doing well it’s not only the coach’s fault. In short, sometimes coaches get fired due to what I call “wrong diagnosis”.

When a coach gets fired it doesn’t necessarily mean that he is a bad coach. Why is it that when some coaches get fired by one team they do wonders whenever they are hired by another team?

Sometimes a coach gets fired because the team set a very high target for the coach. “Win World Cup or you are out”. Any coach who takes a team to the World Cup quarter-finals is a good coach.

As for Sven-Göran Eriksson almost managing to keep Mexico out of this World Cup, did Guus Hiddink take Russia to the World Cup 2010? Is Guus Hiddink a “bad” coach?

I think it’s players who win you games and not coaches. England may have Capello and still perform poorly. Scolari at Chelsea?

By the way we already know who is going to win the World Cup
http://malawi.worldcupblog.org/team-news/ghana-to-win-world-cup-2010-psychic.html

I realized a few weeks back that the only reason I care what Sven does is because I miss the S1TV puppet.

I agree to some extent sscouser. Results aren’t always 100% about the managers. But I don’t think it’s fair to hold up the example of Hiddink losing a UEFA playoff with Russia against Sven struggling in the CONCACAF qualification zone with Mexico. The level of competition in those two confederations is very very different. If you want to compare like for like then I’d say Sven’s Mexico vs Aguirre’s Mexico is a more reasonable comparison.

Ebrahim do you have a selective memory? Please remember that it was his team that deflated in the 2nd half of the season and they didn’t even look like bouncing back.

Daryl, it’s called Cherry Picking.

Cherry picking is the act of pointing at individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position.

Eriksson was a Swedish football player and was forced to retire early from an unremarkable playing career in the Swedish lower leagues, due to injury in 1975. He went on to become a successful club football manager from 1978 to 2001, in the Swedish, Portuguese and Italian top football divisions, most notably with Italian club Lazio. During this time Eriksson achieved several national league, domestic cup and two notable UEFA competition wins. With his ACHIEVEMENTS in this period, Eriksson is so far the only manager who has achieved the league-and-cup double in three different countries (Sweden, Portugal and Italy).

Didn’t you cherry pick? :D

Comparing like and like? If I remember very well, on 3 June 2008, Sven-Göran Eriksson was officially signed to become the manager of the Mexican national team, despite mass protests by the Mexican fans. Any manager can’t do well if the fans/media are against him. The fans/media were against him even before he was hired.

I wouldn’t say it’s cherry picking to highlight Sven’s most recent job as an international manager, which ended with him being removed because he looked like failing to qualify for World Cup 2010.

That said, I will admit that I’m probably biased against Sven because I was so very disappointed and frustrated with his final couple of years as England manager.

Again, results aren’t always 100% about the coaches/managers

“He came in and he wanted us play flowing football, pass the ball around and move the ball quicker. I think we did it in some games but in others we found it difficult…” – Drogba commenting on sacking of Scolari

I for one I am for local coaches. Is “Big Sam” from England? If he is why not make him coach of England? :P

sscouser, it might not be 100%, but it’s not 0% either. It’s one of the major factors in results. Even in the Drogba quote above, there’s a suggestion that had Scolari tried a different strategy he may have had more success. But we could go back and forth on that forever, so let’s not.

With regards to foreign vs local coaches, I’m feeling very hypocritical about the issue right now. I definitely believe that the manager of a national team should be a citizen of that nation. Not because of patriotism, but because I feel like a national football teams should be a product of that nation. But as an England fan I also don’t want to lose Fabio Capello.

I think Eriksson was a far better manager for England than he is given credit for.

The manager before him (Keegan), and the manager after him (McClaren) both struggled to even get England to qualify for a tournament. Keegan’s England required a major helping hand from Sweden just to reach a playoff for Euro 2000, which they scraped through against Scotland. The tournament itself was an utter disaster for England, followed by a terrible start to World Cup qualifying. Eriksson turned that around and qualified for 2002, reaching the last 8. Qualification for the next two tournaments was very comfortable, followed by 2 more last 8 finishes, beaten only on penalties.

In comparison to his predecessor this is certainly achieveing something of note for England isn’t it? Also significantly better than Hoddle achieved before Keegan.

After Eriksson, McClaren took a team who reached the last 8 of a World Cup and failed to qualify for Euro 2008 despite qualification only requiring a top 2 finish in the group.

So if Eriksson achieved far more than other recent England managers (only Venables and Robson in recent times have achieved a higher finishing place in a tournament) then I don’t really see how he can have “achieved nothing of note”.

England’s expectations are always too high. Eriksson did better for England than most others have managed. I do think the Eriksson era lasted too long however, and he should have gone after Euro 2004 I think, and England may have progressed instead of stagnating, but I don’t think rewriting history to make him out as underachieving is correct.

His Mexico record wasn’t good however, can’t argue with that.

Daryl I also feel like a national football team should be a product of that nation. A player must be a citizen of that nation. Why not the same with a coach?

MY HEART TOTALLY SANK WHEN I HEARD THIS YESTERDAY.

I was seriously hoping that Ivory Coast would go far in the tournament, I want an African team to win or at least reach the final, and Ivory Coast are the strongest African team. Hard enuf for them to progress past the group stages but now with this clown, they won’t go very far. Ok, he’s reached the quarterfinals before, they may just make that. Maybe. But as Mexico learned, Sven is incapable of instilling a strong winning mentality, team cohesion, a diehard passion for victory, all the collective ingredients needed for these tournaments. And I don’t think he’s capable of establishing a good communication bond with teams from non-European cultures.

Obviously I’m still not a Sven fan, and never will be, but I’d definitely concede the point to Aidan that my “failed to achieve anything notable” with England remark is harsh when compared to his immediate predecessor and successor.

I’m not much of a fan myself either – Sven was too conservative at crucial times. For example when leading Portugal in the Euro 2004 Quarter Final, England sat back so much that Portugal took the initiative from them and duly equalised taking it into extra-time.

In 2006 he was even worse, but still achieved a respectable finish despite it all.

Believe me I’m no big fan either…I suppose it really depends on your definition of what achieving something with England is. If it’s a semi-final or final, then absolutely Sven failed to deliver that. If it’s relatively comfortable qualification followed by getting further in tournaments than most other England managers did then he did achieve. It’s all a bit subjective really.

I’m not convinced his style will particularly suit the Ivory Coast squad either, but we’ll see I suppose.

I still say Sven being hired by Mexico was one of the more baffling hiring choices I have seen in football. It just seemed doomed from the start. I hope for the sake of African participation in the late stages that Ivory Coast have better luck.

I’ll reiterate my point that Sven is being hired by Ivory Coast for the World Cup, where he actually has a strong record. They have a tough group (the toughest?) so someone who’s tactics are as ‘conservative’ as Sven might be good to ward off the attacking threats of Portugal and Brazil.

It’s not a bloody BAD hiring is it!

Wow! You guys all have excellent opinions. I enjoyed reading them.

I manage an Ivory Coast fan site titled leselephants.net.

To be honest, I was desperately hoping that Hiddink would coach us. I was slightly dissapointed when Ericson was appointed. I think his club achievements happened too long ago (1999 was when he won the Champions League with Lazio). Before doing research on wikipedia, I mistakenly thought his performance with England at the last two world cups was bad. However, I just realized that England only lost to Portugal on penalty kicks in the 2006 WC and that losing 2-1 to eventual 2002 WC winners Brazil in the quater-finals is a pretty good performance.

His performance at Mexico scares me though because Mexico are also a non-European team. It may suggest that Ericsson has difficulty coaching non-European teams. Maybe.

And will Ericsson’s tactics be compatible with the Ivorians’ playing style? Sigh. Having grown up in Ivory Coast and knowing the football “culture”, I seriously doubt it. We don’t play anything like Europeans. We are more creative, less structured and in order to score, we rely on individual talent more than long crosses. But maybe we need to play more like Europeans in order to succeed. I think Ericsson will either be a complete flop or a wild success.

I’m not convinced, Sven. Prove us wrong.