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Comment: Is Sven worth the aggro?
Chris Bailey
13/ 5/2008

LET'S all be clear, Sven-Goran Eriksson should be allowed to finish what he started at City only nine months ago.

But, by the same token, the Swede's first season should not be seen entirely through rose-tinted spectacles.

When, later this week, Thaksin Shinawatra sits down to explain to Eriksson why he has developed severe doubts about him being the right man for the Blues, it is understood from those close to him that he will pinpoint transfer dealings, tactics and second half of the season results as the main planks of his discontent.

The former Thai Prime Minister will voice his disquiet that many of the men Eriksson brought in have either not lived up to their price tag or fulfilled their promise in the way he expected.

It may not come as a great shock to a manager whose transfer dealings have also been a subject exercising the minds of those thousands of City fans who have so vocally supported the `Save our Sven' campaign.

While there in no argument that the Swede has brought respect, dignity and some wonderful football to City this season and in a fair world would not even be close to facing the axe - the season may be viewed a little differently if you are the man picking up the tab.

Questions, some of them painful and difficult, should be and must be asked in the same way as they are in all businesses during annual reviews. A dearth of goals and a tally of five wins in the last 18 games from the turn of the year is not the kind of record that earns managers a pay rise or a pat on the back from any chairman.

Soft defeats at relegated Reading and Birmingham, when a top six place yawned invitingly for the taking are known to have particularly irritated the Blues owner.

But the main focus of the review that will take place face to face in Thailand will be the alarming dip in form and the transfers starting with Italian striker Rolando Bianchi.

Costly

When he arrived at a cost of £9m Bianchi became the second most costly player in City history but he failed to adapt to the Premier League so spectacularly that he had to be loaned back to Serie A having started just seven games.

A wage of close to £60,000 per week hardly made that particular pill any easier to swallow for the chairman.

The form of Spanish full-back Javier Garrido has also been a concern and another high earner, Brazilian Geovanni, never managed to establish himself in the side.

In addition, Mexican international Nery Castillo has failed to make his mark during the first half of a year-long loan from Shakhtar Donetsk and there has been precious little evidence so far that the £5.2m spent on Ecuador's Felipe Caicedo has been money well used.

He didn't even receive a call from the bench during the 8-1 defeat at Middlesbrough when Benjani - a signing who has so far been given the benefit of the doubt by the supporters - had departed the scene injured.

Then there are the enigmas that are Brazil play-maker Elano and Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov both high class performers but dogged by inconsistency, there may well have to be answers as to why the Brazilian was played out of position so often.

On the other side of the coin, Eriksson will argue that he carried out instructions to the letter this season with a top ten place and that his young team needs time to mature together and that given the right additions - a holding midfielder, a right winger, and a another striker to name but three - they would be able to sustain a higher level of consistency next time around.

He could say with justification, too, that Gelson Fernandes has clearly improved over the season and that Vedran Corluka had been a big success until his form faded with Euro 2008 in sight.

Shinawatra may choose to counter with the fact that Richard Dunne, Joe Hart, Micah Richards and Michael Johnson who have all been critically acclaimed this season were already at Eastlands when Eriksson arrived and so were other regulars Michael Ball, Stevie Ireland and Darius Vassell.

Whatever the merits of each point of view; the one thing that cannot be contested is that while all this uncertainty abounds the Blues image is being harmed just at a time when it ought to be flourishing.

And the people who are suffering most are the fans who must try and preserve some optimism and pick some sense out of what appears to be a farcical situation.

Eriksson with all his knowledge, experience, calmness and respect is entitled to some loyalty whilst Shinawatra's drive, ambition and cash investment deserves a return.

Although something of an odd couple, they ought to be a perfect match. Is it too much to hope that they may yet be so?

I think this is an excellent article for a change. It makes you think a bit more about the situation.

Couple of points....

Firstly I think it's unfair of anyone to have a pop at Sven's transfer dealings, with the exception of Bianchi, (who'll we'll get our money back on), and Garrido, all the others have contributed well and improved the team, no one was to know that Bojinov would get crocked so early on in the season, plus we've had injury problems to key players, (Johnson, Richards & Elano), that unsettled the team at certain periods. Sven has spent £40-50m and got us into the top ten, Roy Keane spent £40m and just avoided relegation, any calls for his head?

Secondly although I think the way Sven is being treated is shoddy, my biggest fear is the disruption to the team and the potential lack of direction over the next couple of months. The next man to take charge could walk into a team in pieces with little time to sort things out. We could easily see ourselves taking one step forward and another one back this summer, or worse.

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Joeyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Concurrance

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'Fabio, the round thing there is the ball'

Aguero

It says Garrido is a high earner, if city's highest earner currently is Micah at 50k a week what would Garrido be on?

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When i get sad, i stop being sad and be awesome instead.....true story.

I think you've misread it. The high earner it's referring to is Geovanni.

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Manchester City - No longer a "hole-in-the-sock" sort of club.

And another thing......

Let's say we don't buy or sell any of our players over the summer. We would start next season with Bojinov which would be like a new signing, we would have Micah & Nedum back fully fit, plus hopefully Johnson will get his problems sorted over the summer too. On top of that we've got a crop of youngsters pushing hard for first team football, and as we saw against Chelsea in the youth cup, there's some real quality in there. We would effectively start the next campaign far stronger than we finished this, IF we keep some sort of stability.
That said I am a realist, and I know we need to strengthen again in the summer, we need cover and we need to sort our the right side of midfield, but I believe Sven is the man that can do this, he will move us forward.

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Joeyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

end of the day - we're better off with him than without him

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'Fabio, the round thing there is the ball'

Aguero

Or are we?

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Manchester City - No longer a "hole-in-the-sock" sort of club.

I feel that we should keep Sven but as I said above, it makes you think. I think I will wait and see what happens before I start getting too worked up about the situation. If Sven goes and we sort out another top coach quickly then I'll be reasonably happy, if it drags on til the beginning of July I'll be more than a little annoyed. Don't let all this support for Sven from the players fool anyone, once a new coach comes in they will be doing their best to impress him and they will soon forget Svennis.

the 8-1 is still hindering me in my thinking :P

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When i get sad, i stop being sad and be awesome instead.....true story.

yes badger, yes we are

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'Fabio, the round thing there is the ball'

Aguero

Exactly my thoughts. Until we know what the plan post-Sven is I don't think we can really know what to think. For example:

a) Sven is fired, club drifts rudderless for ages like last summer, caretaker manager takes the Fair Play games and we drop out of Europe before we really get in, we sign someone like McLaren so late he can't buy anyone decent. Result: Thaksin's a wanker, we're all doomed.

b) Sven is fired, three days later Scolari turns up with a long contract and a decent transfer budget, we're all sorted in time for the Fair Play games and get into UEFA Cup proper easily, this boost means a positive start to the season and all is well. Result: Thaksin's a harsh but shrewd operator, exactly what a premier league club needs.

At the moment I don't think anyone really knows which of these paths we're going down, so for the moment I'm apprehensive but I'm willing to give it time before I either lay into or excessively praise anyone.

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I'm the mother-flipping Rhymenoceros

I think its pretty irrelevant now anyway. Chances are that he wont be around and a mixed reaction to whoever takes over.

I just hope its solved sooner than later and we improve on this season again. My only gripe towards Sven is him only playing one up front against shit teams that we should have hammered. Like Birmingham and Reading, Fulham, and so on.

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Venga City, Venga city !

Some good points from Chris Bailey, but i don't agree. We've had nearly a full team of new players trying to gel, some of them used to having winter breaks. That's when we started to dip in form (around the time those players would normally be having a break) We've had injuries galore at the back aswell. I also read somewhere earlier in the season that Sven had every intention of playing 2 up front until Bojinov was injured, him & Bianchi i believe. Who knows what those two would of been like playing together up front? Therefore IF this is true, all the crap about playing 4-5-1 is unfair IMO as he was forced into it. All the negative points made would be warranted if they to be were repeated next season. 10 fuckin months he's had, it's an absolute joke. He should be given another season at least. Thickskin should give he's fuckin' head a shake.