Tuesday, January 24
Three Cheers For The FA; Another £5 Million Well Spent

What an absolute shambles.

Who are these people who run English football and how do they get to do it?

Do they go down the job centre and apply for these things like the rest of us? Some of them might well just be on work experience given what goes on.

The only one of these FA bods I've ever been aware of in a previous existence is David Davies, press officer or something.

When I was a kiddie Davies used to be the second string presenter on Look North, the regional news programme in the north west of England.

He was Stuart Hall's straight man. Surely if one of those two freaks was going to end up running English football it should have been Stuart Hall, a man with a genuine interest in the game, a man with some independent thought (albeit completely deranged thought) and with a vast experience of European competition thanks to It's A Knockout.

But no, we are left with the Davies' of this world, men who exist behind closed doors away from reality who emerge every so often with sombre looks on their faces which are meant to suggest wisdom and knowledge and wreak havoc on the game we love.

After a day of intense negotiations yesterday these people and Sven Goran Eriksson, our wonderful national team manager, managed to reach an agreement whereby Eriksson will leave his post two years early after this summers World Cup (he was going anyway) with the Swedish money making machine pocketing a cool £5 million for walking away.

Absolutely unbelievable.

We are supposed to work out for ourselves that he's been sacked but why, for once, can't they just get it out into the open and deal with it properly?

The FA is still like a Gentlemens Club, where it's bad form to sack someone, it reflects on all of us, old chap, so pretence and facade is all you're ever likely to get.

It's an environment where mercenaries, cads if you like, such as Eriksson can flourish, and boy has he done well.

When the next woman who asks him, "Is that a wad of cash in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?" she'd better get ready for the answer, "It's just cash, dear".

Of course he may well then add, "But leave it till half time, it's only the World Cup."

Yes, I know this is a bit over the top but these dealings make me angry.

All around English football there are good and honest people trying to improve the game, maybe in small ways, in whatever way they can, putting in time and effort for little or no reward, struggling with financial constraints and you see money like this being hurled at a bloke like Eriksson just to get him to go. Ridiculous.

So he will be taking us to the World Cup, it seems, and, of course, he can make me look stupid by leading us to victory.

Let's hope he does, but I don't think I'm being unfair when I say that virtually everyone in the country would put the credit for that down to the players more than the manager.

He has certainly done nothing to mark him out as up to the task in his two previous finals, quite the opposite in fact.

In Japan and in Portugal he filled the side with fear and negativity with terminal consequences. Sure, he's got a better side this time around but does he have the bottle, or just the basic intelligence, to get the best out of these players?

Is it possible for the players to respond to him now anyway? There is no doubt they will be desperate to succeed, but even if things go well in a World Cup there are critical moments when it is vital that everyone is pulling together, that everyone has confidence in each other and when, above all, you need clear and correct instruction from the man in charge.

That man will be Eriksson, is he the man to stand up and be counted at the vital moment? He has never been so in the past, he has preferred to sit passively and watch our hopes and dreams disappear.

His use of substitutions have sometimes helped us on our way out. Why will he do better this time? Especially after all this nonsense.

Much will be made of the fact that Bobby Robson was in much the same situation when he led us to the semi finals in 1990, everybody knowing he was on his way out after the finals.

Bobby Robson, however, was a man who palpably had no other interest than in seeing England succeed.

He may have made mistakes, he was certainly crucified in the press for his running of the side, but all of his considerable energies went into his job, coaching, selecting, motivating.

Eriksson wants England to win the World Cup, sure he does, but he gives the impression that he would like it just to happen, without much fuss and without it troubling him too much.

Robson went into the 1990 finals feeling he had something to prove and desperate to prove it.

Let's just hope that Eriksson is roused to something similar.

Funnily enough, England's progress in 1990 actually became a source of embarrassment to the suits at the FA, who had treated Robson so shabbily.

The concerned parties emerged from yesterdays meeting presenting an uneasy truce.

The FA chief executive Brian Barwick said, "This is the right outcome. It's been a long and fruitful day."

Fruitful for who, Brian?

Sven himself said, "I am happy that we have reached this agreement." There's a surprise. Five million quid to walk out of a job you're unfit to do, I think that's reason enough to feel pleased.

He added, "I have always enjoyed the incredible support of the fans."

Are you sure about that, Sven? The English turn out in their millions to support their team, their country.

Their presence and backing is not neccessarily a show of support for you.

All I would say now is that you've taken a lot more out of English football than you've given back. Now you have a short space of time in which to redress that balance.

Get your head down and get on with it.