Whereas someone like Gary Megson would stick with us through thick and thin I suppose? Let's face it, loyalty in football is gone. Most managers would leave their club at the sniff of a better job (including yours), and most clubs would get rid of their managers at the first sign of failure. There's too much money in the game for it not to be like this. Money = greed. Greed = fear of missing out. Sven is a quality manager, that's why he keeps getting well-paid jobs. He's never done a job where he's utterly failed (unlike most managers), so it's not fair to say he's living on past glories. And as others have pointed out, he: "waived a multi-million payoff in order to assist the takeover of Notts County, in-coming Chairman Ray Trew describing Eriksson as an "absolute gentleman". He could have taken them to the cleaners, but decided to just move on to the next challenge. Sounds like "a corrupting force" who has "got no scruples, no loyalty, and no passion for the game beyond what he gets paid" to me too.
i fancy a clean sheet actually. Defenders are starting to gel and the goals we leak tend to be individual errors. Time to show our intent!! 1-0 Leics.
Fair comments, I started the thread on Wednesday because I was under the impression people were pretty eager for this fixture - Leicester being the title favourites and all that. Apologies if i've made a mistake.
"Quality" is a sliding scale, and I'll admit he resides somewhere on it. Just not that high up. I'll go as far as to say that he is a rational human being - and rational human beings react to circumstances, and are led by money. True, but I also think his past discrepancies have helped define what is now accepted as behaviour expected of the modern manager. That he doesn't just go when someone offers him money, but perhaps plays a more active role in seeking out those situations that can lubricate the way for him. He's a manager, but always seems to be involved with the people taking over clubs, and helping pave ways and lubricate paths - at City, Notts County, potentially at Villa all those years back. I don't think many people can successfully and independently straddle being a businessman, deal facilitator, player broker, and football manager, to name a few of the roles he seems to play before walking away with millions of quid in contract runouts. Yes, there will be managers who do this that I'm naive to think don't; yes, people like Ferguson and Redknapp undoubtedly do the same - but Sven a. seems to get reported on more due to his previous high-profile role for England, b. hasn't got meaningful results for years, and c. because I feel (like all England fans) like I have a valid stake in the outcome of that conflict of interest, I just find myself with a highly negative opinion of him. I would want to see him have some serious success before I reappraise that opinion - and I don't think winning the Championship with his resources and standing would count for me: even Phil Brown (speaking of slippery managers) can do that! By the way, not at all being anti-Leicester. Just have never seen the fuss about Sven - like we all have personal bees in our bonnets about different players or managers. I actually don't think Leicester will be promoted under his management - but will admit I know little about the existing players he's working with (having chiefly followed League 1 and Premiership last few season) and his and the club's plan. I just get the feeling that his isn't the season. People were talking up QPR for seasons before they went up. Plus, as someone on here said a few posts ago, how do you account for the surprises that happen every season... Sunderland's invincible rise from bottom to top under Roy Keane; Swansea and Norwich last season; Cardiff managing to fluff it every year.
Without being a season-defining game, this is an interesting match between 2 contenders for promotion. Probably be 0.0. but still going for 3.1 Saints.
This isn't a problem (ie creating Saturday match threads on Wednesday) when they're not cross-board, because they can be stickied and therefore remain at the top of the page. However we can't put stickies on cross-board threads, and so there is the risk that if not enough people comment then it will start to fall down the page as the week progresses (especially this month, with the transfer window still open and thus new threads are constantly being created). I've spoken to the Leicester mods about merging this one with your main, original thread.
Regrettably I cannot travel up for this game as I am on a hot date and it would be rude not to quite frankly. Rich will be taking lucky lady for a romantic ride on the 'bus'. I shall discretely be checking the score on my iphone though. --------- Rich this not true! What mentalist is going to ride on a bus with you? PARPPPPPP!!!
