Football Daily - Remembering Sven-Göran Eriksson

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

Mark Chapman presents a special edition of the Football Daily reflecting on the life of former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson. Mark is joined by Chris Sutton and The i paper chief football writer Daniel Storey. Former England internationals Joe Hart and Theo Walcott also pay their tributes.06:15 Joe Hart joins the pod 13:45 Sven speaking on the Monday Night Club 20:45 Theo Walcott joins the pod

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. and his children, Lena and Johan, said today, our father fell asleep peacefully in his home this morning. He has for a long time fought bravely with his illness, but now it came to an end. He told us at the beginning of this year about his serious illness and he received an amazing response from friends and football fans around Europe. He was invited to several football teams in England, Italy, Portugal and Sweden. They shared their love for football and for dad. It was unforgettable for both him and us. He expressed his appreciation and joy and stated that such beautiful words are usually only uttered when someone has died.

We hope that you will remember Svenis as the good and positive person he always was, both in public and at home with us. And actually, Daniel, when you listen to people today, and we're going to talk to Joe Hart and Theo Walcott shortly, who were both managed by Sven, that the good person, the positive person, the nice person is what comes through every single tribute. Yeah, and I love what the children have said there about him getting to hear that himself.

I think quite often when famous or well-regarded people pass away, we don't get a chance to tell them initially. It was a horrible diagnosis, but at least it allowed us to pay tribute to Sven and for him to hear that and to see it and to receive all those well-wish those well wishes yeah exactly what everybody said he was an excellent a fine football manager a generation defining football manager in the 80s and 90s but it was a life incredibly well lived and it was a life that made everyone around him feel special and that's that's what's coming

through more than anything I mean even Chris his his some of his final words actually and that's that's what's coming through more than anything i mean even chris his his some of his final words actually and there's a documentary out at the moment isn't there and i think these words come from that where he said you know i hope you will remember me as a positive guy trying to do everything he could do don't be sorry smile thank you for everything coaches players the crowds it has been fantastic take care of yourself and take care of your life and live it and and did you know what you look at his biography and you go through his career and he certainly lived his life yeah he uh he absolutely did uh i mean all the tributes which have which have poured in today everybody you know saying similar things he's a nice man as he was he was a charming man he was a kind man but he was a very very talented uh manager and when you actually think the the uh the era of management uh through the 80s and 90s

you associate that with sort of the hair dryer treatment and chucking cups around it you know he was he was anything uh but that i i really came him, or got to know a bit about him, in the mid-'90s when I signed for Blackburn Rovers because there was a lot of talk at that time that Sven, who was doing great things in Italy at Lazio, was going to join the club. I think that was Robert Call, the chairman, actually announced it for whatever reason he stayed loyal to Lazio

and then ended up as England manager. Of course, the 5-1 defeat of Germany in the Rome backyard was a massive result for him onto a couple of World Cups and a Euro championship. It didn't quite work out in the end for England as he would have wanted to, But, I mean, he certainly lived his life, you know, even when he finished as England manager, managing, you know, numerous countries around the world,

back managing Manchester City in England and Notts County. I mean, it was a life well lived. And it's a really sad, sad day for football and I think everybody's thoughts go out to his family. I mean, before we came on air, Chris mentioned that sort of club career in the 80s and 90s. Before we came on air, Daniel, and we're just going through those clubs that he managed and for younger listeners who weren't,

he managed at the time some of the most successful clubs in the game, really. He didn't get the sort of Milan or Barca or Real Madrid, but he got clubs that he won trophies with. And I think that suited him. I think it suited him to go in somewhere. After doing so well at Gothenburg in Sweden and that building the reputation and getting the chance in Italy, I think it suited him to build a club up,

to pull them up by the ankles and say, we're going to overachieve here. Until the England job, he hadn't been sacked once. And this is at a time when he took on jobs at Lazio and Roma. He managed both sides of that. He managed Sampdoria. He managed clubs that were sacking managers frequently in Serie A at the time. And he never left on bad terms.

You look at the tributes on social media today from those Italian clubs and the fans in reply are just, they're pouring out their hearts to say, thank you, you made our club in the 90s or you made our club in the 80s. It was a source, I'm sure, of some regret that he never got that elite club job.

I think, you know, Ferguson hanging on longer at Manchester United than some thought I think he would have probably got that job if Fergie had retired earlier. I know there were links

to Chelsea when he was within England and the England job perhaps took him out of that pool of managers because of the sheer effort and focus and scrutiny that that job brought with it.

But then he just decided, OK, well, then I'll take the jobs I want. I won't take the biggest jobs that come along. I'll take the one that makes me feel happiest. And boy, did he do that. Yeah, won Serie A with Lazio in 2000, Benfica a couple of times. He managed to take Benfica to a European Cup final in 1990. And as Daniel says, there's Roma in there, Fiorentina in there, Sampdoria in there.

And then once he left England, it was Manchester City who he managed after that, which is where he coached Joe Hart, who joins us now. Evening, how are you? Evening, guys. All good, all good, thank you. He was instrumental in your career, wasn't he? Yeah, he was. I didn't know at the time.

I was only 20 when Sven came in to Manchester City. The takeover before the takeover. Texas Insinuatra, Thai investors, and the whole club was changing and transforming. And I was a year into my time there and Sven came through the door. Yeah, it was a really, really interesting time. It was an interesting time for myself personally, trying to establish myself where I stood in

the rankings at Manchester City as a young goalkeeper. And it was kind of my first real sprinkling of stardust involved in my career because he obviously bought, he was the previous England manager. Awful lot was written about him, a lot said about him. But just to echo the words, and I was written about him a lot said about him but just to echo the words and I was thinking about him this afternoon actually um because it's sad it's really sad because I don't think anyone's forced any of their words today they haven't like removed the removed the Serie A titles remove all of that strip it back and he was just a lovely lovely man um with so much power and so much influence.

And that, you know, we've seen so many people that can create a little edge, that can create different personas and you can catch them out. And I get it at the top. It's not easy to be at the top and you need all sorts of different characters and sometimes you need to be spiky

and you need to be ruthless and you need to be brutal. But there was never any of that in Sven. And I honestly, I'm not going to look for it because why would I? But he just had this beautiful way about him. And again, reflecting this afternoon, I was probably too young, too young to appreciate him. Too young, too early in the game to appreciate

that there are some beautiful people in this game that are part of the game because they just love everything about it and they want everyone to be happy. And that wasn't as easy as you can imagine at Manchester City. And actually on that, do you think he was there for, as you reflect back and wouldn't have really realised it at the time, he was not the perfect man in that situation, given all the chaos that was swirling around off the field.

For you as a group of players, he was probably just the right kind of personality for you. I think so. I think, I'll be honest, I think the club, the way it moved, and the way the influx of players and the amount of unhappy players you know I look at a Chelsea or someone like that we were very similar to that at the time there was a lot of people through the door a lot of people trying to go out the door I think he would have struggled and I don't and that's not me saying he's a he's not a good manager but I think it would require a really ruthless edge and but he managed to keep a group of players like people won't remember this era apparently it didn't exist apparently

Manchester City didn't exist until about six or seven years ago but there was a time and you know people were coming in they were spending you know they were constantly breaking transfer records with players that weren't necessarily that well known you know know, it was creeping up 13 million, 14 million, a lot of money for the club at the time. And Sven still managed to keep people happy, keep people honest, keep people humble. That was one thing that he asked for. He didn't really ask for a whole lot from us as people

other than just show respect, just respect, that real calm, soft word. And you couldn't not respect him. You couldn't not behave under him. You know, as Chris was saying there, in that era of the hairdryer, you didn't want to cross Sven, but not because you were scared of him, because you didn't want to let the guy down,

because he was just such a lovely man. Joe, could he be firm in situations? That was it. He trusted people and he trusted people's words. And that's why I say, I don't know how he would have got on. But, you know, we'll never know. I don't know how he would have got on, Chris. But you know what football's like.

Immediately everyone behaves when someone comes through the door. Then they start to try and work out how can I manipulate the situation if it's not necessarily working? Or if it is working for me, how can I influence? They're two very similar words, but you know, I'm trying to say they've got two different meanings. But as I say, no one ever really caused him to have to be stern or caused him to have to be strong. And we almost as players, I was a kid at the time, but you know, your mic is was very, Michael was very strong at the time. Richard Dunn, you know,

a very strong influential player at the time. Those people would enforce if required. So Sven never really had to do that. He had good, honest meetings with the players. I was involved in a really unique situation where myself, I was there, Kasper Schmeichel was there, and Andreas Isaksson,

the number one for Sweden at the time. And he somehow managed to give Kasper seven games. Then he gave me seven games. Then he gave Andreas seven games, all during the Premier League season, whilst talking to all three of us, saying, I'm going to give you all equal opportunity. And then after 21 games,

I'm going to let someone play the rest of the season, which lucky enough was me. But he still managed to... We accepted that situation. It was a bizarre situation, but we were all OK with it, just because Sven was so honest and, you know, he didn't care what anyone thought on the outside. That's what he felt was fair, because he thought we were all such similar level and we deserved a chance.

Darren has emailed us, Watch the documentary on Saturday feels even more poignant now. The thing that gets you is he lived his life and players and those who knew him had high respect and love for him. It also made me realise how hard international football was shown by us having Germany in qualifying

and then that Brazil team who knocked us out of the World Cup. Very sad news. There had, Daniel, with England, there had been episodes of success beforehand. Terry Venables taking the team to the semifinals in Euro 96. But what Sven actually delivered

in that period, he didn't deliver a trophy, but he did deliver consistency. Yeah, he did. And he also dealt with being the first foreign England manager. And with it came a huge amount of baggage that he himself would later say came as a shock to him. You know, media intrusion, discussion of his personal life.

I think before, I think he said something in it that when he was in Italy, the press might kill you, but they kill you because of the football. They don't kill you because of anything else. And he was shocked by how Sven as a huge entity, not just Sven as a football manager, was treated at at that time and I think that probably got to him I'm not sure if that affected the England team but it certainly affected Sven and he look he had that golden generation we know that it didn't win a tournament but it also came so close it had 10 men against Brazil it had two penalty shootout

defeats in a row to Portugal. These were the fine margins where we thought it was almost as if Sven had shown us the water and just wasn't quite able to make us drink out of it. But boy, did he get us ready for that. And all those players who played with him under England level said it wasn't because of him, it was because of us. He gave us everything we needed.

I'm going to uh i'm going to take you back now to november 2013 and sven actually joined us on the monday night club because he just released his autobiography at the time so when he came in to talk to me we spoke about his career here in england and abroad here's just a snippet of the interview where he tells me about how taxi drivers react when they see him in the back of their car. Always very good. And sometimes they say, Sven, come back. I say to them, talk to the FA, please.

That will never happen, so it happened, of course. But you can find out a lot of things from taxi drivers. They know their football and they're all fans of some Premier League team or Championship team. So it's always very interesting. And do they just talk football with you? Or do they talk about your private life as well? No, no, no, no, no. English people, they don't talk about their private life.

It's only the press that talks about, writing about your private life. English people, no. I don't want to sit private life. It's only the press that talks about, writing about your private life. English people know. I don't want to sit here and complain about things. I've done many good things and some things I should have done better and taken better decisions. But anyhow, my life is a good life.

And I still have a good life and I still feel that I want to stay in football for a long time. Right towards the end of the book, the other day I read the manuscript of my book from start to finish for the first time. My life. I was surprised by the emotion that swept over me when I got to the end.

I felt depressed. Where had the years gone? My children, friends, the women, time. It hurt to think back. That's true. And especially, where did all the years go? So it's just where time has gone? Yeah, where time has gone.

And I think I have never been sitting down thinking about what I did last year, 10 years ago, 15 years ago. But when you decide to write a book, you have to do that. Many things you can be proud of, other things, no. So you think, I could have done better there, and I could have done this and things like that. Of course, divorce is one thing.

You're not together with the children as much as I should have done, probably. Was it worth it? Yes. He came in, Joe, and he had the ability to make you feel like he remembered you from previous meetings. Like you were the only person in the room that he was interested in what you were doing. And I'm not just talking about that interview. I can remember going back to the 2002 World Cup

and those tournaments with England, which were really intimidating for me back then. The younger me, you know, working for Radio 1, doing that, the England press pack was really difficult. Footballers were intimidating. And he just had this amazing ability to put you at ease. Yeah, I'd echo that. How you felt is, I imagine, how I felt.

As I say, I met him very young in my career. And this sounds really, really cliche. And obviously it's disappointing that this is such a special feature about someone. But he genuinely did speak to everyone as if they were the most important person in the room. And looked to have a relationship with people. And, you know, there's no getting away from the fact that when he became Manchester City manager, I was aware of all the headlines. I was aware of who he was being portrayed as in the media.

And I was thinking, what am I meeting here? Am I meeting someone who's not interested in football? Because that was how it was portrayed. You know, you didn't get to know people like you can nowadays. And those interviews weren't being had. And those insights into people's actual personality and what their passions are. So to meet him and then within a couple of weeks of just trying to understand

that this guy was in charge, but in a totally different way, this guy cared. This re this guy really had a passionate interest in how we were behaving as human beings, how the, how the atmosphere was at the training ground. Absolute superstar everywhere he went in terms of, you know, we've, we've been around these players that are the main people in the team, or the sometimes the manager, the coach is the main person in the team and you know how people react when you go to hotels and he just, he just owned it, just oozed class. And it didn't look like effort. Um, so these, these are the things that I think about when I think of him.

And like I say, it's a shame that that's such an important thing to point out. But as we all know, especially in this game, and Chappers, you coming into it, you must have felt it. There's a different edge when it comes, when the cameras are on and when it's Premier League football, international football, people behave differently. You know, I might have been guilty of it. I don't know.

Obviously, I tried to be the best person I can possibly be. But sometimes you become selfish, you become arrogant, you become edgy, you become insecure. And all these traits can rub off wrongly. No matter how good a person you try and be, there will be someone with a story about Joe Hart or Chris Sutton or Chappers behaving in a way that they didn't like it and that's

not putting us down as people, that's just sometimes you let your guard down and you let your mind take over what you're trying to focus on but as I say with Sven it was just so calm, so even, so on the ball all the time and so genuine

and it was lovely to be around. Joe, we will let you go. Thank you very much for coming on. Everything else that went on within Sven's life, in many ways, I think, to the taxi driver that he talks about, to the football fan, actually made him even more human, actually, to live life, to love life, to have loves, to have lost all of that. And to have done all of that emphatically in the public eye

and yet seemingly have this inner peace with it all, both in the moment in terms of not understanding why anyone would care who Sven-Goran Eriksson was going out with or wasn't going out with or who he was splitting up with. He couldn't really understand why anyone would care about that sort of thing because he was a very good football manager and he thought that's what mattered. And I think that not understanding that

can only come from when you've got an inner peace in what you're doing yourself. And if you can talk to taxi drivers and, you know, chief football writers and radio show presenters and the players underneath you in exactly the same way. You can't fake that stuff. It can only come from a place of absolute authenticity.

And that authenticity was a love of football and wanting himself and wanting other people around him to be the best they could be. Did he ever come close to selecting you, Chris? Well, yes. He came up to watch me play for Celtic, the best ever game I played for Celtic in the Champions League against Juventus. I scored two goals and he still didn't select me. So it was probably the right decision.

And all of a sudden he becomes even more loved by the Monday Night Club audience. Let's talk to a man who he did select for England, Theo Walcott. Join us this evening, Theo. Good evening. Chris, I didn't even play and I got selected. That's brilliant. Oh, brilliant.

Do you know what, Theo? You can just drop that line and go now and you'll work. I mean, that was – how was he with you? Bearing in mind, as you say, he'd selected you for 2006 England's youngest ever senior male footballer. And everything that Joe Hart was saying about what was going through his mind the first time he met him as a 20-year-old in club football would have been quite similar for you

but you were 16 17 yeah so yeah my experience as fenn was very different because i'm obviously now in a world that i wasn't used to i come out of school and then of course harry gave me my my debut for southampton so i'm new to this sort of world of playing football and being in the professional sort of system but then all of a sudden I go to Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. And I'd say very, very similar characters Sven and Arsene were, which actually worked in my favour because I felt a connection straight away with Sven. He was a very calm influence around me. He would always communicate. If it wasn't him, he would have people that would be talking to me all the time to keep me at ease and again it was a very unusual circumstance to be picked into a team

where I haven't played but he calmed the nerves straight away and he accepted that I was good enough I was good enough to be around and as well as he was more to set me for the future so he started my journey whilst his was sort of finishing for england really which he probably knew in the end so again very grateful to give me an opportunity to be around that sort of england environment which was very different it was obviously of course it was absolutely media circus with the paparazzi the wags etc it was a different kettle of fish like it is right now it's very different I mean, he had to deal with that along with picking myself at such a young age.

But look, it was an incredible journey and he was an incredible man. It's very sad to see him hear the news. But of course, like you said before the start of the show, just all the tributes that Sven would have heard, which you don't really get to see or hear. So it's a bit of a blessing to be fair. It really is.

Theo, that 2006 World Cup, you kind of hinted at it with the kind of, in inverted commas, wag culture and Barden, Barden. Him allowing that to happen, do you think that was just part of his personality? He just wanted players to be as comfortable and as happy they could be

and maybe it got a little bit out of control for him? The thing is though, we say out of control i i think it's it was a very unusual sort of sort of stage in in that sort of generation of the golden generation and everyone being involved so closely but he wanted players to be comfortable be an environment they were happy with that they would be able to perform and like you said before it was very came down to fine margins with the penalty shootout. And as players, yes, there was a big distraction that was going on on the outside of it. But internally, it didn't really affect us.

It really didn't. It didn't affect me. I was just in it and having fun and enjoying being around the team and playing and learning each and every day. Because like I said before, it's very new for me experiencing what a manager's like and especially an England manager I didn't know what to expect going to a tournament being away from home for such a long time so for me it was perfect the fact that I could have a family there you know I have my partner there Mel that made me feel still at home even though I was away from home if that makes sense so for me it worked

some players might talk differently but for me at such a young age going into that environment it helped do you recognize what what Joe said to us a few minutes ago which was he always just demanded that you did your best he didn't raise his voice he didn't shout he just wanted you to do your best and actually by that, you never wanted to cross him because you didn't want to let him down. It wasn't a fear of being shouted at by him. It was just a fear of letting him down. Yeah, Chappers, he had a look though.

He had a look like your parents, for instance. They just give you that look. He had this very intelligent look where that's not good enough. And if there was noise in the room and he would walk in, there's a presence about him or around him that would just silence the room. And then he would speak in a calm manner, but a, you know, authority sort of straight away knew exactly the point and what wasn't accepted and what wasn't good enough around the camp in a calm way.

So, and for me, again again I kind of like that sort of management so I mean Arsene we got on very well for many years so that's why someone like Sven for me my very snippet I know I didn't play for him but just learning and being around a manager that was so intelligent in the way he spoke to people off the field as well you know it just set me in good stead to experience what was going to come for me after those after the world cup so yeah he was he had that look he had that look he really did that he didn't want to annoy him and it was uh it was a scary one but look it was an honest one and look it's one of those things that a manager always has their different perks and that was

one of his his best perks definitely and when it actually, I mean, in all of this as well, we shouldn't forget, and it's important to keep going back to it, he was a very successful, good football manager and football coach. So in all the man management and in all the discussion on personality, that shouldn't mask the fact that when it came to actually coaching you and so on and so forth, he knew what he was doing as well. And as well, he was new to the language, being the first foreign manager. I know you alluded to it earlier, but to represent England,

it was very different. So people would want to put more pressure on him on that side of it, being a foreign manager. So he still learned the language. So at times, you know, it was improving, but there's always a starting point where it's always going to improve but he was getting to know people he's getting to know the language he's getting to know the culture and the people he had around him helped him in that journey and like i say it didn't quite work out towards you

know when i was there but look it's it just shows how successful he was for England to pick him because, like I say, to become an England manager, it's one of the hardest things. And he managed to reach that goal. And he took England to a different sort of journey where we weren't quite ready for, really. But he managed to get us to a certain point, but without just going that further distance.

But he was the start of something that was very new management and how to manage players, especially the players he had to deal with in that environment. So he likes a Wayne Rooney who came in, he was very young as well and managed him so well as a player who was young and sort of aggressive and always hungry and wanted to win at every minute. He calmed him down. He was a calm and influence on him because there's certain moments where you want a way rooney to be

lit up but at times you just need him to cool down a little bit just to save that energy so he he had that sort of effect on people where he could just bring people back down to the level which was which is a calm just like himself that's the way he sort of walked as well he's pleasant man to be around he really was was. Thank you very much, Theo. We'll talk soon. Theo Walcott, remembering Sven. Just a few of the other tributes from Serie A on social media. Very simply, ciao, Sven.

Michael Owen, one of the very best, a man who will sadly be missed by everyone in the world of football. England have tweeted, or the FA, the England football team, always in our hearts. We'll celebrate the life of Sven at Wembley when England play Finland on Tuesday, the 10th of September. Paul from Northwich sent us a text as well.

Great to hear the thoughts of Joe Hart. That season under Sven was when City started to turn the page with the likes of Alano, Giovanni, Stevie Ireland, Richard Dunn and Joe himself, attractive football amid the chaos off the field. Sven was a class act around. And we have touched on it, Chris, and it's a final thing to say, and you see it in the documentary as well.

I think it's on Amazon, isn't it, the documentary? Terminal illness is a horrific thing to go through for the individual, obviously, and for the family as well. But it does allow that person to be celebrated whilst they are still living and to hear all the things that you want to say to them before they go. And Sven was able to feel the love of football in the final year. Yeah. And, you know, I think he, you know, certainly would have felt the love. I mean, I've seen and listened to so many tributes just today. And, you know, it was always going to be sad the way it ended in a difficult last year. But in many ways, he had time to take all the tributes in

and ended up losing his life knowing how well he was thought of from the world of football. Not just the world of football, just people in general. No, that afternoon at Anfield is an emotional watch, actually, for a man who was a boyhood Liverpool fan. There's something beautiful about seeing someone who we know has spent their whole life doing something, and yet you can tell emotionally is caught off guard

by something kind of re-falling in love again. And that walk out at Anfield, emotionally charged anyway because of Jurgen Klopp's departure, etc. You can just see Sven almost, I said it before about making peace, you can almost just see him thinking, this is perfect, this is exactly what I wanted. I don't think he expected any of the fuss.

He certainly didn't ask for any of the fuss. But when it came, and when it was appropriately made of him, you could tell how grateful he was the football daily podcast from bbc radio five live