Can Eriksson resurrect his career at Leicester City?

When Sven Goran Eriksson agreed to join League Two Notts County in a long term project to take the club up the football pyramid to the Premier League, he did so on the promise of a huge amount of funds coming into the club.

As it turned out the money never materialised and probably never existed. He stayed at the club for just a few months and the whole thing descended into a farce.

Struggling

After that you would be sure that Eriksson wouldn’t go to any other struggling club on the promise of money being made available wouldn’t you?

Nothing of the sort! Eriksson has taken over at Leicester City who find themselves rock bottom of the Championship. The clubs Thai owners are ambitious for the club to get back to the Premier League and have said that the former England boss will have money to spend. Eriksson thinks that this time he is dealing with men who have can walk the walk rather than just talk it.

Real

“It is real. They are real people behind the club who want to play in the Premier League as soon as possible. I met the owners and they explained what they wanted to do. I knew the stadium and the training ground so the facilities are fantastic and the stadium is beautiful. If the owners have these ambitions then I am interested and I want to be a part of it. I hope it’s not the same as it was at Notts County because after six months there was no substance behind the club and that’s why I left. There will be money available in January if we need that, no doubt about that. I don’t want, for the next two or three years, to be a manager in the Championship. This is a new challenge and a big challenge. I’m happy to sign for a club with big ambitions and that’s why I’m here. Let’s see what is going to happen.”

It is interesting that despite saying it is for real, he uses the phrases, ‘I hope it’s not the same as Notts County’, and ‘Let’s see what is going to happen’.

Top

Eriksson went on to tell the BBC that he is sure that Leicester will get back to the top.

“How quick it will happen is difficult to say because we are starting in a not perfect position, but it will happen.”

The sixty-two year old Swede was once one of the most sought after managers in the world. His time with England was often criticised but with the hindsight of seeing what has happened since he left, maybe he did a pretty good job after all. From there he went to Manchester City where he had great early success but then tailed off a little. He was unfortunate to be moved out before the big money arrived.

Unfairly

It seems that his spells in those two jobs have somewhat stunted his career, maybe unfairly.

Prior to taking on the poisoned chalice of the England job he had made a name for himself by achieving great success at Gothenburg in his native Sweden, Benfica in Portugal and Roma, Sampdoria and Lazio in Italy.

Glorious

Since Manchester City, the ill-fated spell at Notts County was joined by less than glorious stints in charge of Mexico and Ivory Coast.

Eriksson hasn’t become a bad manager overnight and he is bound to come good again at some stage. If it happens at Leicester City, they may have just made the best managerial appointment since they gave the job to Martin O’Neill.