THE man who will follow Sven-Göran Eriksson as England head coach will not have a mountain to climb to reach the alpine 2008 European Championship finals in Austria and Switzerland. Fifa world rankings may suggest otherwise, but yesterday’s qualifying draw was kind to the Swede’s successor, although there are feverish weeks ahead before his identity is known.
The revelation that Guus Hiddink had been in London in midweek was bound to prompt a flurry of rumours, even though the PSV Eindhoven and Australia coach, who has made no secret of his keen interest in the post, insisted that Harrods, rather than Soho Square, had been his destination. Hiddink was coyness personified at PSV’s training ground yesterday — “I cannot say yes or no because there isn’t any contact,” he said — although with Real Madrid also thought to be interested in his services, his caution is understandable.
Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Brazilian in charge of Portugal, had to say only that it was “a very, very attractive job for any coach” yesterday to raise the unusual scenario of a Latino in charge of England, although two prominent managers did remove themselves from the running. Sir Alex Ferguson once led Scotland into a World Cup finals and claimed that he “would not betray my country”, while Arsène Wenger, ruled himself out of a job he described as “the most difficult in international football”.
The search officially begins next week and the FA will soon have a fixture list to present to its candidates. Yesterday’s draw placed England as the top seeds — and clear favourites — in group E, ahead of Croatia, Russia, Israel, Estonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Andorra.
Representatives of each nation will gather in Croatia on February 23 to thrash out the match schedule and the FA’s priority may be to ensure a decent opening match at Wembley for what will be England’s first competitive fixture at the new £757 million stadium. An early visit from Andorra may not thrill those who have paid £10,000 plus for a corporate season ticket.
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There will be a strong expectation that England and Croatia will qualify automatically, although Eriksson can warn his successor of the dangers of Macedonia. They held England to a 2-2 draw at St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton in October 2002, a European Championship qualifier that, before the defeat by Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualification match last September, had been the most embarrassing result of the Swede’ s reign.
However with automatic qualification even for the runner-up in each group, it would be extraordinary for England not to reach Euro 2008 with some ease.
“Whoever comes after me should be rather happy,” Eriksson said. “It could have been much worse, like group D [which includes the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Ireland and Wales] or the group with Sweden, Spain and Denmark. So I think it’s OK. At least I did a good job today.”
Security issues will have to be discussed given the need to travel to Israel, but the FA does not expect any problems.
Eriksson confirmed yesterday that he hoped to have a new job secured before England head to Germany.
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“If you look at his results, I think it will be difficult for England to get a better coach than Sven,” Lars Lagerback, the coach of Sweden, said yesterday, although the queue is forming for the FA, with Hiddink and Scolari happy to throw their hats into the ring.
David Beckham has told England supporters not to dwell on the problems that have surrounded Sven-Göran Eriksson in recent weeks and instead to get behind the national team. “Yes, there’s a new manager coming in but Sven’s the one who will be taking us to Germany,” the England captain said. “We need to stick together and forget what’s happened. I didn’t know Sven was going. When he phoned I told him I was sorry to hear the news but we agreed to look forward to the World Cup. If we go all the way in the competition, it would be a great ending for him.” Beckham denied that he was pining for a return from Madrid, as Eriksson told the News of the World.