sport news David Dein reveals he was told that Sven-Goran Eriksson's weakness is women trends now
'Women,’ replied Athole Still, simply. Now that was a reply I wasn’t expecting. I’d just asked the charismatic agent whether his esteemed client had any weaknesses.
Athole’s one of the good guys. I had no idea he was an opera singer. I was just as surprised at his information on the FA’s No 1 target as England manager.
Women! ‘OK,’ I said to Athole. ‘We can live with that, I guess!’
I was informed by his agent that the main weakness of Sven-Goran Eriksson was women
For me it was clear Eriksson was the only man to choose in order to take England forward
Sven certainly lived up to the reputation over the next five years.
I love times like this when you have to be decisive. It’s the national team here, so who’s going to be the best person to take the country forward?
For me, there was only one man. Sven-Goran Eriksson.
He eventually resigned from his job with Lazio on January 9, 2001, and soon arrived in London. ‘Come to a game as my guest at Highbury, Sven,’ I told him. ‘You’ll enjoy it.’ And I noticed he did!
When Sven came into the boardroom, I was standing with my wife Barbara and one of her attractive friends, Sarah, who happened to be divorced.
Sven was quick out of the box and immediately asked Sarah what she did for a living. ‘I design lampshades,’ she said. Sven answered with a smile: ‘I need some lampshades!’
I said: ‘Sven, you’re living at the Royal Lancaster hotel!’ Athole was right in tipping me off!
After England's 5-1 win against Germany in Munich, Eriksson was public hero No 1
After England’s 5-1 win against Germany in Munich the following September, Sven was public hero No 1, even more so after David Beckham’s amazing free-kick against Greece at Old Trafford that took England to the 2002 World Cup.
After a difficult period, everything on the inside with England was measured and positive.
External distractions, though, were not so controllable. The Ulrika Jonsson story broke before we went to the World Cup in Japan.
Sven was involved with the Swedish TV presenter, and her au pair duly came out with some revelations about it. His relationship with Nancy Dell’Olio became front-page news, particularly when she showed up at a cocktail party at 10 Downing Street in a fire-engine-red catsuit. She palled out with my wife Barbara and David Davies’s wife Susan and the three of them really got on well.
The relationship between Eriksson and Nancy Dell’Olio became front-page news
The story regarding Eriksson and Ulrika Jonsson (left) broke just before the 2002 World Cup, while his relationship with Faria Alam (right), David Davies' PA, attracted plenty of headlines
Sven took all these headlines in his stride. When things started getting lively in his private life, he just laughed at the reaction.
When a door closed on one drama with England, another opened. I knew how bothered the FA were when reading of Sven’s dalliance with Chelsea a couple of months later. They got a tip-off that The Sun was about to run a story that Sven met Chelsea’s chief executive Peter Kenyon to discuss becoming their manager. Seriously? Where’s the loyalty? I went to Sven’s house in Regent’s Park, north London, to find sheer pandemonium outside with reporters and TV crews; you could hardly move.
We’d had a challenging Friday evening and Saturday morning, as Sven had his phone turned off until mid-morning. When reached at last he had advised people at the FA he was going to leave for Chelsea. Sven seemed completely unperturbed by all the fuss. I sort of admired how he could rise above all the chaos — chaos he had caused.
Sven just told us he was flattered by Chelsea offering him a lot of money. We worked on
