Eriksson’s opportunism is now of the dark and disconcerting variety. The deal always comes first. Bleak comedy is not far behind. His last game at Manchester City ended in an 8-1 defeat at Middlesbrough. In Mexico, he was beaten to the punch by an English doppelganger, Derek Williams, who pretended to be him at training sessions. As soon as the real Eriksson was sacked, Mexico’s faltering World Cup qualifying campaign took off. At Notts County his star signing, Sol Campbell, walked out after one game.
To be an ex-England manager is hard. Steve McClaren took the Robson route and moved to Holland, Kevin Keegan ended up running a soccer circus and resisting orders at Newcastle to buy players off YouTube, and Glenn Hoddle is helping discarded youngsters at an academy in Spain. Maybe England is the Vietnam of coaching jobs.
Eriksson’s is the strangest, most haunting story. He will go on being “linked” to well-paid jobs and continue to be greeted as a sage by supporters who are impressed by calmness and inscrutability. Then one day he will leave the hotel suites and apartments behind and return to where he belongs — wherever that is.
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