Sven Goran Eriksson is happy digging in at lowly Leicester... even if David Beckham did give him cold shoulder
A week ago, Sven Goran Eriksson stood in the front row at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards night, applauding David Beckham, the man he made permanent captain of his country, as the world’s most famous footballer collected a lifetime achievement award.
It was a natural reaction from the former England manager, joining in a prolonged standing ovation for his former skipper, as tribute was paid to his contributions on and off the pitch.
What nobody knew then was that a week before, Eriksson had tried to persuade Beckham to add Leicester to his cv, and follow spells at Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan with one at the Walkers Stadium.
Unfortunately for Leicester fans, the query failed to find favour with Beckham, but it did offer an interesting glimpse into their manager’s thinking. With Eriksson, Leicester’s horizons will stretch further than fans ever dreamed — few people in football have a comparable contacts book, and nobody has fewer qualms about using it.
‘I did ask David, yes, but he wouldn’t come,’ he said. ‘It is a pity, but I understand and it was worth making the enquiry and asking the question of him. To tell you the truth, I don’t know that he will go out anywhere on loan now. I think his club in America want him to stay there and I think that’s what will happen.’
Christmas is just a couple of days away, and Leicester’s training ground sits underneath a snowy blanket. The thermometer is unlikely to reach the heady heights of zero, the wind is bitter and kitchen smells pervade the large, featureless building.
For a man whose last two jobs have been based in Mexico and Ivory Coast, Eriksson is managing the change as calmly as he manages his football teams.
He offers a drink, gets a cup of green tea for himself, volunteers to take his visitor’s coat and settles back into a seat in his office.
He looks younger than he did when in charge of England, and gives every sign that managing a club lurking in the lower reaches of the
Championship is precisely where he would choose to spend Christmas week. If politeness and charm translated into points, promotion would long since have been secured.
Nowhere is it better demonstrated than in relation to Beckham. Eriksson knew it was a fantastically long shot, but he considered it worth a go. More to the point, he was happy to try, mindful of the extraordinary coup it would have represented. The inquiry, he does not attempt to conceal, was based on vast and almost certainly mutual respect.
‘I admire David very much,’ he said. ‘He was my England captain, the man who spoke to the players, and there’s was a lot to admire in the way he played and the way he conducted himself. And I liked him, too, very much. What’s not to like about him? He is a very special person.’
That's snow business: Sven Goran Eriksson helps out at Leicester's training ground
A special person who will not be taking on the challenges of the Championship just yet, which as Eriksson concedes, is a division which has returned him to his managerial roots.
‘I’ve never managed a side, not since my very earliest days, which played so many matches,’ he admitted. ‘The games just come at you in this league, one after the other, but you have to adapt.
‘The Championship is amazing. Every game is like a battle, big, strong teams and huge confrontations. No other country in the world has something like that happening outside the top division. England is unique.
‘I find myself looking in the treatment room every morning, just to see who we have fit, but not until I’ve looked at the weather and seen if we’re going to be able to train properly.’
It is not just the recent snowfall that has focused his mind on the wintery conditions. The rush of forthcoming fixtures has seen Eriksson reach a conclusion he has pondered for some time.
‘I listened to an interview with Roy Hodgson in which he was talking about the winter, and asking why we played twice as many matches during a time when the pitches and the weather were at their worst?
‘I agree with him. I know that’s the way the game is, and that’s what people expect, but it doesn’t make for good football. You can’t play in some of the conditions we face at this time of year. Not play properly. The game needs green grass and the right conditions if you want it to be something worth seeing.’
He is, on the evidence of the football his teams have played, or at least tried to play, and having heard from those who have coached alongside him, an unabashed purist. You suspect he stares at the long-ball game with a wince, unable to conceive why people would choose to watch. And yet, even while it houses sides who play in the style he detests, he loves the game in this country.
‘I think the stories about the state of the game here are exaggerated. Apart from Germany, who gets crowds like ours? And where in the world has a second tier as strong as the one in this country?’ While he enjoys the day-to-day world of the training ground, going out for meals with the staff, even going to a bowling alley as part of a team-bonding day (but not bowling), he admits there is always an air of chance about where the job might take him next.
He said: ‘I didn’t think I would be spending Christmas in Leicester, but then I didn’t know where I would be spending it, so I can’t say that I am surprised. That is how my job works. You don’t always know where you’re going to be or where you’re going to live.’
Until recently it was the Marriott Hotel, where he based himself in the manner of a richer, more charismatic Alan Partridge, until the attractions of room service finally faded.
‘I live in an apartment now, since last week, and I like it very much. I spent two and a half months in the hotel, and that was enough, it was time to move out and find a place of my own.’
It gave him time to study the Championship, as he came to terms with lifting the fortunes of a side who were bottom of the table after conceded 23 goals in 10 games.
‘I watched many games on video to prepare for teams I might not have seen lots of, but the technical people here are very good, and they can condense them down for me. I did watch a few of the games we played before I got here, but I stopped after the 6-1 defeat by Portsmouth. Sometimes there are things you don’t need to see!’
Since then, things have got better, a controversial defeat last week by Ipswich saw Leicester slide back to mid-table, but such is the closeness of the division, victory would have seen them on the brink of the play-off places. He is quietly proud of the steps his side have taken, while conceding they need to take several more before the season can be considered a success.
‘We have played some good football. Half the time we have been very good, but we must work to make that happen more often.’
Not only would it please Eriksson, it would also satisfy the club’s new owners, Asian Football Investments, the company fronted by Thai businessman Vichai Raksriaksorn. According to Eriksson, the relationship could hardly be happier than it already is.
‘I have a perfect relationship with the owners,’ he said. ‘It’s not that they leave me alone, because their son is here a couple of days a week, and the family come to 95 per cent of the games. They understand the passion of the game, though, and the history of this club and what it means to people in Leicester. It is a very happy relationship.’ Much like the one he describes between himself and the fans.
‘People are very nice to me here, very supportive and they seem glad to see me, but I have always had a very good reception from the English public,’ he added. ‘You may not think it, because the stories seemed to be saying something different, but in five and a half years as England manager, I never once had a bad experience from a member of the public, whether I was out shopping, in a restaurant or wherever I might have been.
‘With the press and the media, it was a bit different, but I came to expect that. They do not reflect what the public think, though. The press in this country are not a mirror for its people, not a reflection of it, I don’t think.’
Whether or not he genuinely distrusts the press is doubtful. He has suffered at their hands, and also played them to perfection, but he has been around the block far too many times not to have learned precisely how to deal with them. Christmas in Leicester is, as far as Sven Goran Eriksson will concede, as good as it gets.
‘I am a happy man, a contented man,’ he said. ‘I am enjoying my job very much and I like being around the players here.
‘They are good people, educated people. They are very polite and courteous. It is a good atmosphere and that is important. I like it very much.’
And with that, green tea drunk and interview over, he is off, donning a jacket and completely wrong-footing his press officer’s predictions of what he might agree to be photographed doing.
‘When my family back home see this,’ he laughs, shovelling snow as the shutter clicks furiously ‘they won’t believe it!’
He is still chuckling as he shakes hands and heads back into the warm. He might not have got David Beckham, but as far as his public pronouncements are concerned, Sven Goran Eriksson is having a wonderful Christmas.
The league table since PS left. 
