As the noughties (officially the worst decade name EVER) draw to a close, it’s the perfect time to consider the most magical, unforgettable, outstanding moments of the last 10 years.

It’s a given there will be a rash of these lists in newspapers and online and there’ll no doubt be a a vague consensus as to which moments are the most memorable. You can expect Kelly Holmes’ golden Olympic double, Lennox Lewis’ knockout of a faded Mike Tyson and Liverpool’s Champions League final comeback to feature prominently. None of these moments make my list, and here’s why.

When I thought about the most personally compelling sporting moments of the last decade, I was drawn to memories of utterly unbridled joy, sadness or exhilaration. With the three examples above, I didn’t see Kelly Holmes’ wins live, I don’t care whether Liverpool win or lose and Lewis’ win against Iron Mike was completely one-sided and nowhere near as memorable as his battles with Evander Holyfield. None of these achievements made me scream, shout, punch the air or even exhale with the release of tension.

The moments I’ve chosen are strictly personal. I either witnessed them live in person or was 100% emotionally invested in them when I watched them live on TV. All 10 took my breath away. So, without further ado, here’s the Sports Bloke’s Top 10 sporting moments of the decade.

Cricket: England vs Australia, 2nd Test, Edgbaston, July 2005
It should have been easy. It turned into the most tense, desperate and ultimately joyous conclusion to a test match. England needed two wickets to draw level in the Ashes. Australia needed an unlikely 107 runs for a series-killing 2-0 lead. On the way to the ground we all felt we’d only see half an hour of play. But Shane Warne and fellow tail-ender Brett Lee had other ideas, carving the English bowling to all parts in a desperate effort to reach their unlikely target. When Flintoff forced Warne to tread on his stumps, the target was down to 62. The partisan Edgbaston crowd breathed an epic sigh of relief. Just one wicket to go. But it didn’t come. the confidence of Lee and last man Michael Kasprowicz grew. The target continued to wittle away. Tension enveloped the ground and was made worse by the group of 50 or so Aussie “Fanatics” chanting “(insert number here) runs to go, (insert number here) runs to go” each time a run was scored.

England were going to blow their chance. I had predicted an English Ashes win about six months before the series and started to receive texts from friends blaming me for getting their hopes up. In the ground, people sat with transfixed looks of horror etched on their faces. The target was down to four. Steve Harmison searched for a yorker but produced a full toss. Lee carved it towards the boundary. It should have been the winning runs. But it went straight to the only English fielder in the area for a single. Then came the moment. Kasprowicz gloved a Steve Harmison bouncer. Wicketkeeper Geraint Jones claimed the catch. And oh-so-crucially, umpire Billy Bowden raised his finger. Pandemonium does not describe the crowd reaction accurately enough. Roll unbridled joy, unparalleled relief and emotional exhaustion into one and you might be close. England won by 2 runs and would go on to win the Ashes for the first time in 19 years. Simply the most amazing sporting moment I have ever witnessed in person.

Usain Bolt Olympic 100 metre final, Beijing 2008
If I was totally objective and not obsessed with cricket, Usain Bolt’s devastating performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympics 100 metres final would have been a clear No 1 on this list. Bolt’s effort was, in equal measure, breathtaking, awe-inspiring, supremely arrogant and uniquely entertaining as he effortlessly powered his way to a previously unfathomable world record time of 9.69 seconds. Knowing he had left the rest of the field in his wake, Bolt extended his arms and eased up with around 30 metres to go as if to say “look how easily I can do this”. He emphasized his dominance of the event one year later at the World Championships lowering the world record to 9.58 seconds, a time that had only seemed possible on 1980s video game Track and Field. I was at a wedding on the day of the Olympic 100 metre final and, at the reception, deliberately spilt food over myself to create an excuse to go to my room to get a change of tie whereupon I watched Bolt’s record-shattering race live. There was no way I was going to miss it.

NFL: NY Giants win the Super Bowl
On their way to a perfect 19-0 season, the New England Patriots didn’t even consider the possibility of losing Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants. They’d even printed up 19-0 t-shirts to wear after they’d cruised to victory. But Belicheck, Brady, Moss and Co reckoned without the grit of Big Blue. People will always talk about David Tyree’s amazing one-handed catch or Eli Manning’s Houdini act that help him evade the Pats defence and make the pass to Tyree. For me, Manning’s winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress is the memory that I treaure most. Riveted on a sofa at 3am in London, I saw the pass in slow motion, floating into the end zone with Burress closing in on it and found time to wake up my neighbours by shrieking “CATCH IT, PLAXICO” at the top of my lungs. Plax obliged, the Giants led and there was nothing the Pats could do.

Football: Germany 1 England 5
The result that fooled a nation into thinking Sven Goran-Eriksson was a genius and prompted the classic News of the World headline “Don’t Mention The Score”. An historically emphatic win over Germany shouldn’t have eradicated the pain of losing to them on penalties in Italia 90 and Euro 1996. After all, this was a qualifier and those were semi-finals. The smug Matthaus and Moller were long gone and Germany were a much weaker team then when they dominated international tournament football in the 1990s. But, but, but…… WE BEAT GERMANY FIVE ONE AWAY!!!! Michael Owen’s hat trick, Steven Gerrard’s late first half thunderbolt, Emile Heskey’s golf putt celebration, Sven laughing when the fifth goal went in. Up to this point, I don’t think I’d ever witnessed a sporting event that made me this deliriously happy. In the long run, normal service was resumed. Months later, England were dumped out of the World Cup at the quarter final stage while the German team they thrashed went to the final proving my Dad’s only football mantra: never bet against the Germans.

Boxing: Marco Antonio Barrera vs Erik Morales I
I came very close to including the first Arturo Gatti vs Mickey Ward fight over this but, in terms of excitement, I think Barrera vs Morales I just edges it for me. I had this fight on a video with a Barcelona vs Deportivo la Coruna in La Liga. Depor came from two nil down to win in the Nou Camp in what was one of the best football matches I’ve seen. It was only fitting that Barrera vs Morales I found a home alongside it. The February 2000 showdown was so ferocious it signalled a shift in the focus on boxing from the heavyweights to the little men. I had seen Morales dismantle an opponent in two rounds on the undercard of a Lennox Lewis pay per view in 1999. I knew nothing about Barrera. So what I witnessed in that first fight had elements of surprise and discovery about it.

Fighting for Morales’ WBC Super Bantamweight title, both Mexcian warriors displayed masses of heart and machismo in addition to iron chins concussive punching power. Pride meant neither men would yield the advantage for more than a few seconds. Throughout the fight, they stood toe to toe exchanging haymakers. There was no let-up in the intensity at any point in the 12-round battle. Both men emerged cut and battered after the final bell. Barrera probably edged it on points. Morales won on a split decision. It was voted Ring magazine’s fight of the year. In my mind, it was the fight of the decade.

PDC World Darts Final 2003: John Part vs Phil Taylor
Darts may be criticised for not being a real sport but I would defy anybody holding that opinion to not be utterly enthralled by John Part’s defeat of Phil Taylor in the 2003 PDC final. Darts purists may point to Raymond van Barneveld beating Taylor a few years later as a better match. For me, Part’s win ranks higher because at the time of his victory, Taylor looked utterly invincible. Relying on 100-120-range three dart checkouts, Part built a 4-1 lead before Taylor won 11 straight legs and roared back into 5-4 lead. The Power seemed certain to bully his way to yet another world title but Part sank pressure doubles to retake the lead six sets to five. Taylor broke back to send the final to a deciding set and again looked favourite to win. But Darth Maple again wound up the pressure on Taylor who, for the first time in nearly 10 years, had no response. Part stayed calm, sank his doubles and slayed the giant of darts to win his second world title.

England vs Australia, Rugby World Cup Final 2003
I’m not going to pretend I’m a huge rugby enthusiast. I watch the England internationals and, like most of the country, fell in love with Martin Johnson, Jonny Wilkinson and Jason Robinson for six weeks at the end of 2003. If you take cycling and rowing out of the equation, English victories in world cups are extremely rare and should be celebrated accordingly. The 2003 rugby world cup final remains memorable as it was the only time in my life I got drunk three times in 24 hours. The night before the game I nervously hit the sauce with my mate Herman. It was only supposed to be a couple of gentle beers but got out of hand.

The next morning we headed to the then Australian enclave of Shepherd’s Bush for 7am and got on the beers in a pub full of Aussies. Watching this game was one of the last times I truly enjoyed watching sport in the boozer. England dominated the game from the scrum but were stymied by some dodgy refereeing. With the game in the dying seconds of extra time and the game poised to be decided on a drop goal shootout, Jonny Wilkinson stepped up and won the game with that drop goal. I remember almost crying and repeating the phrase “we never win anything” over and over again. We then went to Clapham to meet some mates where I ate a fry-up (it was nearly midday by now) and fell asleep in a pub. When I woke up, we drank in celebration of a rare England world cup victory.

Steve Redgrave’s fifth gold medal, Sydney Olympics
This historic moment happened at around midnight UK time. I had the TV on mute and Alan Green’s commentary on Radio Five. I don’t remember much about the race other than Redgrave, Pinsent, Cracknell and the bloke who looked a bit like Emmanuel Petit starting quickly and hanging on for grim death at the end. What lingers in my mind is Green’s manic Irish intonations, urging a nation of listeners to “get up on your feet and salute the greatest Olympian of all time”. I have goose bumps from typing those words. One of the rare times when a commentator dealt with the moment in the most perfect way.

South Africa beat Australia by one wicket, ODI, March 2006
Sometimes, like with Usain Bolt, you watch sport because you know something great is going to happen. Other times, you stumble on great sporting moments by mistake. I’m still not entirely sure why Sky were televising this game but I’m really glad they did. If the 2005 Ashes was the pinnacle of test cricket, this match was definitely the greatest one day international ever played. Ricky Ponting smashed 164 of 105 balls as Australia set a record one day score of 434 of their 50 overs. Surely there was no way back for South Africa.

Undaunted by the mammoth target, Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith set about the Australian bowling. Smith was eventually dismissed ten runs shrt of his hundred but it was Gibbs who ultimately made the impossible possible. He battered 175 runs in just 111 balls and, by the time he was out, had made South Africa favourites for the win. In typical fashion, the Aussies fought back. When Nathan Bracken dismissed Justin Kemp, South Africa needed 77 of the last seven overs. The teams traded wickets and boundaries until, with one wicket left, Mark Boucher struck the winning boundary off the game’s penultimate delivery. 872 runs had been scored off 99.5 overs. That wasn’t the only record set in this match. Aussie bowler Mick Lewis’ 10 over cost him 113 runs, the worst ever figures in a 50-over game.

New York Knicks vs Phoenix Suns, January 2006
This one was very personal to me. It was the best basketball game I’ve ever seen in person pitting my team (New York) against my favourite player (Steve Nash) in my favourite sporting arena (Madison Square Garden). The Suns were (and might still be) the most entertaining team in the NBA at this time. New York were (and still are) mediocre at best. On this night, Stephon Marbury and Co came to compete. Nash turned in a 22-assist performance featuring a handful of alley-oop passes to Shawn Marion. For the Knicks, David Lee had a coming out party, scoring 23 points and hauling down 15 rebounds. Eddy Curry had a 20-10 game too.

The Knicks blew a fourth quarter lead and the game went into overtime. In the end, the Suns wilted in the third extra period and the Knicks, led to Marbury’s 32 points, eventually prevailed 140-133. What stays with me about this game is the way that the play of boths teams bought the MSG crowd to life. By the third overtime, people all over the arena were utterly sucked in to what, in the grand scheme of things, was just another regular season game. My favourite player battling my favourite team in a triple overtime classic at the world’s most famous arena with a sold-out crowd going out of their minds. This was the day I properly gave my heart to basketball.

Just two hours after Manchester City’s 4-3 victory over Sunderland, a statement was released from the City of Manchester stadium explaining the departure of manager Mark Hughes and 4 of the coaching staff. Only 18 months after taking over from Sven-Goran Eriksson as the City boss Hughes’ contract was terminated by the chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who spent nearly 200 million pounds in the summer.

City who have only lost twice so far this season and have drawn eight games in their last 11, with other results including their win over Chelsea and their bad loss against Tottenham. Unfortunately this meant that expectations were not met, expectations that were set before the spending spree occurred between the board and the coaching staff as mentioned in the club’s statement this evening:

“Prior to the current season beginning, with significant investment in players and infrastructure in place, the consensus between the board and coaching staff was that appropriate agreed targets should be set for the 2009/2010 season. The targets were agreed as a result of the player acquisition strategy of the club being radically accelerated in the summer as a result of very favourable conditions for any buying club.”

Manchester City as a result have lots of very talented individuals that other top-flight clubs would kill to have and be able to afford! Yet buying talent doesn’t mean there will be a football team waiting for you in August that are good enough to win the premiership. It takes time to build a championship side, time and money is exactly what every manager dreams of but the two never arrive together. Money was spent in August and Hughes is out in 4 months. The same happened to Ranieri at Chelsea, when Abramovich bought the club from Ken Bates.

Chairman who are not football people do not understand that results will not come until the team gels, there is only so much you can do in 4 months especially when your trying to deal with the ego’s of Robinho and Adebayor. Mancini is a good manager with an impressive record, however I can’t see him moulding a team that will be of champions league quality this season. I genuinely feel sorry for Hughes and I am not the only one:

Steve Bruce, the Sunderland manager, said in his post-match interview that it would be “disappointing” if Hughes, a former team-mate of his at Manchester United, did part company with City:

“You can’t build a football club in 18 months and one transfer window. I don’t think anyone is surprised by these things anymore. It is ridiculous. You are not going to encourage any young person to try and take this up. What is the point?

What are the stats? Managers last about 18 months in the Championship. It is longer in the Premier League, but that is because of the amount of time Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and David Moyes have been in their jobs.I am disappointed for Mark Hughes. Really disappointed.”

Lets just hope Mancini will get more than 18 months with a team that has so much potential.

Wow. After a prolonged break from my blog, the story I have to come back to is a ‘biggie’. Suddenly, the loss of our unbeaten home record just doesn’t quite cut it.

Munto Finance, the group responsible for changing the face of Notts County, have decided they’d rather remain anonymous than stay involved in English football, and pulled the plug. Then, just a few days later, Hans Backe has walked out on the club, stating ‘promises have been broken’.

Is it just me, or is there a feeling of deja vu here? Didn’t Sol Campbell leave us for that same reason? Sadly, I feel Sven will be next out the door. The club now appears to be fighting for its very existence, amid reports that there is only have enough money to pay the players for December and January.

If you believe the Guardian, which perhaps more of us should have done a few weeks back, then Eriksson is currently embroiled in a fight with the club (or the ex owners) for money which has not been paid to him. This may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, and Notts County without Sven is a much worse proposition.

Notts are now crying out for investment, and at least with Sven on board that investment is feasible. However, even if he stays, the club craves some kind of stability. It certainly feels like Munto were a Trojan Horse, and I have to wonder if their finances were holed up in Dubai. After all, they have also pulled out of their bid to buy the BMW Formula One team, which gives me the impression that their cupboard is bare.

Sven is at least a widely recognised face, and if he commits himself to the club I am hopeful investment will follow. That being said, I fully expect him to leave. If he does leave, the squad will be dismantled possibly even as early as January, and the top players will have to be sold. Without Munto’s backing, I have to wonder how Kasper Schmeichel’s weekly wage of allegedly £12,000 is sustainable in League 2. Kasper is at least good enough to play in the Championship, and that is probably where he will find himself.

There will undoubtedly be clubs in League One with a need for a proven goalscorer, and Lee Hughes will be on their radar. Ben Davies may be another option, and the list goes on.

Without wishing to be melodramatic, it appears the club’s future is in the balance. What is needed then is for us as supporters to pull in the right direction. Yes, we are all disappointed that the dream has died after less than six months, but I do have to wonder just how many of us are genuinely surprised? The most important thing is we have a club to support, and once again, the club really needs us.

Lets get ourselves out in numbers and show the boys we’re behind them, whether we win, lose or draw.

The club may be the laughing-stock of the English game, but they are our laughing-stock. Hell, we’ve been a laughing-stock since I’ve been going to the ‘Lane! Our home record over the last few years is enough to make your eyes water, and we’ve had more spankings than Max Moseley. Yes, I’m going off on a tangent, but my point is we’ve had some atrocious teams. Even if we lose two or three players in the coming weeks, we’ll still be better off than the Gudjon Thordarson side!

Does have to make you wonder about the next managerial shortlist though, I reckon I’m in with a shout.

What you missed while the Hubble telescope was looking at space jellyfish…

• Ryan Giggs that Sir Alex Ferguson will outlast him at Manchester United.
• The Japanese FA doesn’t agree with national team manager Takeshi Okada that Japan will get to the World Cup semifinals.
• Sven-Göran Eriksson has lawyered up on Notts County to recover a six-figure sum he’s owed.
• Barcelona striker Keirrison isn’t coming to Liverpool on loan in January.
• St. Etienne have sacked manager Alain Perrin; the Ligue 1 side is fourth from bottom in France.
• Harry Redknapp thinks that Liverpool should’ve signed Michael Owen when they had the chance.
• Arsenal has refused to release Cesc Fabregas to play for Catalonia.
• Gennaro Gattuso has signed a new deal with AC Milan, ending speculation that he was bound for Manchester City in January.
• Jürgen Klinsmann is heading back to the U.S. with his family eight months after he was sacked as manager at Bayern.

What you missed while taking anti-moon dust pills…

• South Africans have decided to treat the World Cup draw the way unprepared students treat finals: by calling in fake bomb threats. We’re at two and counting already today.
• Ghana manager Milovan Rajevac isn’t afraid of England, while Fabio Capello isn’t afraid of a group of death.
• Update on a story from two lines ago: They already caught the fake bomber.
• Andrei Arshavin has a trifecta of anti-Arsenal quotes: he thinks Arsenal needs to get taller, thinks that Wenger needs to spend in January, and thinks that Arsenal is “not very good”.
• Everyone who’s getting paid this week take a step forward; not so fast, Portsmouth.
• Manchester United has withdrawn their interest in signing Partizan Belgrade midfielder Adem Ljajic, which has caused the United fan union to question whether or not the club can really compete in the transfer market.
• Didier Drogba says that the title race is anything but a two horse race; in completely unrelated news, Ruud van Nistelrooy is eyeing a return to the Premier League.
• Sven-Goran Erikkson would like Notts County to play a friendly against Juventus.
• Roy Keane is totally going to kick Bono’s ass.

Join our supporters in backing Nottingham’s bid to be a host city in the 2018 FIFA World Cup by texting NOTT to 62018 this evening at 6:20pm. Tonight sees the switch on of Nottingham’s Christmas Lights! Festivities commence in the Old Market Square at 5:45pm and the lights will be switched on at 6:20pm (incidentally is the time we are encouraging Nottingham bid supporters to text NOTT to 62018).

Spot the sporting celebs – Super Middleweight Champion, Carl Froch / Notts County FC’s, Sven Goran Eriksson / Players from Nottingham Forest FC & Nottingham Panthers!

Tonight is also the opening of the traditional German Market & the Victoria Centre Outdoor Ice Rink. An evening NOTT to be missed!

This season saw equilibrium return to Norwegian football. Now 21 times champions Rosenborg won the league again. There has not been constancy over who has won the Norwegian or the Swedish premier leagues over the last years. This inconsistency of the top clubs has meant that no club from the Scandinavian Peninsula has managed to make much of an impression in Europe. Denmark is excluded from this evaluation, because they are positioned geographically in a way that allows them to follow the European continental league format. In Norway and Sweden, like in Russia, the season is played from early spring until late fall. Sweden, despite having twice the population size of Norway, and a footballing tradition which includes World Cup silver (1958) and two World Cup bronzes (1950 and 1994), a European Cup final and a UEFA Cup victory, is positioned below Norway on the UEFA Country Rankings. In Norway, Swedish coaches and players dominate the top flight. The clubs that finished 1^st through 3^rd in this year’s championship had Swedish coaches. Rosenborg’s coach, Erik Hamrén, is the new national team coach of Sweden. Over the last four seasons, the top goal scorer in Norway has been a Swede three times. Could a closer cooperation between the two league systems be the way for a club from the Peninsula to achieve success in Europe? The idea is worth a closer look.

Success in Europe requires a mixture of factors working together. For a country to produce a Champions League winning club, it seems that six major factors stand out. These are a country’s football obsession, meaning the importance of football in the culture of the country, country population size, quality of youth development, training conditions and facilities, footballing traditions, and a country’s standard of living. History shows that these factors matter. In the history of the European Cup, clubs from countries of less than 15 million inhabitants almost never win the European Cup. Exceptions have been Portugal and Scotland. These two are countries with great footballing traditions, and when mixed with youth development and coaching know-how, this can make up for limited size of the talent pool. A look at the grandest European top flights tells us that most professional footballers today come from relatively high standards of living. This is the Western European working- and middle classes.

Looking at these factors from a Norwegian and Swedish perspective, it quickly becomes clear that neither country fulfils all criteria. Add to that the climatic challenges of these countries, forcing the leagues to be played spring-fall rather than fall-spring like the European cups, and the prospects of creating a cup-winning team seem bleak. However, Russian and Ukrainian teams have recently started showing Europe that these climatic challenges can be overcome, as long as the clubs are good enough. In both Russia and Ukraine this quality has its background in extreme financial backing, but there are ways for Scandinavian clubs to compensate for this.

What if the two leagues were to join each other? It would create a product that fulfils the Champions League-winning recipe. As explained below, football obsession, quality of youth development, training facilities, footballing traditions, and standards of living would all be joined together. Joining the leagues would mean the clubs would have easier access to a total population of about 15 million, which means the country population size issue would also be realized. If the 8 best-placed clubs of both countries would create a league, the increased competition should improve the quality of the clubs from both countries. A way to ensure this quality is maintained in both countries could be the following relegation/promotion solution – four clubs are relegated each year; if three relegated clubs are Norwegian, three Swedish clubs are promoted. This will keep the pressure on the FAs to ensure the quality of their country’s football and youth development is maintained. The difference in population size seems not to be a problem, since the Norwegian league is currently placed higher than the Swedish one. It will make it important for clubs from each country to perform well; otherwise it will be harder than now to be promoted again. It could also serve as a way to remove one of the greatest problems of both Swedish and Norwegian clubs – an incredible inconsistency from year to year. Travelling distances will still not be more than what German or French clubs do every week. Take a second to think of the advantages for clubs from both countries.

Norway has, according to the UN, the world’s highest standards of living. Sweden are also in the world top in this regard. According to the calculations of football authors Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, Norway is also the most football-obsessed country in the World. This is based on registered football players, stadium attendances and TV spectators of football, relative to the population size. Such a calculation must be taken with a pinch of salt, but it is an indication that football is a central part of the country’s culture. The fact that HM King Harald of Norway is a Tottenham Hotspurs fan, and his father was an Arsenal fan, are other indications of the country’s football obsession. As Simon Kuper points out, few other European countries have fan clubs of for instance Barnet FC and Rushden and Diamonds, like Norway do. When it comes to winning traditions in European and International football, Norway come short, however. Taking into consideration the country’s climatic predicament, Norway do have quite good training facilities indeed.

Sweden have footballing traditions. As mentioned above, the International and European credentials Sweden have are quite impressive for a country of about 9 million in a cold climatic zone. Malmö FF reached the European Cup final in 1979, where they were beaten by Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest 1-0. This was a match that was played without Malmö’s top players because of injuries, according to the club’s own history accounts. When it comes to youth talent development, and coaching know-how, Sweden are world class. Sven Göran Eriksson is for instance one of the world’s highest profiled coaches. In 1983 he won the UEFA Cup with IFK Göteborg, one of Swedish club football’s greatest triumphs. The success of Swedish coaches in Norway has already been mentioned. There is a nearly unending stream of Swedish youths going to Italian and Dutch clubs. Swedish players are high profile in Europe’s best leagues. Zlatan Ibrahimovic won the Italian top scorer trophy, and is in contention for the Ballon d’Or. Fredrik Ljungberg was a huge star for Arsenal in the Premier League and the Champions League. Jesper Blomqvist played the Champions League final for Manchester United in 1999, and won. Henrik Larsson is one of Europe’s most celebrated strikers of the last fifteen years. This is not a new phenomenon. In the 1950s Sweden produced some of the world’s best players. AC Milan’s Swedish trio Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Niels Lidholm, affectionately called Gre-No-Li, dominated the Serie A in the 1950s. Gunnar Nordahl is still the second highest goal scorer in Serie A history, winning Capocannoniere five times. These three were not even allowed to play in the 1950 World Cup, since the Swedish FA did not allow professionals to play for the national team. They were only three of about 30 Swedish players in the Serie A at the time. Without having been researched, this could very well be connected to Sweden’s neutrality in World War II. The wave of Swedes lasted until the mid-60s. Until the next golden generation of the early 90s, Sweden had a quiet period. The third-placed World Cup team sported players such as Tomas Brolin of AC Parma, Martin Dahlin of Boroussia Mönchengladbach, the mentioned Henrik Larsson, and Thomas Ravelli. These talented individuals and the team successes are evidence of great footballing traditions, and also traditions for nurturing talents to the highest level. Norway also have individual successful players, such as Rune Bratseth with Werder Bremen, Henning Berg in Blackburn, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, and John Carew. Perhaps some talent would also stay in their home clubs if the leagues and clubs would gain a higher profile and higher quality. The suggestion of a joint Norwegian–Swedish league seems one way to provide this.

So the footballing traditions, talented youth players, coaching excellence, as well as population size, standards of living, training facilities and also importance of football in the countries’ culture seem to be either joined or complemented by the other in a union of the two league systems. It could be the only way a Swedish or Norwegian club will again get close to a Champions League final. Rosenborg BK’s quarter final appearance in 1997 against Juventus is quite impressive in itself, and perhaps shows the potential that lies in the Scandinavian football leagues. The idea is hereby thrown out there for contemplation and discussion.

High-kicking: North Korea going for gold?

On October the 22nd, North Korea’s state news agency, the Korea Central News Agency ran a typically terse one paragraph report on the visit of a foreign business delegation to Pyongyang.

Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, met and had a conversation with the visiting delegation of the Swiss Commodity Holding AG led by Chief Executive Ms. Shanti Sen at the Mansudae Assembly Hall.

A President of a Presidium had a conversation with a visiting delegation? Stop the press! It is highly doubtful that the KCNA’s finest caused front pages or breaths to be held in news rooms globally and frankly, if anyone even bothered to read the report, they must have thought little of it.

But to a handful of football fans halfway across the world as tightly knit and fervently loyal as any group of North Korean cadres, the visit represents just the latest installment in a saga involving a former England football manager, the mysterious Swiss company led by Ms. Sen and the octogenarian autocrats of Pyongyang.

Notts County Football Club lays claim to the title of oldest professional football league club in the world. Despite its lowly status in the footballing echelons it has a loyal following who have tracked “The Magpies” recent financial travails with a (perhaps morbid) fascination.

Not least because they seem to involve, through some twist of fate, promises of gold buried in the mountains of distant North Korea… But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s rewind.

Sven: "Show me the money"

Footballing minnows Notts County were initially delighted this summer when the club was taken over by a Middle Eastern consortium called Qadbak. The firm — which claimed to have some £100 billion in assets — expunged its £1m debts, hired former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson as director of football, and promised to propel the club into the Championship within five years. Bang, crash, ker-pow! Eat your heart out Roman Abramovich…

But doubts didn’t take long to grow and the ownership of the club began to come under the scrutiny of the Football League, which states that all club directors and significant shareholders must pass a ‘fit and proper person’ test: not an easy thing to do given that Qadbak is registered in offshore banking haven the British Virgin Islands and its owners seemed reluctant to come forward.

The interest of sports journalists was piqued and many began to sniff around.

A lot of the funny smells seemed to be emanating from Swiss Commodity Holdings (SCH). Described by most simply as a Zurich-based mining company, it emerged from obscurity when Qadbak was reported to have handed a sizeable stake in it to Sven-Goran Eriksson in return for the former England manager joining Notts County. (Which was quite a step down for the globetrotting, bespectacled Swede).

All that glitters..?

British broadsheet the Daily Telegraph found that two ambassadors for the miner had approached the investment banks Rothschild and Cazenove for advice about a public listing, claiming to have mining assets worth more than commodity giants BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Rio Tinto and gold reserves of $153bn, more than the current market leader, Barrick Gold, which has $117bn.

Strangely none of the above companies had ever heard of SCH and it declined to disclose publicly the location of its claimed $1.9 trillion of reserves. But according to the Telegraph, representatives of the firm told bankers that some of its assets are in Africa and North Korea. Yes. That North Korea.

The bizarre bond between SCH and Pyongyang became even more apparent when the Guardian reported that Sven Goran Eriksson was on the brink of a deal that could see the Swede leaving Notts County on loan to coach the North Korean football team during their World Cup campaign.

Although the coach denied the veracity of the reports and was later said to have turned down the offer, the whole situation seemed increasingly iffy. A report in the Guardian claimed Eriksson was assured that when the company was floated on the stock market, his stock would be worth millions overnight and that the initial public flotation would take place by July. (The company has yet to be floated and rumours have emerged of Sven leaving the club…)

Then in September Russell King, a senior representative of Qadbak, the offshore company that owns Notts County, has had £1.9m of his assets frozen by the courts in Jersey over an unpaid debt. Things seemed to be unraveling*

If Qadbak and SCH are counting on North Korea to provide a solid backstop for their singularly impressive claims to wealth, one suspects they are out of their depth. Although foreign interest in North Korea’s natural resources has grown, partly on the back of a South Korean government report issued in early October valuing the North’s mineral reserves at $6,000bn, getting the glittery stuff out is no simple task.

Sanctions slapped on North Korea as a result of its nuclear tests render most North Korean products toxic to players in the international financial system. As British businessman Colin McAskill, chairman of Koryo Asia Ltd., which invests in North Korea through the Chosun Development & Investment Fund told reporter Donald Kirk in 2007.

“The US has been using coercion, innuendo, and sheer force to intimidate banks from dealing with North Korea….

…they have a wealth of minerals – gold, silver, zinc, magnesite, copper, uranium, platinum – that needs investment to extract.

SCH seems, judging from their reported conversation with the President of the Presidium, to be making a serious move on that “wealth of minerals”. Shanti Sen, who the KCNA reports as leading the firm’s delegation to Pyongyang, previously worked for the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, where she headed the Corporate Investment Group and is also listed as a bigwig at City Property Investors, which manages global real estate. Interesting choice of CEO.* (Incidentally Singapore recently signed an Investment Guarantee Agreement (IGA) with the North, under which:

Investors will be accorded non-discriminatory treatment, compensation in the event of expropriation or nationalisation of their investments, and free transfer of capital and returns from investment.

What with Singapore’s IGA, The Gold Diggers’ visit, Sven’s involvement and the South Korean government’s report, there seems to be a real sense in the air that North Korea is there for the taking.

But whether it’s footballing gold or the aurum itself that has led the Magpies (which as everyone knows are attracted to shiny things) to look east for funding, one can only feel for the fans that the future of their club is no longer simply in the hands of  its players but is in no small part perhaps dependent on State Department sanctions officials, the dictatorial geriatrics of Pyongyang and “$153bn” of North Korea gold that is, for the time being — and despite the best efforts of those in the Mansudae Assembly Hall — going nowhere, one suspects, for the foreseeable future.

*****

*After posting this story I was emailed anonymously by a German offering their “Freundliche Grüsse” and the link to AAH Group Inc., whose board of directors includes the very same Shanti Sen. There is absolutely jack all information on the group on the internet or indeed, their own homepage other than that they are:

“A mining corporation with a focus on the extraction of gold and precious minerals. The group owns various rights in South East Asia and South America. AAH Group, Inc. own one of the largest reserves bases in the public gold sector.”

Their claims sound a lot like SCH’s don’t they? And after a little more digging I found out that Pyongyang has in the past primarily sold  its gold to global buyers via Thailand. According to official Thai Customs Department statistics dug up by reporter Bertil Lintner in a few years back, North Korea shipped 500 kilograms of gold worth 398 million baht (US$11 million) to Thailand in April 2007 alone.

Lintner, who’s done his homework, writes that North Korea’s main gold mine is in Unsan county in North Pyongan province, about 150 kilometers north of Pyongyang.

Consultants from Clough Engineering of Australia in 2001 inspected the same mine under the sponsorship of the United Nations Office for Project Services. They estimated that Unsan held 1,000 tons of gold reserves, which if true would make it one of the world’s major gold mines.

There truly is gold in them thar hills! No wonder businesses with distinctly opaque structures are popping up left right and centre, claiming to have the rights to all Smorg’s treasure.

I’d speculate (wildly) that given Sen’s background in Singapore and the city state’s recent MOU with the Norks that AAH Inc. and SCH may be aiming to sell gold via Singapore… Just a shot in the dark though. They may also be gambling that sanctions will be lifted as the North moves to rejoin six party talks, which looks likely in the near future…

*Notts County’s takeover has since been approved by the Football League. As the Guardian noted, however:

There is, however, no means test for ownership of English football clubs, nor is there currently any way of knowing whether Notts County’s claims that it is backed by billions of pounds are true. Other public claims made by the club in the past three months have later unravelled.

O treinador sueco Sven-Göran Eriksson, atualmente no Notts County (!), da quarta divisão do futebol da Inglaterra, participou de um ‘emocionante’ comercial para uma empresa de lenços de papel.

No vídeo, ele aparece fazendo algumas embaixadinhas com uma bolinha de papel. Logo depois de marcar um gol (ou cesta?) ele mostra toda a sua ginga na comemoração, quando é pego de surpresa por um jogador.

Bem engraçado ver Eriksson, com seu jeito frio de ser, de uma forma tão descontraída. Mas você se lembra como foi a passagem do nosso querido Eriksson pela Itália? Não? Vamos lá. O treinador sueco chegou na velha bota na temporada de 1984 para treinar a Roma, onde ficou até 1987.

No clube giallorosso, o sueco conquistou apenas uma Copa da Itália, em 1985/86. Logo depois, o técnico foi para a Fiorentina. Sua passagem pela Viola terminou em 1989 e ele só retornaria ao país em 1992 para treinar a Sampdoria. Com ele, o clube blucerchiato conquistou a Copa da Itália na temporada 1993/94.

Em 1997, Eriksson foi para a Lazio e fez história por lá. Logo no primeiro ano no comando do time, conquistou a Copa da Itália. Além disso, chegou à final da Copa da Uefa, mas foi derrotado pela Internazionale. E os torcedores biancocelesti lembram bem desta temporada.

Nos quatro jogos contra a Roma, a Lazio venceu todos: dois pela Série A e mais dois pela Copa da Itália. A equipe iniciou a temporada 1998/99 com a conquista da Supercopa italiana, contra a Juventus, em Turim. Depois, o título da última edição da Recopa.

Mas foi em 1999/00 que o treinador entrou de verdade para a história do clube da capital. Após vencer a Supercopa da Europa, contra o Manchester United, Eriksson guiou o time ao seu segundo scudetto, conquistado de forma emocionante, com um pontinho de vantagem sobre a Juventus – a Velha Senhora perdeu o último jogo do campeonato para o Perugia.

O elenco contava com nomes experientes, como Mihajlovic, Veron, Simeone, Boksic e Salas, além de um jovem zagueiro chamado Alessandro Nesta. Ainda com Eriksson, a Lazio conquistou mais uma Copa da Itália e outra Supercopa italiana. Total de sete títulos. Uma época inesquecível para os biancocelesti.

Time base da Lazio de 1999/00

Titulares: Marchegiani; Mihajlovic, Nesta, Negro, Pancaro; Simeone, Veron; Sérgio Conceição, Nedved; Boksic e Salas.

Reservas: Ballotta, Favalli, Fernando Couto, Sensini, Almeyda, Stankovic, Roberto Mancini, Simone Inzaghi, Ravanelli, Gottardi, Lombardo, Andersson.

Éder Fantoni

“Two words will probably haunt Sven Goran Eriksson for the rest of his career: Theo Walcott. Eriksson may have thought that the Arsenal teenager was going to be his Michael Owen in Germany in 2006. But the erratic decision backfired and for most coaches, confirmed the value of experience over youth.” Gavin Hamilton of World Soccer

For one thing, it’s quite speculative if not simply inaccurate to say that Sven “thought that the Arsenal teenager was going to be his Michael Owen in Germany in 2006.” I don’t remember ever reading or hearing Sven state anything close to having such high expectations of our injured (again) winger/striker. Theo was given a place in the World Cup squad but so was Stewart Downing. The over-rated Stewart Downing!

Isn’t that the selection that backfired?

Sven was criticized then for picking Theo but what real harm was there in picking him? At worst, he was given a spot that could have gone to another (non-existent) player who might have been more experienced and better equipped to make a difference to England’s ultimate fate. At best, he provided opposition in training for the England Left Back and competition for other wingers/strikers in the squad.

Who else was available at the time?

Sven picked and played Stewart Downing. Stewart Downing!!! STEWART DOWNING can say that he has played in a FIFA World Cup Finals tournament. WTF?!?!?

The idea that Sven made a mistake picking Theo was overblown in 2006 and it is equally over the top today to suggest that an “erratic decision backfired.” How was it erratic? If just one place in a squad of 23 players makes as big a difference as Mr. Hamilton has suggested, then the player surely must be worthy of greater expectation than was Theo. If Theo had been picked instead of Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard, or even Aaron Lennon, I’d understand. He wasn’t. Those players were there. Theo was never expected to be the type of player who’d make that big a big difference.

Again, I ask which player was available who fits that profile?

That Theo was selected was more a reflection of the lack of choices for the England manager than a mistake. Some went as far as suggesting that it was Arsene Wenger who twisted Sven’s arm to pick Theo. Wenger, like any manager looking for an advantage that would benefit his player and club, promoted the idea but every other manager with a promising young player at his cllub was free to do the same.

The idea that it “backfired” leaves me scratching my head. Was Theo’s inclusion what kept England from reaching the final? I fully accept that experience is a must at any FIFA World Cup Final. The squad had experienced players in Beckham, Campbell, Neville, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Carragher, Terry, and Ashley Cole. Moreover, England’s best player (since Matt LeTissier and Paul Gascoigne) for the period before the emergence of Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes, was not available for selection anyway.

Sven’s choice to bring Theo was not why England stumbled and were eventually knocked out. Look at the names listed below and among them you will see an aggregate of (non-)contributors more responsible for England’s demise than Theo.

The England 2006 World Cup squad:

1 GK ROBINSON Paul – (Tottenham Hotspur, ENG)
2 DF NEVILLE Gary – (Manchester Utd., ENG)
3 DF COLE Ashley – (Arsenal, ENG)
4 MF GERRARD Steven – (Liverpool, ENG)
5 DF FERDINAND Rio – (Manchester Utd., ENG)
6 DF TERRY John – (Chelsea, ENG)
7 MF BECKHAM David – (Real Madrid, ESP)
8 MF LAMPARD Frank – (Chelsea, ENG)
9 FW ROONEY Wayne – (Manchester Utd., ENG)
10 FW OWEN Michael – (Newcastle, ENG)
11 MF COLE Joe – (Chelsea, ENG)
12 DF CAMPBELL Sol – (Arsenal, ENG)
13 GK JAMES David – (Manchester City, ENG)
14 DF BRIDGE Wayne – (Chelsea, ENG)
15 DF CARRAGHER Jamie – (Liverpool, ENG)
16 MF HARGREAVES Owen – (Bayern Munich, GER)
17 MF JENAS Jermaine – (Tottenham Hotspur, ENG)
18 MF CARRICK Michael – (Tottenham Hotspur, ENG)
19 MF LENNON Aaron – (Tottenham Hotspur, ENG)
20 MF DOWNING Stewart – (Middlesbrough, ENG)
21 FW CROUCH Peter – (Liverpool, ENG)
22 GK GREEN Robert – (Norwich, ENG)
23 FW WALCOTT Theo – (Arsenal, ENG

The core of that last England team is still around and in their peak years. I would argue that this is England’s best chance to win a World Cup in a very long time. Potential though (as we Arsenal fans know) is a door that stays open for but so long.

If Theo is fit in time to make make a difference to Arsenal winning something this year, he might have another chance to be part of a group that fails and no doubt he’ll get to shoulder the blame. But who knows what they’ll do in South Africa! Remember, Capello is no mug.

So the decision has just about been made then. Sven Goran-Eriksson had built up a shortlist of managers, but once Backe’s name appeared the decision seemed to be inevitable, and the club are set to unveil him at 1630 tonight. However, is this a good appointment, or a typical case of ‘jobs for the boys’?

Many doubters appear to be unhappy as Backe has followed Sven around for the last few years, working as his assistant both at Manchester City and with the Mexico national side. There have also been doubts about his lack of knowledge in the lower tiers of the English game, the very reason I myself favoured the appointment of Peter Taylor.

That being said, I think it would be naive to doubt Backe’s credentials. Over the course of his career, Backe has won the Danish title 4 times with Aalborg and FC Copenhagen, the Danish Super Cup twice, and the Danish equivalent to the FA Cup once.

As well as this, he has also won the Scandanavian Royal League, a competition featuring the top 4 teams of the Scanadanavian monarchy nations (Sweden, Denmark and Norway).

Along with his assistant manager experience at Mexico and Manchester City, and his time at Salzburg, it is fair to say that Backe certainly has the tools to take the club forward.

The appointment has further advantages with his relationship with Sven. This will hopefully ensure the two maintain a smooth working relationship, which is certainly advantageous to the club. This will allow them to work together to sign the best possible players, and also to bring youngsters through to the first team.

My biggest concern was his lack of knowledge of the English game. However, it is fair to say that Sven has been pretty thorough during his time in England, and with a good solid British backroom, I’d like to think those fears are unfounded.

Since Munto invested, we have been advised that the club’s scouting network has considerably improved, and this will also help Backe to progress.

I am confident the place where he will exceed though is on the training field, and he should hopefully tighten us up defensively whilst continuing to play great football. He also has the benefit of managing at a higher level, and so playing in League One and the Championship (providing we get there…) will not daunt him. I for one would be unhappy if promotion meant we would have to constantly change manager, as at this time the thing we need most is a degree of continuity.

To finish then, I’d just like to welcome Mr Backe to the rollercoaster that is Notts County. I hope you enjoy the ride.

We certainly are!

The England team enjoyed another great victory at Wembley against Belarus just the other day. They have enjoyed an excellent – almost unbeaten – qualifying run to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Yet, when I look at the coaches that have guided the England team in recent years, I can’t really see a great leader since the recently deceased Bobby Robson – and he left the job back in 1990.

An Italian, Fabio Capello, currently manages the team and for most of this decade Sven-Göran Eriksson, a Swede, enjoyed the honour of leading England.

England has not had a great English coach since Robson. Why is that? To start with, the players are now a lot more cosmopolitan. They have opportunities to play with best players in the world and there is a global market for talent in football – and this applies to the management as well as the playing staff.

How come we rarely recognise this in the IT market? Why is it that we operate in a global services market in some professions and yet it’s still a discussion point when a non-local IT firm pitches for business somewhere far from their home base?

We take pride in our England football team. They are succeeding with their foreign boss. Local IT is just the same. It can be improved by collaborating and competing with foreign expertise. We are all global now.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m still grinning at the two pieces of good news we’ve had this week.

First, Sven confirmed he was turning down the advances of his country to continue his new romance with the ‘Pies, and then the FA confirmed Munto Finance had finally passed the ‘Fit and Proper Persons’ test. Fantastic for us all, but now it’s back to business.

Sven is on the hunt for the ‘right man’ to take the club forward, but like most things at Notts these days, his cards are being kept very close to his chest. So who is the right man for the job?

In my opinion, (and it purely is my opinion) Peter Taylor is the best candidate out there. Now many people are expecting a ‘marquee’ signing, a huge name manager to come in and catapault us up the leagues. I have to question the realism of this, and indeed, even if it is the right thing for the club?

In our current position, I think the most important aspect of the new man’s CV should be ‘does he have lower league experience’? If the answer to that question is no, then he should be eliminated from the search.

A manager like Taylor, who is well schooled in the bottom tiers, is aware of the other teams around us, and the better quality players. If you couple that with Sven’s contacts, we should be able to sign some good youngsters from Premier League clubs and develop a good mix going forward. And let’s be honest here, we’ve already got a decent little squad thanks to Charlie’s efforts over the summer.

The other advantage of a manager such as Taylor is he also has some experience in the Premier League and the Championship, as well as his time with the England kids.

I have seen the Evening Post have announced Taylor has been ruled out, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Other options for me are Paul Jewell and Steve Coppell, but I’m unsure as to just how realistic an appointment Coppell will be.

However, the likes of Roberto Mancini for me are miles wide of the mark, and I’d struggle to see how he would benefit a lower division club such as ourselves.

Then again, if we wait another week I’m sure Roy Keane will become available. Now there’s a possibility…

Well now, there are quite a few journalists with egg on their faces today. Despite all their assurances that Sven was ‘destined’ to leave Notts County for the Swedish national job, he turned them down to concentrate on his role as Director of Football at Meadow Lane.

I for one, am delighted that this is the case, but it has seriously made me question the standard of sports writers in this country. Some journalists who claimed Sven was about to pack his bags didn’t even bother finding a quote, and yet if they had spoken to the club they’d have discovered Eriksson had already turned down ‘more than 20′ jobs since he took on the role. Now even if I’d done that at University I’d have been slated, let alone working as a paid journalist!

But this is nothing new for Notts supporters. For weeks now, the Guardian have been publishing stories attacking the Notts ownership, claiming that the club will fail in the ratification attempt. They are also keen to know who owns the club, when the important issue should be ‘who owns any club’? Do we actually know who owns every club in the league? I mean 100% ownership, not just the ‘face’ of the club?

I’m also quite alarmed at just how negative the press have been towards the club in general since Munto’s takeover. Here is a small club with ambition, and yet the press seem determined to drag the club through the muck. If it was another League 2 club in our position, take Lincoln City for example, I’d be delighted for them, as it’s a chance for a club to break the status quo. What puzzles me is on one hand journalists complain about a ‘lack of competition within the Premier League’, and the domination of the ‘Big 4′, and yet when clubs demonstrate any level of ambition the press seek to destroy them (I’m clearly talking about Manchester City here, before you think I’m jumping the gun on Notts)

However, if Notts do achieve promotion this media glare is inevitably going to continue, so I think we’re all just going to have to accept it.

Fortunately however, the club’s fans seem to be united in their support, and the Football League’s decision yesterday to announce that the club’s backers have passed the ‘Fit and Proper Persons’ test is fantastic news, and league ratification is now only a few days away.

Now we can all look forward to the new manager’s appointment, safe in the knowledge that we’ve finally been accepted by the league and ‘future Notts County legend’ Sven is right behind our little ‘project’.

And that, my friends, is good news indeed.

Enligt flera tidningars hemsidor lämnade Sven-Göran Eriksson idag ett negativt besked till Lars-Åke Lagrell angående det lediga jobbet som förbundskapten för Sverige. Det tror jag är bra. Landslaget behöver få in lite yngre och friskare krafter. Lite nytänk, djärvhet och djävlaranamma. Då känns Svennis som ganska grå och lite väl lik Lagerbäck. Dessutom har han ju sina främsta meriter ganska långt tillbaka i tiden även om vi lätt glömmer att han är Englands mest framgångsrike förbundskapten på länge eller kanske någonsin och faktiskt vågade ta med en 17 årig Theo Wallcott i senaste VM. Hoppas nu att Svenska Fotbollsförbundet vågar ta ett både djärvt och klokt beslut. Mest glad blir jag nom om det blir ett namn som ingen tänkt på men Hamrén och Lennartsson är helt ok.

What you missed while not thinking your go-cart theft all the way through…

• Manchester United fans will be searched for beach balls at Anfield prior to the match on Sunday.
• Arsene Wenger was tempted to move to Real Madrid over the summer.
• Sunderland’s Lee Cattermole will miss 12 weeks with a knee injury.
• A guy you’ve never heard of on a team you’ve never seen is out for today’s Champions League match against Stuttgart.
• Andriy Arshavin is still pissed off over England’s tax rate.
• Charlie Davies has been moved from intensive care, Jay DeMerit has had cornea replacement surgery, and Oguchi Onyewu will have knee surgery Wednesday.
• Sven-Göran Eriksson would rather concentrate on his bank account the project at Notts County than take control of the Swedish National Team.

att Svennis dels får en lön som ligger 2 miljoner över Lagerbäcks som grund + att Svennis och killarna(spelarna och tränarna) får 2% av TV-intäkterna för tvsända landskamper + att Svennis får tantiem för vunna matcher samt ytterligare för avancemang + att Svennis och killarna(se ovan) får 5% på ökade reklamintäkter samt ökad försäljning av prylar med landslagets emblem!

Erbjud Svennis det, så går troligen allt i lås. Han är trots allt värmlänning och värmlänningar är kända för att ha varmt hjärta!

Enda hotet – hans lön, Aftonbladet 19 oktober 2009
Ringt i några olika riktningar, Aftonbladet 19 oktober 2009
Glad och smickrad, Aftonbladet 29 oktober 2009
Svennis den enda som fått samtal, Expressen 19 oktober 2009
Så blir Svennis nya landslag, Expressen 19 oktober 2009
Sven-Göran Eriksson kontaktad, DN 18 oktober 2009
Sven-Göran Eriksson kontaktad, SvD 18 oktober 2009

[Fonte: The Independent]

Parece que o treinador sueco Sven-Goran Eriksson esteve para ser o próximo técnico da Coreia do Norte, no Mundial de Futebol em 2010. No entanto, ao jornal britânico “The Independent“, Sven disse que esses rumores não são verdadeiros.

Sven-Goran Eriksson enjoys money without concern. He has no qualms working with nefarious characters, whether it’s corrupt Italians, Thai dictators, shady Middle Eastern business men or the English Football Association. Thus, it surprises no one that Sven was playing footsie with the North Korean FA.

Eriksson had been negotiating to become North Korea’s interim manager for the 2010 World Cup. He broke off negotiations, not because it would be immoral to accept money from a regime that enslaves and starves it’s own people, but because he had to return to England to appoint Notts County’s next manager.

Sven Goran-Eriksson will appear as a clown at your child’s birthday, if you supply the garish face-paint and enough cash.

Nordkorea, alltså. Han kom utan erfarenhet från de djupa skogarna och vann en europeisk buckla. Via det ena och det andra storlaget och en och annan titel runt om Medelhavet till förbundskaptenjobbet i England. Sen tveksamma sugardaddypengar hos en sovande jätte, förbundskapten i världens folkrikaste bananrepublik och raka vägen ner i engelska division 4 med ren Football Manager-kontroll på grejorna (och ännu mer smutsiga pengar). Och nu ett bud från Nordkorea. (Förvisso redan dementerat, men ändå.)

Om Svennis managerkarriär vore en Football Manager-save så skulle folk klaga på att spelet var för orealistiskt.

Egentligen hade jag tänkt skriva en djupsinnig jämförelse om hur ett portugisiskt mirakel i ett VM-kval 1985 (1-0 mot Västtyskland, vilket var tyskarnas första hemmaförlust i ett kval nånsin) effektivt satte stopp för det svenska experimentet med “kontinental fotboll”, och hur ett portugisiskt mirakel i ett VM-kval 2009 (tappa poäng hemma mot Malta) sannolikt är det enda sättet att undvika ett nytt liknande experiment.

Och hur “Svennis” i båda fallen setts som frälsaren (snyggt ihopbundet, eh?). Först som Laban Arnessons (den dåvarande förbundskaptenen, för dig som är lite yngre) antagonist, såsom, tillsammans med Roy och Bob, första förespråkare för den, av Laban, så hatade press och understöd-baserade engelska sparka och spring-stilen – nu som motsatsen till Lasse Lagers försiktiga inga misstag-filosofi, såsom den kontinentale flärdmanagern. Och hur eran däremellan präglats av vikten av att ha en elak liten dvärg som spelförstörande mittfältare, hjärta och själ – och mycket riktigt också tog slut samtidigt som landslaget plötsligt fann sig utan sin Strömberg/Schwarz/Linderoth.

Det hade jag tänkt skriva om innan VM-kvalet avslutas i kväll, som en lämplig bakgrund till att Hamrén och Lennartsson tar över blågult. Om jag inte hade jobbat ända till klockan tio.

Hey Sven, I best goaree in the world!

WTF! No seriously WTF! How dare Sven-Goran Eriksson consider managing North Korea at the 2010 World Cup, I wanted that job, Geez! Kim Jong Il must have weaved some magic, bribed him with an unlimited supply of Pyongy beer, wooed him with his charisma. Hang on! Wait one minute, when did North Korea qualify for the World Cup? Do they even play football? Hmm, first time in 44 years after having drawn with Saudi Arabia in the World Cup finals in June. Who were they up against, England? They scored 7 goals in 8 games to qualify. Can I smell a rodent? Good luck with that Eriksson.

Psst Hey Sven, make sure you have an escape clause if you lose!

Sex. Symbol.

In honour of the international break I’d like to contribute another article about a whole lot of nothing much. You may have read the title of this article and thought immediately of the two people whose name make it up. I’d imagine your next thought would be: “What the hell do Sven-Göran Eriksson and Carmen Electra have to do with one another?” Well, not a whole lot. Other than their obvious status as sex symbols in their respective nations (heh), the only rather tenuous tie that these two share is their penchant for …interesting decisions. You only have to look at Ms. Electra’s ex-husbands in Dennis Rodman and Dave Navarro, as well as her string of cameo appearances in mediocre-to-terrible movies to know that her decision making skills aren’t exactly up to snuff. Meanwhile, Sven’s recent stints at Manchester City and in charge of the Mexican National team have left many shaking their heads – and in the case of the Mexicans, left angry fans shaking their fists. Sven was sacked after winning just one of his last seven competitive fixtures and a rally 30,000 strong was held in honour of his departure. Nowadays Svennis is director of football at Notts County Football Club, a team playing in League Two of the English Coca Cola Championship (and a comparative minnow for a man who has managed teams such as Roma, England and Benfica). But apparently, that too, is to be short-lived.

She rated very highly on the strokeability scale.

This article was inspired by a report I came across – on the ever-reliable Goal.com – which asserted that Sven is currently in talks to take charge of the North Korean squad for the 2010 World Cup. I immediately thought: “Wow, that guy gets around,” and Svennis Electra was born. It’s not that I don’t like Sven – or Carmen – how could one not love puppet-Sven as Jose Mourinho’s sidekick on I’m on Setanta Sports or Carmen Electra’s cameo in Good Burger, before she totally wore out the premise by doing the same thing 192,000 more times in every movie who could afford her cleavage? You can say that you didn’t love them, but I say that you sir, are a liar.

The thing is, Carmen, Sven; I gotta ask you guys – what the hell are you thinking? You’ve both got so much to offer, so why do you keep selling yourselves short? I mean come on Svenny; Notts County? North Korea? You can do better than that – you know you can. And as for you, Carmen? Your wikipedia page tells me that the next film you’re scheduled to appear in is called Mardi Gras - and if I had to guess I’d say it wasn’t going to be an arthouse film.

It’s strange that the two of you have so much in common; and even more strange that I couldn’t find someone more similar to compare to the 61-year old Swedish manager of Notts County FC. Wait a minute. Receding hairline; poor judgement – why didn’t I see it before? There’s only one man in Hollywood with a track record that erratic – Nicolas Cage! I’ve missed a perfectly good opportunity to talk about football while at the same time mocking the career of Nic Cage! Has my own judgement grown so poor? It seems that the Sven, Nic and Carmen form an unholy trinity of bad judgement – and it’s contagious. I’m going to abort this article before my own judgement gets any worse. In the meantime, friends - Forza Svennis!

This is really a much better comparison.

Surprise or controversial managerial appointments are nothing new. We’ve certainly seen plenty of them recently. It seems at times that the decisions are made less on track records and suitability and more on just being able to get your team on the front page around the world. Some teams even believe that all it takes to do well is a high-profile manager.

That certainly seemed the case when Sven-Goran Eriksson signed up to manage Mexico in the World Cup qualifiers. Everyone but the FMF, the Mexican football federation, saw it as a disaster in waiting. Eriksson hadcome from a decent, if not spectacular, record with England for 8 years and a very streaky season with Manchester City. He had no experience outside Europe and little understanding of the enormously complex, yet highly fragile, Mexican footballing mindset.

Predictably, Sven didn’t even make it to the end of the qualifiers, leaving Mexico in a very precarious position. A timely return by Javier Aguirre got El Tri back on the right course and into the World Cup.

Sven followed this with a headlines-grabbing appoinment as President of Notts County. He’s already fired a manager there, but at least he’s managed to secure the services of Sol Campbell for the League Two side — for a week anyway, before Campbell realized the ridiculous nature of the situation and promptly quit. No such realization for Sven, though.

What possible crazy decision could Sven make next? Surely nothing could top Notts County? Nothing would surprise us now. At this point, he’d have to take the job managing North Korea in the World Cup to shock me.

And so he has. (Or seemingly is about to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oct/13/sven-goran-eriksson-north-korea)

After the Mexican debacle, what could possibly possess the North Koreans to make such a spectacularly ill-conceived decision? Especially after the team had just managed to secure qualification to the World Cup for only the second time in their history?

Delusions of grandeur (from North Korea? Surely not!) seem to be at the heart of this. The team management apparently felt that manager Kim Jong-hun’s tactics were needlessly defensive (he was fielding a 4-5-1) and a lack of goals they felt signalled a poor run in the World Cup.

No doubt, the North Koreans were looking to replicate the performance of their southern brothers from the 2002 World Cup. Like the South Koreans, who were managed by Dutch manager Guus Hiddink (now with Russia) in that Cup, they feel they need an experienced, European manager. Enter Sven. This is the man, the North Koreans will feel will make them a “world-class team”.

Let’s not even delve into the comparison of Guus vs. Sven, which I think would be greatly favorable to the dutchman, Sven’s latest experience in Mexico should be a huge red alert to the Koreans. The inability of the press and the fans to relate to him, coupled with the fact that he did not adapt his tactics to the local game are two key issues that will affect him in Asia as well as the Americas.

Add to that the fact that North Korea is not a world-class team. You don’t build that overnight and it’s an open question whether anyone can truly do so now. It’s always the same teams at the top: Italy, Germany and Brazil; with France, Argentina, the Netherlands, Spain and a few other breaking in every once in a while. If England struggles to have a good World Cup run (with Sven!), what could possibly make the North Koreans think that they can do it with a simple managerial hire?

Further complicating the situation is that Notts County is involved in the negotiation. Sven would remain at the head of the League Two club while steering the North Koreans through the groups stage mine field in South Africa. Needless to say, there is some hand-wringing over a British/Western sporting organization collaborating with a national team from the “axis of evil”. (I was rooting for Iraq in the Axis League myself …)

To those who criticize any support given to North Korean institutions, I’d say that they should consider what is being provided. We’re talking abou Sven here. It’s not like they’re actually being helped …