He took David Beckham in 2002, Wayne Rooney in 2006 and, if the medical advice is favourable, would advocate taking Ashley Cole in 2010. For Sven-Göran Eriksson, it is a simple equation. The England manager should take his best players to a World Cup and play as many as possible in their best positions.
Not that the Swede wants to tell Fabio Capello how to do his job. There is enough pressure to managing England without intensifying the burden, as Eriksson knows all too well. When it comes to predicting who will win in South Africa this summer, he rates England as third favourites behind Brazil and Spain but do not expect him to moralise or interfere.
The timing of Coles broken ankle represents the kind of dilemma that the former England head coach faced when Beckham and Rooney broke metatarsals before the previous two World Cup finals.
You have to be in the situation of Capello to decide that, by talking to the doctors and experts, Eriksson says as he overlooks the Atlantic from the cliff-edge terrace of the Vivenda Miranda Hotel on the Algarve, where he is promoting his new football academy, part of the multisports Cascade resort. Its important you take exact advice on the injury and whether he will get back in a couple of weeks.
Related LinksCapello keen to have Beckham at World CupHow Beckham and Wilkinson saved the worldUnited have lift-off as Chelsea falterCole is scheduled to be fit in mid-May, as the Barclays Premier League season finishes. England face the United States in Rustenburg on June 12, with two friendly international matches in between. The Chelsea defender will have next to no match fitness, but he is a high-class player, integral with his pace to Capellos 4-2-3-1 formation.
The decisions to take Beckham and Rooney backfired on Eriksson. Should that inform Capello, who has insisted that he will not take players who are less than fully fit? They were two extremely important players and when the doctors said it was OK, I had no problem with my decision, Eriksson says. Every case is different. [But] remember you have three or four weeks of preparation time at the end of the season [before the World Cup]. I leave it to Capello.
Eriksson ranks Cole alongside Patrice Evra, the Manchester United left back. They are similar: quick, very aggressive, great going forward, he says. If you talk about left backs in the world, they are among the best.
Eriksson says he will be back in the dugout by the start of next season, but he does not regret his ill-fated venture as director of football at Notts County, which ended last month. Its sad, sad, sad, he says, the dream having ended when Munto Finances promise of a 25 million investment proved empty. I thought that was maybe the best job in my life, to take a team from the bottom to the Premier League in five years.
He believes that Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City manager and his protg from their time together with Sampdoria and Lazio, will be a success in the English game. He is the second-best man for the job, jokes Eriksson, who was in charge at the City of Manchester Stadium for one season. Even as a player, he was always asking questions and acquiring knowledge. You could tell he would be a manager.
As for this seasons Champions League, Eriksson, who won domestic titles in three countries, can envisage Rooney facing off against Lionel Messi in a Manchester United v Barcelona final. So who is the best player in the world? If he could take only one, which one would it be? You will have to allow me to have both, he says. You cant compare Rooney and Messi because one is more of a striker, one the wide player.
Rooney can play on his own, as he does now for United, so Im not surprised by that this season. He is as strong as an ox. The way he wants to defend for the team is a strength and it is very rare for a [goalscorer]. I think he can do it all; he can run all day. Scoring more than 30 goals this season confirms he is among the best in the world.
Better than Messi, then? Come back in May and perhaps we can compare them in the Champions League final, he says. And then we have a World Cup to judge them.
Swede and sour
• Sven-Göran Eriksson has hit back at Gareth Southgate for criticising his coaching style at the 2002 World Cup. England lost 2-1 to Brazil in the quarter-finals and Southgate, an unused substitute, attacked the England head coach in his autobiography for his half-time team-talk, saying: We were expecting Winston Churchill and instead got Iain Duncan Smith.
• Eriksson believes his methods were fully justified, despite the result. I gave a normal team-talk, the Swede said. If Southgate was disappointed he was not playing, perhaps he wouldnt remember it well. When we defeated Germany 5-1 [in Munich] I was not Winston Churchill then, either. Its stupid of Southgate and thats it. I know what Ive done in football, how many trophies I have won, and I have my style. If its not good enough for Southgate, I can live with that.
• Eriksson will be involved in this summers World Cup finals in some capacity. He was interviewed for the Nigeria coaching post and is strongly tipped to take charge of Ivory Coast. He is also weighing up media offers.
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