Post by Scott on May 29, 2006 16:07:57 GMT
From The Guardian:
Sven-Goran Eriksson is not the first middle-aged man to be dazzled by youth. Sadly for him, and England, he seems to be as besotted with Theo as he was briefly with Ulrika. And, as can happen, it might all end in a screaming heap.
This is Sven on Walcott after the teenager's first appearance in an England shirt: 'He came on, he didn't look shy at all, that's good. Very, very good.'
Now 'very, very good' in Svenspeak can sometimes be translated as 'blinding'. Or it might just mean 'very, very good'. It's hard to tell. Either way, he's wrong. The previous week Sven was clearly playing to the gallery when he declared: 'England will win the World Cup.' After England B lost 2-1 to Belarus in Reading on Thursday, he was dancing around his ever-present jury, kidding them that what they saw - the most anonymous of international debuts by an unknown sprinting starlet in what was no more than a fitness test for Michael Owen, Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole - was actually better than it was.
This, remember, is the man who compared Wayne Rooney with Pele after he had scored four goals in two matches before returning injured from the 2004 European championship. At least then he had something to go on.
The England coach is no fool. Far from it. But he is not always as straightforward as his bank-clerk demeanour would suggest. He knew Walcott was as nervous as a kitten - and he gambled that he might score a spectacular winner, or go on a dazzling run (he almost did, before being sandwiched). That would have made Sven look like some sort of genius.
But, away from the microphones, when he looks at the tapes again, the Swede might suspect he has made a terrible mistake. On what is admittedly the flimsiest of evidence (and the only evidence Eriksson has), Walcott is just not ready for it, physically or mentally.
Not that his mentor can admit that. Not on £4million a year and a golden handshake. Not with the media wolves waiting to tear his reputation to pieces.
If Eriksson were serious about considering Walcott as a genuine option in Germany, he would have started him against Belarus. He didn't - because, for all his front, he can't bring himself to put his faith in a teenager he was watching play outside training for the first time, two weeks before the World Cup.
But Sven is no more guilty than some of the dreamers in the commentary business. There was a delicious exchange on television recently between two respected football writers in which one asked the other what position Walcott actually played. He didn't know. Striker, isn't he? Or was it, said his inquisitor, you know, sort of in behind the front men? Neither of them had seen him play. I had seen him once before Thursday. And I honestly can't remember how he played. I have a vague memory of him darting down the left wing a couple of times.
The other night, the kid did OK. No more than that. The ball hardly fell for him. When he did get a bit of space, he hit a reasonable shot from 20 yards that was easily saved. Otherwise, he was more a distraction than a threat. The consequences of Sven's infatuation, however, could be considerable.
If the recovering Rooney - we now know he won't be available for at least the first two games - and the fragile Owen (and didn't he look at least a month off the pace?) are indisposed England are left with Peter Crouch alone up front, like a lighthouse waiting for a wave, this is the scenario that Jermain Defoe, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Dean Ashton among others will be watching from positions of helpless detachment: a player who has no concept of the pace, intensity or physicality of top-flight football will be thrown on and asked to score a winning or rescuing goal against seasoned internationals at the biggest sporting event in the world.
That is not just a fanciful ask, it is ludicrous - as it is to make a comparison with Pele in 1958. Before Pele made such an impact in Sweden, he had been playing for Santos for two years and been top scorer in Brazil at just 16. There was no argument he would go straight into the national team at the earliest opportunity.
Where Eriksson has got it really wrong, though, is in his representation of Walcott's demeanour. There is no question he did look shy. From the warm-up to the walk down the tunnel after losing, he looked like the softly spoken and respectful 17-year-old boy he is, not fully grown and still rubbing his eyes in the limelight, a guest wandering about among not even the A-list stars of his profession. He tried desperately to please but, when he went to take a quick corner, to show willing and a bit of initiative, he was ushered away from the ball. Thanks for coming, son.
Walcott wore the No 19 shirt on Thursday - as Paul Gascoigne did at Italia 90. However, the player wearing that shirt in Germany will be Aaron Lennon, who, thanks to the noise surrounding Walcott, was allowed to dazzle Reading in peace.
Eriksson was hailed as courageous for picking Walcott ahead of Wright-Phillips, Defoe and Ashton. I suspect he was making a gamble he reckoned he would never have to pay out on, given the options of Steve Gerrard or Joe Cole coming forward from midfield.
Far cannier was his selection of Lennon. The Leeds teenager made his first-team club debut at 16 years 129 days, the youngest in the short history of the Premiership - a little over three years ago. He won an England call-up after 21 games for Tottenham - 21 more than Walcott has played for Arsenal. In every respect, at 19, Lennon carries himself with the authority Walcott so obviously has yet to acquire. Now, if David Beckham were to be injured...
Sven-Goran Eriksson is not the first middle-aged man to be dazzled by youth. Sadly for him, and England, he seems to be as besotted with Theo as he was briefly with Ulrika. And, as can happen, it might all end in a screaming heap.
This is Sven on Walcott after the teenager's first appearance in an England shirt: 'He came on, he didn't look shy at all, that's good. Very, very good.'
Now 'very, very good' in Svenspeak can sometimes be translated as 'blinding'. Or it might just mean 'very, very good'. It's hard to tell. Either way, he's wrong. The previous week Sven was clearly playing to the gallery when he declared: 'England will win the World Cup.' After England B lost 2-1 to Belarus in Reading on Thursday, he was dancing around his ever-present jury, kidding them that what they saw - the most anonymous of international debuts by an unknown sprinting starlet in what was no more than a fitness test for Michael Owen, Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole - was actually better than it was.
This, remember, is the man who compared Wayne Rooney with Pele after he had scored four goals in two matches before returning injured from the 2004 European championship. At least then he had something to go on.
The England coach is no fool. Far from it. But he is not always as straightforward as his bank-clerk demeanour would suggest. He knew Walcott was as nervous as a kitten - and he gambled that he might score a spectacular winner, or go on a dazzling run (he almost did, before being sandwiched). That would have made Sven look like some sort of genius.
But, away from the microphones, when he looks at the tapes again, the Swede might suspect he has made a terrible mistake. On what is admittedly the flimsiest of evidence (and the only evidence Eriksson has), Walcott is just not ready for it, physically or mentally.
Not that his mentor can admit that. Not on £4million a year and a golden handshake. Not with the media wolves waiting to tear his reputation to pieces.
If Eriksson were serious about considering Walcott as a genuine option in Germany, he would have started him against Belarus. He didn't - because, for all his front, he can't bring himself to put his faith in a teenager he was watching play outside training for the first time, two weeks before the World Cup.
But Sven is no more guilty than some of the dreamers in the commentary business. There was a delicious exchange on television recently between two respected football writers in which one asked the other what position Walcott actually played. He didn't know. Striker, isn't he? Or was it, said his inquisitor, you know, sort of in behind the front men? Neither of them had seen him play. I had seen him once before Thursday. And I honestly can't remember how he played. I have a vague memory of him darting down the left wing a couple of times.
The other night, the kid did OK. No more than that. The ball hardly fell for him. When he did get a bit of space, he hit a reasonable shot from 20 yards that was easily saved. Otherwise, he was more a distraction than a threat. The consequences of Sven's infatuation, however, could be considerable.
If the recovering Rooney - we now know he won't be available for at least the first two games - and the fragile Owen (and didn't he look at least a month off the pace?) are indisposed England are left with Peter Crouch alone up front, like a lighthouse waiting for a wave, this is the scenario that Jermain Defoe, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Dean Ashton among others will be watching from positions of helpless detachment: a player who has no concept of the pace, intensity or physicality of top-flight football will be thrown on and asked to score a winning or rescuing goal against seasoned internationals at the biggest sporting event in the world.
That is not just a fanciful ask, it is ludicrous - as it is to make a comparison with Pele in 1958. Before Pele made such an impact in Sweden, he had been playing for Santos for two years and been top scorer in Brazil at just 16. There was no argument he would go straight into the national team at the earliest opportunity.
Where Eriksson has got it really wrong, though, is in his representation of Walcott's demeanour. There is no question he did look shy. From the warm-up to the walk down the tunnel after losing, he looked like the softly spoken and respectful 17-year-old boy he is, not fully grown and still rubbing his eyes in the limelight, a guest wandering about among not even the A-list stars of his profession. He tried desperately to please but, when he went to take a quick corner, to show willing and a bit of initiative, he was ushered away from the ball. Thanks for coming, son.
Walcott wore the No 19 shirt on Thursday - as Paul Gascoigne did at Italia 90. However, the player wearing that shirt in Germany will be Aaron Lennon, who, thanks to the noise surrounding Walcott, was allowed to dazzle Reading in peace.
Eriksson was hailed as courageous for picking Walcott ahead of Wright-Phillips, Defoe and Ashton. I suspect he was making a gamble he reckoned he would never have to pay out on, given the options of Steve Gerrard or Joe Cole coming forward from midfield.
Far cannier was his selection of Lennon. The Leeds teenager made his first-team club debut at 16 years 129 days, the youngest in the short history of the Premiership - a little over three years ago. He won an England call-up after 21 games for Tottenham - 21 more than Walcott has played for Arsenal. In every respect, at 19, Lennon carries himself with the authority Walcott so obviously has yet to acquire. Now, if David Beckham were to be injured...
