Sven-Göran Eriksson and Lawrie Sanchez: A Tale of Two Bosses

Two and a bit years ago, on September 7th 2005, it was Northern Ireland 1-0 England. Sven-Göran Eriksson was a laughing stock after going with a bizarre 4-5-1 formation that had Michael Owen playing alone up front, Wayne Rooney playing wide left and David Beckham in his short-lived QuarterBecks role that even the simplest of children knew was not a good idea. Lawrie Sanchez on the other hand was a legend for his role in England’s scalping, coaxing a committed performance out of his men that was rewarded when David Healey received a Steven Davis pass and fired home the only goal. But that was two and a bit years ago.

Today, Sven Goran Eriksson has a job for life at Manchester City and Lawrie Sanchez has been fired by Fulham.

Sven has led City into the hallowed Premier League top four, prompting City owner Thaksin Shinawatra to declare “I think Sven can remain our manager until he retires.” While Sanchez had dragged Fulham down into the not-so-hallowed bottom three, prompting Mohamed Al-Fayed to do his Donald Trump impression.

Both men took their new jobs around the middle of 2007, and their fates were decided by what they did in the summer transfer market. And what each man did in the transfer market seemed to be guided by what happened on September 7th 2005. Sven spent a fortune putting together a new City team, noticably shunning the signatures of Englishmen altogether and going after talented foreign types like Elano, Geovanni, Valeri Bojinov, Martin Petrov and many more. Clearly he’d learned a lesson from his international experience and that lesson was that Englishmen aren’t necessarily all that good.

Lawrie Sanchez, on the other hand, took the Fulham job while he was still besotted with his Northern Ireland players and spent a disastrous summer trying to buy as many of them as he could. Sanchez spent £26.5 million during the hot months, bringing in both David Healy and Steven Davis, the two men involved in the famous goal against England, as well as compatriots Aaron Hughes and Chris Baird. And it’s all gone wrong. Because while Northern Ireland’s performances as international underdogs were commendable, they still failed to qualify. So common sense would suggest that trying to reassemble a team of underdogs to compete for a whole season in one of the harshest leagues in the world was not such a good idea.

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Category: English Premier League, World Football