WORLD CLASS

Boss Eriksson was charm personified in the face of tabloid stings and cheap shots... Swede even sipped champers while facing sack

- SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON

LOUNGING by the pool at 10 o’clock in the morning, Didi Hamann was taken aback to see Sven-Goran Eriksson approaching with a bottle of champagne and two glasses on a silver tray.

Manchester City were on an end-of-season tour after signing off with an 8-1 defeat at Middlesbrough in the Premier League and Eriksson knew his days as manager under a Blue Moon were numbered.

When German midfielder Hamann asked what they were celebrating, Sven broke into that disarming, alluring smile and announced: “Life, Kaiser. We are celebrating ... life.”

If bubbles at 10am was a classy gesture by a condemned man awaiting his summons to meet the firing squad in the exercise yard, it was entirely in keeping with his enviable charm.

Everything Eriksson did reeked of class.

Even when he was betrayed, as he led England to three quarter-finals at successive major tournam ents , th e Three Lions’ first non-English manager accepted his fate with remarkable equanimity.

Eriksson, who has died aged 76 after a long illness, may not have been the greatest England coach since Sir Alf Ramsey – but he was the most dignified.

After a trophy-laden managerial career in his native Sweden, Portugal and Italy – including titles at Benfica and Lazio – his appointment as Kevin Keegan’s successor was greeted, in some quarters, with Little Englander disdain.