Why England players loved Sven.
To appreciate fully the intensity of emotional tributes from former England players to Sven-Goran Eriksson, you need return only to a tense, mad week – even by England standards - at Sopwell House hotel, north of London, in October 2003. When Eriksson fought for his players.
It was a surreal week, a series of dramas between Eriksson, his players and the FA all played out in the genteel corridors and drawing rooms of Lord Mountbatten’s old residence as guests floated past in dressing-gowns en route to the spa. Two well-heeled ladies sat in the tea-room asking us reporters which player was which as they were under express orders from their grandchildren to collect autographs. They were particularly taken with David Beckham, who was unfailingly polite whenever he passed them.
The two for tea didn’t quite realise the civil war raging around Sopwell. Stirred up by Gary “Red Nev” Neville, Eriksson’s players planned to strike over the FA ordering Rio Ferdinand’s exclusion from the squad for missing a drugs test.