Saturday, September 10, 2005

Sven - hero or villain?

The big sporting debate in the last week has been do we sack the current England Football (Soccer) Manager Sven Goran Ericksson?

Word has it that Sven is paid something like £2 million per year to manage our national team and his objective is to get England to the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.

In a qualifying match this week England lost 1-0 to Northern Ireland – the first time England has lost to Northern Ireland for about 25 years. Many fans are clambering for the Manager to be sacked.

Today on television Sven was interviewed and I came to the conclusion I would support him.

He came across as genuine in his beliefs about how the team should be managed and the thing that stood out most was his support for and loyalty to the players.

He also made a very powerful point that he does not have to shout and rant and rave to be successful.

His record is very successful as a manager for the last 15 years or so and I like the way he calmly retains his professionalism and will not react in a volatile way despite the goading he receives from so called ‘experts’ who have never managed a football team – indeed have probably never managed anything.

So I guess I am asking how passion can be defined in management positions.


  • Do you have to be extrovert, banging tables, shouting and generally making yourself stand out?
  • Or can you be passionate in the cold calm and quiet way Sven Goran Ericksson works?

The players certainly appear to be very supportive of the manager and that in my experience is often a good indicator.

2 comments:

Steve Sherlock said...

Yes, you can be calm and passionate at the same time. I have found many managers that the more they rant and rage, it is more because they are truly lost and unaware of really how to handle the situation. Their own frustration with their own inability to cope is what we see, not their "ability to motivate people". We know you can not motivate some one. That comes from within the person. Incentives may be provided from outside, but the motivation is internal, or not.

Look within the rant and you may see the "emperor without clothes"!

Trevor Gay said...

I agree Steve

The best managers and leaders I have come across in my career are always soft spoken, quiet and competent rather than brash, loud and arrogant.