Sven-Goran Eriksson has already been offered another job in England, just days after leaving his post at Notts County.

Sven left his role at the League Two club for what he said were drastic differences in opinion. There was a tussle over ownership of the club, which meant the transparency he was promised, had been threatened.

However, Sven is an experienced coach and football boffin. It was only going to be a matter of time before interest was shown in him and hopefully his next role will be a longer one than he had at Mexico or Notts County.

He said: “I’m a gypsy and I’ve been a gypsy for many years. It doesn’t matter where I live as long as it’s a good football project. Yes, one, but it’s agents and it’s really nothing before you have spoken to a club or an association in a country and put your name on a piece of paper.”

“I will not rule out anything at this moment. Agents have already started to phone me with a lot of different jobs. But I prefer to wait until I have a real offer from a club chairman or chairman of a country. Before that it’s only rumours.”

“They made it very clear it’s not going to be a project to try to take Notts County to the Premier League, maybe not even to the Championship, and that’s why I was there. When I came first it was a dream, it was a big project, and I liked it very much.”

“We thought it was genuine and it seemed to be genuine in the beginning. But at the end there was no money and they disappeared. They seem to be fake people, all of them. They just disappeared without any explanation. I feel they cheated the whole club, all the fans, the players, coaching staff, everyone. I don’t know where they are today. They never phoned me back.”

Sven will always be known for his role with the England national side, when he guided the team to respectable finished in more than one tournament. The Swede has simply fallen victim to a growing trend in football, a trend that diminishes the love that many have for the game.

Whoever does decide to approach Sven about his next role should bear in mind that he will not go into the role half-heartedly. His defence will now be up and it will be harder to break through to him as he will be less willing to accept hypothetical promises.

The point is that clubs at the lowest levels of the English game still need huge amounts of investment in order to take them forward. Sven has proved that he will not just go where the cash is and still has enough knowledge of the sport to be a useful resource in many ways.

He would probably be well advised to take a little break, watch a few games and get some love back from a sport, which has not been as kind to him as he would have liked.

New Notts County boss Hans Backe has revealed promotion this season is his primary objective at Meadow Lane.

The Swede, who was assistant to County director of football Sven-Goran Eriksson at Manchester City and Mexico, was confirmed as Ian McParland’s replacement on Tuesday.
The experience 57-year-old inherits a side in 4th place in League Two, and Backe’s first game in charge will be Saturday’s home clash with Shrewsbury.
Munto Finance, the Swiss-based Middle East consortium who have owned the club since June, had their fit and proper persons test passed by the Football League last week, and Backe revealed the scale of the club’s ambition.

“It’s very, very big, but the target is clear and you have to get promotion in the first season – that is for sure,” he said.

“But I like that challenge, I think it’s great to be back in England and to be a part of this journey too.

Former FC Copenhagen and Panathinaikos boss Backe is a close friend of Eriksson, who was instrumental in bringing his former assistant to the club, and he admitted his compatriot has been in constant contact over the manager’s role.

He added: “We have been in touch every week since we left Mexico. We talked about the job also when he first came to Notts County but I took a TV job doing commentary for the Premiership and Spanish league.

“And then he phoned me a few weeks ago asking me about the manager’s job and I said ‘I’m very, very interested’, and a couple of days ago I said ‘yes’.

Backe concedes that he faces a very difficult job at a level of football he is relatively unknown to, but insists the opportunity to explore new challenges is his motivation for taking the job.

“It’s the first time for both Sven and me to have started this kind of project with a team in League Two.

“But that’s also very exciting, trying to do something new, building a team – not from the bottom – but from the beginning and with the new owners, which was confirmed last week.

“So everything seems to be there to have a great journey, I hope so.”

With the club constantly linked with big-name signings during the summer transfer window, similar speculation is expected to arise in January, and Backe is confident he will be allowed to spend.

“I think it will be possible, I don’t know how much but I’m sure it will be possible when the transfer window is open in January to buy players,” he said.
With Backe now operating as the man in the hot seat ahead of Eriksson, he was keen to reassure Magpies fans that he is a man of experience.

“Before Man City, I was a manager for 20 years in Europe with different clubs so that was the first time as an assistant but then Sven phoned me about Man City and Mexico, so it’s nothing new for me.”

Mexico has done quite a bit better since the often-sacked Sven Goran Eriksson was rightly booted out as manager in April. They now play an attacking style like they used to and it paid off in their opening Group C game of the Gold Cup in as they beat Nicaragua 2-0 in front of 32,000 fans on July 5th in Oakland, California.

Javier Aguirre is the new boss and he’s definitely not the same as the old boss. He watched as his young squad pressed the action and created numerous chances against the defensive-minded Nicaraguans in his fifth game in charge of Mexico.

The game got of too a bard start for the Mexicans though as striker Carlos Vela, who plays for Arsenal in the English Premier League, injured his leg just minutes after the kick off. He collided with a Nicaraguan and fell to the ground. He went off for a few minutes, but then came back on and it looked like he might be okay, but he then went off for good in the 10th minute as he was substituted. The 20-year-old took an ambulance to the hospital for X-rays and it’s not clear yet if he’ll be back for the next game.

“When he fell, he got his foot stuck and got a twinge in his leg,” Aguirre stated after the match. “We hope it’s only a scare. We hope we confirm there’s nothing broken and he can continue with us. If it’s a worst-case scenario, we’ll tell you guys who we’re bringing to replace him.”

Just before half time, Nicaragua midfielder Armando Reyes fouled Israel Martinez from behind in the penalty box and Luis Miguel Noriega scored his first international goal on the ensuing penalty kick. It was Noriega’s official national team debut. Second-half substitute Pablo Barrera then doubled the score in the 86th minute and that closed the door on the hopes of any comeback by Nicaragua. Barrera tapped the ball into the net from about seven yards out on a great cross from Alberto Medina on the right wing.

The Gold Cup is an important event for the relatively young and inexperienced Mexican side and they will use it to try and get back on track for the remaining World Cup qualifiers after Eriksson derailed them. Their next qualifier is on Aug. 12 and it will be a huge game played before about 100,000 fanatics in Mexico City. Mexico sits in fourth place in the CONCACAF qualifying standings for next year’s World Cup in South Africa with a 2-3 record, which is unusually low for them, and only the top three teams will make it.

If they can’t get back in the groove, it’s possible they could miss the World cup and that will be seen as a national disaster back in Mexico. However, they have an amazing unbeaten record of 22-0-1 against the US at home so it should be quite a game as the US is pretty hot right now.

However, Aguirre said they’re only concerned with the Gold Cup at the moment and he was happy to see his side attack all game long, outshooting Nicaragua 18 to 6. Giovani Dos Santos had a great game for Mexico as he wasn’t afraid to take defenders on with his dribbling skills and speed.

Mexico lost the 2007 Gold Cup final to America and both countries have won the tournament four times each.

Mexico’s next Gold Cup match is July 9th in Houston, Texas, against Panama, who were beaten 2-1 to Guadeloupe in the first match of the double header in Oakland on July 5th.

Former England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, may be appearing back in the Premier League soon after rumours started circulating that he is after one of the top jobs in England. Sven formed his reputation in Italy before taking on the role of England head coach, he guided the national team to numerous quarterfinals before joining Manchester City.

Since he was sacked as the national coach of Mexico, Sven has been in somewhat of a hiatus and it appears that it may soon be time for this to end. Sven is one of the few managers in the game that prefers to sit back and let his tactics unfold as opposed to standing and screaming on the sidelines.

He was often criticised for this but he has always been well noted for doing his homework and being able to buy in the right calibre players for the position he is in. Portsmouth could emerge as the frontrunners to get his signature, after the recent take over down on the south coast.

Eriksson’s agent said: “He doesn’t like talking about a club when a manager is in place and neither do I. Without specifying Portsmouth of course, he would be interested in a Premier League club with ambition.”

That is quite a big hint and quite an obvious attempt to cover up something that may have already started to unfold. Pompey eventually managed to comfortably fend off relegation this season but it is quite obvious they have a number of weaknesses in key areas. The pumping in of finances and a new manager could well take them to the same level that Aston Villa or Everton are currently playing at.

Sven may also feel that he still has a point to prove in English football. Having left the national side amidst some controversy surrounding tapping up by Chelsea and then leaving the Manchester City position as the blue half of Manchester was getting beaten silly, may have left Sven with the feeling that he has a point to prove.

He is not a bad manager at all and retains one of the best results records in charge of an England side. When you look at all of the teams England lost to during his tenure then they are always sides that went on to win a tournament or had a manager that went on to manage a huge club.

It would be a breath of fresh air as well to see a manager come back to English football who is clearly very modest and carries around with him no signs of an ego that can always peg back the process of whatever that person is involved in.

If Pompey manage to get him then it may well work differently to how he deployed his tactics at Manchester City. Many people will forget that he actually raised City to a level where they interested big financial backers and if Sven manages Pompey this will already be in place, meaning that what he could achieve is huge.