Sven staying put - agent
Sven-Goran Eriksson will not quit Manchester City despite fresh speculation about his future, his agent insisted tonight.
Eriksson had a cordial if uneasy meeting with City owner Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday but it is business as usual for the Swede, who will be taking training tomorrow after representing the club at a Football Foundation function in London.
Eriksson himself blasted his players for being lazy against Fulham at the weekend. However, rumours about his position as City manager refuse to go away.
But his agent, Athole Still, told PA: “There is no way he will quit after the successful job he has done.”
Eriksson has also received firm backing from Michael Ball, City’s captain on Saturday in the absence of Richard Dunne, who said the squad were to a man supportive of the former England manager.
Ball said: “Every player is 100% behind him (Eriksson). We like his methods, the way he trains, the way he goes about his tactics.
“If the club wants to go forward we have got to keep the coaching staff and obviously add a few more players.”
Eriksson said the players’ attitude was to blame for their 3-2 humiliation by Fulham after they had been cruising at 2-0 ahead.
He told www.mcfc.co.uk: “We had a lot of defenders injured, so the backline was completely new but we didn’t lose to Fulham just because of that. We lost because our attitude in the last 20 minutes to defending throughout went away.
“At the end of the game we had four, five players up the field like strikers and not even walking back, that’s not acceptable. Adding to that, we had a new back four so we will have to learn the lesson.
“You have to take blows to the head, like we did on Saturday, to learn so it does not happen again. We have to learn to get behind the ball when we lose it.”
City released a statement saying: “Sven-Goran Eriksson is attending a Football Foundation event in London tonight on behalf of the club and he will be at Carrington tomorrow morning to take training as normal.
“Sven-Goran Eriksson has confirmed that he has no plans to leave the club.”
City will certainly finish the season in line with Thaksin’s target – being in the top half of the league – with the aim being to qualify for Europe in a year’s time and the Champions League two years down the line.
The owner has pinpointed “a striker, a midfielder and a defender” to be signed in the summer while Eriksson only stated he needs “something” to lift City into the top six.
