The treatment of Wayne Rooney told me something about the way England fans view the national team.
He’s the record goalscorer for both Manchester United and England: you can’t argue with that. If Rooney had been Italian, he would have been loved like Francesco Totti was at Roma. You don’t criticise Totti in Italy. There might have been reasons to, sometimes, but you don’t touch him.
It isn’t like that with Wayne and England but I can tell you that he had to be dragged away from training because he loved to play and practise so much.
Sven-Goran Eriksson (left) believes Wayne Rooney was underappreciated at international level
Eriksson had to drag Rooney off the training ground such was his love of the game
The former captain was never truly revered in the way others are in different countries
You could see it in his face. ‘Wayne, the bus will be going!’ you had to tell him. I could feel the love he had for the game and that transmitted to the others.
Was he appreciated as he might have been as an England player? Maybe not. You look at the way some of the big English players in the past, like Rooney and David Beckham, have been criticised and you have to ask: ‘What do you want these players to be?’
It’s not good when you are looking for bad things. I loved managing England more than anything but there were times during those five years when I thought, ‘Why did I leave Italy?’, because you are criticised so much. And in a different way to the Italian people.
In Italy, so long as you are not criminal, they couldn’t care less about your private life. It’s when you lose a football match that they criticise you — a lot.
Eriksson gave a 16-year-old Rooney his Three Lions debut against Australia back in 2003
Great talents such as Dele Alli need to be given some leeway if they have a rough side
Yes, some of the best players have their rough spots. Wasn’t one of them called George Best? I can’t answer the question of whether the same applies to Dele Alli because I don’t know him. I only know he is a great footballer — no doubt about it.
The way countries think about their footballers applies to tournaments, too. When you go to a World Cup, the whole nation should be behind the team — and then the team have to play their part, too.
England go to Russia knowing there are the usual big expectations, of course. I would guess that only the Brazilian team know anything like it. The dream of all England fans is to do what they did in 1966. So, yes, it is almost unique.
But while that pressure might be difficult, in another way it is beautiful — all that interest in the national team and all the support. You have to look at it positively.
Gareth Southgate does not have to deal with the same level of expectation as his predecessors
When you go to these tournaments, it’s like you are in a one-month party. It’s a fever. For those of us in football, it’s the best thing we can live in our lives. To feel that pressure is good. It’s beautiful, the best thing you can have in football.
And if you look at this team, you see that they are strong everywhere. I don’t see any weaknesses. Yes, England lost to Iceland at Euro 2016 but you need to look at what Iceland had, as well as what England didn’t. Maybe Iceland were not technically strong but they looked very strong together and England were not the only ones surprised by them.
When I look back on my time as England manager, I remember an expectation maybe even greater than it will be for Gareth Southgate now. When we went to the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, people were talking about the semi-finals or the final — and that was it. But it’s still the best job in the football world. You can’t finish that job. You can’t leave it. You have to wait until you’re sacked.
When I left, I was asked about Rooney and I said, ‘Don’t kill him because you will need him’. Did that happen? Next time I see him, I’ll ask him. But the same applies to this team. England should embrace the players and the players should embrace the job. If they do, they can do very well in Russia.
Sven-Goran Eriksson is an ambassador for FanLeague, a platform where fans can measure their knowledge against one another by predicting the outcome of matches. There is the chance to play against Sven, as the platform’s website www.fanleague.com reveals. There’s also an introductory video there. Alternatively there’s an app to download.