Olisadebe's Poland May Cost Eriksson His Job
By Tunde Sulaiman
Former Jasper United star Emmanuel Olisadebe, who now plies his trade for his adopted country Poland, has been tipped by the English press as one of those who may eventually determine the continued stay of Sven Goran Eriksson as coach of the Three Lions.
According to the reports although the Swede may have escaped being fired by his bosses at Soho Square over his of the field antics, they strongly believe that they may have no other option than to sack the 56-year-old England manager should his Germany 2006 campaign get off to a dreadful start.
England kick off their quest to qualify for the next World Cup in Germany with two games in the space of five days next month against Austria and Olisadebe's Poland. And the general consensus in English media circles is that the former Lazio manager will be shown the way out should the Three Lions fail to take maximum points in both games.
But writing in The Sunday Times, Joe Lovejoy, one of England's top football reporters singled out a number of players in England's group who could throw a spanner in the works - and one of those mentioned was the one time (Enyimba) striker.
Lovejoy noted the potential danger the 25-year-old Nigerian-born Polish striker posed for Eriksson when he pointed out that the Panathinaikos forward has 11 goals to his credit in just 25 outings and was instrumental in taking the Poles to Korea-Japan 2002 when he found the back of the net seven times in six qualifiers including the goal in Cardiff, which ended Wales' dreams.
Also mentioned is AC Milan's Ukrainian hit man Andriy Shevchenko, highly regarded as one of the best strikers in the world, Azerbaijan's Farrukh Ismaylov, whose goal against the more fancied Serbia ended their Euro'2004 hopes and forced the resignation of Dejan Savicevic, one of the best footballers to ever grace the game.
Looking at England's first opponents on September 4, Lovejoy chose Roman Waller as the man to watch.
The knives have been out for Eriksson since England failed to make a 10-man Brazil pay at the last World Cup and deepened with unconvincing performances at last month's Euro'2004 where twice the Three Lions failed to hold on to leads to end up losing. This happened in their opening match against holders France, when they capitulated in virtually the last kick of the match, and against hosts Portugal in the quarter-finals which they lost on penalties after leading.
Many are now questioning his tactical and motivational abilities and most reports suggest he would have been sacked by the FA but for the huge penalty they would have to pay the �3.75 million a year after taxes coach should they break his contract before it is due to expire in 2008.
But a poor campaign would allow the FA to avoid paying a heavy severance penalty since they would be able to hinge his dismissal on purely football grounds.
Incidentally Eriksson's case looks a lot like that of former Super Eagles manager Joe Bonfrere, who gave the impression that he had an iron-clad contract which prevented the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) from dispensing with his services when Nigeria's World Cup campaign became very shaky.
But in the end, defeat to Sierra Leone in Freetown prompted the FA to take the bull by the horn and end his controversial contract.
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