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August 13, 2002
(Tuesday) from Jonathan Woodgate Club
Sven to watch
Woody
Sven-Goran Eriksson
will get an immediate chance to run his eye over
the early season form of Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer when he
watches Leeds kick off the Premiership season against Manchester City.
With Rio Ferdinand out injured and Martin Keown having reached the
age of 36, Eriksson will have to decide whether to call up Woodgate
for next month's friendly against Portugal on September 7.
Eriksson revealed towards the end of last season: "Lee Bowyer and
Jonathan Woodgate have had a difficult year or two. We have a lot of
good midfielders in this country so the competition is very hard. But
at some stage, I am going to pick both of them, very soon after the
World Cup."
Given a free hand by the FA, Eriksson's decision will be based on
form and while Bowyer and Woodgate are not the only reasons for
seeing Terry Venables' new side take on Kevin Keegan's City team,
they should both be on display.
The clash between sides managed by two of his England predecessors -
there are now five of them in the top-flight - will also show
Eriksson how two other candidates for senior promotion this season,
Alan Smith and Paul Robinson, are faring.
From Elland Road, he travels to see Aston Villa take on Liverpool and
is then due at Newcastle's game against West Ham next Monday followed
by Chelsea against Manchester United next Friday.
In all, the Swede, who attended Sunday's Community Shield game in
Cardiff, will watch matches in Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle and
London in the first week of the new Premier League campaign.
Having set a frantic scouting pace last season, he is determined not
to relax his timetable as he starts the countdown to the start of
England's Euro 2004 qualifying campaign.
Eriksson told the FA's website, www.theFA.com: "When we went out of
the World Cup, for the next few days afterwards, I was thinking 'we
should have done better, we could have beaten Brazil and so on'.
"But I also took the opportunity to relax a little. That's the good
thing about being a manager of national team - you can't buy or sell
players!
"When you are the manager of a club, you are on the phone every day.
But as national team manager I was able to take a short break. Now I
feel recharged and I'm looking forward to the season."
One report claimed that Eriksson could find himself on a collision
course with Manchester United over the release of David Beckham for
the friendly against Portugal next month.
However, any potential for confrontation is, at least as yet,
entirely theoretical and Eriksson decided against organising a
friendly this month to help out clubs.
He is hardly likely to call up Beckham if he is patently unfit and is
equally unlikely to ask him to play for 90 minutes if he is showing
any signs of wear and tear, especially as United face Middlesbrough
just four days before England take on Portugal.
Speaking generally, the England coach added: "Of course, having been
together for so many weeks during the World Cup, I feel as though I
know the players that were in the squad very well now.
"It shall be good to see them again."
Eriksson's right-hand man, Tord Grip, is also full of enthusiasm for
the new season. He declared: "I had a really good break but now I'm
ready to get back to the football.
"I saw three games in Sweden during the summer and now I will be
visiting St Mary's, Highbury and Stamford Bridge for my first three
Premier League games."
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