Originally posted by Haf3z
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He is too good for Iran. I dare to say that Sven is one of the most misunderstood individuals in the world of football, mostly due to how the media (mainly in the UK) have portrayed him over the years. It is in fact a very humble man who is extremely down to earth - despite all the money he has earned, rightfully or not.
He has a fantastic track record and has been professional from day one at every job that he has had. People criticize him for his job with the England squad, but truth be told, nobody has exceeded Sven's results ever since he quit the job after the WC finals back in 2006.
Mind you, the England job is de facto a position that very rarely "develops" and "improves" managers. Can you come up with any big names that actually improved or went on to larger missions after having led the English national team? The answer is no. The England manager job is a job that should be taken as a managers' last mission in his career - because it doesn't matter how high or low the manager is regarded before the appointment - he will always end up with a worse reputation after having done the job than before commencing it!
Sven is a very experienced manager, and it is also a manager with a lot of respect for the players. He communicates with them and he asks them how they want to play. He allows them to become a part of the work instead of just delegating and proclaiming orders left and right. His management is very democratic, and it is perhaps not the easiest thing to incorporate such management in environments where democratic leadership is a lacking factor in various levels of society - be it from the homes of people to national institutions - regardless of which countries in the world.
Furthermore, Sven is a manager that is constantly praised by his current and former players. Nobody has anything negative to say about him, his personality or his coaching methods. He is by far one of the most skilled and sensitive managers - both tactically but also culturally. He knows exactly how to handle players from certain areas in the world, and this is something that has inspired a lot of young managers in Sweden lately. For instance, you cannot criticize an Argentian striker (for instance Hernan Crespo) in front of the whole group as you would be able to do in constructive way with a British midfielder (for instance David Beckham). Sven is very skilled at handling this big egos and making them work in one direction in order to reach the goals and objectives of the group.
A classical example is for instance when Sven was appointed at Lazio. The night before he was to introduce himself to the squad, the staff around the team and the service personnel at the club, he learned all their names by heart. The next day when he showed up at Lazio's training ground, he shook hands with everybody, saying "hello" plus the name of person he was greeting. They were very impressed by this and appreciated it a lot. He has done it in other clubs as well and it has always been a positive thing.
During the World Cup finals in the US in 1994, Sven was working as a commentator assistant for state TV in Sweden, and he traveled in the US together with the rest of the crew of network that had the broadcasting rights of the WC that summer. Every night, he took them out for dinner and he always paid for them, claiming that it was the only right thing to do.
The Mexico assignment was a joke, and so was the Man City project when Thaksin Shinawatra assigned Sven for a year. He still did good that season, bringing in some interesting players (that were successful) and he managed to lead the team to two victories over Manchester United. However, both projects were campaigns with political agendas. Shinawatra had no clue about how football works - and he ruined more than he built up during his time as the owner of Man City. He made Jesus Gil look like an angel.
With this being said, Sven is not the right guy for Iran in my opinion. Sven is too kind and too honest to make in an environment like Iran. He would most likely create a good vibe in team and be able to learn the players (and maybe even some of the coaches in Iran) a lot of things, but football is more than that. A clear parallel is the Mexico assignment he had a couple of years ago where he wasn't able to get his work done properly due to the external (and sometimes not related to football) factors that his environment caused.
People hate Sven and that's fine, I don't care. But the same people who hate him have misunderstood the whole thing about him.
He has a fantastic track record and has been professional from day one at every job that he has had. People criticize him for his job with the England squad, but truth be told, nobody has exceeded Sven's results ever since he quit the job after the WC finals back in 2006.
Mind you, the England job is de facto a position that very rarely "develops" and "improves" managers. Can you come up with any big names that actually improved or went on to larger missions after having led the English national team? The answer is no. The England manager job is a job that should be taken as a managers' last mission in his career - because it doesn't matter how high or low the manager is regarded before the appointment - he will always end up with a worse reputation after having done the job than before commencing it!
Sven is a very experienced manager, and it is also a manager with a lot of respect for the players. He communicates with them and he asks them how they want to play. He allows them to become a part of the work instead of just delegating and proclaiming orders left and right. His management is very democratic, and it is perhaps not the easiest thing to incorporate such management in environments where democratic leadership is a lacking factor in various levels of society - be it from the homes of people to national institutions - regardless of which countries in the world.
Furthermore, Sven is a manager that is constantly praised by his current and former players. Nobody has anything negative to say about him, his personality or his coaching methods. He is by far one of the most skilled and sensitive managers - both tactically but also culturally. He knows exactly how to handle players from certain areas in the world, and this is something that has inspired a lot of young managers in Sweden lately. For instance, you cannot criticize an Argentian striker (for instance Hernan Crespo) in front of the whole group as you would be able to do in constructive way with a British midfielder (for instance David Beckham). Sven is very skilled at handling this big egos and making them work in one direction in order to reach the goals and objectives of the group.
A classical example is for instance when Sven was appointed at Lazio. The night before he was to introduce himself to the squad, the staff around the team and the service personnel at the club, he learned all their names by heart. The next day when he showed up at Lazio's training ground, he shook hands with everybody, saying "hello" plus the name of person he was greeting. They were very impressed by this and appreciated it a lot. He has done it in other clubs as well and it has always been a positive thing.
During the World Cup finals in the US in 1994, Sven was working as a commentator assistant for state TV in Sweden, and he traveled in the US together with the rest of the crew of network that had the broadcasting rights of the WC that summer. Every night, he took them out for dinner and he always paid for them, claiming that it was the only right thing to do.
The Mexico assignment was a joke, and so was the Man City project when Thaksin Shinawatra assigned Sven for a year. He still did good that season, bringing in some interesting players (that were successful) and he managed to lead the team to two victories over Manchester United. However, both projects were campaigns with political agendas. Shinawatra had no clue about how football works - and he ruined more than he built up during his time as the owner of Man City. He made Jesus Gil look like an angel.
With this being said, Sven is not the right guy for Iran in my opinion. Sven is too kind and too honest to make in an environment like Iran. He would most likely create a good vibe in team and be able to learn the players (and maybe even some of the coaches in Iran) a lot of things, but football is more than that. A clear parallel is the Mexico assignment he had a couple of years ago where he wasn't able to get his work done properly due to the external (and sometimes not related to football) factors that his environment caused.
People hate Sven and that's fine, I don't care. But the same people who hate him have misunderstood the whole thing about him.
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