Eriksson's Loyalty Rewarded By Players

It's been a week since 'Sven-Gate' or whatever it's called and 45eachway has noticed the lack of England players willing to jump on News Of The World's rickety old bandwagon and criticize the boss-man.

45eachway has often criticized Sven for being too loyal, rearranging the team to accomodate 'Quarterbecks' against Wales and Northern Ireland for example, or sticking by Owen Hargreaves despite all available evidence. But that blinkered loyalty has served Sven well.

How many other managers could (more or less) say Owen's a moneygrabber, Rooney's a chav, and Rio's lazy and get away with it? Not many. They may be seething in private (though Rio needed telling) but they've been very polite in public. Now, like Marlon Brando did with that undertaker in "The Godfather", Sven is calling in the favours, and the moneygrabber, the chav and the lazy centre-back are repaying his loyalty with a little of their own.