Celebrating Sven-Goran Eriksson and the greatest football quote ever

The legacy of every England manager tends to hang on a single moment or personality trait that sticks in the popular imagination.

Think Glenn Hoddle and his musings about reincarnation. Or Roy Hodgson taking a boat trip down the River Seine instead of scouting Iceland at Euro 2016.

And take your pick about Graham Taylor from ‘The Impossible Job’, the only TV programme that comes with explicit instructions to watch between your fingers.

It’s a peculiarly human trait to condense periods of time into bitesize chunks. And when it comes to Sven-Goran Eriksson, it’s hard not to think of him as a professional seducer who stumbled into football management by mistake.

That’s not to disparage Eriksson’s achievements – particularly with Lazio during the era where Serie A was the world’s toughest league – but rather to point out that the tabloid depiction of him as some sort of latter-day Don Juan had substance.

We all remember the 5-1 in Munich and beating Argentina in 2002. But, when it comes to Sven, we equally remember Nancy Dell’Olio and Ulrika Jonsson.

With a balding lid and trademark spectacles, Eriksson appeared an unlikely lady killer. But, while the Swede didn’t look like a Ken doll, he more than compensated with his air of sophistication.

This is why it doesn’t take a massive leap of imagination to believe the story in Dietmar Hamann’s book, ‘The Didi Man’, about what Sven said to him while on a post-season tour to Thailand with Manchester City in 2008.

“One morning I was on a sun lounger by the pool when I saw Sven walking towards me carrying a silver tray with a bottle of champagne and two glasses on it,” Hamman wrote.

“It was still only ten o’clock in the morning…Sven came over and put the champagne on the table next to me,