LOYALTY IS A TWO-WAY STREET, SVEN

Not Noel Gallagher, of Oasis fame no less. "Thaksin Shinawatra seems like a bit of a nutcase."

MUPPETS ON A STRING: Scolari will walk into a City nightmare

Nor the one and only Ricky Hatton. "Eriksson can feel hard done by."

And certainly not a typically indignant spokesman for the League Managers' Association.

"Sven is one of Europe's most highly talented football managers with experience gained from working around the world."

Indeed, he is. And the reason he has gained that experience from around the world is because he has chased the dollar.

Challenge

From Gothenburg to Rome, from Genoa to Lisbon, from Soho Square to Eastlands.

Take your pick from two possible reasons why Eriksson moved to Manchester:

1) He saw a club that was aching to be reawakened, that was stocked with emerging talent, that had a noble history, that offered a wonderful footballing challenge, that had a loyal fanbase with whom he could develop a great rapport.

2) A loaded Thai offered him a king's ransom and he didn't care if the bloke might be as bent as a nine-baht note.

Er, a tough one, I know.

Eriksson is a job-hopper. A networker. 

Remember how he networked with Roman Abramovich when still England manager? Only taking afternoon tea, of course.

Remember how he networked with an undercover reporter from this newspaper and told the fake sheik he should buy Aston Villa, put him in charge and he would bring David Beckham?

Remember how he had apparently networked his way into a position to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson?

Garlands

This is what Eriksson does. And he is no less a likeable bloke for it. No less of a competent coach for it.

I like him because he took a world of flak when England boss and still shook his detractors by the hand AND because he probably wouldn't disagree with any of the above.

But this time, the biter has been bitten.

And you can't say the hotel-dwelling Swede didn't see it coming. Barely unpacking your suitcase after nine months is a bit of a clue.

And did any of those City fans who threw garlands at the feet of Shinawatra really believe that a man who was facing corruption charges at home and was implicated in human rights violations by Amnesty International would be all for stability? Would be the epitome of patience?

Man of the world that he is, Sven can't have believed it.

There are two key points to this farce.

I have been banging on about the first for an age. That if you sell to a foreign owner who has little knowledge of or feeling for the heritage of English football, you gamble with the future of your club.

But the second is often overlooked. Particularly by Disgusted of League Managers' Association, whose members will be queueing up like workers in a Bangkok bar in the hope of replacing Sven.

Loyalty is a two-way street.

Yet every day of the season, managers are angling for other managers' jobs. Don't tell me it doesn't go on - it does.

Of course, City's footballing interests would probably be best served by the continued employment of such an esteemed coach as Eriksson.

But there is absolutely no guarantee that if a top Italian club came calling, he wouldn't up sticks and leave.

Because that, unfortunately, is the way football is at the moment.

Most people in the game-owners, players, managers-only understand loyalty if it is followed by the word bonus.

***********************************

Lamps and Kuyt have same perspective

IN last week's column, I mentioned the word PERSPECTIVE.

How when tragedy turned its fickle attentions to the Lampard family, the vagaries of football were rendered pretty much irrelevant.

After events at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, it is worth remembering the word PERSPECTIVE.

Lampard's performance and penalty-kick was, indeed, gutsy. Brave, courageous.

Frank - after unimaginable heartbreak - went back to work. Because that is what people do. That is what strong people do. That is what proper people do.

Footballers, journalists, politicians, dockers, doctors, nurses, electricians, road-sweepers.

When a refuse collector picks up his first bin since the death of a loved one, it is, indeed, gutsy. Brave, courageous.

Sharing the same field with Frank on Wednesday was Dirk Kuyt. His dedication, his commitment - his bravery, his courage - has never wavered over the last couple of years.

Years when not a single day went by without the possibility of his father finally succumbing to an agonising, round-the-clock assault by that indiscriminate brute called cancer.

An indiscriminate brute that had already felled his 21-year-old brother.

Dirk Kuyt senior lost that one-sided fight last June.

This is not to dilute in any way the heart-lifting scenes I was fortunate to witness four days' ago.

It is just about that one word - PERSPECTIVE.

***********************************

Rules don't apply in Wales

EVEN the coldest heart must have had sympathy for Michael Ballack when suspension deprived him of a place in the 2002 World Cup Final.

Ditto for Paul Scholes, who at least now has the chance to banish the painful memory of missing the 1999 Champions League Final.

But rules are rules. No-one is above the law.

Unless you're Welsh, it seems. Or, more accurately perhaps, unless you play for the Welsh.

After the challenge that left Andy Cole with a wound that needed ten stitches to close, Darren Purse lodged an appeal against the red card - the 12th of his career, by the way.

Had it landed on the Soho Square doormat, you can be sure it would have been promptly returned, with interest.

Luckily for Purse, it went to the FA of Wales, who overturned the judgement of referee Andy Hall and freed the Cardiff City defender to play in the FA Cup Final at Wembley in a fortnight's time.

It is an outrageous decision. And one that benefits a club that kicked up a stink when it was suggested they might not be able to represent the English FA in Europe should they beat Pompey.

A lot of fair-minded people will now be hoping they don't.

***********************************

FANS have around 1,600 miles further to travel to see the latest final between Manchester United and Chelsea. Let's hope it is just a fraction better than that last one.

***********************************

Sweet tooth, tough cookie

COFFEE and homemade biscuits with Lord Triesman last week, over which he outlined his plans to clean up football.

Sure, we've heard it all before and getting any sort of co-operation from the self-interested players, managers and Premier League chairmen will be a minor miracle.

But I can tell you he is going to give it a go. He has a sweet tooth but is a tough cookie.

***********************************

No-one has Twenty20 vision

NOT a waking moment seems to go by without someone banging on about the Twenty20 cricket revolution as though cricket has been shaken by some Richter Scale-busting earthquake.

But has anyone - other than the players who are stuffing their kit bags with rupees - actually noticed it is going on?