Ben Farren

Quick story about Sven-Goran Ericksson (RIP). Such a good man, open and easy to talk to. You needed humility being the first “foreign” England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 manager, but one night we realised just how humble (and witty) he was. At a charity dinner after the World Cup in 2006, when he was no longer England manager, I was lucky enough to be on his table. Finding my moment, I asked “why did you include a 17 year old Theo Walcott in the World Cup squad when he hadn’t played a single game in the Premier league?” I didn’t want to upset him because it was a controversial decision at the time - he took an injured Wayne Rooney and a struggling Michael Owen but left out a fit and well Jermaine Defoe. But he replied “no, it’s a good question. Many would like to know. I could not say then, but I can now…” and explained his thinking with a measured response: “You know, the countries that do well at World Cups always have a ‘secret weapon’. A player unknown to the other teams, to bring on as a substitute to help win a game in the latter stages. This was Theo. And we agreed to use him only in a semi-final or the final.” He and his assistant Tord Grip had seen Walcott in a reserve game at Arsenal and said Theo had “lightening pace” and was “extremely skilful.” Theo was “the perfect unknown quantity to surprise teams and steal a goal and win a championship. That’s why we took him, not Jermaine” he concluded. I then offered “but Sven, in the quarter final v Portugal we lost on penalties. After Rooney got sent off, surely that was the time to bring on Walcott - not Peter Crouch as you did - to use Theo’s pace and score an extra time winner when we were down to 10 men?” He looked at me as if it was the first time anyone had ever suggested the idea. He looked ruefully at all of us on the table and said “well now that you say it, yes maybe I should have. In retrospect, this was a mistake.” The table went silent. We all seemed to be contemplating what could have been, for England and for Theo Walcott. Sven broke the silence with “Omid. Tell us a joke.” I laughed coz it was a delightfully off beat way to deflect, and without thinking, I did. A really inappropriate joke that got absolutely nothing. With a wink and a smile Sven then said “you see, it’s not always easy to think of the right thing to do in the moment, as Mr. Djalili just showed us, and so well.” Cue big laugh. We understood at that moment, sometimes even the best laid plans can go to cock. And that’s life. It was new information and no one judged him. Personally I was just thrilled he knew my name. #SvenGoranEriksson