Eriksson silencing the doubters

The MEN ran a nice piece on Sven a couple of days ago as he passed the 100 day mark in charge of the club, and looking back to when he took over, the progress made to this point today is really something.

In the piece, Eriksson talks about some of the methods he has introduced to the club since taking over - citing a strong 'team spirit' and 'respect' as a huge part of his approach, and his belief that these factors are vital throughout the whole club from top to bottom. It is elements such as these that explain why we have had the start we have had, and why we are seeing the manner of performances that we are doing.

It's easy to forget Eriksson took over a side which had just returned to pre-season training, with a new ownership group in charge and already into the transfer window. He quickly assembled a near new staring XI in quick time, brought in a back room staff and navigated the pre-season encounters with relatively ease.

Then hitting the ground running, we saw ourselves topping the table after a home win in the derby. Despite the media still being sceptical, we then bounced back from a pair of defeats to put wins together to leave ourselves in the top three at the quarter mark of the season. We have put five wins in home league games together after turning in such dour, miserable efforts last season and the side is playing with an air of confidence and attacking spirit not seen for some time.

What is perhaps surprising at this point in the season given how we have fared so far is that there was a considerable groundswell of opinion against his appointment both before and after he was named as Stuart Pearce's successor. There were comments on this blog against him, as were some of the established fanzines and of course the farcical circumstances in which it was claimed '70% of fans' were against the appointment.

Personally, the qualities I thought he would bring to the club - his qualities in dealing with players, attracting 'name' signings, organisational skills and bringing a reasoned calmness to the job (lacking in previous managers) have all borne out thus far, and what has been perhaps most surprising is that general media who were so critical during his time in the England job, have been throwing platitudes and compliments from all angles at him and the side this season.

Still, 100 days on, and not many could have predicted things would have move quite as far and fast as they have done so far. He has (obviously backed by the new ownership) ushered in a new era at the club and helped reverse the worrying direction that the club was headed in.

Roll on the next 100.