Footballers and their biographies

Just after England got kicked out of the World Cup, I wrote an analysis in my World Cup blog as to why I think England’s journey ended at the quarter-finals stage.

I also said that we might have to wait for a book from the then England coach Sven Goran Erikkson to discover why he made so many dodgy decisions. Well, we need not wait long. Although Sven has not written anything yet, some of his senior players have been free with their thoughts in off-the-cuff biographies.

First we had Frank Lampard and now Steven Gerrard, and both these players talk about how over-confidence amongst the players, Sven’s training regimes, his squad selections and choice of pre-WC friendlies have all played a factor for England’s embarrassing World Cup.

And this is not the end. With other players – Wayne Rooney and Ashley Cole will be the next – to release their versions soon, we can expect more criticisms hurled at Sven.

And these players could be right but what baffles me is that why do they have to blurt it out in the open now. It’s as though they are looking for an excuse for their failure and Sven seems to be the scapegoat.

Why didn’t these players raise their concerns even then to try to impose some changes? Maybe they did but something inside me tells me that none of these revelations against Sven would have come out if he was still at helm.

And another matter that really disturbs me is the rate at which these players come out with their biographies. You play one season of football and then a book comes out and the same will happen at the beginning of the new season.

Do they really have that much to tell us? Or have they actually had such an exciting life in that short period of time that it warrants a new book every year?

Or is it just that their fans are so gullible to buy whatever that has their hero in the front cover?