He was a very good manager for us, and should have been kept instead of Hughes, as we probably would have done better the following season. He played a part in helping Richards develop, and it was probably during his time that Dunne was at his best as well. Also, he helped get some strong performances out of Johnson and, if not for Johnson's injuries, he would have built on that and would have been a top player. Also lets not forget he was the one who started to give Hart regular games as well, and, unlike Johnson, Hart has clearly built on that. Sven could easily have gone for Isaksson or Schmeichel, but he chose Hart and that was the right choice.
Made some clever signings, mainly Elano and Corluka, Elano providing the creativity and a spark which had so so lacked during the previous couple of seasons, Petrov as well was a decent buy, provided us with width and a strong threat down the left. Fernandes wasn't too bad either. At home, we became a force to be reckoned with again, as shown by winning 9 straight games and not losing until Arsenal at in February.
Would also be unfair not to mention our double over United, the first game, the Geovanni goal was probably the only time we seriously threatened Van Der Sar, so to win like that while not playing fluent attacking football was very impressive, we really did grind that one out. The second game at Old Trafford, he was absolutely tactically spot on, having Hamann in front of the back four, who was excellent that day, we steadily grew into the game and began to attack United more and more, getting the rewards we deserved and taking our chances. The way we were set up, it was going to be very difficult for United to come back, Sven had it absolutely right that day.
The only problem was, I'd say Sven was a victim of his own success because after the great first few months, we should never have finished as low as 9th, although I think a lot of us would have happily taken that at the start of the season. We got sussed out by other teams, Elano gradually became less effective, and as for the defence, well towards the end of the season that just got worse and worse. Our impressive home record slipped away, losing games we should have been winning and Sven couldn't conjure up a suitable Plan B, he didn't stop things from falling away and really he should have. The Fulham game was probably the standout bad game for me, the biggest evidence of how Sven had lost his way, I won't say the 8-1 because of the circumstances.
Wasn't helped by having Thaksin as his chairman, probably could have done with someone like Wardle with a much wider experience of football, maybe then things would have been slightly different. Generally, he used Thaksin's money quite well.
But, if he was still in charge now, I don't think we would be where we are now. He was not the man to take us to this level, he could possibly have got us into Europe (well, he sort of did through Fair Play) but he was not the right man to take us into the Champions League. If he had been here at the time of the ADUG takeover, I doubt he'd have lasted much longer than Hughes did, maybe even less.
I reckon with Leicester, if he gets them promoted, which I think he will, he will be able to establish them as a Premiership side, get them competitng for a place in the top half.
