Eriksson is living on borrowed time

SVEN Goran Eriksson appears to be living on borrowed time as the manager of England after scoring yet another spectacular own goal.

Hardly a week goes by these days without the tabloid Press being dominated by stories of the Swede's high-profile private life.

First, there was all the furore surrounding his affair with former ITV weathergirl Ulrika Jonsson.

Then came the pictures of his infamous meeting with the new Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich as rumours grew of him turning his back on England and taking charge of the Blues.

Now the red tops are overflowing with stories about his alleged relationship with Faria Alam, a secretary at the Football Association.

Whichever way you look at it, all the negative publicity is hugely embarrassing for the FA and the pressure on Eriksson to resign is now beginning to reach intolerable levels.

However, I can't help thinking that people might have reacted a little differently to the latest revelations had England actually gone on to win Euro 2004.

It seems to me that certain big-wigs within the FA are beginning to realise they might have made a mistake in offering Eriksson such a lucrative contract before a ball was even kicked in Portugal.

Questions about his choice of tactics in Euro 2004 have been raised by Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA's director of football - and some members of the FA's 12-man board even want to organise an emergency meeting before their next scheduled session on August 26 as anger grows about the way he conducts his private life.

If they're looking for something to hang him by then maybe he's signed his own death warrant with this latest indiscretion.

If you're the manager of England, I, personally, think you should try to keep your private life separate from your professional one at all times.

Sven, however, appears to have allowed those boundaries to become blurred and maybe outside influences have affected his ability to manage.

At the end of the day, how can you be fully focused on preparing England for a major tournament when something like that's going on in the background?

If the FA do end up getting shut of Sven then I'd like to see them focus their search for a successor in England.

Sam Allardyce at Bolton, Charlton Athletic's Alan Curbishley, and Gary Megson at West Brom are all top managers with the right credentials to do a decent job and, most importantly, they're English.

These are guys who are famous for their passion in the dug-out -- but it's a different type of passion from that which Sven is now becoming notorious.

JAVIER De Pedro joined an exclusive band of players when he got sent off on his debut in Germany last week -- and I know exactly how he must have been feeling.

I, too, suffered a similar fate when I joined Everton on loan from Blackburn in the early 1980s.

My debut came in a Merseyside derby against Liverpool but I lasted less than half an hour before I got red-carded for a professional foul, and that was the end of my Everton career.

At least in De Pedro's case, his dismissal came in a meaningless pre-season friendly where nothing at all was at stake. I know he'll be disappointed at how it turned out but it's better that it happened then rather than against Manchester United in the Premiership.

From what I've heard, it might take De Pedro a while to get used to the pace of the Premiership but that's usually the case with all foreign players.

Remember Lorenzo Amoruso at the start of last season? The sheer pace and intensity of the Premiership catches many by surprise but genuine quality players make the adjustment.