Like Ars? Wenger, Eriksson very rarely raises his voice in the dressing-room and Southgate feels the half-time rant, accompanied by the Fergusonesque hurling of tea cups and treatment tables, is dated.”That style of coaching is changing a bit, although the boys at Manchester United might not agree. If you look at the managers at the top of the Premier League, they operate a more studious style of management, analysing games and not reacting to things as they happen.”It is a policy practised by Steve McClaren, his manager at Middlesbrough and his coach for England. There are daffodils lining the long drive to Southgate’s hotel in the Yorkshire countryside and at the age of 31 his career has undergone a second spring.A year or so ago, Southgate’s international days looked done and his move to Teesside from Aston Villa seemed more of a final pay-day than a relaunch.And yet, here he is preparing to take on the Italians at Elland Road while being part of a Middlesbrough side that has reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup without conceding a goal. What has impressed Southgate about McClaren is his “attention to detail”, epitomised by his use of Bill Beswick, a renowned sports psychologist, as his assistant manager.”Steve McClaren is very much like Sven,” he points out. “At half-time he won’t speak to us for maybe five minutes until everybody has calmed down and got their thoughts together.

It’s a key period and you need to get your message across and shouting at people is not always very constructive.”He has taken me a lot further in my footballing education. Going to Middlesbrough might have been seen as a step backwards, but I saw Steve had a clear plan and playing all season in a back four, rather than in a back three at Villa, showed what I could do.”His attitude to John Gregory, his former manager at Aston Villa, has not mellowed, as he argues that Darius Vassell, who opened his international career with a dramatic equaliser in Amsterdam, suffered at club level because Gregory did not believe in him.Every England squad that has set off for a major tournament has claimed that confidence is flowing from every pore of every player; which is accepted until the diaries and autobiographies are published. However, Southgate states that Eriksson can make that claim with greater authority than any manager since Venables.Some question whether Southgate has had enough time with his potential central defensive partners, such as Rio Ferdinand or Sol Campbell, although he points out that he played once with Tony Adams before setting out with an England side which came within a penalty shoot-out of the 1996 European Championship final.”This team is in a better vein of form than ones going into previous competitions,” he said. “There is an innocence about the young players who have not been to major tournaments but who have been involved in huge games for their clubs. There is not the fear of the unknown and the confidence is the equal of what it was in Euro 96.” And all this without a rendition of “My Way” or a game of carpet bowls in sight.. We should have known it. Sven Goran Eriksson has come through his recent buffetings without a hair, or a phrase, out of place

We should have known it.

“The chances,” the boxing promoter declares on such occasions, “are Slim and None and Slim just left town.” So, Eriksson suggested, had the last eddies of controversy surrounding the rejection of Jonathan Woodgate from the squad for tonight’s friendly against Italy at Elland Road.”I’m not concerned about local reaction,” said the coach. “It’s not my job to pick lots of Leeds players.” He also suggested, rather more questionably, that nor was politics part of his £2.5million-a-year assignment. If that is so, you are forced to wonder why he wasn’t a little more explicit about the force of his desire to leave Woodgate out of the World Cup reckoning. They concerned such routine judgements as the fitness of Kieron Dyer, whose speed and aggression is plainly highly prized by the coach, the readiness of the Bayern Munich wunderkind Owen Hargreaves and Trevor Sinclair’s potential to bring some width and craft to the left side of the field.Gareth Southgate was the dressing room spokesman on the matter of Eriksson’s influence. The Middlesbrough defender spoke of a leader who operates coolly and at a necessary distance.

“The spirit is better than it was before Euro 2000,” said Southgate “Sven is a man who does keep his distance He knows it is necessary. He doesn’t get flustered or lose his temper, and he has made it clear that if you are not in the starting line-up you still have a vital role to play. You might have a small part in the field but a big one off it.”Eriksson reconfirmed to a group of Italian journalists that his old club Lazio still occupied a large place in his heart, and he said that he had been suffering with them through recent trials. More than once he acquired a wistful tone when discussing the difficulties of running a national team Their time together is so brief. Too brief to get under their skin, so you have to talk to a lot of coaches and managers and get a measure of the men on whom your hopes will rest.