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Sven-Göran Eriksson doubted so much whether England could ever have a foreign manager that an initial approach was considered a joke. 

Intrigued eventually by the ground-breaking opportunity, rather than being deterred by the indignation, the Swede would launch the Three Lions into five of the most frenzied years in their history.

Everything belied his suave demeanour – from allowing a celebrity culture to consume the team to being an unlikely headline-making lothario himself and, even, showing passion while delivering results for his adopted country.

It was a blessing and burden to inherit a Golden Generation of talent of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and co – captivating the country with dazzling one-off displays but unable to deliver when it mattered most under the weight of expectation and pressure.

It is the failure to overcome the constant quarter-final barrier and lift a trophy that shaped Eriksson’s England legacy where football too often seemed secondary.

Read more:
Former England manager dies

But the Eriksson era did provide a mirror to the nation at the start of the new millennium.

How the public’s ravenous appetite to gaze into the private lives of the stars – and the legalities of intrusive tabloid reporting – was stretched to extremes, and only unearthed years later.

How patriotism could seem parochial or xenophobic – just as the Premier League was the platform for England opening up to the world.

For a coach arriving after league and cup wins with Lazio, it proved perplexing that his suitability focused on his nationality over coaching credentials.

“We’ve sold our birthright down the fjord to a nation of seven million skiers and hammer throwers who spend half their lives in darkness.”

The Daily Mail headline set the tone for his introductory news conference.

Sven-Goran Eriksson before the match.
Pic Reuters
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Sven-Goran Eriksson in 2019. Pic: Reuters

He did try to sing God Save The Queen, feeling emotional as he realised the national standing he quickly assumed from 2001.

And doubters – some at least – were won over spectacularly on the turf of England’s greatest rival.

A 5-1 humiliation of Germany in Munich was followed a month later by another iconic moment of Eriksson’s reign – Beckham’s free kick that sealed a spot at the 2002 World Cup.

But the highs came in qualifying, falling short – always at the quarter-finals stage – in his three tournaments.

Too often it seemed more about fame than football around this England generation.

The high – or low – point of that came at his second and final World Cup in 2006.

Sven-Goran Eriksson at the 2006 World Cup with England. Pic: PA
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Sven-Goran Eriksson at the 2006 World Cup with England. Pic: PA

As if managing Beckham, Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard wasn’t challenging enough, this was the era of the WAGs.

The celebrity circus around the Baden-Baden team base in Germany saw the players’ wives and girlfriends indulging in the media attention.

The insatiable appetite for a trophy matched the front page fodder the team – and their manager – provided.

Eriksson wanted to enjoy life but his privacy was exploited by the dark arts of tabloids.

Intimate details of affairs that the papers had a role in playing matchmaker to.

“I met Ulrika Jonsson on 8 December 2001, at some party hosted by the Daily Express, or maybe it was the Daily Star,” he recalled.

“The FA wanted me to travel around to various newspapers to be courteous and meet the editors. I visited the News Of The World too.”

It was the paper – closed in scandal by Rupert Murdoch in 2011 – he would blame for ending his England reign.

The notorious ‘fake sheikh’ had been used to trap him in a fictitious approach by Aston Villa ahead of the 2006 World Cup.

“I was extremely disappointed because I was sacked because of that,” Eriksson said. “I never accepted or understood that the News Of The World is so important… because I told the people at the FA – you believe in them or me.”

Who he could believe and trust was called into question by what he only later discovered was phone hacking.

Voicemail interceptions were linked to being behind the Daily Mirror’s revelation of his relationship with TV presenter Jonsson – another Swede who made it big in Britain.

“I think the football media was rather good. Sometimes they tried to kill me,” he said. “The other part of the media, that was a little bit of a surprise for me, because I wasn’t used to that.”

But he was never bitter – returning to English football to manage Manchester City just before the influx of Abu Dhabi wealth, dropping into the fourth division during a bizarre, brief spell as Notts County’s director of football and taking on a second-tier job at Leicester.

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The breadth of managerial roles after England – at three Chinese clubs, and the Mexico, Ivory Coast and Philippines national teams – showed Eriksson was happiest in the dugout.

“As a player I was not good at all,” he recalled. “I was not good enough to play first division in Sweden well, so the best decision I ever took in my professional career was when Tord Grip came to me and said, ‘It’s better you stop playing and be my assistant coach.’

“And that was when I was 27. So I had much better luck as a coach than a player for sure.”

The affection following Eriksson revealing his cancer diagnosis in January 2024 even allowed an emotional farewell to English football at Anfield by fulfilling a wish to manage Liverpool, as revealed on Sky News.

And assessments of his England reign seem more dispassionate as the trophy drought has gone on.

His immediate successor – Steve McClaren – didn’t qualify for Euro 2008 – and it took 12 years for an England men’s manager to win a knockout game.

But in his dying days, Eriksson was still thinking back to the 2006 World Cup.

“We should have done better,” he said. “So the criticism I and the team took after that tournament I think was fair.”

But what he could still never accept was why some questioned his right to ever have the job.

And while breaking new ground by becoming England’s first foreign manager, the nationality debate endures whenever an FA appointment is needed.

“There were people who did not like I was not English,” he lamented in retirement.

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Man guilty of murder of Cher Maximen at Notting Hill Carnival

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Man guilty of murder of Cher Maximen at Notting Hill Carnival

A man has been found guilty of murdering a mother as she attended Notting Hill Carnival with her three-year-old daughter.

Cher Maximen, 32, was at the event in west London on 25 August last year when she was stabbed in the groin after trying to intervene in a fight.

Shakeil Thibou, 20, was charged with her murder after she died in hospital on 31 August.

He was found guilty by a majority of 10 to two jurors and is due for sentencing on 16 May.

Cher Maximen
Image:
Cher Maximen

Read more:
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Moments before stabbing Ms Maximen, Thibou carried out an “equally horrifying attack” on a man who was backing away from him, the Old Bailey has heard.

He was also convicted of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to 20-year-old Adjei Isaac with intent, and having an offensive weapon.

At the opening of the trial in February, prosecutor Ed Brown KC told the court Ms Maximen and the group she was with had got caught up in the middle of a “horrifying outbreak of violence”.

At the time, Ms Maximen had been crouched chatting to her friends as they sat on the ground with their children.

 Cher Maximen
Image:
Cher Maximen

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She suffered a 12cm deep knife wound, which caused severe internal bleeding in her groin.

‘Pure anger’ in accused face

As jurors were shown police bodycam footage of the incident during a previous hearing at the Old Bailey, Mr Brown KC told them: “You will see pure anger in the face of Shakeil Thibou. This was right in front of her [Ms Maximen’s] three-year-old daughter.”

The “truly shocking” incident happened in just eight seconds.

How did it happen?

The Old Bailey previously heard how a crowd of hundreds splintered on Golborne Road in west London as Thibou and his two brothers, who were on trial alongside him facing separate charges, had an altercation with at least two other males.

 Cher Maximen
Image:
Cher Maximen

Thibou produced a “huge” knife, described by one witness as a zombie knife, and lunged repeatedly at Mr Isaac in a “determined, thrusting movement”, the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Isaac recoiled and during the altercation the pair bumped into Ms Maximen who had been crouched chatting to her friends as they sat on the ground with their children.

The knife, the prosecutor said, missed Mr Isaac by “centimetres”.

Mr Brown KC told the court Ms Maximen struggled to regain her footing after being knocked to the ground.

He said: “Cher Maximen in those moments grabbed hold of Shakeil Thibou’s coat, pulled it and managed to get partially to her feet.

“She appeared to attempt to strike out with her hand at Shakeil who of course was still holding that knife in his hand. Cher Maximen took a step towards Shakeil Thibou and at the same time attempted to raise her right leg out towards him.

“It was at this moment, Shakeil Thibou raised the knife directly towards Cher Maximen and deliberately thrust it towards her, stabbing her in the groin.”

Sheldon Thibou was found guilty of violent disorder and guilty of assault on an emergency worker, PC Oliver Mort.

Shaeim Thibou was cleared of violent disorder but found guilty of assault on an emergency worker, PC Mort.

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Cher Maximen: Family’s ‘rage’ after mother fatally stubbed in front of daughter at Notting Hill Carnival

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Cher Maximen: Family's 'rage' after mother fatally stubbed in front of daughter at Notting Hill Carnival

The family of a mother who was fatally stabbed as she attended Notting Hill Carnival with her three-year-old daughter has said “the feeling of loss is overwhelming, but so is the feeling of rage”.

Cher Maximen, 32, was stabbed at the west London carnival’s “Family Day” on 25 August last year.

Shakeil Thibou, 20, has now been found guilty of her murder, by a majority jury verdict of 10-2, after a trial at the Old Bailey.

“I’ve lost my parents. I’ve lost my brother. Nothing has felt like this ever,” Ms Maximen’s cousin Lawrence Hoo told Sky News.

“It is the cruellest thing, it truly is.”

Lawrence Hoo
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Lawrence Hoo

Ms Maximen died at a carnival she had been to so many times – she barely missed one.

On the day, Ms Maximen and her three-year-old daughter arrived at Europe’s biggest street party with a group of friends and their children. They’d been sitting and chatting when she was knocked over by some men who had started fighting.

News of her stabbing came almost immediately. Mr Hoo remembers receiving the call. “When I first heard that she’d been stabbed, I know it sounds silly, but I thought Cher will be alright. Cher’s strong, she’ll get through this.”

Ms Maximen was taken to hospital and underwent a number of emergency procedures before being put on life support.

Cher Maximen and a family member

Mr Hoo immediately headed to London to be at her bedside.

“I can remember being in the hospital being sat there with her, with other family members and that’s the last time I saw her. It still doesn’t feel real. There’s still disbelief,” he said.

“It’s the most senseless act to someone who had so much life and so much to give.”

Ms Maximen died from her injuries six days after the incident.

She was a vivacious young woman who grew up in Bristol and then London, finding her feet working with people in music and entertainment.

Ms Maximen was described as a “people person”, which for Mr Hoo manifested in her being “a bright light” in the lives of her loved ones.

He said: “It’s just this energy she had, she lit up the room. If you walked into a space, you’d know that Cher was there. Her energy itself would fill the room. She was a very bright light.”

Her life changed three years before her death when she became a mother in her late 20s.

Her daughter became her life’s work, she poured her love and energy into creating a person her family describe as her mini-me, “she’s Cher 2.0” Mr Hoo said.

Cher Maximen pictured as a child with her uncle Ty
Image:
Cher Maximen pictured as a child with her uncle Ty

Ms Maximen was stabbed just metres from her daughter on that day.

Mr Hoo said the idea of the toddler witnessing her mother on the ground punctuates the sadness the family feel with anger.

“The feeling of loss is overwhelming, but so is the feeling of rage,” he said. “She [Ms Maximen’s daughter] is aware that on that day, something happened to her mother.

“She saw her mother drop to the floor, and then she saw her mother bleed. That’s the daughter’s last living memory of her mother. And to live with that, knowing that that’s happened, that somebody did that. That’s why it’s so hard and that’s where the rage comes from.”

The family is now rallying around the little girl who is growing up without her mother.

Mr Hoo said the attack “will be a memory that will recur” for Ms Maximen’s daughter, adding “that is why it is so painful and hard to try to live with”.

“I think the trauma is going to be there, and trauma will raise its head when it chooses to come up. But we’ll be there for her,” he said.

The family held Ms Maximen’s funeral in October, and dozens came to remember a woman who loved to spread joy.

Mr Hoo said their focus is now Cher’s daughter: “It’s difficult to say how do we celebrate this life that was taken so prematurely. But I think it goes into her daughter, and it’s to give her daughter the best life and love, and tell her who her mother was.

“I just wish that we had so much more time.”

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Abuser who murdered husband and buried him in Canterbury garden jailed for 22 years

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Abuser who murdered husband and buried him in Canterbury garden jailed for 22 years

A domestic abuser who murdered her “frail” husband and buried him in the garden has been jailed for at least 22 years.

Maureen Rickards caused her husband “unimaginable pain and suffering”, said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

She was found guilty at Canterbury Crown Court last month and today got a life sentence with a minimum of 22 years.

Jeremy Rickards, 65, was found wrapped in bin bags inside a hold-all at the couple’s property in St Martin’s Road, Canterbury, on 11 July last year.

He had five stab wounds to his chest – two of which pierced his heart.

There were also non-fatal injuries sustained about 10 days before his death, as well as other wounds thought to have been weeks old.

Grass cuttings were put over the body in an attempt to hide it, but the judge said police were alerted by an “overpowering odour” that “made them feel ill”.

Kent Police believe he was killed a month earlier and his corpse stored in an attic room cupboard before being moved.

Rickards, 50, told their daughter he had gone to Saudi Arabia for work, but police had no record of him leaving the UK.

The daughter became concerned by the style of messages she received and asked her mother if she’d taken over his phone.

She eventually reported him missing.

Jeremy Rickards: Pic: LinkedIn
Image:
Jeremy Rickards: Pic: LinkedIn

The last record of Mr Rickards being alive was when he topped up his phone on 8 June.

CCTV showed his wife of 27 years using his bank card a few weeks later, with the judge saying the cleaning products she bought were probably to clean up the killing.

Rickards was initially arrested for fraud – but officers searched the property and found the body.

The murder weapon has never been found.

Police said the victim was also seen with bruising on his face a few weeks before his death, telling a pub staff member he had been in a car accident.

But video found on his wife’s phone showed her shouting at him and the sounds of her beating him.

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Man guilty of murdering woman at Carnival

Mr Rickards briefly moved out of home in early June and was seen with numerous injuries at the property he stayed in.

His wife did not attend sentencing, but judge Mr Justice Kerr directed his comments towards her, saying: “Your videos also clearly show you threatening Jeremy, abusing him, using violence on him, and expressing an intention to kill him.

“He was in frail health and largely defenceless against you.”

Detectives said Rickards has never expressed remorse for the killing and tried to blame others.

“This was a horrific murder of a man who we believe had been a supportive husband to his wife, despite her violence towards him,” said Detective Inspector Colin McKeen.

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