Of all the barbs aimed at Sven-Göran Eriksson in his final four years as England head coach, none cut deeper than that attributed to Gareth Southgate, the man alleged to have been behind the appraisal that, when the national team “needed Winston Churchill” at half-time in the World Cup quarter-final defeat by Brazil in 2002, “what we got was Iain Duncan Smith”.

Southgate, now the Middlesbrough manager, has always denied saying such a thing. It is a slur that has followed Eriksson to this day, but, having gone a long way towards restoring his reputation since taking over as Manchester City manager in July, the Swede can look forward to renewing his acquaintance with Southgate at Eastlands tomorrow afternoon. At his weekly press conference yesterday, he initially seemed affronted by the reminder, but slowly warmed to the notion of being a manager who eschews the so-called “hairdryer treatment” associated with Sir Alex Ferguson.

“I’ll never be a Winston Churchill,” Eriksson said. “I didn’t do anything different during that half-time [against Brazil] to what I normally do. What do you achieve by shouting? If you want to tell your players something, you have to explain, tell them the reason.”