Tord Grip Profile

Tord Grip played top flight football in Sweden during the 1960s with AIK in Stockholm, whilst studying for a degree in Physical Education, and gained 3 international caps for Sweden. He managed several first division Swedish sides before having spells as Manager of Norway and Assistant Manager of Sweden. He linked up with Sven-Goran Eriksson at Lazio where he was his assistant, and was retained as Sven's deputy with England when he took over as Head Coach of the Three Lions.

Watch the Video - 23 December 2004  
Tord's Year Part 2 - on 2004.

Best individual performance: I’ve thought a lot about that, but I think it was Ashley Cole’s performance against Ronaldo in Portugal in Euro 2004.

Sven and Steve McClaren gave him some instructions not to let Ronaldo turn with the ball and he was excellent the whole game.

He has been excellent for the whole year. He has improved his defensive work very very much.

Best team performance: I must say Arsenal when they played in the beginning of the season. For instance the first game against Everton away – that was fantastic. They had some marvellous team performances early on in the season.

They are skilful players, with good technique, and they are quick. So you can play one touch football – that’s what they do in Arsenal

One thing you would like to change: What we would like to change is to have more preparation time. We have talked about that since we came here and they are talking about it now in UEFA and FIFA of course because the best players seem to be tired when these big tournaments are coming up and that’s not good football.

Best football quote of the year: I can’t exactly tell you in English the whole thing, but I want to mention a letter we got on our desk from John Barnwell, from the League Managers Association.

He said that the managers should stick together and not go out in the press talking about each other. He said it is a difficult job we have and we need to stick together.

Log on to TheFA.com over the festive period for more end of year reviews.

Date Article
20 December       Terry Venables
21 December The Barber
22 December Tord Grip - Part I
23 December Tord Grip - Part II
24 December Brent Hills and Tord Grip - Part III
25 December Sven-Goran Eriksson - Part I
26 December Trevor Brooking - Part I
27 December Trevor Brooking - Part II
28 December Trevor Brooking - Part III
29 December Sammy Lee
30 December Graeme Dell and Matt Upson
31 December Sven-Goran Eriksson - Part II
01 January  Sven-Goran Eriksson - Part III
02 January  Brendon Batson
03 January  Nigel Worthington and Lyndon Lynch
04 January  Marcus Bignot
05 January  Dave Jones
06 January  Bobby Robson and Martin Hunter
07 January  Mark Schwarzer and Zesh Rehman