I don’t know how long I have left – it is better that way

In his first column for Telegraph Sport, Sven-Goran Eriksson says he is staying positive despite having been diagnosed with terminal cancer - AP/Jon Super

To start with, sorry I’m late. This column was meant to start before the tournament but I had a little setback – although I’m feeling much better now.

Since the news came out that I have terminal cancer, I have travelled all over Sweden, England, Italy and Portugal, and I’ve had tears in my eyes so often at the kindness of people. You usually find that everybody talks very well about people when they are dead. I am lucky that they talk well about me while I am still alive.

The warmth and love has given me energy and happiness, and it has certainly helped me stay positive with my health. I have an illness and everybody knows about it, but so far it’s okay. I’m still on my feet.

If you ask the doctors how long I’ve got left to live they can’t answer. Does that worry me? I think it’s better not to know.

You have to try to stay positive in situations like this, that is how I have always lived my life. I like meeting people and living a normal life as much as possible.

I don’t want to sit down feeling sorry about myself. No, thanks. You don’t resolve anything with that.

On a day-to-day basis it’s a little bit up and down. Some mornings I wake up feeling totally perfect. Well, almost. And then other mornings it’s a problem. But the good days are still here and I’m fine.

The response has been fantastic. It started in Liverpool and when 60,000 people in a stadium are singing your name, if that doesn’t give you a kick then nothing will give you a kick. It’s been beautiful and I’m so thankful to everyone.

Last weekend I had a visit from my old England captain, David Beckham. David phoned me and said he was coming over.

That shows you who Beckham is. He didn’t have any need to come here but wanted to do it. He arrived with six bottles of wine, including one from 1948 which is the year I was born. That’s David Beckham as I knew him, an extremely good person.

I’ve had messages from a lot of other England players, like Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard.

The most contact I’ve had is maybe from Roberto Mancini, he was my captain in teams for nine years and everybody knows who he is. Mancini and Beckham were very good captains, and fantastic people.

Roberto Mancini (left) played under Eriksson at Sampdoria in the 1990s - Getty Images/Simone Arveda

And watching the games, I can tell nothing has changed with being the England manager. There are not many other jobs like it, perhaps apart from being the Prime Minister. It can take over your life if you allow it.

Unfortunately, the critics never stop. They build them up until the day before the first game and then if it’s not a 5-0 win, or something extreme like that, the criticism comes.

The pressure as England manager is immense. England is one of the biggest football countries in the world, but it’s like a dream as well – you have to take the positive things from it.

‘Criticism is part of the job – Southgate is big enough to handle it’

When you leave the country to go to a major tournament you have the feeling that, wow, you’re on a mission. You almost feel like you have 60 million people backing you and pushing you: go and win it for us. You feel like you’re the Beatles. It’s a football party for a month and fantastic to be part of it. It’s a great experience in life.

The criticism is just part of the job. Gareth Southgate is big enough to handle it. Hopefully he goes with his head and doesn’t change too much in the team. It’s never good if you have to change three, four or five players.

If he wins Euro 2024 he will stay for a long time. Talking today about changing the manager? Don’t even listen to it.

He knows the players better than anyone and feels the atmosphere every day. There is no point in denying that it has not been brilliant so far for England. They haven’t created a lot of chances but they have conceded almost nothing.

I am not worried. At the World Cup in 2002 – my first tournament with England – our results were exactly the same in the group stage. There was one win and two draws: the win was over Argentina and the draws were with Sweden and Nigeria.

Eriksson understands better than most the pressure England manager Gareth Southgate is under - Action Images/Alex Morton

As you can imagine, the reaction to those draws was not good with the press. All the things you are reading now were the same 22 years ago.

While England have not made great performances, they have still won the group and the tournament is long. I am sure they are going to get better.

It would mean so much to me if England can win it this year. I want them to be successful whenever they play. I think they have a very good chance to go far.

There are still so many good players. When I look at Jude Bellingham, he reminds me of Rooney. They are different players but their age, fearlessness and power is something they both share. Bellingham will be one of the players who England will need, and he will be one of the stars of the tournament.

England were lucky to be in this side of the draw and it should be possible to beat any team in that half – and then it will get more difficult.

The more the players train together now, and the more they play together, it will get better and better.

England will beat Slovakia on Sunday and go far. Good luck to Gareth!

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