I HOPE Sven Goran Eriksson wasn't looking forward to the quiet life with Manchester City.

City may not be quite on the same level as England - although some of their fans would have you believe otherwise - but Sven is still big news.

As the first foreign manager of the national team, he was the highest-profile England boss in many years. He didn't do much or say anything hugely inflammatory, yet still we were fascinated by him.

Even his private life became of interest and Nancy Dell'Olio became a national celebrity.

Do any of us know or want to know about Steve McClaren's private life? Thought not.

There is something about Sven that maintains the interest and that interest was certainly still there when he took charge of City for the first time at Doncaster on Saturday.

An affiliation to the hosts and the Sven effect tempted me to the Keepmoat Stadium.

If Saturday was anything to go by, nothing much has changed where the Swede is concerned.

Around 20 photographers huddled around the dug-outs for almost half an hour, waiting for that first picture of Sven back in management.

A moment of excitement at seeing a grey-haired Swede emerging from the tunnel was instantaneously dampened by the realisation that this early appearance was from Tord Grip.

Eventually Sven emerged to be swamped by Doncaster-supporting autograph hunters.

Photographers gathered round him and started snapping away.

He moved towards the Manchester City fans and exchanged applause with his new supporters, some of whom by the law of averages must have been the same people saying he wasn't fit to manage England last year.

Five minutes later the photographers were still huddled round him and snapping away. They'd never seen anything like it in Doncaster. Not for a pre-season friendly.

Once the match started, Sven got back to doing what he does best - sitting motionless in a dug-out with a slightly worried look on his face.

Doncaster took a shock lead and Sven was in for it.

"Are you watching Eriksson?" the home fans chanted, forgetting that such a chant is normally reserved for players or clubs not actually in the stadium. The answer to the question was almost certainly yes.

There was more. "He only came for the money," was another.

Sven's going to have to get used to it because it will be a whole lot worse when City go away in the Premier League.

An hour and a defence-splitting pass from the referee later, City were 3-1 up and Sven had lifted them out of the doldrums and a step closer to European domination.

Their new £8.8m signing had been at the game to witness it but, seeing as no-one actually knows who he is, we were none the wiser.

Let's hope for City's sake that Rolando Bianchi takes last season's form of 18 goals in 37 games to Eastlands rather than the five goals he had scored in his previous 70 games.

But Sven or no Sven, some things never change. Georgios Samaras was hopeless.