Where's Sven? Another Indie columnist goes missing

WHAT has happened to The Independent's latest celebrity columnist, Sven Goran Eriksson? Last week the then Leicester City football manager greeted readers of his debut article on the sports pages by announcing: "It's a day of firsts for me – my first newspaper column, after 34 years in football management."
 
Sadly, it seems it may also have been his last.
 
Within days of brandishing his quill for the first time, Sven got the chop from his job at Leicester after a string of bad results culminated in a 3-0 defeat to Millwall.
 
The Indie's report of his sacking by Leicester revealed how the former England manager "scheduled a 7pm call [on Monday] to discuss his second Independent column. By that time, he had been dismissed".
 
The paper said that Eriksson's first column had been "well received" and that he hoped to "be back on these pages". However, there was no sign of a column in the Indie later in the week.
 
It is thought the Indie is now in two minds about whether to carry on paying a columnist whose stock has fallen even lower than it was when the paper hired him. Both sides are believed to be reviewing their options.

As well as having little to write about now that he has no club to manage, Sven may also be having second thoughts about life in England. In his debut column he waxed lyrical about his second home in Portugal. "I have been privileged to work in some wonderful countries but I don't think there are many places on earth quite like Cascais, on the north Atlantic coast... Portugal is small and peaceful with extremely good weather and good food."
 
Eriksson would not be the first big-name casualty at the Indie this autumn. Jemima Khan recently left the paper, four months after she was hired as an associate editor by editor-in-chief Simon Kelner.
 
But when he was suddenly replaced by Chris Blackhurst, her role was reduced to contributing editor and she jumped ship to the New Statesman. ·