Thank goodness, it's finally over. Sven-Goran Eriksson is no longer England's manager.

Now the bitter taste of another tournament exit has faded, it's time to stick the boot in.

Eriksson was the man entrusted with the task of leading England's golden generation to World Cup glory but he never even got close.

Including the Euro 2004 campaign, he had three attempts to win a major tournament but these all ended in similar failure.

Let's face it, how many times was it said that 2006 was going to be our year, when all those young hopefuls like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen and more were going to be at the peak of their game?

And to make it so much easier for Eriksson, he was even blessed with the emergence of Wayne Rooney to give England that extra raw talent to make the rest of the world fearful.

But what could have been a terrorising England, one which relentlessly attacked from all dimensions to pound opposition into submission, turned into a toothless one with little in the way of imagination and creativity.

To put it bluntly it's been perhaps the worst era to be an England fan - almost up there with Graham Taylor's side.

Apparently we should be grateful for Eriksson's "great competitive record" and the fact we reached these tournaments. But come on, I think our results when it really mattered proved that although narrow 1-0 wins over Azerbaijan and Austria in qualification are all well and good at the time, the nature of these displays never improved against better sides.

In Germany, England limped to unimpressive victories over Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago, drew with an ailing Swedish side before once again sneaking past another weak nation in Ecuador.

There are no exceptions, these were all mind-numbingly boring and insipid performances which struck fear into no one. We were never going to win this World Cup with Sven in charge. Never ever.

It was only a matter of time before England returned home defeated, and eventually it came down to a penalty shootout exit at the hands of Luiz Felipe Scolari's Portugal again.

And this is exactly why it's incredibly frustrating when people say, "the result is all that matters," because it so obviously isn't the case. Just look at France's level of performance against Spain and Brazil - England never showed such passion, drive and sheer class and look who has the greater chance of winning the World Cup now.

The French may not end up winning it but at least they have given their country something to be proud of.

So, aside from this dismal yet predictable showing, what else for has this man actually achieved for a total salary of £25million?

Well, firstly those few Sven fans out there would say England were struggling even to qualify for the 2002 World CUp when Eriksson came in and turned it round.

Right, thanks for that. You see as much as the 5-1 mauling of Germany in that period was fantastic, qualification for Japan and Korea should have never been in doubt, especially with the quality England had at their disposal.

You would expect most managers to lead us to the finals of a major tournament, even if Keegan was struggling to do so. Therefore I can't bring myself to say that should be a major plus point on Eriksson's CV.

And then we have that World Cup itself. Let's be honest, it was the first of three dismal failures. There's little point going over old ground but the long and short of it was that apart from a gutsy 1-0 victory over a poor Argentina side in the group stage, Eriksson proved he had no ability to inspire or turn any game around when it's going pear-shaped.

Losing to Brazil is no disgrace in itself but what was unacceptable was the lethargic attempt to even try and get back on level terms following Ronaldinho's fluke goal.

Two years later he led England to Euro 2004 but I'm sure you need no reminding this also ended with hosts Portugal knocking us out on penalties at the quarter-final stage.

It's just always the same old story. The analysis for every major tournament since he took over could be re-written over and over again with just a few minor alterations.

Essentially it's the huge factors which can stay the same - those glaring problems which you would expect a top-class manager to address over such a long period in office.

The defensive and stale tactics, the long-ball approach, the deflating second-half capitulations, the embarrassing penalty taking and, of course, Scolari.

The Brazilian has out-thought and out-witted Eriksson in three successive tournaments as coach of his own country once and Portugal twice.

Ironically this is the man who apparently turned down an approach from the Football Association to succeed Eriksson at the end of this World Cup and instead we have a Steve McClaren era to look forward to instead. Oh what joy.

Not that any of this is McClaren's fault but, being the Swede's right-hand man for such a length of time, there is a danger nothing will change.

For five long years the England players have always stuck up for Eriksson, but in reality it's just because they wanted to keep their place in this terrible team. Just wait a year or two and we will find out how bad he really was.

But for now let's raise a glass and toast the end of Sven's dreadful reign.