Will he jump, or does he have to be pushed? Yet again, it seems, rumours of the imminent demise of current Lazio coach and England manager-elect, Sven-Goran Eriksson, have been greatly exaggerated. As of last night, the peerless Swede was sitting tight at Lazio, apparently resolute in his refusal to resign and determined to see out his contract with the reigning Italian champions through to next June.

At the end of an hour-long meeting with Lazio owner Sergio Cragnotti yesterday, Eriksson remains at his post, as confirmed by Cragnotti who said, in an endorsement that was hardly "ringing": "Eriksson remains our coach."

The most recent crisis in the Eriksson-Lazio relationship was prompted by an abysmal performance on Sunday when the Rome side got the year off to the worst possible start, losing 2-1 at home to relegation battlers Napoli. That was Lazio's seventh defeat of the season, and it came hot on the heels of a pre-Christmas fortnight when Lazio pulled off an unenviable hat-trick by losing to Leeds in the Champions League, being knocked out of the Italian Cup by Udinese and then, most painful of all, being beaten 1-0 by Roma in the derby.

Those pundits, many of them British, who have spent the last two months predicting an imminent and premature sacking for Eriksson thought that their hour had finally come yesterday when Eriksson was summoned to a "summit" meeting with Cragnotti. Even the Italian media, which until now have been relatively low-key about a possible sacking, seemed convinced yesterday morning that the time had finally come. "Eriksson To Go, Zoff to Take Over Lazio?", "Eriksson For the Sack?" were two of many headlines.

So, how come Eriksson is still at his Lazio post this morning? The answer may be found in the delicate shadow-boxing being played by the Swede and the Lazio boss. Sources close to Lazio last night suggested that, while Sergio Cragnotti has now, finally, become convinced that a change of coach might be in the club's best interest, he is still extremely reluctant to fire the man who won Lazio's first title in 26 years last season.

Put simply, after having consistently defended Eriksson throughout the last three-and-a-half seasons, Cragnotti believes that he would risk a credibility problem if he now did an abrupt "about turn" and gave Eriksson the old heave-ho.

And there's the rub. The longer the Eriksson-Lazio-England saga runs, the more obvious it becomes that Cragnotti is loath to sack his man. Rather, it now seems that Cragnotti would like Eriksson to help him out of a difficult situation by resigning.

This solution would, in theory, save face all round since Eriksson would be resigning after a relative failure, yes, but on his way to taking up a prestigious post with England, while Cragnotti could claim that he had remained loyal to his man through thick and thin.

The fly in that particular ointment, though, concerns Eriksson's professional pride. He is not the resigning kind. In 24 seasons of coaching in Sweden, Portugal and Italy, he has never resigned. Furthermore, in that same period, he has been sacked only once (by Roma in 1987).

Knowing Eriksson, our guess is that if Cragnotti now wants rid of him, then he will have to bite the bullet and sack him, replacing him with current club director, Dino Zoff, the man who led Italy to the Euro 2000 final last summer.

One thing is for sure: next weekend's Serie A game away to Udinese becomes yet another "decisive test" for Lazio and Eriksson. Another defeat might prove one too many, even for Sven.