Ferguson’s plea to keep Blue-print
ARTETA VOW TO GUNNERS
DUNCAN FERGUSON has urged new Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti not to rip up his blueprint.
The caretaker boss will step aside for the Italian’s arrival following today’s clash with Arsenal.
Ferguson is a novice of just three games in charge after Marco Silva was sacked earlier this month.
But he is blue to the core and will remind Ancelotti of the values that make the Goodison outfit tick after inspiring a mini-revival during his short tenure.
“You need tactics and a gameplan,” he said.
“We’ve instilled that in the players but of course you need to run around, make tackles and win headers.
“You need to do the fundamentals of the game right or you won’t get anything.
“Everybody has got a different way of playing football.
“Everyone has different formations and ways they approach the game but the way we’ve approached it has proven to be the right way at the moment.”
Ferguson, who wants to be part of the incoming manager’s plans, added: “Nobody knows the players better than me. I’ve been here many a year and hopefully the new guy coming in uses me.”
In Ferguson’s three matches Everton have taken four points from Chelsea and Manchester United and staged a late comeback from 2-0 down to Leicester in the Carabao Cup before losing on penalties.
It’s a huge contrast to the Silva side that lost meekly to the likes of Norwich and Sheffield United at home.
And Ferguson insists there is no need for a revolution at Everton – because there have been too many of those in recent years.
“We’ve had a lot of transfers and comingsand-goings through the club so we definitely need a bit of stability,” he said.
“There is a good base here on the playing side but the new manager will have his own style and can assess it.
“But I will be here to help.”
Everton’s players have shown the effect a new manager can have but Ferguson is not concerned with what sort of impact Arsenal’s appointment of boss Mikel Arteta will have against his old club today.
“I don’t know how their players will respond,” he said.
“It’s about getting on the front foot, making sure we put Arsenal under some pressure, expose their weaknesses and get the fans right up for it.”
MIKEL ARTETA said he had come home to Arsenal yesterday.
But the former Gunners skipper admitted he was shocked how badly things had gone wrong since he had left.
The Spaniard, who ended his playing career in north London in 2016, saw Arsenal’s decline when Manchester City won 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
It was not bad enough to stop him taking the job but the shambolic Gunners display illustrated the size of the task.
“It wasn’t only the performance, it was the atmosphere and energy that I perceived when I was working around the place,” the 37-year-old said.
“That worried me a little bit. I understand that they are used to success and fighting for things and at the moment it’s difficult for them (the fans) to swallow.
“Has the club lost its way? That’s what I’m sensing from the outside. I would like to start to make some steps and start to understand the reasons why.
“A lot of external things happened over the past few months that obviously has a knockon effect on the team, on their relationships and the perception people have on them as a team, how together or not together they are.
“They have to be so united, that dressing room is untouchable. So let me help.”
Before he was dismissed, Unai Emery had sacked Granit Xhaka as captain after he confronted angry fans as he left the field.
Asked if his new players had a mentality problem, Arteta added: “I am about to find out. I want to start from scratch and understand the history and why this is happening. But change the environment and the context for them, and give them the opportunity to perform and live in a way in which the expectations are different.
“If we give them the tactical culture, they have the right culture to be more secure when they go to perform.”
Arteta starts at his former club Everton today where he will watch from the stands.
“It’s very clear what’s going to happen at that ground tomorrow and the challenge faced by my players,” he said. “That’s what I’ll be looking at.”
Arteta, who nearly got the Arsenal job 18 months ago, admitted he cried when he left
City and Pep Guardiola. “We had a dream to do something in England with Pep that people said was impossible to do because we would get bullied in the Premier League, and we did it in a way we believed we could do it,” he said.
“That’s so fulfilling and we will share that feeling for the rest of our lives, the moment that we lived together.”
But he claimed the lure of his former club was too great.
“Sometimes in this industry you can have a plan, an idea or a way to develop the best possible way,” he said. “Then the emotions get involved. When Arsenal knocks on any door, it’s difficult to say no.”
Arteta came through the Barcelona academy as a player and has spent the last three-and-a-half years learning the art of coaching under Pep Guardiola.
At 37, he takes the Arsenal job at the same age the Catalan became Barcelona head coach.
He will be the youngest head coach in the Premier League – too young for some Arsenal fans. “I completely understand their concern,” Arteta said.
“But I will try to convince them that I’m ready, that I wouldn’t be sitting here if I honestly didn’t think I’m prepared.
“I will burn every drop of blood for this club to make it better.”