Ljungberg staying to help the cause
Eddie’s not ready to talk new deals
MIKEL ARTETA will keep Freddie Ljungberg on his coaching staff at Arsenal.
The new Gunners manager said: “I spoke to Freddie and told him my idea, the people I wanted to bring to form my coaching staff, their roles and responsibilities.
“I wanted to know what he was feeling, what he had in mind, what his expectations were.We talked and we made a decision that the best thing was for him to stay.
“He knows the players, knows the situation, knows where we’re coming from, and his knowledge of the game is going to help us.
“We’ll start a new chapter now with new ways of doing things. I got a good impression. He’s ready to help. He was very positive.”
Arteta, who has appointed Steve Round
EDDIE HOWE has put his own future on hold to focus on keeping Bournemouth in the Premier League.
Howe’s £60,000a-week contract expires at the end of next season and the Cherries boss is yet to open negotiations over another.
Howe, whose side face Arsenal on Boxing Day after two wins in their last 13 games, said: “My contract does not end at the end of the season; I have got 18 months from now.
“I am concentrating on the games. People ask me about January and transfers and I am as his assistant manager, will have Mesut Ozil and Hector Bellerin fit for the Boxing Day clash with Bournemouth, but Calum Chambers is suspended.
Arteta added: “The players have a clean slate.They are not going to be judged on things they have done in the past.”
And keeper Bernd Leno insisted Arteta could lead Arsenal back into the Champions League at the first attempt.
“Of course he can – there are still many games this season,” said the German.
“We play against all the top six.We have a lot of opportunities to win against them.
“We still believe and it’s in our hands. Show the right mentality and I’m confident we’ll achieve our target.” only focusing on Arsenal.That is the same when it comes to my own future.”
Howe, below, has promised to attack the Gunners after failing to manage a shot on target in Saturday’s dour 1-0 defeat by Burnley. He said: “We’re here to entertain. We have to attack like we mean it.” Injury-plagued Bournemouth could be without as many as 10 players for Mikel Arteta’s first game as Arsenal boss, including Chelsea target Nathan Ake and defensive stalwart Steve Cook.
AN HOUR after his first public appearance as Everton’s new manager, Carlo Ancelotti was recalling his last visit to the rabbit warren of corridors linking rooms and suites in the main stand at Goodison Park.
It was May 2011, a year after delivering the Premier League title and FA Cup to his then paymasters Chelsea. He bumped into Toffees boss David Moyes, who was on his way to the post-match press conference.
The Scot had said hello and asked if everything was OK, to which Ancelotti replied: “I’ve just been sacked.”
Time may have soothed the edges of that unfortunate day when Chelsea hardly covered themselves with glory – on or off the pitch – to the point where he can laugh now. “I was sacked in the corridor there,” he said gesturing vaguely behind him. “I think you have to put a little plaque, ‘Here was sacked...’
“But I never beat Everton here or also at Stamford Bridge. David Moyes was my nightmare! Even in the FA Cup, Leighton Baines scored at the last minute. I am going to the training ground to remind him now!”
Baines, who along with Seamus Coleman, was singled out by the Italian as having a special “belonging” to the club should have few worries.
And for all that Ancelotti’s memories here are tainted by failure, few doubt his arrival on a four-and-a-half year deal will afford the chance to rebalance the books. “Life changes so quickly,” he said.
“I was planning a holiday in Vancouver but everything changed so quickly after I met Farhad Moshiri and Bill Kenwright last week – but it is good to be here.
“It is an important period for me and I am excited. It was easy to make the decision to come back to the Premier League and the opportunity Everton gave to me is a club with a lot of tradition and history who want to improve.
“And they have a good clear idea of how to do that.”
It is a measure of the coup in bringing Ancelotti to Goodison, just 11 days after he was sacked by the chaotic regime running Napoli, that raised eyebrows that have yet to come down.