Interim Arsenal head coach Freddie Ljungberg has urged the club to make a decision on its next head coach quickly.
His comments came after Arsenal lost 3 – 0 at home to Manchester City. It was not an unexpected result, but the manner of the defeat showed how far away Arsenal are from competing.
Kevin De Bruyne finished emphatically in the second minute to put City 1 – 0 up. From there, Arsenal were never going to win the game. The rest of the match played out as expected, with no sparks of life from the Gunners.
Ljungberg’s comments speak to a man who doesn’t know what the club’s executives are thinking. He is being assisted in his temporary role by Per Mertesaker, the team’s academy manager.
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“As I’ve said to the club, it’s a great, great honour to do this,” said Ljungberg.
“Of course Per is the academy manager and he’s doing two jobs in one go. I think it needs clearing up to make a decision so that everybody knows. That’s something I’ve said. It’s totally up to the club. I’m very honoured and trying to do things as well as I can, but I think that it would be good to make a decision regardless of what it is.”
According to the media chatter, Mikel Arteta is the most likely man to get the head coach’s job. Managing director Vinai Venkatesham and club lawyer Huss Fahmy were photographed leaving the Manchester City assistant coaches house at 1am on Monday Morning.
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Most bookies have suspended betting on Arteta getting the job as a result. Betfair will still take bets on the situation, with Arteta 1/5 on to get the job.
The Gunners will hope that a new head coach is named sooner rather than later. Ljungberg’s comments after the City game are all but an admission that he is in over his head. Arteta is a rookie too, of course. But he nearly got the job before it was handed to Unai Emery, and his experience at City is at least more than Ljungberg has.
