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There are heavy rain clouds over Kamratgården and the IFK Gothenburg training on Wednesday. A symbolic image for a football club that has not won in 13 Allsvenskan matches, that sacked coach Poya Asbaghi and that is embroiled in the background battle.
But when Pontus Wernbloom, with the help of compressed air, has cleaned the muddy football boots and answered questions, the clouds slowly part and the blue sky appears.
If you wait There are still brighter times for Blue and White. The cup champions must find a way out of their undefeated and set a trend in the Allsvenskan. There have been eleven crosses in 18 games before Hammarby comes to visit Gamla Ullevi on Thursday night.
– We have to start winning games, it’s that simple, says Wernbloom.
The 34-year-old returned to Gothenburg and the club he was a part of and was proclaimed Swedish champion in 2007 after spending more than a decade in the Netherlands, Russia and Greece. It landed in chaos. It only took two games and Poya Asbaghi was fired.
Wernbloom says that he had a good impression of Asbaghi, but also that this is the rough world of elite football and that it is always the coach who can go even though the players have the same responsibility.
Together with Mattias Bjärsmyr, Jakob Johansson and Sebastian Eriksson, Wernbloom is one of four heavy new acquisitions that will try to get IFK’s ship back in the right direction. The question is whether he, as a seasoned returnee with a big heart from IFK, feels additional pressure on his shoulders.
– I do not know. There is pressure for the whole team, I think. We need to come together as a group and do it together. But of course we hope that we (the returnees) can help, says Wernbloom.
Do you see any difference in IFK Gothenburg as a club today and when did you leave in 2009?
– I think it was a little more difficult before. For better or for worse, you could say, but I think now we have to be a little tougher on each other and make more demands. It’s just trying to get that back, in a different way than we had I think.
Do you see any difference in the Allsvenskan today and in the past?
– Yes absolutely. I think the players are, in general, much more skilled with the ball. Now I admit that I have only played two games, but I see a clear difference.
Will IFK play differently without Poya Asbaghi?
– It’s a bit too early to say because it’s been a very short time and it really is something you should ask the coaches about. We play as they decide, says Wernbloom and looks forward to meeting Hammarby.
– Honestly, Blåvitt is the only team I followed when I was abroad, but I know that Hammarby has a lot of right-handed players with the ball and that the club is somewhat different than it was the last time I was at Allsvenskan, he says.
To Hammarby It will be the former assistant coach, Ferran Sibila, who together with former faithful servant Alf Westerberg leads the team. It is a short term solution until there is a new coach.
Sibila says she ended up in a difficult situation.
– I wanted to be loyal to Poya but also to the club, so when they allowed him to leave I was confused. But I had the support of the club’s management and the players and now I feel that I have the energy to move on and win games, says the Spaniard, who will be able to do without Sebastian Eriksson against Hammarby.
So how will IFK play under their interim rule?
– We will dominate. The team that dominates and creates opportunities wins the most soccer games, so that’s what we have to do, says Sibila.
