At Friday’s introductory press conference, Eriksson faced a barrage of questions on everything from his time as England manager to the early season visit of Manchester United, but when asked about how he would convince Blues fans that he was the best man for the job he responded:
“There’s only one way to do that – football results. That’s the only way you can convince people that we are a good team.
“I want to be judged on football results and judged as a football manager. I can promise you will see new faces in the squad and the team when the Premier League starts.”
“Of course we managers want to be in the big clubs – and this is a big club and the good thing is that it has the right ambitions. It is a very interesting project for me, the Club, the fans, the players and if a club, whatever level, doesn’t have ambitions to improve and do things better, then it’s not a good job. But this is an extremely good job, exciting, a big challenge and I’m looking forward to it very much.”
Backed by a record of many trophies won at national and European level for clubs in Sweden, Portugal and Italy, Eriksson dismissed concerns about six years away from managing at club level.
“That will not be a problem. Before I managed the national team I worked since I was 27 as a manager at club level, so I can’t have forgotten all of it.
“At least I can’t be accused of knowing too little about the Premier League because I think in the five and a half years with England I saw more live games than any other Premier League manager.”
Roland Andersson, the Swedish national side’s assistant manager, will not be joining Eriksson’s backroom team at Carrington but the manager confirmed the appointment of Tord Grip of whom he said:
“He will be mostly behind the scenes. When you are in a football club there has to be a connection between the youth Academy and reserve teams, he will do that as well as looking at new players, opponents and things like that. He will be busy and he likes that.”
