Ljungberg – The People Have Spoken

Freddie Ljungberg – His Sounders Life in Pictures

Five days ago, we asked your views on Freddie Ljungberg in an article without comment from us.

The question was as follows, and we offered three possible answers.

With 555 votes cast and five days elapsed, we decided to bring an update with of course the benefit of a match having been played, and eventually won, in that period since the vote was launched.

In the early voting, the more direct options of “Stay”and “Go” were polling almost neck and neck at approximately 40% each with the remainder plumping for the third option, which was he could leave if a quality replacement was found. We actually termed that as a DP to ensure a side debate of the level and interpretation of what constituted ‘quality’ did not cloud the main thrust of the issue.

After a few days though, opinion began to swing more towards the ‘Stay’ option. However it never reached 50%. It appears that the Ljungberg issue divides Sounders fans almost equally, with just over half envisaging the Swede’s departure. Exactly 1/3 of those voting just want him to go at this point, regardless of whether quality cover is brought in. Those fans may be hard to win back in the increasingly unlikely event he ever wears a Sounders jersey again. They also are willing for the club to take a financial hit, one presumes, to just have him away from the locker room.

We were slightly surprised that the third option polled as poorly as it did. The conclusion is that Freddie is drawing some very strong opinions with large numbers of fans prepared to unconditionally back him or sack him, and let the the side cope with the situation as best it can once the chips fall.

You can also read it as 81% wanting a resolution quickly while that 19% are prepared to put up with the uncertainty in order to obtain the best long term solution, with the possibility that this may come at the potential expense of results (which so far it isn’t). That clearly is the camp Adrian Hanauer and the ownership group are in now but for how long?  If a buying club cannot be found, Sounders will be stuck with his wages for the rest of his contract and will receive no transfer fee at the end. (On a side note, what impact will Tod Leiweke leaving Vulcan have on their thoughts, and what impact will his successor’s views have?)

That scenario would present the club with a couple of questions, such as do you play him if he is fit? At present, results are good and no-one seems to believe there is much cause for change. But if results turn for the worse and he is sitting around and still on the payroll, it becomes a reasonable thing to consider.

If Sigi Schmid will not countenance that, do the Sounders allow him to continue training with the side? Paying Freddie a large amount to sit at home is the worst case scenario for the ownership and the club, and it is totally understandable that the club is taking every step to avoid that, including being incredibly measured in the tone of their words. There is no advantage for either party in engaging in a war of words through the media that may alert a potential buying club to the problems, physical or attitudinal, that have come to characterise Freddie’s tenure in Seattle. We are sure having him training on his own but around the club is a situation that satisfies nobody and has some inherent risks.

As a site that has been more openly critical of the club than most, we should say that we have a fair degree of confidence in the club to make the right call at the right time, especially if undue weight is given to the football rather than the business people giving advice. That means if men like Sigi Schmid, Chris Henderson and Kasey Keller say either the side can accommodate Freddie and he should play; or that everyone is better off if Sounders drive him to the airport in a Volvo, those who only see the business angle must listen to them.

We’re not of the view that there is a unretractable point of principle at stake here. Freddie’s face just doesn’t seem to fit in the starting eleven at the moment and that is a blow to the professional pride of the man. On the other hand, England’s World Cup fate and even more so that of Italy, show what can happen if you select on reputation rather than form. There is clearly a triangle between what is best for the player, what is best for the franchise and what is best for the team. The solution probably does not lie at the angle of the triangle but somewhere inside it.

Perhaps the new Fulham manager will arrive late enough that all the more attractive signings are gone and Ljungberg heads a list of available talent, especially if Ljungberg’s fellow countryman Sven Goran Eriksson ends up in charge. Eriksson worked closely with Fulham’s chief executive Alistair Mackintosh when both were at Manchester City, so nothing is impossible and the English bookies list the bespectacled Swede as the second favourite to land the Craven Cottage hot seat. Other contenders such as the LA-based Jurgen Klinsmann and USA coach Bob Bradley will also be very aware of the Swede’s availability.

No-one in Seattle should wish the player any ill will. On many occasions, he took a physical toll during games. He didn’t always react with the discipline the fans his team mates and coach would have liked, but both the coach and some fans were only recent converts to respecting the authority of the officials themselves.  People who condemn the hire because eventually it seemed to have had more effect on the marketing of the club than on the playing side should ask themselves ‘why is that necessarily a bad thing?’ At least once a wannabe EPL fan is inside Qwest Field, there is a chance of converting him to a real MLS and Sounders fan. The recruitment of a player to draw a doubting public to the franchise was justified in our view.

Keeping him entertained enough to remain a Sounders and MLS fan is a task for players, Front Office, fan groups and even us writers to take on. But we should never forget that Freddie brought some of us to the party and even if he leaves early, and under a cloud, we shouldn’t forget that there were good times too.

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