Alfred Johansson is only 35 but already worldly-wise enough not to go making big, bold predictions about what kind of success he might bring to Motherwell.
“Tomorrow is tomorrow, yesterday was yesterday and today is today,” was how the new manager translated an old Swedish expression in which he puts much faith.
He’s clearly a deep thinker, as well as quite the people-person. Warm handshakes all round at the start of his introductory media conference, as predecessor Jens Berthel Askou also liked to do, followed by a good line in home-spun philosophy and a warm, engaging smile.
“Success for me would be if we could continue to build and consolidate all of the good things that have been going on with the past couple of managers,” he said.
The bar, of course, has been set ferociously high by Askou, who steered Motherwell to a fourth place Premiership finish and European football before being tempted away by Toulouse.
While the club won’t elaborate on the length of Johansson’s contract, the man himself says his commitment should not be questioned.
“I just moved here a couple of days ago with my pregnant wife,” he explained. “I think that tells the story that we want to be here. It’s a really narrow focus but also a long-term focus.
“I’ll have a Scottish baby, yes. If my wife was not coming, I was not going to go. It was a life decision for us and we feel really happy about it.”
Brought up in a little town outside Stockholm and never having played professional football, Johansson was in charge at Rosenborg in Norway before his date with destiny in Motherwell.
A template was set by Askou for fast-flowing, attacking football with the back door well and truly bolted shut. It yielded a campaign for the ages for the Motherwell faithful who flocked back to Fir Park in their ecstatic droves.
So what will Alfredball look like?
“I want intensity, I want tempo,” he said. “I want to play out from the back, I want to be constructive in the way that we attack.
“We build attacks looking for advantages on an individual level. Collectively, we have to be strong units when we press and when we have to sit a little bit deeper at times.
“It’s a privilege to come to a well-run locker room, to a well-run training session. The players, in the first real session that we had yesterday, ran the show by themselves in a really nice manner.
“I obviously have my own ideas which will affect how the team is expressed on the pitch.”
And what about retaining last season’s star performers?
“Motherwell for the last many years has been losing the best players almost every summer and equally evident for me is that they’ve been really good in scouting and recruitment,” said Johansson.
“All these brilliant players that we have, I feel they are fully committed. They’ve been training brilliantly, they’ve been coming back in really good shape. I’m fully committed and I’m also very calm.”
