“Yeah, he wasn’t happy about that!” Ljungberg says Saka didn’t want to play a certain role

Freddie Ljungberg played a key role in Bukayo Saka becoming a regular at Arsenal.

He was in charge of the Arsenal youth team when the Arsenal teenager was making waves for the team.

He switched the youngster to a left wing-back role and that is the position that he has been playing now for his club and country.

However, Ljungberg was speaking with The Telegraph recently and he claimed that when he told Saka to play in that position, the youngster didn’t like it, but he told him that it was a position that he will eventually end up playing in.

He claimed that he changed the system for an under23 game so that the now 19-year-old would play as a wing-back, but the teenager wasn’t impressed.

He claims that he was with Saka from when he was 15 and played a key role in his development into a first-team regular.

“Yeah, he wasn’t happy about that! I even did it with the Under-23s,” said Ljungberg. “I changed the system for an away game for Bukayo to play wing-back and he was not impressed with me. I said ‘but Bukayo, that might actually be where you play’. 

“I was with him early, since he was 15 years old, and there were always people saying ‘oh no, this and that’. Not to take credit, because it was Bukayo who did it, not me. But, for me, it was very clear and there was nothing to talk about.

“He’s so humble, so hungry to learn new things and so, of course, he is a special talent. I think it was the second phone call I made when I left the club. To his family, just to make sure they knew from me and not from the media. I’m so happy to see him doing so well.”