Björklund was a central defender when IFK Göteborg won Swedish Championship titles and achieved success in the Champions League during the 1990s. From a distance, he has followed the club's struggle in the lower regions of the Allsvenskan table for several seasons.
Last summer, Björklund returned to Kamratgården as an assistant coach when Stefan Billborn took over as head coach.
We've been down here (in the lower part of the table) for too long, and it's time for a change. But that requires a proper turnaround, says Björklund.
In Need of Help
If "Blåvitt" had managed to defeat top team Mjällby at Strandvallen, a feat they achieved in the years 2021-2023, they would have secured a new contract on their own merit.
That didn't happen. During the first half's stoppage time, Mjällby's Elliot Stroud scored the only goal of the match.
After the break, a Göteborg with clear offensive ambitions emerged, which also gave Mjällby some counter-attacking opportunities.
It's incredibly tough to accept that it's a draw in the second match and we're trailing by one. In the last minute, it was clear what we had to do, but before that, the feeling was that we might need to score one or two goals, says Joachim Björklund.
Another Mjällby goal, or alternatively, if Värnamo had scored a winning goal, would have sent the Allsvenskan marathon table's second-placed IFK Göteborg to the qualifying round.
A season that has been very much up and down. It feels like this match summarizes the entire season, says "Blåvitt's" team captain Gustav Svensson.
"No Great Joy"
Joachim Björklund:
It's more of a relief than anything else, it's not great joy. Relief that someone else is doing the job for us, when we're not doing it ourselves. We came here to make sure we're in the Allsvenskan next year, and we've done that with a little help.
Björklund looks forward to the Allsvenskan 2025.
Get to be part of building from the start and see if we can take some steps, he says.
