Robert Nordström likes to think that he knew all along that Fredrik Ljungberg, who he coached as a young man at Halmstads BK, would develop into the football player he is today, until modesty takes over and he admits otherwise.

"I coached him just before he was promoted to the first team as a 17-year-old," he says. "We could all see then that he would be a very good player, although not that good. No one could have predicted that he would become a world-star."

Having just won the Allsvenskan with the home town club that he joined as a five-year-old, Ljungberg decided to up sticks and make off for the bright lights of London in September 1998, and more specifically, to recently-crowned Double-winners Arsenal.

Earlier that month, Arsène Wenger had spotted the then spiky-haired youngster on his television at home delivering a man-of-the-match display on his Sweden debut against Glenn Hoddle’s England during a Euro 2000 qualifier in Stockholm, instantly paying just £3m to secure his services before Liverpool could do the same.

"Personally, I was a bit concerned when he left," concedes Nordström, "as Arsenal are one of the biggest clubs in England, if not the world. I think at the beginning he suffered a bit from homesickness, as well as finding both the pace and physicality of the English game hard to cope with, as Fredrik has always been quite a small person and the Swedish first division is, in comparison, not that physical. It certainly took him some time to settle in at the club."

The other problem for Ljungberg was the fact that at Halmstad, "he played between the midfield and the attack, in the hole," while at Highbury he was asked to fulfil a more disciplined role on the wing, a position completely foreign to him.

Although, I suppose scoring with your very first touch in English football after coming on as a substitute at Highbury in a 3-0 win over arch rivals Manchester United helps in that respect!

However, with recent stories linking the 26-year-old with an end-of-season move to the Spanish capital to join the biggest club in the world, what does Nordström think the future holds for Sweden’s former Man of the Year?

"I think he could stay at Arsenal for some time as he not only likes the style of football that they are playing at the moment, but I know that he also is very fond of the manager," concludes the man who still keeps in touch with his former pupil "two or three times a year."

Turning our attention towards the present for a moment, Ljungberg has been selected in the Sweden squad that hosts England in the Ullevi stadium on Wednesday night, and is sure to feature. But how does Nordström explain his countries’ outstanding record when it comes to playing against the Three Lions?

"I think because we play a similar style to the English, and because the English game is so popular over here and everyone has been watching it on TV for years, it means that the players in the national team have an extra motivation to do well against England because it is seen as such a big game," he reasons.

And, hypothetically speaking, if his fellow countryman Sven-Göran Eriksson were to ask him to put his coach’s hat back on for this week’s friendly, which opposition players would Nordström pick out in the ‘ones to watch’ category?

"For the Sweden national team, Fredrik is a very important player, one of our few world-class players, along with Henrik Larsson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. So, apart from Larsson, who has decided not to come back and play for the national team, then I would say that Fredrik and Zlatan are our two biggest players and our best-known ones playing abroad.

"What Sweden is missing at the moment is a prolific striker to put the ball in the net and replace Larsson," he continues. "Zlatan is technically excellent, as well as being flamboyant, while Marcus Allbäck at Aston Villa, who has scored some very important goals for his country, is out of form. I think that Allbäck and Zlatan will start in attack against England, while all the other departments in the team are very good."

Talking of "putting the ball in the back of the net", the man who Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier once described as being the very epitome of the modern-day midfielder, in the sense that he not only works hard for his team defensively, but also has the crucial ability to time his runs into opponents’ boxes to perfection, has a quirky discrepancy when it comes to his scoring record for club and country.

For Sweden, where he plays in the same midfield berth as in north London, Ljungberg has netted just three times in 39 internationals (a strike rate of a goal every 13 matches); whereas for Arsenal, he has hit the target on 54 occasions in 217 games in all competitions, excluding the League Cup (a strike rate of a goal every four fixtures).

England will be hoping Ljungberg sticks to his national ratio, as opposed to his Gunners form, in the Swedish capital on Wednesday night as they attempt to overturn a dreadful winless run against their Scandinavian hosts that stretches back ten games and an astonishing 36 years.

And, as for the man himself, well, it is safe to say that he has come a long way since playing in front of 8,000 supporters at the Örjans Vall stadium in Halmstad a decade ago.

A possible Treble with Arsenal this season, to go alongside his Double from 2002 and FA Cup triumph last year, as well as an expected starring role for Sweden at Euro 2004 this summer.

Achievements that surely bring a small smile of satisfaction to Robert Nordström’s face? "Every day I give myself a pat on the back and take great pleasure in seeing Fredrik’s development."