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TORONTO -- Brendan Shanahan was brought in to change the culture of the Toronto Maple Leafs. How the new team president plans to do that remains a mystery. In introducing Shanahan on Monday, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president Tim Leiweke made it clear that he wasnt happy with the "character" and "culture" of the team. "Im not sure the Leafs have (the right culture)," Leiweke said. "I definitely sense that we lack an identity, and right now were a team that lacks a direction and we want to change that." Its up to Shanahan and general manager Dave Nonis to do it, but no clear direction for the organization was spelled out on Shanahans "first day at work." The 45-year-old Hall of Famer has a plan, and though he and Leiweke didnt get into specifics, plenty of changes are expected. "I have some ideas in my head about direction, but I think that at the same time ... those are subject to change," Shanahan said. "I think that its very important for people, especially in sports, to have the ability to evolve and to make changes." Change could come in the form of firing coach Randy Carlyle, whose vision for winning hockey didnt seem to fit with the Toronto roster. And it could come in the form of many different players being on the ice opening night this fall than were around for Mondays locker clean-out. But Shanahan and Nonis insist the immediate job is to step back and make an assessment of where the organization is as a whole. Even though each man called Carlyle a "good coach," its difficult to point to things like identity, culture and character without at least considering the next step. "You all saw the team this year, I think we didnt have the identity," Leiweke said. "I think Randy tried to create the identity. To the guys credit last year, they bought into that, and they took on Randys identity, I dont think that happened this year." Shanahan, who grew up in the Toronto neighbourhood of Mimico and previously worked for the NHL as the director of player safety, is expected to shape this teams identity. Its just not clear how he intends to do that. "Dave and I are going to talk about this thing or were going to talk about our team, were going to talk about how we see the best way to play for our team going forward," Shanahan said. "I think that its important for us to assess what we have here, what we have coming up, and I think thats an organizational thing. It would be presumptuous, it would be premature for me to tell you right now where were going to go." Leiweke would like Shanahan to have the same kind of success Masai Ujiri has enjoyed in his first season re-shaping the NBAs Raptors. Hell be given total authority to not only put his fingerprints on the team but completely revamp, if necessary. "This is Brendans team, its his culture, and at the end of the day he makes all the decisions, and were going to support that 100 per cent," Leiweke said. Of course with Shanahan as president, the Leafs power structure is different. All three men at Mondays news conference insisted the working relationship between Nonis and his new boss would go smoothly. "They will work well together and if we have disagreements, the disagreements will be resolved very quickly within the organization," Leiweke said. "This isnt going to tear the organization apart. This is going to make the organization a better place." While Shanahan has the final say, it remains to be seen how the decision-making process will be handled. "Your boss has the final say," Nonis said. "Thats just common sense and its the way things have worked. This isnt a relationship thats going to work that way. This is going to work the way it should work, which is were going to work together to try to find the right answers together." Nonis made sure to point out that, at the end of the day, Shanahan is the boss. And Leiweke made sure to point out that this move was first agreed to last summer and not a "knee-jerk" reaction to the Leafs eight-game slide that caused them to miss the playoffs. This is Shanahans team. And while hes a Hall of Famer with three Stanley Cup rings who spent the past five years working in the league office, its difficult to pin down his philosophy, other than to figure general managers like Ken Holland of the Detroit Red Wings and Lou Lamoriello of the New Jersey Devils have influenced him over the years. Shanahan sounded like a Holland disciple on Monday. "You have to hire good people and you have to let them do their job," he said. "I think you need to step in and help them when they need help. ... Its a great feeling to be a player and be a part of a team, I view management as the same thing. Youve got your hierarchy and your leadership and things like that, but its certainly a team." The team Shanahan is taking over finished the season 2-12-0 to go from a playoff shoo-in to locker clean-out two days after a final loss in Ottawa. Major changes could be coming, but Shanahan wasnt tipping his hand. "I do like a lot about this group," he said. "From an outsider looking in, theres some really good pieces that a lot of teams would covet. ... You start by looking for ways to improve in small increments, and if you have an opportunity to make improvements, you make them." That seems to be Noniss philosophy, too, even while saying the team isnt where it needs to be. Last years trip to the playoffs may have masked some bigger issues, but falling apart so spectacularly isnt likely to lead to blowing up the roster. "When you look back if were taking the appropriate time, were going to see some things that were happy with in this group, too, and you dont want to throw the baby out with the bath water," Nonis said. "Theres quality people and quality players here, and if we want to get better, were going to do a good job of assessing those pieces and keeping the ones that we think can help us long-term." Building a contending team for the long-term seems to be the goal for Shanahan and the Leafs. Leiweke, whose earlier talk about a Stanley Cup parade drew plenty of criticism, talked instead Monday about building a group thatll be in the mix. "To me the most outstanding statistic, if you look at (Shanahans) career, is not the three Stanley Cup rings but in 21 years he made the playoffs 18 times," Leiweke said. "He is a guy thats not just a student of the game and a fan of the game, but hes an architect of the game, and thats what we needed here." Kevin Johnson Jersey . -- Craig Anderson has quite a record against his former team, the Florida Panthers. Trevor Ariza Jersey . -- Canadian Erik Bedard pitched into the fifth inning in his bid to win a spot in Tampa Bays rotation, helping the Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-3 on Saturday. http://www.officialsunsfanstore.com/ryan-anderson-suns-jersey/ . The defending champions’ roller coaster season included trading offensive star Percy Harvin in the midst of the team’s 3-3 start. That move that reportedly irked several Seahawk players, but one management saw necessary to save the team’s chemistry. Richaun Holmes Jersey . - The Chicago Bears have agreed to a one-year contract with free-agent centre Brian de la Puente. Marquese Chriss Jersey . There will be no Down Under four-peat for Djokovic, as the eighth-seeded Swiss slugger Wawrinka outlasted the second seed 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 9-7 at Melbourne Parks Rod Laver Arena in yet another five-set thriller in their burgeoning rivalry."Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells! Jingle all the way; Oh what fun it is to see Chelsea win away. Hey!" The lower tier of the School End of Queens Park Rangers Loftus Road was packed solid with a very festive-sounding Chelsea choral section in this particular part of South Africa Road London, W12. It was Boxing Day 1981. Kick-off was still 90 minutes away, scheduled for the rather peculiar time of 11:30am. Even the frigid temperature was not going to dampen spirits, especially of those who were clearly still feeling the effects of their Christmas Day excesses. Not me or one of my elder brothers though as we stood and swayed on that School End in amongst the overflowing Chelsea support, part of the wide-eyed and amazed, feeling blessed to be part of the festive football fun. Fun which began for us the moment we closed the front garden gate behind us to set out on the short hop across west London on the underground. Chelseas hideously coloured yellow away shirt, which came resplendent with a Santa red pinstripe, added to the sense of occasion, as did the weather. In the lead-up to Christmas 1981, London had been blanketed by a foot of snow. However no fear this game would be postponed. This was the era of the Plastic Pitch. An Omniturf surface had been installed at Loftus Road the previous summer. Pioneering stuff. QPR became the first English professional club to play on a non-natural surface. Some clever wag or wags with little malice intended had broken into Loftus Road ahead of the game and discovered their inner Banksy. Whitewashing in foot-high block capitals on the pitch by the halfway line over towards the touchline, a few words that in later years I would go on to recognize as a famous Chelsea terrace away-day refrain. A rare occasion in those days that the TV cameras were in attendance for a second division game was likely their motivation. Yes folks, this wasnt your globally enshrined English Premier League. This was the hard as nails English Second Division and Chelseas natural habitat through the late 1970s and 1980s. Off the pitch during this era, Chelsea was a club in shambolic disarray. Chairman Brian Mears, the grandson of Chelsea co-founder Jo Mears, led an overly outrageous attempt to redevelop and regenerate Stamford Bridge. As contrived by the property developers Mears was in bed with, their plans included Chelsea relocating to Loftus Road, with Fulham and QPR merging. Spiralling interest rates alongside economic gloom up and down the country was the backdrop. Not the cleverest of types was Brain Mears. Chelsea was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Thank heavens for the intervention of the then Lord of the Stamford Bridge manor, Viscount Chelsea and a chap who would win two Oscars for his adaptation of Ghandi, Lord Attenborough. A club director at the time since 1993, Attenborough has been Chelseas Life Long Honorary Vice President. Chelsea had gone into the 1981 Boxing Day action at Loftus Road on the back of a five-game unbeaten streak. In a game dominated by the home team, very much against the run of play, Chelsea went ahead midway through the second half. When Clive Walkers shot from the edge of the box found the far corner of the net, this was the cue for the toilet paper and Christmas streamers from the upper tier and for the overflowing crowd in the lower tier, which was already hugging the touchline, to surge ever close to the edge of the pitch. I was so close to the action, I was half expecting the PA announcer to award me an assist on the Walker opener. Chelsea added a second shortly after and left Loftus Road with the three points. The crowd was announced as a little over 22,000. Im sure 21,998 of them arrived slightly inebriated with every one of the 5,000-plus Chelsea supporters in attendance leaving Loftus Road punch drunk. The 2012 European Champions finished that 1981/82 season though in a lowly 12th place. Worse was to befall the club the following season when but for a win in their penultimate game of the season, they staved off relegation to the English football backwaters of Division 3. Clive Walker scored the winner that day, too. Very much an old-fashioned winger with jet heels that left defenders frozen to the spot, Abramovich would likely invest £50M in today, Walker arrived at Chelsea the old-fashioned way. He earned it as a highly regarded reserve team player. Walker spent time in the NASL when Chelsea sent him out on loan to Fort Lauderdale for one off-season. There you go then. Neither Beckham nor his people invented bi-lateral soccer loan agreements between the old allies. Its been going on for roughly four decades. Speaking to much more innocent times, the earliest recorded Boxing Day game in England occurred all the way back in 1881 when Hotspur played Reading Minster in an FA Cup third round replay. It would be another decade before Boxing Day fixtures became a staple in the English Football League. Remarkably, many teams also played 24 hours earlier on Christmas Day. Imagine that, Arsene? Not that I count, but I am rigidly opposed to any form of a winter break. Whats the point? Soo Englands richest clubs can fare better against their footballing superior European counterparts? Last time I checked, English clubs seemed to be holding their own and have done since first permitted to participate on the European stage.dddddddddddd For the inaugural 1955-56 European Cup, the predecessor of the UEFA Champions League, the English Champions were persuaded by the Football League not to participate. That so-termed club with no history, Chelsea as the champions would have had the honour of being English footballs lone representative in a brand new mid-week tournament, which today is the global standard-bearer for club football. Not to be. At least with no over-packed fixture list nor daunting travel by boat to the continent for midweek matches, Chelsea could purely focus on retaining the title. Everyone at Stamford Bridge apparently forgot to read the script. The following season, Chelsea only managed to win 14 of 42 matches and finished just above the relegation places. Please stop it now. Liverpools quite superb and highly unexpected renaissance this season is purely down to the fact they are not playing in the Champions or Europa League. Codswallop. Instead, doff your cap to Brendan Rodgers, Suarez, Henderson, et al. Do remind me again please how many times did Little Luis hotfooted it from Merseyside to Montevideo this fall for his nations Brazil 2014 cause? Then theres the ludicrous argument, the English national team would fare better than the 50 years and counting zeitgeist of invariably tripping over in the first or second knockout stage of international tournaments. Well, before we dismantle one of the last remaining century-plus traditions that is the festive fixture list, how about a government inquiry into bog standard soccer and antiquated attitudes which prevail throughout? We seem to forget back on October 26, 1863 when a number of influential gentlemen gathered at the Connaught Rooms in Central London and devised the rules of modern day football, they did so on behalf of everyone, not just a chosen few. This very select sub-set of overpaid, over-pampered and over-hyped footballers are in desperate need of instilling the more traditional football faiths and attitudes; ones which take us back to a more innocence and respect for all time. This was most famously captured when Portuguese legend Eusebio had an opportunity very late on in the 1968 European Cup Final to win it in normal time for Benfica, his close-range effort cannoning off the Manchester United goalkeeper Alex Stepney, who, on realizing he had the ball, gratefully kicked it way up-field and away from danger. This was Eusebios cue to walk over towards Stepney with an outreached hand and in that moment with a smile on his face, congratulate Stepney for the game-winning save. Somehow I cant imagine Eusebios compatriot Ronaldo doing that exact same thing in next springs Champions League Final. In recent years, more and more of English footballs traditional characteristics and codes have fallen by the wayside - victim of the modern day over-commercialization culture which sadly reigns oh so supreme. Boxing Day still stands above. Just ask the family of Gary Parkinson, who was in attendance at Middlesbrough Thursday as they played another of his ex-clubs, Burnley. The ex-professional, who started his career at Everton, attended his first professional game Thursday since been diagnosed with locked-in syndrome following a 2010 stroke. According to the BBC, Parkinson requires 24-hour care, unable to speak, move or swallow and spent two years in hospital before returning home ahead of Christmas 2012. This the best example and true testament to the deep-rooted Boxing Day soccer culture that envelops the nation which invented the modern game exactly 150 years ago. Thursday, the very full complement of 158 professional and semi-professional football clubs were in action up and down jolly old England, where, for many of the lower league clubs especially, they will have recorded their largest attendance of the season plus experienced their best action of the season at the box office and club shop. Remember all you newly recruited Chelsea supporters, your club used to be part of that lower league football fraternity not that many years ago. Then ask those, who so add to the unique English soccer culture and setting, the local traders which litter the immediate surrounding areas of the Englands sacred soccer grounds how they fared Thursday. I for one will certainly raise a glass that my children and their children will always have opportunity to experience Santa and soccer in one sleep or less. It was Boxing Day 1976 when the Sex Pistols, fronted by legendry Arsenal supporter John Lydon, went into a London recording studio located not very far from the Highbury shrine and recorded the anthemic, God Save the Queen, a song dedicated to the working class, that outstanding cloth-capped brigade on whose very shoulders the pillars of English football rest upon. Bless you Mr. Rotten. You can reach and follow Noel Butler at:Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca @TheSoccerNoel on Twitter Cheap Bills Jerseys Authentic Dolphins Jerseys Cheap Patriots Store Cyber Monday Jets Jerseys Cyber Monday Texans Jerseys Black Friday Colts Jerseys Cheap Jaguars Jerseys Cheap Titans Store Black Friday Broncos Jerseys Cheap Chiefs Jerseys Cheap Raiders Jerseys Authentic Chargers Jerseys Cheap Ravens Store Black Friday Steelers Jerseys Black Friday Cowboys Jerseys Cheap Giants Store Cheap Eagles Store Black Friday Redskins Jerseys Falcons Jerseys Online Panthers Jerseys Online Authentic Saints Jerseys Cheap Buccaneers Jerseys Authentic Cardinals Jerseys Black Friday 49ers Jerseys Black Friday Seahawks Jerseys Cyber Monday Rams Jerseys Black Friday Bears Jerseys Wholesale Lions Jerseys Packers Jerseys Online Authentic Vikings Jerseys Cyber Monday Bengals Jerseys Cyber Monday Browns Jerseys ' ' '