ARSENAL WOMEN APPOINT RENEE SLEGERS AS HEAD COACH ON PERMANENT BASIS AFTER IMPRESSIVE INTERIM SPELL

  • Renee Slegers has signed a permanent deal with Arsenal Women 
  • She replaces Jonas Eidevall after impressing during her caretaker spell
  • LISTEN NOW: It's All Kicking Off! Are Everton where they deserve to be or are the club's fans delusional? 

Arsenal women have appointed Renee Slegers as their permanent head coach.

Slegers, who was handed the job on an interim basis following the resignation of Jonas Eidevall in October, has successfully turned the tide on Arsenal's season, overseeing an unbeaten run of 10 wins and one draw in all competitions, with 31 goals scored and just five conceded during that time.

Beyond the results though, Slegers, 35, has instilled a sense of belief within her squad, as evidenced by their improved individual performances.

Alessia Russo is at her goalscoring best, having scored 10 of her 11 WSL goals this season under Slegers, while Leah Williamson has also returned to form – both promising signs for the Lionesses Euros title defence this summer.

'I'm so excited to be continuing our journey together,' Renee said. 'It's a wonderful honour to represent this club as head coach and I have so much belief in what we can all achieve together.

'Over the past few months, I've felt such a powerful sense of collective ownership and responsibility across our players and staff – that has been our strength and I know we will make sure we drive and nurture this feeling as we all move forward.

'It has meant the world to me to feel the closeness and passion of our supporters during this process, and I want to thank you all for that. We want to deliver something beautiful that's inspiring and leads to winning trophies. We all have a big part to play in achieving that.'

Slegers' last match as interim manager in December saw Arsenal beat Bayern Munich 3-2 in an impressive performance at Meadow Park to finish top of their group and qualify for the knockout stages.

This turnaround came after Arsenal began the season with just one win in their first four WSL matches, in addition to suffering a heavy 5-2 defeat to Bayern in their opening Champions League group game under Eidevall.

Some fans brought P45s to his final games in charge and a 'Jonas Out' graffiti appeared near Emirates Stadium.

Eidevall – who was last week appointed head coach of NWSL side San Diego Wave – recently told Swedish newspaper Sportbladet that the departure of fan favourite and WSL all-time top goal scorer Vivienne Miedema to Manchester City caused his relationship with the fans to deteriorate, saying it was 'like a cloud hanging over us'.

Besides criticism from the fans, it is also understood that Eidevall had lost the dressing room.

Slegers – who joined Eidevall's coaching team following a two-year spell in charge of FC Rosengard in September 2023 – was awarded WSL manager of the month for December.

Born in the Netherlands, Slegers won back-to-back Swedish titles with Rosengard in 2021 and 2022.

Slegers also has experience playing for Arsenal, having spent time with the Gunners' youth academy between 2006 and 2007.

Arsenal's Director of Women's Football, Clare Wheatley, said: 'We have undertaken a thorough recruitment process aimed at identifying the best candidate to lead our women's first team at this exciting time.

'Renee was the stand-out candidate throughout the process and we're thrilled to be continuing our journey with her as our permanent head coach.

'We have every confidence that she is the best person to take us forward as we compete for trophies this season and beyond.'

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2025-01-17T12:59:33Z