Arsenal have announced some interim appointments to replace former Academy Manager Andries Jonker, who yesterday left to manage Wolfsburg, and Freddie Ljungberg who joined him as his assistant manager.
It left something of a vacuum at youth level but the club have moved quickly to fill those gaps in the short-term.
The role of Academy Manager will be filled by Luke Hobbs, who has been in charge of footballing operations at Hale End, while the U15s will now be coached by Jan Van Loon who came to the club with Jonker in 2014.
Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis said, “I am confident Luke will be a safe pair of hands following Andries’s departure and he will continue the excellent progress we are making in this important part of our club.”
It remains to be seen if these men will be permanent appointments, with names like Mark Warburton and Pep Segura linked with the role left vacant by Jonker.
Go get segura Pep. Those Barca Lot are doing a great Job with La-Masia.
Bergkamp to replace Jonker please!
Agreed. Coach the youth team until Wenger retires and then step into Arsene’s shoes.
Looking around Europe, at the moment. Who really is producing the best young players. Back in the days Ajax we’re world renowned. It’d be great to have a constant crop flow. Hard to judge Jonker’s time here. Maybe someone who watches our youth teams could comment on individual player development.
AS Monaco comes to mind…Or Dortmund…not growing but poaching talents before they become worldclass…