Joe Montemurro signed off in style in his final game as Arsenal coach with a comfortable 9-0 win over Crystal Palace at Meadow Park. Goals from Kim Little (pen), Beth Mead, Danielle van de Donk, a brace from Noelle Maritz and goals from Jill Roord, Jordan Nobbs, Katie McCabe and Vivianne Miedema.
Joe Montemurro spoke to the press post match. The first four questions are from Arseblog News, the others were from Art de Roche at The Athletic.
On being voted Arsenal Women’s Supporters Club player of the match…
I think it’s the new scarf that the players bought me as a going away present, I think I just had the looks on the touch line to get me the award.
On avoiding the ‘last day at school’ feeling by beating Palace and qualifying for the next round…
I felt all week that the players wanted to finish the season on a high and really set things up for next year and all credit to the players, they were fantastic today and it was great to get everyone involved and tinker with a few things so it was a nice send off.
On the the emotion of the week building up to the game…
I can’t put into words what all the words and tributes I’ve received this week mean to me, it’s been brilliant from all of the Arsenal fans and it’s been absolutely amazing and I have cherished every word and everyone that has reached out. It’s been really emotional and I am going to miss the place.
On going out on his own terms…
You always want to be in a position to make the decision yourself and I have purely made the decision on what I think is best for the club and for myself so I can move on and get a bit of a break. I think it’s a decision that benefits everyone and I am sure the club will move on and do bigger and better things.
One last message from @MontemurroJoe ✊ pic.twitter.com/0EtZjQJWNa
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) May 16, 2021
On the performance of the team…
It was a nice summery game and a recap of the things we try t do, the bravery, the proactiveness, we took risks and I like that and it was beautiful to see everything we try to do summed up like that today. I couldn’t have asked for any more from the team.
On why he came onto the pitch pre-match (which Joe doesn’t usually do)….
Just to see what the staff get up to, I have no idea what they’re up to usually! No, I just wanted to be more involved today and have some friendly chats because they do some amazing work and they deserve great accolades for everything they have done while I have been here.
On being linked with the Juventus job…
I haven’t seen anything about it and it’s news to me, to be honest. I won’t lie, there have been some calls to my agent and some inquiries but i haven’t agreed to anything and nor do I intend to make any decisions for now.
Best of luck Joe.. Except when you bring a team against us
I think he’d probably be a good fit for the Juventus set-up.
On another note. Chelsea just got battered by Barca. Our quadruple record remains intact.
Chelsea rode their luck against wolfsburg and bayern. The freak leupolz own goal was just dessert for their freak away goal at bayern. It is a team relying on individual brilliance, so it is disappointing that we didnt compete more.
Totally agree. Emma Hayes is not the tactical genius she is made out to be. She’s a good player manager but I’ve seen them underwhelm in so many games this season only for one of their front three to bail them out. I never fancied them to lay a glove on Barca.
Signing Harder has unbalanced their team, it diminised Ji’s role and they now don’t have natural wide players. Same time Harder individal quality killed us in both our games this year. It will be interesting to see how this “buy everybody so others can’t have them” will play out next season. Barca has shown the value of long term team-bulding.
At least their club owner went to Sweden to watch the game live. Not sure KSE know we have a women’s team!
I’m glad Chelsea got a drubbing. Firstly it means that doing something as special as a quadruple remains rare as rocking horse poo as only one team have ever done it. Secondly, Chelsea’s confidence was turning into arrogance which is not a good look. Perhaps now they will come back down to earth. Very pleased with the send off the girls gave Joe. That’s how to play a game of football. We can probably stop looking for another striker to lessen the load on Caitlin and Viv now as we have Noelle! 🙂 Give her free reign and she’ll probably… Read more »
Good luck in your future Joe. What will we do without our Joe Montemurro articles now?
Joe’s a class act, and I’d be happy to have him as the new coach of The Netherlands NT instead of Parsons from Portland of the NWSL! Put your name in the hat, Joe–but hurry! You are well acquainted with 5 of the squad already!
Good luck to Joe. I think he will chill for some time in Australia so he won’t take any jobs in Europe soon.
He said in the Australian press that he’ll spend the summer in Florence (he has family there) which is why the Juve link made a lot of sense. I did think Juve would make a lot of sense.
Not to be impolitic, but if we soon learn that Montemurro is taking the Juve job, can we infer that his departure from Arsenal wasn’t exactly voluntary? I know that’s the company line, and it maybe it’s true, but we all know how these things work.
In the Oz press they said Joe was offered a new deal by Arsenal in November but I’ve never been able to verify that.
Tim, if you have a final interview with Joe and have an opportunity to get him sighted on a few of your write ups about his post-match reflections, I’d love to see a “Joe Montemurro reacts to ‘Joe Montemurro reacts to… ‘ articles”
I certainly add my best wishes for Joe. He really does seem to be a good bloke who knows how to do the right thing. In the great scheme of things, making some wrong tactical decisions in a football match isn’t the end of the world! I think he has only enhanced the standing of Arsenal Football Club in the world. With tickets for the men’s Premier League being harder to get – and very expensive – deciding to actually go to the women’s matches has been a real bright spot in my life (I made a good start with… Read more »
can see him taking the Matildas to olympics should the hapless Tony Gustavsson get the team hammered for the third time in a row against Sweden in the 3rd preparation match