Arsenal Women have appointed 34-year-old Dutch coach Renée Slegers onto their coaching staff. Slegers was the Head Coach of Rosengard, appointed to replace Jonas Eidevall when he joined Arsenal in 2021 and the 34-year-old was capped 55 times by Netherlands in her playing career.
Slegers left Rosengard earlier this year and during her playing career, she played for Djurgårdens and Linkoping in Sweden. In 2016, she suffered a serious knee injury which ended her career and in 2018, she was appointed as Head Coach of Limhamn Bunkeflo. After three years with Bunkeflo she was appointed as Eidevall’s successor as Head Coach of Rosengard in 2021.
Eidevall confirmed the news in his pre match press conference in Sweden on Tuesday, ‘We needed a person who knows football well but who also can help with the individual development and I think she’s the perfect person to do that.’
Understand Arsenal are close to another appointment to Jonas Eidevall’s coaching staff. Expecting confirmation soon.
— Tim Stillman (@Stillmanator) September 5, 2023
Kelly Smith remains on the staff, while Patrick Winqvist joined in January to take over from Leanne Hall as the setpiece coach. Aaron D’Antino and goalkeeping coach Sebastien Barton complete the setup. Arsenal were keen to add a coach who has Head Coach experience to the staff and Slegers ticks that box.
Excellent news. Welcome, Renee Slegers. Ex-player at a high level.
Similar strengths and same role as Lydia Bedford had?
She’s managed good clubs so she can genuinely step in to lead if Jonas is ill or banned from the touchline for some reason.
And thanks for the confirmation that Kelly Smith is staying on in a formal capacity. Also wonderful news.
Strong squad needs a strong management team . Welcome, Renee (assistant coach or assistant manager?).
Great to see confirmation that Kelly Smith is retained on the staff.
I see she was briefly at Arsenal as a teenager (according to the totally reliable wikipedia, anyway…)
Ooh, good spot! (Assuming that Wikipedia is accurate.)
An assumption I never make… But I see AWFC have confirmed it.
Good to have someone whose not only an experienced coach, but played the women’s game at a decent level in recent years. She will have strong input from a player’s perspective.
Slegers and Blackstenius played together at Linköping from 2013 to 2016. She also played with Miedema for the Netherlands.
Tim, any background on why Arsenal found it important to get a coach with Head Coach experience? Potential successor planning?
Maybe simply division of labour? We now have a proper sized squad and Jonas would need eyes in the back of his head to see what all of the girls are doing in training. If he can delegate some of that work knowing that he can trust the feedback he recieves from an experienced Head Coach it can only be good for him and the team.
She replaces Lydia whose role Jonas described loosely as ‘looking at how the individual contributes to the collective.’ Head coach experience means she is used to looking at the collective/team performance, but now she views it from each individual’s perspective.
How did her time as coach of Rosengard go? Did she leave for Arsenal or was let go prior? I’m assuming her previous role was a success as she was appointed to replace JE.
Rosengård were Swedish Champions last year with her as coach. This year they started quite bad and she was sacked after a couple of months. However they are still struggling so it would not be fair to blame her. I think she is a good coach but sometimes things doesn’t work out due to different circumstances.