Arsenal Women have confirmed the full-time appointment of Renee Slegers as their Head Coach, the Dutch coach has been in interim charge since October when previous manager Jonas Eidevall resigned after a slow start to the season.
Slegers has since led the Gunners to ten wins and a draw in her 11 games in charge, muscling her way to the front of the queue for a process which, according to our understanding, saw around 30 coaches considered and multiple candidates interviewed. A deal was finally hammered out last week and club media recorded earlier this week.
Slegers, who has also managed Rosengard in Sweden where she also succeeded Jonas Eidevall, joined the club as an assistant coach in the summer of 2023. ‘I’m so excited to be continuing our journey together,’ said Slegers. ‘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.”
Director of Women’s Football Clare Wheatley said: ‘We’re delighted to appoint Renée as our permanent head coach. Renée has excelled during her time as interim head coach, bringing our team, club and supporters together and leading us to a hugely impressive run of results and performances.
‘We have undertaken a thorough recruitment process aimed at identifying the best candidate to lead our women’s first team at this exciting time. Renée was the stand-out candidate throughout the process and we’re thrilled to be continuing our journey with her as our permanent head coach.
‘Renée understands the values and ambitions of our club, with experience of representing Arsenal both as a young player and now in a coaching capacity. We have every confidence that she is the best person to take us forward as we compete for trophies this season and beyond.’
Co-Chair, Josh Kroenke, said: ‘We’re delighted to announce that Renée has become the new head coach of our women’s first team on a permanent basis.
‘We’ve all been incredibly impressed by the way Renée has led the team since October, nurturing a great collective spirit across the group and instilling belief in what we do and what we want to achieve – to win trophies and drive women’s football forward together.
‘Now we look forward with positivity to a big second half to the season and beyond, with the whole club including our supporters right behind Renée and the team.”
Arseblog News will have an exclusive interview with Slegers on the site later today. She will also host her pre Crystal Palace press conference at 2.30pm.
Yay.
Love it. Congrats Renee and all the best.
Yes! Finally!
Yay, and about time too.
Congratulations to her.
Oh, wow! Marvellous. I’m so happy for us, the players and Renée. Wheatley and co took their time (!) but got there in the end.
Congratulations on your well-deserved promotion, Renée Slegers.
She has the confidence of knowing that the club looked everywhere, talked to every coach and decided that she was the best candidate.
Good point Fun Gunner. This has not been given to Renée, she has earnt it twice over. Once by interviewing on the job as interim 10 wins and 1 draw phew!). Twice by competing against outside candidates.
You can argue it took a while, but it also demonstrates a well-considered process that should give her and the team more confidence.
So happy for her. Very impressive results and Arsenal deciding we are a family and recruiting from within. Happy for you sister sledge.
I know you’ve got all the sisters with you on board
delighted for her and for the arsenal!
Well there is a piece of good news – about time.
Good, she deserves it. Thought it would be the case, especially given the hints from Tim eg doing the podcast on Tuesday and also his feelings that it would happen with Bluesky. Bit like his feeling about Viv a few days before her depature. Not a criticism of Tim, I know he has to build and maintain trust with the club and of course not confirmed.
Now lets go and beat Man City and Chelsea in the next few weeks.
Only surprise is that it took so long, was the most obvious choice!
Great decision, she’s more than earned it.
Exciting. Very best of luck to Renee and the team.
Yes!🙌 Very pleased for Renée and for the club.
Hope the positive momentum continues. Bring on Chelsea at the end of the month.
Fantastic news!!!
I always thought that the women team better get a women manager. All the best to her.
Very excited about this!! Way to go Renee, well deserved and she’s already done the hardest bit (turning the negative spiral she inherited from Jonas back into a positive one )
Well deserved.
Glad to see a common sense decision. Her record is almost flawless in 11 games. Well deserved. She has the team looking like they’re enjoying playing together and fighting for each other.
About time! Congrats!
So happy that we have finally got what we all wanted! As long as we keep playing the way we have been the sky is the limit.
This is a tough job and there will be many challenges along the way but I believe that Renee can deal with them.
Patience Pays.
The right choice .
Congratulations Renee……and the Club (including Clare Wheatley!)
Well done to Renee, an obvious choice (in an overly long process). There’s lots of work to do now, big games coming up. Level heads now needed, it would be fantastic to remain unbeaten for the remainder of the season but it would seem unlikely and the first loss doesn’t need to be a meltdown and “was Renee the right choice” Same for the incomings and outgoings, it seems very likely that there will be squad churn this summer, some big names may move on and again have to put trust in the process. I’m looking forward to the fresh… Read more »
Well said