Arsenal Women manager Jonas Eidevall says he is delighted that the club have been able to appoint former player Jodie Taylor as Football Services Executive.
Taylor finished her playing career on a short term loan with Arsenal at the end of last season having also represented the club during the 2016-17 season. Arseblog News asked Eidevall about the appointment in his pre-Brighton press conference.
“We are delighted to have Jodie join us again,” he said. “We are at a point where we are growing our off the pitch staff to a number where we need to look at how we become even more efficient with how we handle that.
“How do we connect the different departments even better? Both me and Clare Wheatley, the Director of Women’s Football, can use another resource to make us more effective in the way we work. That is where Jodie is going to come in as a great resource.”
Taylor enjoyed a storied playing career, taking in spells in the US, Australia, France and Sweden, as well as being England’s second all-time leading goalscorer. Eidevall says he thinks her global experience can be a real asset to the club.
“We got to know her last season and not only as a player but as a person. Firstly, she has great experience both from England, but from Europe, France at Lyon and being in the NWSL (in the US).
“She has a really good benchmark and knowledge of the game and she has seen it growing and seeing how that looks in different countries and at different stages.
“She has a really high ambition and wants to make an impact to help Arsenal be as good as possible with that. That combination is going to be really valuable and I really look forward to working with Jodie on that.”
Meanwhile, ahead of Sunday’s WSL game away at Brighton, Eidevall says that Vivianne Miedema, Jen Beattie, Laia Codina, Kim Little and Lia Walti, who missed the 6-2 victory over Leicester last Sunday, are still being assessed ahead of this weekend.
“We had a handful of minor injuries and they are still all being assessed and managed and trying to be progressed. What the outcome is going to be I don’t really know yet. We don’t have any new concerns over them, we just need to manage that and take good decisions.”
That’s a bit of clarity about JT’s role. I think. I read “off-pitch” staff as meaning staff concerned with player welfare, post-playing career development, etc. Just as a guess. I imagine this is fundamentally about making sure we don’t fall behind other big clubs in terms of what we can offer players, staying at the forefront of development of the game and making Arsenal the best environment for players in every way. And making sure that everyone knows it. If so, good. I have felt for some years that we are a bit complacent about our position and at times… Read more »
Totally agree and in past years we’ve had so much expertise with ties to Arsenal that is offering their expertise to other clubs (Ludlow @ City for example). It’s about time we started retaining that talent and Arsenal have a responsibility to develop women in coaching and off pitch roles too. JT took a masters in sports management so she’s v qualified.