Arsenal’s Renee Slegers confirms she will remain in charge for the club’s next five matches as they continue to search for a new permanent head coach.
The 35-year-old took on the role of interim head coach in October after Jonas Eidevall’s resignation, following a string of disappointing results.
Although reports have since revealed that Nick Cushing is Arsenal’s ‘primary target’ to succeed Eidevall, they are yet to confirm or deny the news.
However, speaking to media earlier Slegers revealed that she intends to remain at the helm until the next international break which runs until the start of December.
“I will be in the interim role for this block of matches, that’s what I know,” she said. “I definitely see myself doing it at the moment because I enjoy working with the girls and for the club, trying to get successes. I’ve done it before and I really enjoy the role, but obviously if you do it over a longer period of time, it becomes more difficult.”
Arsenal are set to travel to Leigh Sports Village this weekend to face Manchester United in the Barclays Women’s Super League, before coming up against Brighton and Tottenham later in the month. They will also continue their journey in the UEFA Women’s Champions League playing Juventus both home and away.
Slegers has already got two wins under her belt since stepping into the role and remains confident in her ability to continue generating success.
“We are competing in two competitions,” she said. “If you want to get straight to it, we are going for five wins,” said Slegers. “That is what we’re trying to achieve. It’s as easy as that on paper. I know it’s small margins, top opposition and it will be hard challenges but of course we believe we can achieve that.”
Slegers was hired by Arsenal to become Eidevall’s assistant coach in September 2023, and when asked what the main differences between the two positions were, she explained: “Compliments to the staff because I think over time, also when Jonas was still here, we built a really good staff.
“We work really well together and we have a psychologically safe environment where we are very transparent, work hard and help each other. It is definitely different from executing more and doing this in more detail with players to having a more holistic view of things.”
