Renee Slegers ready to guide Arsenal to trophies after landing permanent Gunners Women’s boss role
RENEE SLEGERS hopes to “deliver something beautiful” with Arsenal following her appointment as their permanent women’s team boss.
The Netherlands-born head coah helped the WSL side turn their season around whilst serving as stand-in gaffer following Jonas Eidevall’s departure.
Slegers, who was Eidevall’s number two, has guided a team on an 11-game unbeaten run which includes them qualifying for the Women’s Champions League knockout stage.
The Gunners finished top of their group after beating German outfit Bayern Munich 3-2 last December in their final group stage match.
This follows them enduring a difficult start to their season with mixed results that include three winless home games in a row at the Emirates and a 5-2 loss away to Bayern in Europe.
Since Slegers has taken charge the team have registered 10 wins and one draw across all competitions conceding just five goals.
And the Arsenal boss has put this down to collective ownership amongst players and staff
Of her appointment Slegers, whose team host Crystal Palace on Sunday, said: “I’m so excited to be continuing our journey together.
“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.”
Prior to coaching, Slegers represented Arsenal as a player following a stint in the club’s youth academy between 2006 and 2007.
Her playing career also includes stints with Dutch side Willem II before a 2011 move to Sweden where she played for Djurgardens IF before joining Linkopings two years later.
On the international stage Slegers won 55 caps for the Netherlands before retiring in 2016 a year before their first European Championship win.
As coach she guided FC Rosengard to back-to-back top-flight title wins in Sweden in 2021 and 2022 before leaving to become Arsenal’s assistant manager.
Gunners director of women’s football Clare Wheatley said: “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.”
Under Slegers Arsenal have scored 31 goals in the WSL and Champions League this term.
This includes Alessia Russo taking her goal tally to 11 this term
And the striker’s performances and her manager’s efforts led to both winning the Barclays WSL player and manager awards for December.
Arsenal are currently seven points behind league leaders and London rivals Chelsea who they will face at Stamford Bridge on January 26.