January is a time of new beginnings, a sentiment that could be felt at Arsenal’s training ground this week.
Every year, the women’s squad photo is framed above the stairway that leads to the press room. This week, that photo, which showed former head coach Jonas Eidevall with last season’s Arsenal squad, was replaced.
In its place is a new photo showing Renee Slegers and Alessia Russo holding their Women’s Super League manager, player and goal of the month awards for December, surrounded by the playing squad and 27 members of backroom staff
Slegers is now Arsenal’s permanent head coach after a three-month recruitment process. The Dutch 35-year-old was keen for the club’s hierarchy to conduct the undertaking in full, and not hand her the job simply because she was interim. That meant rounds of interviews like other candidates so that she was not solely reliant on her impressive record in charge so far (10 wins and one draw in 11 games).
Although sporting director Edu left the club in the early weeks of Slegers’ interim tenure, his remit was always more executive than day-to-day, which meant the responsibility of recruiting Arsenal’s next head coach fell mostly to director of women’s football, Clare Wheatley.
Slegers, contracted until the end of next season, is no stranger to Arsenal. She was in their academy from 2006 to 2007 and returned as part of Eidevall’s backroom staff at the start of the 2023-24 season after succeeding him as head coach at Swedish side FC Rosengard.
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As an Individual Development coach (IDP), most of the past 18 months were about her developing one-to-one relationships with players to help get the best out of them. That worked to her benefit when she took interim charge in October after Eidevall resigned.
When she took over, Arsenal had won one in four of their WSL matches and were sixth, but in the three months since there has been a drastic improvement and the team are now third, instilling confidence in Slegers inside and outside the club.
Slegers was assistant coach at the start of this season (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Internally, no pressure was put on Slegers to act as if she was auditioning for the permanent role. In public, she tended not to entertain direct questions about her future, allowing the team’s results to do the talking.
During those 11 games, she made more than two changes to her starting lineup just twice. Consistency and solidity, as well as “being calm, being clear and ruthless” were key to the turnaround.
Russo, who has scored 10 goals in 11 games under Slegers, is the best example. Next best is Steph Catley, who spoke of the “confidence and belief” she has been given by starting consistently at centre-back as opposed to her usual position of left-back.
That consistency means some players may not feature as often as they would like, but the way Slegers, whose playing days were cut short by an ACL injury at 26, managed those players has been invaluable.
Aided by her coaching development, Slegers had no issue explaining herself in face-to-face conversations with players. An undercurrent of empathy and understanding that she was the source of frustrations underpinned those conversations, while also taking responsibility for the objectives of her new job: winning football matches. According to sources, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, players left those conversations feeling motivated by someone whose trust has been built over time.
Slegers has been vocal about making players take more ownership of the situation they found themselves in since October. She highlighted staff asking players to present in group meetings as an example. Small moments, such as players engaging with these changes, helped Slegers make up her mind that she wanted to pursue the job, but it also helped the squad grow.
“Under Jonas there was a really good back and forth, but now it’s less structured,” Leah Williamson said. “She (Slegers) is very much about having a conversation rather than sitting down in a big group.
“Renee’s a good person, but she’s a strong woman, so she holds a lot of authority in what she says. The biggest impact she’s had is on my mentality and being perfectly charged.
“Before we used to have a misunderstanding of my passion and the impact it had on my performance. There’s only so much of that you can do when trying to be a footballer, and there are times when I just want to go on the pitch and enjoy being a footballer. She’s helped me get back to that a lot.”
The 1-1 draw away at Manchester United was when she realised she may want the job permanently. It was her first league game in charge, and travelling fans sang her name throughout her post-match media duties on the touchline, despite the team leaving with one point, not three. “I thought we were really creating something with the positivity in the group and the fans after the game.” Slegers said.
Slegers when she was in charge of FC Rosengard (Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)
The job is spoken about as one of the biggest in women’s football. Despite her experience as Rosengard head coach, whether Slegers could carry the weight of the Arsenal hot seat could have been in doubt, but that may have underestimated her capabilities.
“You work in a lot of directions,” she said while still interim boss in December. “But from how I have been perceiving it, it’s a very big staff. The togetherness we have in the building means that we share things, so it doesn’t feel heavy for me.
“I’ve been in head coach roles before where facilities, resources and everything, was very basic and there was very little and I had to carry a lot myself. I think that was almost, in some ways, harder, because everything is on your shoulders and now I feel that we’re really doing it together.”
The support Slegers felt while in interim charge is likely why she wanted to include so much of her backroom staff in that squad photo, but she has already begun stamping her authority on how the team moves forward on and off the pitch.
Internally, after the announcement of her appointment, she finally explained her core footballing principles to the squad. Externally, she has talked of making football entertaining as well as competitive. That has been the case so far, and this weekend’s visit of Crystal Palace will give her an opportunity to pick up where she left of at the end of 2024.
(Top photo: Alex Pantling via Getty Images)
