We’re delighted to announce that Renée Slegers has been appointed as our permanent head coach.
Renée, who has signed a contract through to the end of the 2025/26 season, took charge of our women’s first team in October 2024 on an interim basis. She oversaw an unbeaten run of 10 wins and one draw in all competitions, with 31 goals scored and just five conceded during that time.
Renée’s impact was recognised with the Barclays Women’s Super League Manager of the Month award in December, while a run of five straight wins from five UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage matches saw us qualify for the quarter-final stage as Group C winners.
Born in the Netherlands, Renée originally joined us as assistant coach in the summer of 2023, following a two-year spell in charge of Rosengard, where she won back-to-back Swedish league titles in 2021 and 2022.
Renée also has experience of representing Arsenal as a player, having spent time with our youth academy between 2006 and 2007. Her professional career included time at Willem II in the Netherlands, and Djurgårdens and Linkoping in Sweden, while at international level Renée won 55 caps for the Dutch national team before retiring in 2016.
“I’m so excited to be continuing our journey together,” said Renée. “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.”
Our 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.”
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