Arsenal Women have appointed Renee Slegers as the Gunners’ permanent head coach after Slegers oversaw a three-month unbeaten spell as interim manager.

The 35-year-old former Arsenal academy prospect has signed a contract through to the end of the 2025/26 season, having taken temporary charge following Jonas Eidevall’s resignation in October 2024. 

Slegers joined the Gunners as an assistant coach to Eidevall in 2023, having won two Damallsvenskan titles as Rosengard boss after Eidevall left the Swedish side to become Arsenal manager in 2021.

The Dutch head coach 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.” 

Arsenal Co-Chair, Josh Kroenke, added: “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.” 

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.” 

Slegers will take charge of her first game as permanent head coach on Sunday as Arsenal welcome Crystal Palace to Meadow Park.