Arsenal have agreed new contracts with five members of Mikel Arteta’s backroom staff to keep them at the Emirates. Arteta signed a new deal in September, but his coaching team were set to see theirs expire this summer.
Arteta has brought together a trusted quintet of coaches since his arrival as manager in December 2019. That includes assistants Albert Stuivenberg and Carlos Cuesta, first-team coach Miguel Molina, goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana and set-piece specialist Nicolas Jover.
The Spaniard signed his own extension last year, keeping him at the Emirates until the summer of 2027. But his backroom staff did not put pen on contract extensions at the same time.
Together the group have led Arsenal to the 2020 FA Cup, as well as two successive runners-up finishes in the Premier League. They look set to finish second again in the top-flight this term.
They do though have one foot in the Champions League semi-finals, having smashed Real Madrid 3-0 in the first leg of their quarter-final clash. Ahead of Saturday’s clash with Brentford, the Gunners have received an added boost.
According to the Evening Standard, all five of Arteta’s core staff have now signed new deals. The quintet’s contracts were set to expire at the end of the season, but it is claimed they have penned extensions to put them in line with the length of Arteta’s deal.
Arteta hinted back in December that the club were working to hand his staff new deals and they originally wanted to announce them back in September. He said: “We all tried to do it at the same time.
“It is difficult because four or five people committing at the same time is not easy to do. I am so happy with them and I value them at the highest level. I want to continue together so hopefully it will be resolved very soon.”
Stuivenberg joined Arsenal at the same time as Arteta and has become a trusted ally for him, stepping into the manager’s role when the Spaniard is suspended. Cana also joined the Gunners when Arteta was appointed, arriving from Brentford as goalkeeper coach.
Cuesta and Molina then arrived in the summer of 2020 before set-piece chief Jover was poached from Manchester City a year later. When signing his own new deal, Arteta made his love for Arsenal clear.
“I feel extremely proud, very excited and am looking forward to what is coming next. I’m proud to be where I am and have the relationships that I have with everyone at the club,” he said at the time.
“I feel extremely lucky to work every single day with good people and the ambition we have here. I feel very inspired, I feel challenged, I feel supported and I want to do much more than what we’ve already done together.
“Together with the players and everyone at the club, we are looking forward to the coming years, with our supporters, who have emotionally transformed the club and the team. We look forward to continuing the journey together.”
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