Arsenal have started the search for a new women’s team manager for next season to replace current Joe Montemurro, who has made the decision to step down at the end of the current campaign.
Montemurro will see out the WSL season but the process to identify and hire his successor is already underway, being collectively guided by managing director Vinai Venkatesham, technical director Edu, people director Karen Ann Josephides and head of women’s football Clare Wheatley.
Arsenal’s history in the women’s game makes it one of the biggest managerial gigs out there. The Gunners have won a record 15 English league titles, including three in the WSL era, a record 14 FA Cups, and remain the only English club to date to win the Champions League – or the UEFA Women’s Cup as it was still called when they did it in 2007.
They are also one of the best equipped and most well supported women’s teams in the world, but the job as it sits doesn’t come without a significant challenge - the rise of Manchester City, Chelsea and latterly even Manchester United having ended their domestic dominance.
Here, 90min spins through five candidates Arsenal could consider to fill the role...
5. Marc Skinner
Marc Skinner left English football for the United States in 2019 with a fine reputation built during his time as Birmingham manager. At the time of his departure, his Blues side were fourth in the WSL table and maintained that form to finish just two points behind Chelsea.
Skinner’s fortunes at current club Orlando Pride haven’t been great. His team full of star names finished bottom of the NWSL regular season table in 2019 and failed to win any of the few games they managed to play during a massively disrupted 2020.
His contract in Florida has been extended to cover the 2021 NWSL season, but could a call from a big club back home be too tempting to turn down?
4. Carla Ward
Carla Ward is the rising star among WSL managers. The former Lincoln defender was still playing when she was appointed Sheffield United boss in 2018 and was involved in the application process that got the Blades accepted into the Women’s Championship for the 2018/19 season.
Ward’s team finished fifth and then second in the second tier, before she joined Birmingham in 2020 and has overachieved after inheriting a threadbare squad that looked destined for relegation.
Recent revelations about how Birmingham has run its women’s team, with complaints from players about earning less than minimum wage, delayed injury treatment, lack of access to facilities and travel arrangements have underlined what an excellent job Ward has done.
3. Laura Harvey
Laura Harvey was only 29 when she was appointed Arsenal manager back in 2010 but won three consecutive league titles with the Gunners, including the first two of the WSL era.
She left in 2012 to pursue a career in the United States and has been head coach at two NWSL clubs, as well holding various coaching roles within the USWNT setup. But women’s football in England is now very different to how it was when she left, even less than a decade on.
Harvey has also been linked with the England manager’s job in the past.
2. Jill Ellis
Two-time World Cup winner Jill Ellis is the superstar name among women’s football coaches and would certainly be a marquee appointment should Arsenal go down that route.
Ellis was born and raised in England until the age of 15 but only got into organised football after she moved to the United States with her family in 1981. She has therefore never worked in her homeland and Arsenal could be an opportunity to change that.
The 54-year-old spent the best part of 20 years involved with U.S. Soccer and the USWNT, although she was also in charge of of the women’s soccer team at UCLA for 11 years until 2010.
1. Stephan Lerch
Current Wolfsburg boss Stephan Lerch will be stepping down at the end of the season and there has already been speculation that he could make the switch to Arsenal this summer.
Lerch has been at Wolfsburg since 2013 and was appointed head coach of the first-team in 2017, winning three Frauen Bundesliga titles and reaching the 2020 Champions League final.
When the German coach was asked about Arsenal in the wake of Montemurro’s announcement, he refused to say very much about the possibility - but equally didn’t rule anything out.
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Source: 90min
