Ahead of Arsenal’s final Barclays Women’s Super League match of the season against Brighton on Saturday, Jonas Eidevall addressed the media at Sobha Realty Training Centre and reflected on ‘a year of a lot of turmoil.’
The Gunners have already confirmed their third-place finish, regardless of how Saturday’s clash at Meadow Park pans out. It has been viewed by many as a rather disappointing campaign given Arsenal’s failure to reach the group stage of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, and their early exit from the title race left many voicing discontent.
Eidevall explained the impacts of an injury-laden campaign though, stressing that ‘you will have that [difficulties] when you have as many long-term injuries as we had. First you lose players, but then you also have to guide them back and do that in a safe way.’
‘I always knew that that was going to be a challenge – I’m very proud of the players and the whole staff team.’
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was confirmed earlier this week that Vivianne Miedema’s seven-year stint in North London will come to a close this summer, after the club opted not to offer the Dutch international a new contract. The decision proved unpopular with fans, but Eidevall explained that ‘it’s a unified club decision, in which we obviously took a lot of care into that decision and we have to weigh in a lot of different factors.’
‘What’s best for the club? I don’t think it would be worthy to speak about why and why not we would go in certain directions. I think it would be overshadowing what has been a truly remarkable story with Vivianne Miedema and Arsenal – I think that should be the headlines: her seven years at Arsenal, her contributions to the club. That is what is getting all the light here [at the club] at the moment.’
He praised her conduct in recent weeks, stressing that ‘as always, Vivianne Miedema is a very professional football player, and she’s been training very well. I think she’s very focused on trying to do her best all the time when she’s representing the club.’
Eidevall acknowledged that Miedema has become a fan favourite in recent years, and hailed ‘the connection between the team and the supporters, the club and the supporters.’
‘One thing obviously that many supporters have connections to is also individual players, and I think that is natural that we will have players that will be very affectionate by our supporters. My message would be that when we are working, when we are taking decisions, [it is] to build Arsenal to be as strong as possible for the future.’
‘We want nothing else than to be as successful as possible on the pitch, and that is the direction we want to go as a club.’