Arsenal head coach Joe Montemurro says that he will miss the club when he leaves his role at Meadow Park at the end of the month.
The Australian became Arsenal manager in November 2017 following the sacking of former boss Pedro Martínez Losa and he has led the club to a third-place finish in this season’s Barclays FA Women’s Super League, securing qualification for next season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League in the process.
Montemurro will oversee his side’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup fifth round tie against Crystal Palace on Sunday before departing the club in order to spend more time with his family.
Speaking in his post-match press conference following yesterday’s goalless draw with Aston Villa, Montemurro commented in detail about his time as Arsenal boss and he gave his thoughts on how the season has unfolded for his side.
He said “When you’re in the mix of it, you don’t really have time to think about the league and the situation that you are in.
“We had an objective to qualify for the Champions League and we did that very well. It’s starting to come to an end, which is quite sad. I will miss this football club and I will miss this ground and I’ll miss being part of the WSL.
“The players have been brilliant to manage, I can’t speak highly enough of every single one of them. We have had ups and downs but we have all worked together on this little journey that we have all been on together.”
Speaking about his side’s performance against Villa, Montemurro said that he expected a similar type of game prior to kick-off as the one which actually unfolded. The point taken by Villa helped the club secure their safety in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League for another season.
He added “Frustration is probably a good word to sum up our performance today.
“To be honest with you, we didn’t really find the solutions today. We were probably too slow in executing what we wanted to do. We let the frustrations kick in and things didn’t start working for us. It is very unlike us, we are usually switched on in these types of games but today, there were areas that we were lacking in.
“From a Villa point of view, I thought they were very well contained. They needed to get a point and they needed to make sure they didn’t concede early on. The longer the game went on, the better outcome for them.”
Arsenal beat Manchester United to third place after collecting one point more than The Red Devils while The Gunners also boasted a better goal difference.
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