Arsenal have reportedly agreed new contracts with as many as five members of Mikel Arteta‘s coaching team, including assistant Albert Stuivenberg and set-piece coach Nicolas Jover.
Ex-Manchester City assistant Arteta has overseen a revolution since taking the reins from Unai Emery, converting Arsenal from a mid-table team into genuine Premier League title challengers.
The Gunners also have one foot firmly in the semi-finals of this season’s Champions League after thrashing holders Real Madrid 3-0 in the first leg of their quarter-final tie in midweek, where two Declan Rice free kicks and a Mikel Merino finish did the damage.
Rice had seemingly been instructed to bend his free kick around the wall by set-piece coach Jover, although the midfielder subsequently revealed that the dead-ball guru had told him to deliver a cross into the box instead.
Despite that ignored instruction, Jover remains a highly respected figure among Arsenal players and a cult hero among Arsenal fans, as the Gunners have scored 21 goals from set-pieces this season, more than any other Premier League team.
Arsenal coaches ‘agree new deals’ seven months after Arteta
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There was never any danger of Jover being poached by a rival team, but to lay any fears to rest, the Evening Standard reports that the 43-year-old is one of five coaches to have signed a new deal at the Emirates.
Joining Jover in extending their Emirates terms are Stuivenberg – Arteta’s right-hand man – fellow assistant Carlos Cuesta, first-team coach Miguel Molina and goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana.
The report adds that all five have signed new deals until the end of the 2026-27 campaign, seven months after head coach Arteta also penned a two-year renewal at the beginning of September.
Stuivenberg, Cuesta, Molina, Cana and Jover were reportedly all due to see their deals expire at the end of the season, but Arsenal have now agreed new contracts with the quintet after trying but failing to sort them out at the same time as Arteta’s.
Stuivenberg and Cana have been part of Arteta’s team ever since he joined Arsenal in late 2019, and the former was previously linked with a move to Feyenoord as Arne Slot‘s replacement as head coach.
Meanwhile, Molina and Cuesta – who was alleged to have been on Norwich City’s radar at one stage – arrived at the Emirates in 2020, before Jover also joined Arsenal in the summer of 2021.
Which Arsenal players are also in line for new contracts?
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Now that Arteta’s coaching team have all committed their futures to the club, sporting director Andrea Berta, managing director Richard Garlick and executive vice-chair Tim Lewis can prioritise renewing the contracts of several key players.
When Edu was at the helm. Arsenal successfully agreed new deals with a plethora of key men in 2022 and 2023, including the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba.
However, all four are out of contract in the summer of 2027, and Arsenal are expected to sit down with their representatives this summer to discuss long-term extensions, aiming to avoid the situation that Liverpool find themselves in with Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
In addition, Hale End stars Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri are in line for bumper new deals, having rapidly become integral parts of Arteta’s first-team squad in the 2024-25 season.
