ionigeria.com Nigerian Newspaper
Arsenal sack Steve Bould after 30 years at the club as a player and coach; 58-year-old led Arsenal’s U23 side to 10th in Premier League 2; Bould had overseen the development of Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe
The 58-year-old has been in the youth team role for the past two seasons having previously been an integral part of Arsene Wenger’s backroom team.
Bould spent 11 years with Arsenal as a player from 1988-99 before returning to the club as a coach in 2001.
After more than a decade working with the academy, Bould was promoter to be Wenger’s No.2 after the retirement of assistant manager Pat Rice.
He held that role up to and beyond the end of Wenger’s reign in 2018, but was reassigned to the academy just a year later in a job swap with Freddie Ljungberg.
By that time Unai Emery was in the hotseat and it is thought Bould preferred to move away from first team duties to take charge of his own crop of the club’s youngsters.
As reports The Athletic, academy director Per Mertesacker will now be tasked with finding a replacement for Bould, who becomes the latest victim to the huge restructuring going on at the club.
A year before that former head of youth development Steve Morrow left of his own accord.
Several of Arsenal’s current squad have come through the club’s Hale End academy, including England international Bukayo Saka, midfielder Emile Smith Rowe and rising talent Folarin Balogun.
