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Image: Monaco Life
Arsenal have announced that Pascal De Maesschalck will succeed Per Mertesacker as the club’s academy director from August 1st.
De Maesschalck joins from Strasbourg, where he worked as a technical director. He was previously academy manager at Monaco and Club Brugge.
It is also notable that the new appointment has a slightly different job title to Mertesacker, who was referred to as the academy manager.
Sporting director Andrea Berta told Arsenal.com: ‘We are delighted to welcome Pascal to Arsenal. He brings extensive experience from some of Europe’s leading football clubs and has an outstanding track record in youth development.
‘We are excited to have him with us as we continue to build for the future, developing young players and identifying the best emerging talent to join Arsenal on a journey towards professional football.’
De Maesschalck joins Arsenal at a time where much work needs to be done at academy level.
Despite producing high quality first-team players such as Max Dowman and Myles Lewis-Skelly in recent years, there have been concerns regarding the first-team pathway for other prospects, while results at youth level have often been disappointing, especially in the UEFA Youth League.
Furthermore, concerns have also been raised regarding Arsenal’s ability to retain the services of some of their standout academy prospects, while there have also been longstanding issues with recruitment and selling youngsters at the right time.