Jonas Eidevall's Bold Move: From Arsenal to NWSL and the Challenges Ahead

It has been five months since Jonas Eidevall made the surprising decision to leave his position as Arsenal manager. Now, the 42-year-old is embarking on a new chapter in the United States as the head coach of NWSL side San Diego Wave, with the season kicking off this weekend. Eidevall sat down with BBC Sport to discuss the reasons behind his departure from Arsenal, his decision to let record goalscorer Vivianne Miedema leave, and the challenges he faces in the NWSL.

The Decision to Leave Arsenal

Eidevall's tenure at Arsenal was marked by three consecutive top-three finishes in the Women's Super League, but the club fell short of unseating Chelsea as champions. Despite winning the League Cup in 2023 and retaining it the following year, further silverware eluded him. His final game was a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium, in front of increasingly disillusioned supporters.

"I thought the easiest quick fix in this moment here now is for me to step away," Eidevall said. "It was extremely tough, both for me personally - my family of course - but also professionally. It's a privilege to be leading a club like Arsenal. It's very special when you're there, so an extremely difficult decision to make."

The Departure of Vivianne Miedema

The departure of striker Vivianne Miedema, who scored 125 goals and provided 50 assists in 172 appearances, to Manchester City during the summer had piled the pressure on Eidevall before the season had even begun. Eidevall had previously spoken about how he "lost quite a lot of my relationship with the supporters" when he decided not to renew Miedema's contract.

"I don't. I think you always take the best decisions as you can make for the club at that point with the information that you know," he said. "You can't rethink decisions based on new information that you could not have known at that time. That's not a helpful way of thinking about life. So no regrets. I do think that that decision was a big part in my relationship with the supporters [deteriorating]."

The Challenge at San Diego Wave

Eidevall was announced as the new San Diego Wave head coach in January, becoming the permanent replacement for former England captain Casey Stoney, who was sacked in June. He says after leaving Arsenal "there was quite a bit of interest immediately from various club teams and national teams" and he spoke to a few different clubs, including San Diego.

The "long-term vision" at the Californian club really appealed to him, as well as the "competitiveness" of the NWSL itself. However, Eidevall is joining a league undergoing big changes, with this year the first time there will be no annual draft - making it the first major US professional sports league to abolish the draft system and aligning the competition closer to other women's football leagues around the world.

His club are also going through a period of transition having lost two of their biggest names - Naomi Girma to Chelsea and Alex Morgan to retirement - and they navigated the second-half of the season without a permanent coach. He describes Girma as an "irreplaceable player" but says the defender was "set on leaving" before his arrival.

Yet despite the huge turnover of players at the club, he says the team's goal should still be "to reach the play-offs" at the end of the season. "It feels like a complete rebuild to be honest," he says. "That's the challenge but also the opportunity."