Arsenal have been conducting an internal review and will now see the club’s head of sports science and performance, Tom Allen depart the Emirates – following their head of medical out the door
Arsenal have seen another one of Mikel Arteta’s lieutenants leave this summer with the club’s head of sports science and performance, Tom Allen, to depart.
Last month, the Gunners axed head of medical, Dr Zafar Iqbal. His exit came as a surprise and Allen is another senior figure who will no longer be part of Arteta’s backroom staff. Allen had been at the Emirates Stadium for nine years, joining in 2017 having previously been at Aston Villa.
The injuries suffered by some of Arsenal’s leading lights has led to them having a look internally and assessing how they can prevent that in the future. Arteta recommended an old acquaintance, Joaquín Acedo, a physiotherapist from Spain, to undertake a review. Being without key players has threatened to derail their hopes in previous seasons.
Allen is not the only influential figure leaving the red side of north London. Another popular member of the first-team staff, Sam Wilson, is also leaving the club. He is lead physical performance coach and has been on Arsenal’s books for 12 years. He is expected to join a club in Europe, reports the Telegraph.
Arteta does ultimately employ an intense game-plan and also operates by using a smaller number of players than many of their rivals, ultimately placing more of a load on the individuals. But the club equally want to ensure they’re doing all they can to protect against injury.
Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard all missed significant periods last term, whilst Jurrien Timber was not able to recover in time to start the Champions League final – and was eventually forced to miss the World Cup.
Arsenal are looking to build on a season that saw them win the Premier League for the first time in 22 years. Their ability to overcome a late season wobble was also a huge plus following years of near misses and them losing in crunch games. They could not land a memorable double in Europe, however.
Despite taking an early lead PSG ultimately claimed the European Cup on penalties and Arsenal’s defensive style was criticised by some pundits. It led to talk of the Gunners’ need to bolster their quality in the final third and Arteta admitted the club would act to take them to even greater heights.
“We’ll start to make some very important decisions, we want to reach another level,” he said. “We’re going to have to show that ambition because they are more than capable of doing it but it’s going to demand us to be very, very ambitious, very fast and very smart.”
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