Montemurro - That achievement marked our arrival

With back-to-back titles and an unbeaten season at Melbourne City under his belt, Joe Montemurro has arrived in England with some pedigree.

The new Arsenal Women’s manager may not be widely known in the English game yet, but he says his achievements back in Australia were huge both for him and his former club.

“You are always proud of these moments and successes in football, but I think from a club perspective it was very important,” Montemurro told Arsenal Player. “There are moments in football that you hope you can keep having and keep challenging yourself and I think it was a great period in the club’s history.

“It was a great opportunity, because we got to build the club from scratch from day one and it was a good project because we were able to stamp the identity and the way we wanted to do things, the high standards and pretty much everything from day one. That was fantastic because you effectively created the template for success in the years to come, so it was a very good project and an exciting project for me as a starter - it’s good that I’ve left a legacy or a template where they can have continued success.”

Montemurro spent some of his playing career in Italy at Treviso and completed his UEFA A licence at the renowned Italian finishing school where the likes of Antonio Conte, Carlo Ancelotti and Claudio Ranieri all trained: Coverciano.

“I got involved in management when I was very young, 26 or 27,” he said. and “I always loved changing behaviours of people and working with groups to affect behaviour, so it was just a natural progression to get into coaching or managing and it’s just progressed from there. I’ve been privileged enough to work in an industry I love and have made it my life, so it’s fantastic.

“I think you’re always evolving, I think there is never a time when you think that’s it, I’ve made it as a manager. You learn every day, you learn to pick up little details and little things you can do better.

“I think the thing in management is to be very humble and probably the most important thing is to care about your players and really get to know how they work and understand how they work in the group dynamic.

“[My footballing philosophy is that] we play with the ball, we try to solve problems with the ball. It’s good to have good balance without the ball, but it’s a very proactive game, probably things you’ve all heard before. The ability to transfer that style of play into the way you train, the ethos of the team and the integrity of the team. I’m very passionate about what I do, so there’s definitely a high energy in the group.”