Could Joe Montemurro entice “unique” Miedema to Women’s Champions League veterans Lyon?

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·20 June 2024

Could Joe Montemurro entice “unique” Miedema to Women’s Champions League veterans Lyon?

Vivianne Miedema leaving Arsenal Women, after the club decided not to renew her contract, has been one of the most shocking departures that Gunner fans have had to deal with in quite some time.

Although there has been a lot of buzz about Manchester City being the potential destination for Miedema, we recently reported that Miedema could well be looking at Barcelona or Lyon as potential destinations, as she wants to join a Champions League winning side.

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With the news that former Arsenal Women boss, Joe Montemurro, is taking over Sonia Bonpastor’s position at Olympic Lyonnais (as Bonpastor has moved to manage Chelsea after Hayes departure), could that mean that Miedema could sign for the club and work with her old boss again?

Joe Montemurro, who won two trophies in 4 years while managing Arsenal Women from 2017 to 2021, told the Athletic that he was surprised at the news of Miedema’s Arsenal departure saying. “She’s a unique player, not only for Arsenal but on the world stage. It is a really interesting discussion on why they wouldn’t renew a contract. Sometimes clubs go in different directions and sometimes players might just need a change. It will be very, very difficult to not put Viv and Arsenal in the same sentence.

“She was the symbol in my tenure of how Arsenal wanted to play. I absolutely loved working with her because we used to challenge each other. I’d say, ‘No, that’s not right’. She’d go, ‘Yes, it is, it’s right’. Tactically, the way we wanted to approach things, we would have great discussions about how we could improve. I really loved those discussions. She’s really an intelligent thinker in terms of the way she sees the game.”

Montemurro also seemed to question whether Arsenal have got the best out of her in recent times when he noted: “I understood she needed to be free. She needed to be in the right areas where she would have massive impacts and allow her to be creative. She just sees things a lot earlier. If you give her that room, she can be very effective. She has the weapons to play all those areas, whether it’s back to goal, coming from outside in, starting from a lower position. When you’ve got a player of that calibre, let her make the decision in the moment.”

Olympic Lyonnais have a proven track record in the Women’s Champions League, having won the title a record 8 times and been runners-up a further 3 times. And with Joe Montemurro at the helm it makes sense that Lyon would be a very interesting prospect for Miedema, particularly as the two worked together so well in the past and seemingly have a very mutual respect for eachother..

What do you think Gooners? I, for one, would not be surprised if Montemurro’s Lyon is not already in advanced discussions with the all-time WSL top goalscorer. It seems like a match made in heaven to me!

Michelle M

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