Frank Arnesen - Managerial Career

Managerial Career

After his active career, Frank Arnesen was first appointed assistant coach at PSV under Bobby Robson from 1991 to 1993, and in 1994 he became the club's general manager. Arnesen spent 10 years as director of football at PSV Eindhoven, and was credited with discovering major talents, such as Brazilian striker Ronaldo and Dutch players Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and Arjen Robben. In May 2004, Arnesen was brought to Tottenham Hotspur, replacing David Pleat. Arnesen was to function as the manager responsible for player transfers and scouting for new talent, while coach Jacques Santini handled the daily training sessions and match setups; an arrangement identical to Arnesen's days as PSV manager. Things didn't work out well, and Santini left within months citing "personal problems" as his reason for leaving. Arnesen's original hiring for assistant coach, Martin Jol, was put in charge of the club.

Arnesen was suspended by Spurs on 4 June 2005 for expressing a desire to move to rival club Chelsea, after Chelsea allegedly made an illegal approach to sign him as manager. Arnesen was photographed aboard one of Roman Abramovich's three luxury yachts on 22 June 2005 thus reinforcing Tottenham's compensation claim. Arnesen was recommended to Abramovich by Piet de Visser, in a move which was opposed by José Mourinho. On 24 June, both clubs announced that they had reached a financial settlement, later disclosed to be £5 million but widely reported to be closer to £8 million, and Arnesen would move to Chelsea, filling in the role of head talent scout, in charge of uncovering footballing talents. Arnesen has since played a key role in bringing Salomon Kalou, Florent Malouda and John Obi Mikel to Chelsea. But the club has still pursued expensive purchases of established international players rather than unearthing and developing young talent as hoped. Recently it has been reported that former Chelsea manager José Mourinho has blamed Arnesen for the lack of talented youth in the Chelsea ranks. On 27 November 2010 Chelsea announced that Arnesen had resigned as sporting director and would be leaving the club at the end of the 2010–11 season. On 20 February he decided to join Hamburger SV for the foreseeable future as sporting director.

As a Hamburg SV Sporting Director, Arnesen took Chelsea youngsters to Hamburg like Jacopo Sala, Michael Mancienne, Gökhan Töre, Slobodan Rajković (all permanent) and Jeffrey Bruma (on loan). On 10 October 2011 Arnesen took over the additional task of the head coach of Hamburger SV for just one match before hiring and installing a permanent new coach with Thorsten Fink.