Pascal De Maesschalck has admitted he still has no idea how Arsenal ended up choosing him as their new academy director, and says Mikel Arteta has made it very clear he wants the club’s youngsters ready to play.
The Belgian started work in north London in the summer, taking over from Per Mertesacker, who left at the end of last season after eight years in charge of the academy. Speaking to Sporza, the 52-year-old was refreshingly honest about the whole process.
He arrived from Strasbourg, where he had been technical director since 2024, and before that he ran the youth setup at Club Brugge from 2007 to 2021.
‘I actually still have no idea how they ended up with me’
De Maesschalck said he went into the Arsenal interview treating it as a learning experience, with no expectation of walking away with the job.
He said: “I actually still have no idea how they ended up with me. I have always learned to do your job as well as possible, and then opportunities arise. Don’t think in advance, ‘I want to do that’.”
He added: “In my case, a club of Arsenal’s calibre came along, which is a completely different dimension than where I was able to work before. I walked out with a good feeling. I said, ‘even if I don’t get the job, I still learned a lot in the past two hours’. Our ideas aligned well.”
What has Arteta asked of the Arsenal academy?
The most telling part of the interview is what he said about the manager. Hale End has already given Arteta Bukayo Saka and Myles Lewis-Skelly, and De Maesschalck says the door is open for more.
“Arteta wants to collaborate, he also wants to give the youngsters a chance,” he said. “He has expressed his support for that very clearly. Our ambition is to write the development story of England.”
That backing is already visible. Max Dowman and Marli Salmon are both increasingly making the jump to the first team, and Arteta has stuck with Dowman even after the Fleetwood red card that cost the 16-year-old three games.
Why recruitment comes first for De Maesschalck
He described the job as a people’s business. He watches a lot of matches, and he wants to know the players and their parents personally rather than see them as names on a list.
“And recruitment, of course. That is the most important thing,” he said. “You can have the best facilities or operations, but with the wrong players, it won’t work.”
That fits what Arsenal said when they hired him. Sporting director Andrea Berta said in July that the Belgian brings extensive experience from several major European clubs, and that the club want to keep guiding the best young talent towards professional football. At Club Brugge, Brandon Mechele and Charles De Ketelaere both broke into the first team on his watch, and Strasbourg reached the Conference League semi-finals last season.
The next intake is already being lined up. Victor Ozhianvuna has said goodbye to Shamrock Rovers before his move to Arsenal in January, and players like him are exactly who De Maesschalck will need to get right if Hale End is to keep feeding the first team.
Verdict: Pascal De Maesschalck has the manager on his side
Plenty of academy chiefs talk about pathways. Very few can say the first-team manager has told them, clearly, that he wants their players. With Dowman already in the Champions League conversation and Salmon close behind, De Maesschalck has walked into a setup where the route to the top is real.
The honesty about his own appointment is a nice touch, but the line Gooners should hold on to is the one about recruitment. Mertesacker left a strong academy behind. If De Maesschalck gets the scouting right, Arteta’s promise to give the kids a chance will have plenty to work with.
