Joe Montemurro could not hold Katie McCabe in any higher regard.
Our No 15 agreed a new long-term deal this week, having flourished under the Australian's coaching.
We caught up with Montemurro after McCabe signed the dotted line. This is what he had to say:
on how pleased he is to keep Katie...
Katie McCabe is probably one of the highlights of the last three or four years here. It's been a project which has been an exciting one. She's been thrown every challenge from the day we brought her back on loan and she's developed into a world-class, left-sided player. All credit to her, she personifies exactly what we want from our squad.
on her importance growing...
She's relished the leadership roles, she's relished the challenge of becoming a better player and she's the perfect example of making sure that you achieve whatever you want to achieve. I still think there's a lot more to come.
on this being her best season...
She's up there in the assist stats in the league. I think that doesn't just personify Katie's importance but also the contribution she's made to the team in the way we want to play, and she's relished taking on all the challenges we've thrown at her, in terms of positional play, attacking more in numbers. All credit to her because there's still a lot more to come.
on her being a passionate player...
The pictures that come to mind straight away are when we won the league and Katie was just going crazy in the changing rooms. I think she was the first one to get the champagne bottles! It's her great character and I don't want her to ever change. I want her to always relish the great moments, always enjoying them and always pushing herself to be better. She's just great to have around every day.
on how much better she can be...
It's really up to her. I think she's found a really good spot at Arsenal, a really good position in terms of just being able to play her game. But I also think that there's a massive amount of belief in her to get better and she knows that. She believes in everything we're doing and I just hope she takes on more challenges. The exciting thing for me is that she's not just locked in as a full back. She can play centrally, out side or in three or four different positions. She personifies the modern footballer.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
