It's official: Steve Bould will step in as Arsenal's new Assistant Manager starting this summer. The official site confirms it thusly:
Arsène Wenger has hailed Steve Bould’s quality after promoting him to his backroom staff in place of the retiring Pat Rice.
The 49-year-old has been a major success as manager of Arsenal’s Under-18s, earning plaudits from both inside and outside the Club.
Unless there are some serious grammatical shenanigans going on there, it's all set. Don't worry: there will be a Pat Rice Appresh Thread coming soon to a Short Fuse near you, but for now, it's congratulations to Mr. Bould, who first joined Arsenal from Stoke City in 1988, and has been at the club more or less since then, save for a short stint at Sunderland. Arsene Wenger summed up his choice:
"His qualities are that he has experience of the top-level game, he has managed here, he knows our football philosophy and therefore there will be a continuity," he said.
"He has also chosen after his playing career to coach here at the Club and we always want to give an advantage to people who know how we work, how we want to coach.
"A very good coach is the most important thing, no matter where you played."
Bould has had success as coach of the youth setup at Arsenal, winning the Premier Academy League two years in a row from 2008-10 and the FA Youth Cup in 2009.