Gabriel Heinze is set to remain at Arsenal despite recent interest from Elche CF, as the Spanish club have announced Martin Anselmi as their new manager.
Earlier this week, reports suggested Elche CF could look to appoint Arsenal’s Gabriel Heinze as their new head coach, with Mikel Arteta’s assistant on a list of names in the frame to take over at the La Liga club.
Estadio Deportivo claimed Elche were considering Heinze, given his positive work as an assistant at Arsenal and his prior experience as a head coach in Argentina and in the United States.
The suggestion was that Heinze represented a different option to some of the other candidates, putting a focus on energy and personality rather than simply looking for someone to maintain Elche’s current style of play.
But however seriously Heinze was considered as an option, Elche have since announced that Martin Anselmi will be taking over for the 2026/27 season, with a further year possible depending on reaching certain sporting objectives.
That presumably means Heinze is set to stay at Arsenal next season, unless another club comes in for him in the coming months.
It’s relatively common for clubs to try and lure away assistant managers with the promise of taking the top job somewhere else, and it’s no surprise when those assistants are tempted away.
Even taking a step down, in terms of the status of a club, is often viewed as worthwhile to become the main man in charge.
Fortunately for Arsenal, Heinze got the ego boost of being considered for a top job in one of Europe’s top-five leagues, but he remains available to coach in north London.
Arteta will likely want to keep his title-winning coaching team together for 2026/27, as much as that’s possible.
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