Pascal De Maesschalck has admitted he was surprised to be appointed Arsenal's academy director.

The Belgian began work at Arsenal in the summer, arriving from Strasbourg where he had been technical director since 2024.

De Maesschalck oversees the Gunners' academy programme, taking over from Per Mertesacker after he left at the end of last season having been in the role for eight years.

In an interview with Sporza, De Maesschalck revealed he viewed the interview process with Arsenal as a good opportunity in itself, before he ended up then getting the job.

“I actually still have no idea how they ended up with me,” he said.

“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’.”

“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.”

Pascal De Maesschalck alongside Albert Stuivenberg

Getty

Arsenal's Hale End production line has been a key one for the first team, with Bukayo Saka and Myles Lewis-Skelly among those to establish themselves in Mikel Arteta's first team.

Max Dowman and Marli Salmon are also increasingly making that jump and De Maesschalck has been told that Arteta wants the academy players ready to contribute.

“Arteta wants to collaborate, he also wants to give the youngsters a chance," De Maesschalck said.

"He has expressed his support for that very clearly. Our ambition is to write the development story of England.

“I watch a lot of matches. I also build relationships with the players and their parents, because I think it is important to know the players personally. It remains a people’s business.

“And recruitment, of course. That is the most important thing. You can have the best facilities or operations, but with the wrong players, it won’t work.”