Robert de Pauw has set his sights on a successful stint in charge of Aston Villa Women after being confirmed as the club’s new manager.
The Dutchman masterminded a pair of top six finishes in the Frauen Bundesliga during his time at Bayer Leverkusen before deciding to seek a fresh challenge in May.
De Pauw, who also has extensive experience in his homeland within the Dutch national set-up and at FC Twente, is relishing the chance to coach in England.
“I’m very happy and very honoured that the club chose me as their Women’s coach,” he said.
“It’s a privilege to be here and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
De Pauw added: “I saw the potential of the team with the young and older players, so the experience is there but also the talent.
“The ambition of the club is to be in the top six and everything is in order to make the team tick.”
The 42-year-old joins the club at an exciting time following several years of progress that has seen Villa establish themselves in the Women’s Super League.
De Pauw is looking to build on the foundations laid by his predecessor Carla Ward.
He said: “You have to give credit to the organisation, the former manager and her staff, and everything looks good.
“The players are a very big part of it. They’ve grown as a team over the past few seasons and shown that they are a stable factor in the league.
“What they can expect from me is a clear playing style: I like to have the ball and I like to be dominant. In a league where there are big teams, you have to be ready to defend well and be efficient on the counter-attack.
“I’ve shown in the teams that I’ve coached that football can be very beautiful with players that grow and develop into internationals. This is what I aim for here. The best thing will be if we win something.”
As well as consistent results in the league, Villa have reached the semi-finals of both cup competitions over the course of the past two seasons, and the club’s new manager is aiming for silverware.
“I’d like to win something, like every coach,” he said.
“We’ll be doing fine if we end up in the top six, but we have to be ambitious, we have to dream. In the future if we can build towards European football that would be a dream for everyone in the organisation.
“We have to start by building a playing style, creating good habits, building a winning culture and then success, in my experience, will follow.”
