Tony Roberts is delighted to take up a full time coaching opportunity with Arsenal.
The veteran keeper called time on a 25-year playing career to work alongside goalkeeping coach Gerry Peyton, spending 11 years with Dagenham & Redbridge to become the Npower League Two side's record appearance maker.
Roberts has been involved with the Gunners for three years, spending two years with the Academy before stepping up to the first team's backroom staff last season at the Emirates.
“When they ask you to go full-time you don’t think about it, it’s something that you have got to do," he told the official Arsenal website.
“I didn’t need too much convincing, it’s Arsenal.”
“I’ve had a great career and have been going for 25 years. I was going to sign another year for Dagenham but when the opportunity arose to go full-time, I had to do it.
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Roberts has been working closely with a handful of goalkeepers at the club during his time in north London, including some at senior level, and the 41-year-old is hopeful the recent successes can continue.
“We’ve got six or seven goalkeepers that we look after and obviously Gerry can’t do it all on his own. We sit down with them and say what we expect from the goalkeepers at Arsenal," he continued.
“I’ve been working with Wojciech [Szczesny] and James [Shea] for a number of years and it seems to working.”
