It may not be just on the Arsenal playing staff where we see change ahead of the 2025/26 season. In a summer where members of Mikel Arteta's squad will depart for fresh challenges elsewhere, one of the key exits could in fact come from the Spaniard's coaching team.

Assistant coach Carlos Cuesta has confirmed his exit from the Emirates Stadium as he gets set to take his first head coach role in the senior game. The 29-year-old is set to take over at Serie A club Parma after they lost their head coach, Cristian Chivu, to Inter Milan earlier this month.

Following the halcyon days of the 1990s and struggles that followed after which resulted in bankruptcy in 2015, Cuesta will want to build on the Italian side finishing 16th last season after their return to the top flight and take them forward. A departure for the highly-rated Spaniard, who was linked with the Norwich City job in 2024, .

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Taking to his Instagram account on Wednesday evening, he penned: "After five beautiful years it’s hard to put this into words, but I can only express how grateful I am for having lived my day-to-day with such special people and feel what it means to represent this football club, with its incredible history and value.

"The only thing I’ve ever tried to do was give everything I had inside of me every single day. I was inspired by the culture that was created, by the hunger of every person of the organisation and by the unity that we had in any situation that we had to face.

"It has been a privilege to have had the chance to work with the players, staff, directors and all the employees of the club and at the same time, to receive an extra push from our amazing fans in every match.

"Because of the quality of its people, I’m convinced that the best moments for this football club are still yet to come. Enjoy the journey, because it is a very exciting one. Thank you Arsenal."

. He wrote: "And then, to the person that made it happen. Thank you. That’s the only thing I can say.

"Thank you for your trust, for giving me the opportunity to be next to you and for showing me with constant facts which is the meaning of the word “courage”. But more than that, thank you for being an incredible coach, an incredible leader, and an even better human being.

"It has been a true privilege to learn from you, to feel your support in any circumstance and to share the ups and downs of the journey always seeing the positive side of it. You’ve taught me a lot, and I will carry it always with me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you."

Arriving at Arsenal from Juventus in 2020, Cuesta has played a huge role in the club's transformation during tenure. A number of players have come on in leaps and bounds over the past few seasons, with Cuesta a major reason for that due to his work in helping players improve specific areas of their game.

In Amazon's 'All or Nothing' documentary which focused on Arsenal's 2021/22 campaign, the coach was praised by Nuno Tavares. "Carlos can understand the players because he is also young," he said. "He helps me get better and better."

Tavares isn't the only player to have waxed lyrical about Cuesta's work. , now at Bayer Leverkusen, also did the same during an interview with .

"Of course, you are always surprised when someone of that young age comes to a big club like Arsenal," said the Swiss midfielder. "My feeling from the first meeting with him was that first of all, as a person, he is very honest, very straight, but he also had great knowledge about football.

"He knows what he’s doing, he knows how to speak with the players, what the players need. It was just amazing from the beginning.”

He added: "How Carlos improved — day by day, month by month, year on year — was unbelievable. The individual meetings that we had with him were always on point, very clear to understand, and I was very grateful to learn many many new things

"The relationship between Carlos and me was very special. I think how we were thinking as people was exactly the same. The honesty we showed each other, and other people, was always the same.

"He helped me a lot. We had so many individual meetings, video sessions, and conversations. To be honest, these things helped bring me where I am today."

Xhaka finished off his interview by stating: “I am sure that one day he will be a manager for a big, big, big club. I say this because he knows what he wants, he has clear ideas, and he has clear goals that he wants to achieve. I am certain that one day we will see him on the touchline as a manager."

Cuesta is now set to be on the touchline as the new head coach of Parma. It is a move that will in fact make him the youngest Serie A manager in 86 years.

Anyone with any doubts about Parma appointing a 29-year-old in the hotseat should take a look at what Xhaka, Tavares and others at Arsenal have said about Cuesta and just how highly regarded he is in the game. It is a huge coup for Parma but also a huge loss for Arteta and Arsenal.