Claude Makelele has joined Swansea City's coaching staff and will be in the dugout for the team's Premier League game against Arsenal on Saturday.

The former France international joins up with new manager Paul Clement who he worked with as a player at Chelsea and then as a coach at Paris Saint-Germain.

A club statement explained that Makelele, 43, has joined as an assistant coach on a deal until the end of the season.

Makelele, who won two Premier League trophies with Chelsea and a World Cup runners-up medal with France, will join fellow new recruits Nigel Gibbs and Karl Halabi at the Liberty stadium.

Swansea have conceded the most goals in Premier League this season and Clement will be hoping Makelele can instil some of the defensive solidity he embodied during his playing days into the current squad.

Clement's short reign at Swansea has already proved controversial, with club stalwart Alan Curtis being relieved of coaching duties by text message.

Free agents 2017: 20 footballers whose contract runs out in the summer Show all 20 1 /20 Free agents 2017: 20 footballers whose contract runs out in the summer Free agents 2017: 20 footballers whose contract runs out in the summer 1. Santi Cazorla - Arsenal The Spanish midfielder injured his Achilles in the Gunners’ 6-0 win over Ludogorets in October and had to have ankle surgery, which he is still recovering from. Cazorla also missed seven months of the previous season due to injury and it remains to be seen whether Arsenal will deem it worthwhile to tie him down for another year. Getty Free agents 2017: 20 footballers whose contract runs out in the summer 2. Per Mertesacker - Arsenal Injured since the summer, Mertesacker hasn’t featured at all for Arsenal this term. The German defender is expected to return in a few weeks but he may find it difficult to break back into the starting XI, especially after Arsene Wenger bought Shkodran Mustafi in the summer. 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While the club subsequently explained that Curtis would be offered a job elsewhere in the club - in what appeared to be a U-turn - some fans were upset at the treatment of a man who has served the club for over four decades following the appointment of Clement just days before.