Arsenal have confirmed that Raul Sanllehi will join the club as head of football relations in February.

The Spaniard joins the Gunners after 14 years at Barcelona and will lead future player negotiations in a role that effectively fills the gap left by Dick Law.

Arsenal have drawn attention to the fact that Sanllehi will work alongside Arsene Wenger, Ivan Gazidis and Huss Fahmy, who joined in the summer. He’ll also have day-to-day involvement with Sven Mislintat, our new head of player recruitment, who’ll be moving to London in the coming days from Borussia Dortmund.

Speaking about the new appointment, Ivan Gazidis said: “In the past three years we have supplemented our team with more top-class expertise across every aspect of our football operations.

“Raul’s appointment is another important step in developing the infrastructure we need at the club to take everything we do to the next level. Raul has extensive contacts across the football world and has been directly involved in some of the biggest transfers in Europe in recent years. We look forward to him bringing that expertise to Arsenal.”

What this means for Arsene Wenger’s future remains to be seen. Could the boss be pondering an early exit this summer?