Unai Emery did not feature on Arsenal’s original shortlist of potential successors to Arsene Wenger before eventually landing the job ahead of Mikel Arteta.

The Gunners are set to unveil Emery as the club’s new manager on a contract worth around £6million-a-year and will allow him to bring up to four members of his own backroom staff with him.

But Telegraph Sport understands first contact between the two parties was only made 10 days ago – after most of the interviews had already taken place.

The likes of Arteta, Patrick Vieira and Max Allegri were all first sounded out over the Arsenal post over a fortnight ago after Arsenal had drawn up their original shortlist.

Emery was only put on to the club’s radar by an agent once a number of candidates were waiting to hear back about their own interviews or had pulled out of the race themselves.