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Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has dropped the heaviest hint yet that Arsene Wenger will be given a new contract.

Gazidis was glowing as he described Wenger as being "ambitious, driven and fantastic" but Arsenal are looking to do any contract negotiations quietly.

Gunners boss Wenger, 63, is the club's most successful manager and yet his eight year barren spell without a trophy has left some supporters believing the time is right for change.

Gazidis said: "What I really don't want to do is have a public discussion about Arsene's contractual position. That would be a daily, weekly fixture on the public coverage if you start getting into that. What I will say is that we think we have got a fantastic manager.

"We hope that he wants to do what he is doing for the long term. I believe he does. I think he is still ambitious, still driven and sees the potential of the club as he looks forward and I think he is very excited by that.

"We have a great relationship and he has a great relationship with the board as well. So, quietly and at the right time I think we will make an announcement on that when things are all put in place."

Gazidis was, however, reluctant to say whether Arsenal had made Wenger a new contract offer.

"I don't want to get into that level because then it'll be: 'you've made him an offer' then the next question will be 'well, what did he say?' and so on," said Gazidis. "This is going to happen very quietly behind closed doors, privately and then there will be an announcement.

"I don't even want to say that (if it's been discussed). We have got a lot of confidence in Arsene that he is the right person to take the club forward and I think he will want to do that."

(Image: Getty)

Gazidis also insisted the uncertainty about Wenger - who has one year left on his current deal - would not put off potential new signings this summer.

"I think players that are concerned about uncertainty probably think about Arsenal as the most certain place they could be in the world of football," said Gazidis.

"This is a club that has had remarkable consistency in terms of its manager, its football philosophy, its direction and the consistent support from the board and our principal owner for our manager is pretty much unmatched, through some difficult periods as well.

"So if its consistency players are looking for, I think Arsenal would be a very attractive place to come.

"If you are asking me, is that an issue with players, the answer is 'no.' Its far more an issue with players signing at other clubs than it is at Arsenal. If players have that on their issue list, I think that's a mark in our favour, not against us."

Gazidis also summed up his overall view of last season which saw Arsenal finish fourth, gain a Champions League qualifying place and Gazidis said: "So obviously we have come to the end of the season and in the end we finished with 73 points and in fourth place which I would say was necessary for us.

"We want to be competing at the top of the game and in order to do that you have to be in the Champions League. So we are pleased to qualified, or at least, for the qualification games. But it is not ultimately where we want to be with moving the club forward.

"We want to be a club that is competing at the very top end of the game and that means competing to win the Premier League and competing to win the Champions League. On that basis, we are not where we want to be yet.

(Image: PA)

"I think its not idle ambition when we talk about wanting to get there. I think we have a very solid plan that will give us the ability to be able to compete at that level provided we do things well.

"We have spoken about it many, many times before - and I think you are all aware of it - the stadium move has meant we have tied in a lot of our commercial deals to it which has put us behind the game.

"The critical thing now as we look ahead over the next season and the season after is our developing financial capability which will give us a lot more options than in recent years.

"We think we have got a fantastic manager who has seen us through moving to a new stadium, which is for many clubs a difficult period, with consistency and so we think we have got the right person to make the kinds of choices and decisions that we are going to have over this really significant period of the club's development.

"So we are feeling very optimistic. It is interesting where we are at the moment in the summer. I'm not going to talk about individual players at all today.

"I don't want to get into the whole speculation around the transfer market but generally, what I'll say is that it has been quite a slow start and I think that's because there was such a managerial musical chairs going on that everybody is waiting for that to settle down.

"I think clubs are, agents are and players are. Which means it has been quite an unusual beginning to the transfer window. I imagine once most of the managerial appointments settle in a little bit, we will see that starting to pick up.

"But that's a general overview of where we are. The club is on a good path. We have been through a difficult and in some ways disappointing season which ended satisfactorily. But we are not crowing about that. We are looking ahead and to how we can push forward."