Arsenal have begun exploring candidates for a potential sporting director role as part of a shake-up of the club’s off-field structure.

Dick Law has liaised closely with manager Arsene Wenger on player negotiations and contracts since 2009 and, while he would initially work with any appointment, it is understood that he is ready to step away from his current position in the longer-term.

The idea would also be to create a wider football operations role, with possible responsibilities stretching to shaping and fine-tuning the structures around sports science, medicine, scouting and recruitment, the academy and logistics.

It all further points to Arsenal planning for the changes that will follow the eventual departure of Wenger, although sources have stressed that this process is about the long-term and not specifically linked to whether the Frenchman stays beyond this summer.

There has been no particular urgency as yet with the enquiries that have started about candidates but it is a role that remains more common in Europe and Arsenal would look abroad as well as in England.