According to the Telegraph, Arsenal’s chief transfer negotiator Dick Law will step down from his position at the end of this month for family reasons.

After helping the club recruit Gilberto Silva and Carlos Vela during a stint as the club’s scout in the Americas, Law joined the Gunners on a full-time basis in 2009 taking over a role that had previously been done by David Dein.

He’s since played a fundamental role in signing the likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez although his time at the club has also been pockmarked by a number of high-profile failures in the transfer market, including the botched attempt to sign Luis Suarez.

Back in May, Law, a lawyer, Fifa-licensed agent and an accomplished linguist, explained what his role entails:

“The area that I manage is called football operations. My job is to help the CEO and manager, in conjunction with the contract team, with squad planning, contract negotiations, negotiations with agents, player transfers, either in or out of the club, and coordination with the Arsenal academy.

“I work very closely with our chief financial officer, our general counsel (the lawyer for the club) and our club secretary in the contract team. Our biggest challenge is to make sure that all the contracts are done right and we follow all the rules set by the FA and FIFA.”

Law’s departure leaves a void in the legal team even though Arsenal recruited Huss Fahmy from Team Sky cycling in June to work on player contracts. The report claims that Ivan Gazidis has now taken an office at London Colney and it’s suggested he could have a more hands on role with the day-to-day football operation.

Best of luck to Dick. He’s apparently a very popular figure at the club, we wish him well for the future.