Arsenal close to landing highly-rated scout from title rivals Leicester City

Arsenal have begun the shakeup of their scouting team with the recruitment of Leicester City's head of technical scouting Ben Wrigglesworth. The highly-rated recruiter is said to have played a key role in bringing Riyad Mahrez and N'Golo Kante to the King Power stadium.

According to the Telegraph, Wrigglesworth, who is currently on 'gardening leave', will join Arsene Wenger's team in the coming weeks making it a highly significant coup for the Gunners' scouting department. He is the second member of Leicester's scouting team to leave the club in the past 12 months following Rob Mackenzie's departure to Tottenham Hotspur as the head of player identification in February last year.

The Gunners are looking to revamp their scouting department and are looking to recruit in various positions. The report claims that Steve Walsh, who is the Foxes current head of recruitment, is also on Arsenal's radar, but will have to pay the Leicester assistant's £1m ($1.42m) release clause to sign him.

Walsh is credited with unearthing Kante, Mahrez and Premier League's joint top scorer Jamie Vardy. The trio have been key performers in Leicester's rise to the top of the league and they are second on the table to Arsenal only due to an inferior goal difference. The latter two have contributed with 28 goals between them thus far this campaign as they look to qualify for the Champions League while challenging the big guns for the league title.

Leicester have been active in the transfer market during the ongoing January transfer window, and have already completed the signing of highly-rated winger Demarai Gray from Birmingham City. The report claims that they are also closing in on the signing of Daniel Amartey from FC Copanhagen, with the defender poised to set them back around £5m ($7.13m).