Arsene Wenger insists Ivan Gazidis has no role in player recruitment, praises double appointment

Arsene Wenger has insisted that Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis has no role to play when it comes to player recruitment and that new arrival Sven Mislintat will work with the French coach in identifying potential targets.

The Gunners have been actively strengthening their backroom in recent weeks with Borussia Dortmund chief scout Mislintat arriving to take over the head of recruitment role from Steve Rowley. Raul Sanllehi is coming in as the head of football relations from Barcelona.

Sanllehi left his post of director of football with Barcelona at the start of this week and will take up his new role with Arsenal from February. He will take over the duties from departing transfer negotiator Dick Law.

Mislintat, meanwhile, will begin work from next month and is likely to be involved in any decision made with regards to strengthening the team during the upcoming January transfer window.

The former Dortmund scout will be entrusted with strengthening both the first-team and the academy and Wenger made it clear that he will be working closely with Mislintat but Gazidis will not be involved. The German has been credited with finding the likes of Shinji Kagawa, Ousmane Dembele and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang among others during his time with the Bundesliga outfit.

"With me. Ivan has nothing to do with buying players," Wenger said when asked if Mislintat will work closely with the manager and the chief executive, as quoted by the Daily Mail. "Today we have a structure in England, we know everybody. We have taken somebody who has international experience and that is why we made that decision."

Sanllehi, who spent over a decade with the Catalan giants, will oversee future transfer negotiations. He has been credited with helping Barcelona complete some of their biggest transfers including bringing Luis Suarez from Liverpool, Ivan Rakitic from Sevilla and Neymar from Santos.

"Dick Law has retired and has gone back to the States," Wenger said ahead of the announcement of Sanllehi's role. "He is still with us for a while, but we look for somebody as well who has experience in negotiations. Dick is still working with us on cases where we need to do."

"We have Huss (Fahmy), who is top drawer, but has just joined us one year ago, but is doing an excellent job, I rate him highly. There is still a need," the French coach added talking about the summer addition of former Team Sky's legal expert, who will work on the legal side of player deals.