Arsenal set to appoint the man who signed Neymar | OneFootball

The man who signed Neymar, Raul Sanllehi, has left Barcelona and could be announced as Arsenal’s new Director of Operations as soon as this week.

According to the Daily Mail, Sanllehi’s arrival in north London could even be confirmed on Tuesday. After 15 years at Barcelona, Sanllehi was due to leave his post as director of football on Friday but stepped down on Monday instead.

Following a fifth-place finish last season, Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis promised results would serve as a “catalyst for change” but fans were disappointed to see little evidence of that in the summer.

However, the club have since added Borussia Dortmund’s chief scout extraordinaire Sven Mislintat as their new head of recruitment. Adding Sanllehi as well would be a clear message that things are changing.

Arsène Wenger, who has been at the club since 1996, has enormous influence at Arsenal but the club finally appears to be readying itself for a post-Wenger era.

With plenty of commercial experience as well as football expertise, Sanllehi would take some pressure off of Gazidis and effectively replace transfer negotiator Dick Law, who left Arsenal earlier this year after eight years with the club.

All signs point towards Arsenal modernising and progressing with the captures of Sanllehi and Mislintat, men with huge success at Europe’s two biggest clubs.