Arsenal appoint former Barcelona director of football Raul Sanllehi

Sanllehi joins a new-look backroom team at the Emirates and will work alongside incoming chief scout Sven Mislintat, who has just arrived from Borussia Dortmund

Arsenal are closing in on the appointment of Raul Sanllehi, formerly of Barcelona (Arsenal FC)

Arsenal have confirmed the appointment of FC Barcelona director of football Raul Sanllehi as the club's new head of football relations.

Sanllehi was a veteran operator for Barcelona, where he was director of football since 2008, keeping his job under the presidencies of Joan Laporta, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu.

His job at Barcelona had been to complete transfer deals, and he was especially involved in the controversial signing of Neymar from Santos in 2013. Before joining Barcelona Sanllehi had worked for Nike for years.

Sanllehi (second left) is set to join Arsenal's new-look backroom team (Bongarts)

As revealed by The Independent in October Arsenal have now confirmed that Sanllehi will join their new backroom team in February, working alongside their incoming chief scout Sven Mislintat, who has just been signed from Borussia Dortmund.

Ivan Gazidis is putting together a new team to replace the departing Dick Law, who had been in charge of completing transfers with Wenger in recent years.

“In the past three years we have supplemented our team with more top-class expertise across every aspect of our football operations," Gazidis said in a short statement.

"Raul’s appointment is another important step in developing the infrastructure we need at the club to take everything we do to the next level. Raul has extensive contacts across the football world and has been directly involved in some of the biggest transfers in Europe in recent years. We look forward to him bringing that expertise to Arsenal.”