Ivan Gazidis has explained the extend of Arsenal’s ambition after handing Arsene Wenger a new two-year deal.

• Kroenke wants to keep Gazidis happy as well as Wenger
• Gazidis said to want Wenger to relinquish some control
• Chief wants Arsenal to win Premier League

Arsenal’s Chief executive has been recently rumoured to be unhappy with the board’s decision to keep Wenger at the club as he believes the Gunners need change.

After finishing in fifth place in the Premier League for the first time since Wenger took the reigns in 1996, Gazidis allegedly wants Wenger to relinquish some control in order to improve and move forward from what has been, FA Cup win aside, a pretty difficult season.

It therefore makes complete sense that Gazidis has spoken out so highly of the Frenchman off the back of the official announcement that he’ll be staying in north London for at least two more years.

“I will start by stating what the ambition is. The ambition is to put this club in a position where we are winning the Premier League, where we are competing to win in Europe and pushing forward,” Gazidis said.

“Football is constantly evolving and we need to evolve and move forward and improve with that. That is the objective that the club has, that our owner has, that the board has and that I know Arsène has.

“Arsène is somebody I have worked with for over eight years now, and I know the quality of the man, I know the quality of him as a football person and I know the quality of him as a human being as well. Those values that he has, those qualities, are world class in every respect. His DNA is the same DNA as this club. He is driven to move forward, he is driven to evolve and he is driven to achieve those objectives of winning for this club and making those fans proud.

“When you look at the world of football, and you think about the great candidates that there are – and there are many great coaching candidates in the world and Arsenal is a club that all of them would want to work for because of the things we represent in football – but when you look around and make that assessment, you don’t find any better candidates than Arsène Wenger.”

It’s reassuring the see a united front considering how controversial the decision to keep Wenger at the club is.

Hopefully, we as a club can put last season behind us and rebuild this summer.

Read the entire interview on Arsenal’s official website here.