Aston Villa’s Technical Director Steve Round is reportedly a target for Arsenal, to join the Gunners as a Sporting Director.

The Birmingham Mail write that Arsenal are trying to fill the gap left by chief scout Steve Rowley and transfer negotiator Dick Law’s departures.

Round has been with Villa since September 2016, and was given the task of reorganising the football department at Villa after completing his sporting directors Masters degree in Manchester.

The 47-year-old played for Derby County and Nuneaton Borough in his playing days. He then went on to work as an assistant manager to Steve McClaren at Middlesbrough and England, then David Moyes at Everton and Manchester United.

So when it comes to working as a director, his experience is limited to the last year at Aston Villa. Nonetheless, he’s apparently impressed the Gunners sufficiently in that year to be on their shortlist of candidates.

After Arsenal had a very uninspiring transfer window over the summer, and with Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez running their contracts down to leave for free, most fans believe the club need to make some changes behind the scenes.

Losing both star players at the same time and missing out on transfer targets like Monaco’s Thomas Lemar, despite spending a whole summer chasing him, are the sort of issues that whoever comes in will have to try and avoid in the future.