Arsenal have not made an official approach for Antonio Conte, and any rumours to the contrary are ‘not true’, according to an agent.

Federico Pastorello, an Italian agent close to Antonio Conte, has told Freddie Paxton that rumours about Arsenal having a pre-agreement with Conte are “absolutely not true”. The reality is that Arsenal have made no official approach, according to Pastorello.

With Arsenal sitting 20th in the Premier League table, it’s probably no surprise that we’re seeing rumours around the future of the club’s managerial post. But it did seem a little premature for Arsenal to be making a change.

Whether you think Arteta is the right person for the job or not, he’s just spearheaded a big summer of recruitment and he hasn’t yet had a chance to field anything close to his best side.

Ben White has had Covid-19, Martin Odegaard has only been available for one league game, the likes of Thomas Partey, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Nicolas Pepe, and Gabriel Magalhaes have all been injured or unwell, and Arsenal only sorted the right-back position on deadline day.

If Arteta is going to leave in the near future, and I wouldn’t totally rule that out, it’s only going to be after he’s proven he still can’t take the team forward even when something resembling his first-choice lineup is available.

Until then, I wouldn’t expect Arsenal to be out making contact with potential replacements.