With Leicester currently five points ahead of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table, Wrigglesworth confirmed his departure on Twitter.
The signings of Riyad Mahrez for £400,000 from Le Havre and N'Golo Kante for £5.6m from Caen have been particular highlights since Wrigglesworth was part of Leicester’s scouting team, with the club also winning the Championship in 2014 before surging to the top of the Premier League this year.
Arsenal are investing millions at the club’s Hertfordshire training base on a new player performance centre that should open next year and will specifically include data analysis and scouting suites. It also follows the purchase of the US-based football data analytics company, statDNA, for just over £2 million.
The information provided by statDNA, as well as the work done by scouts and analysts, helps narrow the search in the recruitment of players but Arsenal do also still then generally rely on regularly watching prospective signings in person. Wenger, who has been working with chief executive Ivan Gazidis on the off-field changes, then still always has the final say on transfer decisions.
“We have to keep our approach under review," explained Gazidis at last year’s annual general meeting. "We have to be smarter and work more intelligently than our wealthier competitors. As we strengthen the squad the market of players that can improve it becomes smaller; it is always harder to find the final 5%.
"All transfers are ultimately football decisions and these are made by our manager, who has an outstanding record in identifying and developing talent and also importantly of thinking strategically on behalf of the club."
Sunday’s 2-0 win against Bournemouth means that Arsenal could move to within two points of Leicester on Sunday. “It was important to bounce back from the results we have had of late and it was important to do that with the result that Leicester got,” said Aaron Ramsey. “It will be an interesting game on Sunday. What they have done this season is quite remarkable. We have got to be right on it to get all three points.”
- Telegraph