Rescue Mission: Overmars set for Arsenal return

Marc Overmars is set to return to Arsenal in a potential director of football role from next season.

The former Gunners winger, who made 141 appearances and scored 40 goals for them between 1997 and 2000, has served as Ajax’s director of football since the summer of 2012 but is poised to return to London.

Overmars, 44, could fulfill many of the duties performed by Dick Law, the club’s transfer fixer.

Manager Arsene Wenger has always been reluctant to work in conjunction with a director of football given that he is reluctant to delegate.

Earlier this year, Wenger said: ‘I never understand what it means, director of football. I’m manager of Arsenal and as long as I am manager, I will decide what happens on the technical front. That’s it.’

It therefore remains to be seen how much influence Overmars will have though he brings plenty of experience in such technical matters from five years in the role at Ajax.

The behind-the-scenes shake-up comes after a difficult summer transfer window in which Arsenal failed in their pursuit of Monaco pair Kylian Mbappe and Thomas Lemar, despite offering £92million for the latter.

They also failed to bring in PSG’s Julian Draxler on deadline day to facilitate the £60m sale of Alexis Sanchez to Manchester City.

Arsenal were beaten 2-1 at Watford in their latest Premier League outing and return to action away to Red Star Belgrade in the Europa League on Thursday.

In 2008, Overmars was voted as the 12th-greatest player in Arsenal’s history by the club’s supporters.

Overmars made total career appearances of 399 for six different clubs including Ajax, Barcelona and Go Ahead Eagles scoring 78 goals.

In February 2005, Overmars became a shareholder of Go Ahead Eagles. Two months later; he joined the club’s supervisory board to deal with technical matters. Hans de Vroome, chairman of Go Ahead Eagles, said he was “more than satisfied” with Overmars’ arrival, adding, “The board needs someone with a solid football background.