BREAKING: Arsenal CEO joins Milan after 10 years in North London

Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis joins Milan after 10 years in North London

Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has resigned to join AC Milan, the Premier League club have announced.

The 54-year-old will step down at the end 

of October, following a decade at 

Emirates 

Stadium, and take up the same role at 

Milan on December 1.

Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham will 

head up football operations at Arsenal, 

taking up the head of football and 

managing director roles respectively.

Sanllehi, a former director of football at 

Barcelona, joined the Gunners as head of 

football relations in February, while 

Venkatesham is currently the club's chief 

commercial officer.

Gazidis headed up the interview process 

that lead to Unai Emery's appointment as 

head coach, succeeding long-serving 

manager Arsene Wenger.

His overhaul of Arsenal's structure, 

including the appointments 

of Sanllehi and 

head of recruitment Sven Mislintat, 

arguably helped to herald the end of the 

Wenger era as a degree of power was 

wrestled away from the veteran 

Frenchman, and Gazidis has described his

 pending departure as "the hardest 

decision of my life".

"For the last 10 years I have been 

privileged to dedicate myself to this great

 club. Arsenal is entering a new chapter 

and I have done everything I can to ensure 

that it is strongly placed to take on that 

challenge," he said in a statement on 

Arsenal's official website.