Wenger set to sign new contract at Arsenal

Arsene Wenger has agreed the terms of a new Arsenal contract that will keep him at the club until 2016, SoccerVilla can reveal.

The Frenchman is set to formally sign the two-year extension to his current deal within the next few weeks.

SoccerVilla understands that the fresh agreement will be on the same £7.5 million-a-year terms as Wenger's current contract, which expires next summer, and, while the club's longest-serving manager will not receive a pay rise, the deal will be supplemented by top-ups.

The new contract will end the uncertainty surrounding
Wenger's future and extend his Arsenal reign to a remarkable
20 years if it is honoured, by which time he will be 66.

Wenger retained the full backing of American owner Stan Kroenke and the rest of the board, even when he came under
more pressure last season from disgruntled supporters than at
any point in his Arsenal career, and he has now agreed in principle to remain at the Emirates Stadium.

It is understood that the Frenchman wants to stay for personal as well as professional reasons. His family are settled in London, with his teenage daughter hoping to complete her secondary education in the capital, while he has almost complete autonomy over recruitment and the technical direction of the club.

Wenger's future is expected to be a key topic of discussion at
the Arsenal AGM on Thursday, when shareholders will have
the opportunity to question the board about club matters.
There is unlikely to be an announcement but broad hints are
expected to be dropped by new chairman Sir Chips Keswick
about the club's faith in the manager. Kroenke will also be in
attendance at the meeting.

As at April, when Arsenal's top-four hopes were on a knife edge, Kroenke wanted Wenger to sign a new deal irrespective of whether the club clinched a lucrative Champions League place. Preliminary talks on a new contract began over the summer and they have advanced to the point where sources are confident that the deal will be signed by the
end of October.

Wenger gave a clear indication at the end of September that
he wants to sign new terms which will take him into his third
decade at the club, after Kroenke gave his full endorsement to
the Frenchman remaining in charge for "the long term".

The manager, who has overseen an excellent start to the new
campaign, said: "The good thing with me, if I have one
quality, you don't need a lot of talks to extend the contract I
have. [I will sign] when we find time. I don't think that's the
most important problem at the moment.