Arsenal have been rocked by the news that Academy chief Andries Jonker is set to leave the club this week to take the reigns at Wolfsburg and become their new head coach, but the Gunners have moved fast in their bid to find a replacement.
There is a long history between Arsenal and Barcelona, especially when it comes to recruiting talented youngsters from the famed La Masia academy to join the Gunners.
The likes of Cesc Fabregas and Hector Bellerin both left Barcelona for Arsenal as teenagers and enjoyed great careers in the first-team, while the likes of Jon Toral and Fran Merida both left the Catalan club for north London at a young age.
Arsenal are planning another raid on La Masia, this time for one of their coaches, Pep Segula, to replace Jonker and become their new Head of Youth Development, say the Independent.
With the youth team struggling, Arsenal have reportedly been weighing up making widespread changes to the way the academy is run and Segula has emerged as a leading candidate to head up the transformation and an approach has been made to Barcelona to bring him to the club.
The 56-year-old spent three years with Liverpool between 2009-12 as the Technical Director of their academy before taking some time out of the game prior to assuming his role with the La Liga giants.
