Arsenal's UK head of marketing, Angus Kinnear, says they remain sensitive to manager Arsene Wenger's reluctance to tour overseas.

In conversation with sportspromedia.com, Kinnear says Wenger would never be forced to take his squad for a lucrative overseas jaunt.

"Arsene is focused on the football primarily," Kinnear explains. "So the club supports his requirement and therefore the team isn't traipsed around Asia on money-making schemes."

He continues: "This season we negotiated [pre-season] fixtures in Hanover and Valencia - two away games which are revenue generating, where teams are paying a fee to have Arsenal. The figures for those games are dwarfed by figures if we were to be able to travel to South Africa, the Far East, the United States.

"What's more challenging is the brand extension opportunities and the brand expansion, which is about activating that presence and activating it through membership and supporters' clubs and retail and fan acquisition. And that's the challenge we face at the moment: how do we grow the brand internationally, knowing that the team is unlikely to have any presence there? And that is a challenge versus Man United and Chelsea."