Sven Mislintat was heralded as the man to fix Arsenal’s dire recruitment issues upon joining the club in 2017. The German was part of the three-man team, along with Raul Sanllehi and Unai Emery, to lead the club forward following Arsene Wenger’s departure.
Mislintat, nicknamed ‘Diamond Eyes’, was drafted in as the club’s Head of Recruitment. This generated plenty of hype across the fanbase. After all, Mislintat was regarded as one of Europe’s best recruitment experts. Joining Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund, he was responsible for creating the pipeline of young talent at the German giants which produced the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Shinji Kagawa and Ousmane Dembele among others.
Fast forward fourteen months and two transfer windows later, Mislintat’s departure was announced by the club. Seven signings were made with the German in charge. Most notably, Aubameyang and Bernd Leno, arguably the only two world-class players in our squad, were brought to the club under his influence.
However, Mislintat did make several transfers that were the equivalent of Rio Ferdinand’s boxing career. Most notably were Henrikh Mkhitaryan (who had his contract terminated), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (who is set to leave), and the footballing zombie that was Stephan Lichsteiner. Despite positive starts to their respective Arsenal careers, Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira – both Mislintat signings – seem to be on the outer at the club for various reasons.
This resulted in the notorious Kia Joorabchian going on Talksport and criticizing the transfer guru, saying; “People forget about the previous guy Sven. He made a bunch of, I don’t like to use the word, but cock-ups with players that he brought in at very large numbers.”
Given his success at Stuttgart, this has led me to ask, was Sven Mislintat’s time at Arsenal an unmitigated disaster, or was it simply a case of being the right man at the wrong time?
The general consensus as to why Mislintat left the club was that Raul Sanllehi had something to do with it. Arsenal’s (former) Head of Football and the German had vastly different ideologies when it came to transfers and recruiting players.
Mislintat is an advocate for analytics and scouting. He once sent scouts out six times to watch Kagawa before telling Dortmund to buy the Japanese star. Along with a business partner, he came up with his own software that tells him what data is useful and what is distracting.
Sanllehi, on the other hand, preferred a contacts-based approach. He favored working with super-agents and had almost a “black book” of contacts, according to David Ornstein. Under Wenger, Arsenal were extremely careful not to deal with certain super-agents – right now, however, the club seems to be at the mercy of Joorabchian in particular.
The pair (Sanllehi and Mislintat) seemed to butt heads quite often, as you would considering their vastly different ethoses. While both departed the club, Mislintat was the first to leave. Reportedly, the German had several targets lined up for potential moves, including Francisco Trincao, Caglar Soyuncu, Abdou Diallo, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Mario Hermoso, Emerson (Brazilian RB) and Nicolas Pépé
Pepe in particular was Mislintat’s last recommendation to Raul Sanllehi before leaving the club. This was before the Ivorian’s breakout season at Lille in 2018/19, where he was available for a reported £10 million – a fraction of his later price.
While he did make some mistakes in terms of recruitment during his time at the club, it’s undeniable that he is an expert at what he does. Let’s not forget, Leno and Aubameyang were both his signings. While there were some “cock-ups”, he did unearth some genuine talents.
Arsenal’s shoddy recruitment has stuck out like a sore thumb over the past few years. The club’s transfer policy has been to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. Both Edu and Sanllehi were detrimental to the club’s short-term success, so the club could really do with Diamond Eyes right now.
(Featured image: Via Getty)