Arsenal: Mavropanos shows future’s bright for more than obvious reason

Konstantinos Mavropanos impressed in his Arsenal debut against Manchester United on Sunday afternoon. He shows that the future is bright for more than just the obvious reason.

There were many youngsters to keep an eye on on Sunday afternoon. Arsene Wenger, clearly with Thursday’s trip to Atletico Madrid in mind, decided to field a team full of reserves and youth prospects against Manchester United. It served for an interesting watch as we got another peek at some of the top talent that Arsenal has to offer.

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When I saw the teamsheet, the player that I was most looking forward to watching was Konstantinos Mavropanos, a young Greek defender signed in the January transfer window making his debut for the club at one of the grandest, most prestigious stadiums in world football against one of the best strikers in the Premier League.

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He did, in my eyes, very well. There were a couple of loose passes and headers here and there, but in his defending, he was strong, diligent, aware and largely mistake-free, which for a 20-year-old making his first appearance for the club is remarkable. And Arsene Wenger, in his post-match press conference, agreed, commenting how it was important to see how Mavropanos dealt with the differences between training and competitive matches:

"“Mavropanos, in training, he has shown top quality but then you always have a question mark as long as you don’t see that under pressure in a big game. Until that, you don’t know. That was the question mark and I think he did well. He surprised everybody by his quality today.”"

Based on one game, which is obviously always naive and unfounded, the future looks bright for Mavropanos and Arsenal. But it looks bright for more than just the obvious reason that he played well. He did play well, and his individual career has promise. But there is more reason to be hopeful regarding his success.

Mavropanos was a Sven Mislintat signing. In fact, he was the first Sven Mislintat signing. When he arrived, Wenger stated that he would be sent out on loan. Within a week, he had changed his mind; within three months, he was starting him at the heart of the defence against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

And that is important. It proves, at least to some extent, that Mislintat, who is now the head of recruitment at the Emirates and will largely be responsible for the players that are brought to the club, has an eye for talent. Now, we already knew this. He is not called ‘Diamond Eye’ for nothing. But this at least shows that his scouting could translate to a new club with new surroundings in a new country in a new league against new opposition.

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Mavropanos’ successful debut at least hints at Mislintat being successful in the transfer window. And that, perhaps more so than just the future of Mavropanos himself, is the brightest spark for the future of Arsenal football club.